Kbal Spean: Combining Temple Run with Trail "Walk"

April 17, 2013

Kbal Spean: Combining Temple Run with Trail "Walk"

Half-way up!

Tunga turned to Lola Linda and remarked, "Gi-punish man ta tingali ni Ate Lynlyn ani oi. What is there to see here?" (Ate Lynlyn must be punishing us over something. What is to see here?)

We were almost half-way up towards Kbal Spean. The marker outside said it's 1500 meters away and we're on our 700 m mark. And we've already manage to weave our way in between trees, climb past a flight of installed wooden stairs and scaled our way up some really big boulders. I can't help but smile.

At the check point.

I am in my element. Being close to nature always lifts my spirit up so being on a trail, no matter the level of difficulty, only energizes me. I forgot that the same is not the case with the rest of my companion. I did worry a lot about Mama but she seems not tired at all. We're practically in the midst of a "jungle" and the trees provide both shade and positive energy.

At the 1500m mark at the edge of the forest.

During my solo travel in Cambodia, some two years back, I've always wanted to go to Kbal Spean. Only, I just found out I was pregnant. I was, at that time, in my second month of the first trimester. Having had two miscarriages before that, I did not want to risk it being so far away from home and on my own yet.

Initial stage of the trail. Everybody still upbeat :)

I remember looking at guidebooks and staring longingly at the pictures of carved lingas on the river bed of Phnom Kbal Spean which is a tributary of Siem Reap River. It was said that the lingas and other carved Hindu statues on the riverbed "sanctifies" the water as it flows over them to continue its path downstream into Siem Reap River before ending in Tonle Sap Lake. Even before it reaches Tonle Sap, it passess through the Angkor temple complex and thus sort of also sanctifies the whole of Angkor in the process (from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kbal_Spean). And to me, that is very much significant indeed thus the wanting to go.

The trail started quite easily. We crossed some wooden bridge from the "check point" area to enter a group of trees that marked the starting point of the "jungle." It was mostly flat from there. Little by little, the trail gradually rose. Every 100 m, a marker would inform us of our progress. All in all (to and from), it is a 3 kilometer trek, something insignificant to a "somewhat-regular" runner like me but definitely something to reckon with for Ate and Tunga who do more driving around than walking :P

Every marker, Ate would stop and have her picture taken. The smile and tiredness on her face is very much telling of the distance she had managed to cover. The guidebook had said that it's going to be a 45-minute walk up. In our case, I think we covered it in close to one hour.

There were other tourists beside us. At one point, a French family of four passed us up. The son, who is around 10 years old is skipping along the trail all the way. A younger sister followed closely.

The funny thing was, once we reached the riverbed, there really was not much to see. I guess, after all that hard work, we were expecting something really spectacular or something.

KBal Spean

I had imagined a
whole stretch filled with linga carvrings. And that the river would be brimming with clear water, magnifying the carvings on the riverbed. Sadly, there was nothing but a few clumps of the lingas. The river was also almost dry. There were other carvings as well but I guess everything fell short of our expectations. I smiled when I heard another group say, "So this is it?!" Tunga had the same reaction. After taking a few pictures, we then decided to go back down. We still had a few temples to visit as part of our agenda that day.

Whoa!

The descent back proved extra challenging. Even though working against your weight, it is still easier to hoist yourself up a trail, since one could firmly plant one's foot. In going down, however, you had to securely place your foot down and it is particularly challenging when the trail is hardly flat. We got stuck in the part of the trail where there is a big boulder blocking the way. It's either we risk going down the other way with nothing to hold on to but to try and embrace the boulder's smooth surface or to pass the other way with some branches and twigs to hold on to. The decision to be made is actually pretty apparent, only, there were three elderly women there who were quite stuck as well.

They were still on their way up and I was debating with myself whether I ought to tell them not to bother as there was nothing much to see. After all, the matter is pretty subjective really. Anyway, it took them forever to clear the path and so we were forced to take the other way. Good thing, no accident happened and we all made it on our way down in one piece.

As expected, we were already pretty famished and thirsty by the time when made it back to the checkpoint area. It was a good thing that the driver of the van that we hired for the day came prepared. He gave each of us a cold bottled water that certainly helped eased our thirst. Soon after, we were on our way to Banteay Srei, one of my favorite temples. But that's a different blog entry altogether :)

Other pictures: