TravelAddicts-SoutheastAsia > photographie-irie  > Travel > southeast asia 2007
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photographie-irie > Rural Home and Children near Beng Melea, Cambodia      More smiling young faces looking at the alien taking pictures. Rural homes are elevated on stilts as protection from extensive flooding that occurs with each long rainy season as waters from the Himalayas tumble down the Mekong, dramatically changing the landscape into huge lake or seascape each year.
photographie-irie > Tuk-tuk on Road outside Siem Reap, Cambodia      Classic transportation for visitors to Siem Reap and around Cambodia, tuk-tuks are motorbikes pulling seated carriages for passengers. Here on one of the few paved roads on the way out of the Angkor complex, another satisfied customer offers testimony to having a good time in local transport.
photographie-irie > More Friendly Children, In Route to Phnom Kulen, Cambodia      Perhaps 50 km from Siem Reap but still several hours ride due to road conditions, Phnom Kulen is the highest point in Cambodia (1600 ft), and considered the sacred birthplace of the country. Temples, Buddhas and lingas beckon, along with a nice waterfall for a cooling swim. But the tightly controlled area requires a $20 admission per foreigner to guards at the mountain protecting the entrance for their military mafia bosses. Once you've spent the time and eaten the dust getting there, who's going to turn back without paying? As consolation, smiling children seem everywhere to transform their smile to you.
photographie-irie > Stairway to Temple, Phnom Kulen, Cambodia      Life size Buddha and animal friends cavort atop the long stairway leading to the giant Buddha temple at mountaintop Phnom Kulen. The path is amazingly absent people now, and notably the beggars that normally line the stairway to take visitors' small change on their way to the big Buddha. I was told this fortuitous circumstance arose because it was lunch time - the beggars were all on lunch break!
photographie-irie > Giant Reclining Buddha, Phnom Kulen, Cambodia      This giant 900 year old reclining Buddha, carved out of solid sandstone rock, is housed in a small wat on the mountaintop Phnom Kulen. It is the largest Buddha in Kingdom. Phnom Kulen is Cambodia's most sacred place, as mythical birthplace of the country. This mountain is also home to the sandstone quarried for the building of Angkor monuments almost a millennia ago, floated down the Siem reap river on huge rafts.
photographie-irie > Mountaintop Temple, Phnom Kulen, Cambodia      Merging harmoneously with the mountaintop jungle, and somewhat lost in it, lies this Buddhist wat (temple) atop Phnom Kulen.
photographie-irie > Waterfall, Phnom Kulen, Cambodia      After the heat and humidity of lower elevations, even the limited 1600 foot height of Camdodia's tallest peak offers relief, especially with a swim at the waterfall. This is the largest and lower of two major waterfall tiers in the dry season. Monsoon season waterflow is supposed to be immense. Modest Cambodians mostly swim fully clothed, and arrive in crowds on Sundays, both for the sacred appeal for devotees of washing under the falls, and for the simple, cool refreshment of it all. As remote as the site is, commercial interests seem to take over as they do wherever visitors flock. Swimming is free for now, once you've paid the $20 admission as a foreigner. Expect to find persistent guides, vendors, and beggars along the way, even this far away from Angkor.
photographie-irie > Pink Sandstone Corridor, Banteay Srei, Cambodia As evening approaches, beautiful pink sandstone at Banteay Srei provides another pleasant alternative to the hubbub of Angkor Wat, with it's own smaller scale hubbub. The distance to get there is worth the trip to see the pleasing variant in colors, the more intricate carvings, and to get Banteay Srei's more intimate feel away from the Angkor Wat crowds.
photographie-irie > Pink Sandstone Temple Towers, Banteay Srei, Cambodia      Evening sunset and pink sandstone combine to highlight the intricate carvings of Banteay Srei. Unfortunately, for some reason the temple closes as the best light of sunset approaches, making small payments to guards potentially necessary to stay as others are rushed out of the complex. The smaller and more detailed nature of this temple makes it a popular trip away from the principal Angkor complex.
Rural Home and Children near Beng Melea, Cambodia     

More smiling young faces looking at the alien taking pictures. Rural homes are elevated on stilts as protection from extensive flooding that occurs with each long rainy season as waters from the Himalayas tumble down the Mekong, dramatically changing the landscape into huge lake or seascape each year.
> Rural Home and Children near Beng Melea, Cambodia      More smiling young faces looking at the alien taking pictures. Rural homes are elevated on stilts as protection from extensive flooding that occurs with each long rainy season as waters from the Himalayas tumble down the Mekong, dramatically changing the landscape into huge lake or seascape each year.
Rural Home and Children near Beng Melea, Cambodia     

More smiling young faces looking at the alien taking pictures. Rural homes are elevated on stilts as protection from extensive flooding that occurs with each long rainy season as waters from the Himalayas tumble down the Mekong, dramatically changing the landscape into huge lake or seascape each year.
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Keywords: family hut child cambodia stilt house beng melea girl kid
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