Mountain of the Lychees

 

We went on a long excusion in a mini van to Kulen Mountain or Mountain of the Lychees, to see the Sleeping Buddha, Kulen waterfall, and Kebal Spean. Kebal Spean is a trek to a sacred stream with ancient rock carvings. I hadn't been there before and didn't know it was 1500m up a mountain side. I was so proud of the girls, it certainly wasn't easy, but they did it.

We drove through the country side and they saw how the Cambodian people live, mostly in wooden houses on stilts. I think the stilts are to keep the houses cool and it also provides an undercover, outdoor room. I was quite suprised at the advancement in just one year from houses that looked like they were about to fall down to sturdy wooden houses.

The sleeping Buddha is a giant golden carving in the top of a huge rock at a place in the middle of the jungle where the Khmer Kingdom began.

Our guide asked me if it was the same as before. There weren't so many begging ladies or people selling healing herbs on the way up the stairs. But the experience was similar... I didn't feel anything much as I climbed the steep staicase up the side of the huge rock. I filed around the Buddha, there is a relic of a piece of his bone there. As I come down the other side and reach the bottom I start to feel the magic of the place and the hair on my arms stands up on end.

We come down the mountain in the van and have a look at the river of 1000 lingas, where the water flows over the carvings and then on to the rice paddy's to fertilize the crops.

Then up the hill to the waterfall. I'm starving. We have the birthday cake with us for morning tea. Unfortunately now is when we discover it has melted and is being devoured by ants.

Bunna saved the day. When we went for a swim in the waterfall, he went and bought us beautiful fresh pineapple. It was just what we needed to revive us. Waterfall and pineapple. What more could you need to recharge energy in a hot tropical jungle.

Little fish nibbled us if we stood still in the big pool of water that the huge waterfall crashes into from above.

We drove down from the mountain. There are fabulous scenic views. Lunch was actually fairly awful, all the lunch places were fairly awful but dinners were delicious which made up for it.

After lunch was the mammoth trek. The forest we walked through held a magical essence. It was so still and calm with flocks of butterflies in different colour groups fluttering around.

We scaled right up to the top where there are carvings in the river of lingas and the hindu gods, Vishnu, Brahma and Lakshmi. We saw an orange crab in the water.

A storm was brewing. We could hear rumbling thunder as we started to make our way back down. We descended a flight of steps to where the water falls from the stream above. The water is sacred and washes away sins. I balanced carefully and did Shiva - dancers pose under the cascade of water.

The descent was quite precarious. It was very steep and some of the stepping stones were slippery with sand. 

Our day wasn't over yet. We needed to get back to the hotel, shower and change to be ready to go out for a show. We went to a shadow puppet theater. It was close by. 

I had always wanted to go to a shadow puppet show. My uncle had brought some back for us when we weee children and we used to put up a sheet with a light behind it and put on shows in the lounge room. At last my wish was fulfilled.

It was a pretty wild and crazy show put on by youth. The theatre was called Bambu Stage. It was on the site of a former restaurant and after the show I had arranged for them to prepare a dinner for us. The table was all laid out with so many dishes. It was fabulous.

What a big day.