River of a Thousand Lingas

Discovery of this place came exclusively from our guidebook, so Lonely Planet gets credit for inspiration.  Kbal Spean, also referred to as "River of a Thousand Lingas" to English speakers, is part of both the Angkor ruins and Phnom Kulen National Park and wasn't discovered until 1969.  The story, as told in Lonely Planet, is that an old hermit took an archaeologist to this river that had Hindu carvings in the riverbed.  "Phallic lingas" was the description that piqued our interest, and the 2 km hike to the river offered us the change to get out and about a bit more than walking around Siem Reap or the temples.

It was quite a drive to Kbal Spean, but the landscape seemed green and lush after the rains from the day before.  The weather was muggy, but not too warm for a 90-minute tuk-tuk ride.  We thought this area quite pretty, and more tropical than anything else we'd seen.

The hike to the river was a well-trodden path with signs every 100 m.  Other than marvelling at the fact that we were in a jungle, there was no mystery about this place!  There weren't many tourists on the trail; mostly Cambodians enjoying the day and still celebrating the new year.  

There were two really detailed sets of carvings, and then several patches of "lingas" down the river towards the waterfall.  I might not have used the word "phallic" to describe the lingas, but could imagine that the power of erosion has perhaps lessened the phallic-ness of the lingas.  At any rate, the larger carvings were beautiful, and have stood the test of time and high water levels extremely well.

The guidebook said to cool off in the waterfall.  We certainly could have used a refreshing splash on our faces, but several children were squealing and enjoying themselves at the falls, and we felt it would be intrusive to interrupt their fun.

Although the hike and the carved riverbed were interesting, we will probably remember the insect life we encountered.  A colony of subterranean termites were busy doing something almost directly on the trail at one point.  They caught our attention because they were some of the largest termites we'd ever seen.  The soldiers formed a tight perimeter around an opening in the ground and along the pathways used by the workers, which were crawling to and from the hole in multiple directions.  When Ryan blew on the termites, the soldiers reared up with their pincers, ready to attack and presumably slaughter anything that disturbed the colony activities. We can only guess if these activities included the carving of lingas.

Also, maybe because of yesterday's rain, the butterflies were out in force.  At the detailed carvings, butterflies of several different species were flying rapidly up and down the river, occasionally resting on walkway poles, signs, or people.  Further down from the waterfall, we saw a patch on the ground were at least 50 butterflies were hanging out.  We got close enough for photos, but our trek caught the attention of some of the locals, who were also interested in the butterflies.  We took a few, and then shared the arthropod encounter.

The rains also brought out some other arthropods that we weren't all that excited about: mosquitoes.  Earlier in the week, we passed a clinic in Siem Reap that warned of hemmorrhagic dengue in the region, up 30% from last year.  We had insect repellent with us and applied it at the start of our hike.  However, more than an hour later with temperatures in the high 90s and high humidity, the effectiveness of our repellent had diminished with our increasing production of sweat.  I have the unfortunate nature of not knowing when I'm being bitten.  On more than one occasion, Ryan has had to pull me away from a bird in a tree because my legs were covered in mosquitoes, and today was no exception.  Once we noticed the mosquitoes, we focused on getting back down to the parking lot, having gotten a taste for the Cambodian jungle.