Wat Banan Temple by Mia

Me in a tuktak.

          This morning Ma woke us up way too early because we needed to beat the heat for our climb up the 100 steps that lead to the Wat Banan temple. We succeeded, it was actually a bit cold! Everyone stopped at the espresso bar across the street for some caffeine before we left so we didn't get too tired.  Ma called a tuktak for us to ride there. A tuktak is pretty much the front bit of the motorcycle, with the back replaced with a trailer thing with two wheels and two facing bench seats. Its all pretty open except for a canopy over top of the whole thing and a windshield in front for the driver. Its really cool and easy to get a ride on because they are everywhere!

One of the towers in the temple.

          The ride there was really long and we only stopped for some shoe repair and a ball to bring to our cousin  later. It was a bit cold, really windy, and there were some nasty fumes in the air because it was trash burning day (which, of course, was yesterday too... and the day before...) and the exhaust and dust was gross. We spent most of it with our faces buried in our sleeves trying not to get cancer or something. It was fun to look around though, and some of the cuter little kids waved to us. Mommy and I were counting the people who were wearing their pajamas in the daytime, which is huge here. There was also a ton of cows everywhere. They were all not very tasty looking and their skin was hanging off their bones. Not as pretty as the ones in Bali, either. They were white and dirty looking with saggy ears and a weird hump on all their backs.

The crumbling towers.

          After a while we got to the temple and started up the steep steps. Ma didn't come with us because she had seen it already and didn't think the climb was worth it for her because the temple never changes! She told us there was about one hundred steps, but it felt like a whole lot more because we were all out of shape from laying in bed for the last weak being sick. When we finally got to the top we wandered around the temple looking at the crumbling towers and staying on the path because there were Danger! Land Mines! signs. With skulls on them. Scary! The temple was make of intricately carved volcanic rocks that were wearing down a lot and a bit vandalized. Most of the faces in the carvings had been chiseled off by some idiot.The were all pretty crumbly, but we went into the most sturdy looking and the inside was a hollow shaft that got smaller and smaller as it got higher. It was really cool, but we got out of there fast! On the way down we could afford the energy to look around. The railings on either side of the steps were stone carved cobras that had their tails at the top and their heads at the bottom. each one had seven heads and there were quite a few cobras.  Mommy said that they are there to guard the temple.
          When we got to the bottom we 'prayed' (more like lit some incense and sat there looking at each other from the corner or our eyes) and went with our guide to a cave. Our guide was a little kid and he didn't say much, all he did was walk in front of us on the path and lead us to the cave. I don't think he even spoke English! At the cave there was an old man with three teeth that told us a little about the cave while he was passing out flashlights. I didn't really under stand him at all. Then we followed our two guides into the cave which had like three chambers linked by narrow tunnels. The last one was the biggest and it had a little spring of really fresh, cold water dripping from the ceiling. It was good luck to put it on our heads so we did that, mostly because it was really nice and cold though!

Us with great grandma.

          When we got out of the cave we gave back our lights and walked back with our little guide. He still hadn't said much. When we got to the carpark the little guy asked for some money and Ma offered him like a dollar. He got all mad, didn't take it, and said that he wanted more from daddy, who offered him like 12 cents (500 riel which was all he had). That really offended him and he started crying and having a tantrum. We kind of just walked off because he hadn't set a price in the beginning which was pretty stupid of him! That was pretty exciting. After that we took the tuktaks to great grandma's for lunch which was delicious!