Kulen Mountain – Day 2

Masa nak pilih tempat mana nak pergi, Swirly suggested that we go to the mountain. Initially I was like..

Whatttt? Gununggggggg?

 

But then I thought, why not? Since we are here, might as well try something different. It might be exciting.

Although honestly, I am kind of ketakutan inside.

First, I don’t have the appropriate shoes. I only brought a pair of flats, slippers and and a pair of rhinestones heels.

Second, chics and mountain? Whattttttttttttt?

 

So the next day, to the Kulen Mountain we go, dengan aku hanya berselipar.

Nasib baik we don’t have to travel on foot that much, most of our journey adalah dalam MPV sebab nak mendaki tu memang tinggi gila.

Tinggi dan sunyi. To think about it, it might be fun though sebab suasana dia sangat nyaman.

It took us about 1 and half hour from the hotel to reach the kaki gunung. From there jalan adalah tidak berturap dan bontot aku terhentak-hentak but it was some experience.

In a glance, Kulen Mountain or Phnom Kulen National Park is a National park in Cambodia. It is located in the Phnom Kulen mountain massif in Siem Reap Province. During Angkorian era the relief was known as Mahendraparvata (the mountain of Great Indra) and was the place where Jayavarman II had himself declared chakravartin (King of Kings), an act which is considered the foundation of Khmer Empire

-Source-

It was told that from this mountainlah they get the stones to build angkor wat and temples around it. Using the river and elephants, the stones were carried, carved and placed to the temples.

If you want to go to this mountain, you have to go up before noon and get down only after noon sebab vehicles are only to go up before 12 and leave after 12. Aku rasa maybe diaorang buat macam ni untuk kawal traffic since jalannya adalah bersimpang siur.

 

Our first stop adalah di sungai di kaki gunung. It was said that the water from the river here adalah holy for the hindus [once upon a time people here embraced hinduism and later changed to buddhism].

This is also the same river that flows to Tonle Sap and sumber air bagi Siem Reap

What makes this river special was, the stones di dalam sungai di ukir dengan ukiran-ukiran dan salah satunya adalah gambar the sleeping buddha.

Disebabkan banyak pokok and the sun was not directly on our head, so we were not able to capture the carving of the sleeping buddha.

I nearly stepped on the carvings, nasib baikla swirly reminded me that I was not supposed to. Aku ni kalau bab ambik gambar memang over.

We also walked towards the punca air [or mata air] but because it was dry season the place was dry tanpa sebarang air. When rainy season comes, the hole akan membuak-buak dengan air.

It was so quiet and tranquil there and the place was so clean unlike our tempat perkelahan [masa weekend memang ada orang berkelah dekat sini] yang penuh sampah sarap macam air terjun gabai and sungai congkak.

We continued our journey to Preah Ang Thom, a temple located at the mountain.

Macam biasa, sal nama temple je mesti banyak tangga.

On our way up, there were people sitting on the step asking for money and some of them are kids still in school uniform. But they were the type yang tidak intrusive except for the kids who will sing all sorts of nursery rhymes when you passed. The rest cum akan menadah tangah atau berdoa.

When you reach the top, there will be more stairs to climb to reach the reclining buddha. Ramai juga orang datang to pray there that day.

The eyeballs and the navel of the buddha were made from gemstones, the skin appeared to be gold-ish in colour. I am not sure whether it’s gold ke apa but swirly said it might be pleated with gold.

I love the view from the temple dan angin juga sangat sedap menyapa rambut.

Bila sudah turun kembali from the top temple, you could see a lingga, a holy symbol for the hindu. From what I understand a lingga is a combination of a man and woman symbol.

What they will do is, they will pour some water to the lingga and when it flour from the bahagian yang terbelah, it became holy water. In India, they use milk instead of water.

We then went to another part of the river, kali ini lebih tinggi sikit. Dekat sini pun ada carvings on stones, not as much as the previous ones but clearer.

I am honestly awed by the carvings, bukan sebab apa, tapi sebab macamana dalam air pon boleh nak ukir? Aku masa pendidikan seni mengukir benda dekat darat pun rasa hazab [i took Arts for upper form] ini kan pulak dalam air? Sungguhla kuat determination.

This part of river mengalir ke bawah and forms a waterfall.

Satu perjalanan yang sangat hazab untuk pergi ke waterfall ini ya!

The steps are very steep and kayu dia macam ada yang menakutkan, nak tercabut bagai. Tapi aku tengok the locals punya rileks turun and naik, tak payah pegang railings pun, aku sorang je yang macam beruk mat yeh.

Tapi it was all worth it.

The waterfall was, masyallah. Cantiknya!

The pictures didn’t do any justice. It was much much prettier.

There were few tourist mandi manda, to be honest we did packed our mandi attire tapi swirly tak nak teman aku mandi pulak tetibe. Tak bestla takde kawan nak main-main air. Orang semua romen-romen aku je takde nanti. Haha

Bodoh, orang suruh kau mandi, bukan romen. Sheesh.

Sejuk nak mati!

And air dia dalam ok, sebab aku nampak mat saleh saleh ni kene berenang nak pergi ke bahagian air terjun and awek-awek diorang duduk jela dekat bahagian yang boleh sampai kaki.

It’s more like a pool macam tu.

Dekat sini, tepi-tepi sungai akan ada buaian yang dihias dengan bunga-bunga. Nak naik boleh tapi kene bayarla 1USD sekali naik.

Of coursela penggetik macam aku ni naik!

It was fun, swirly tolak kuat-kuat tapi aku takut sebab takut terjatuh dalam air, abis spende and bra aku basah nanti. Camana? Kecutla. Tak nakkk.

Lepas dah feeling-feeling tepi waterfall, we headed for lunch, tepi sungai atas pangkin, suka!

keadaan adalah panas ok masa ni, tapi tetap best sebab feeling makan tepi sungai haha

Sambil nak tunggu food sampai, we walked to the old temple across the river, ambik gambar and tengok-tengok. It was so quiet and kadang-kadang terdengar bunyi burung and serangga.

Reminded me of my rumah atuk masa aku kecik-kecik.

Tapi lama-lama I have this uneasy feeling sebab apa ntah, sebab sunyi kot, aku rasa berdebar and tak sedap hati so I ajak him balik to our pangkin.

And then the food dah siap.

The lunch was included dengan tour sekali but we had to pay for the drink and for the hut. Tapi okla harga dia takdela menakutkan ke apa. You can actually choose to eat in the restaurant for free tapi we wanted to eat dekat hut tu, so bayar extra.

Dah lama rasanya tak makan dalam suasana macam ni, best :)

Lepas lunch we headed home tapi before tu singgah beli pisang sebab on the way up tadi nampak pisang merah yang sangat gomok.

Swirly share beli dengan tour guide, harga dia dalam RM30 kot, aku rasa ok sebab dia gomok and besar.

I did not eat the red bananas or known as pisang raja udang because my keturnan forbid me to eat this pisang. I think I wrote about it before, nantilah aku cari archive dia balik.Here it is.  Boleh je makan sebenarnya kot, I mean betul ke pantang-larang ni semua kan but I choose to honour my ancestors :)

I thought I would never find it anywhere sebab dekat sini tak pernah nampak, nah sekali pergi Seam Reap jumpa.

They also bough normal pisang tapi aku lupa pisang apa. Yang itu aku makan, manis dan berlemak!

All in all, saya tak menyesal pergi the mountain because I really enjoy myself. I mean it is something different to see the mountain and waterfall , juga makan tepi sungai.

I am glad I succumbed to my Indiana Jones instinct [cih, Indiana Jones apananya, naik pakai MPV?]

Heh!

 

Tagged as: Kulen Mountain, Siem Reap