Citadel of the Woman

"Are you Cambodian?", I overhead the Cambodian tourism lady asking Evil Twin Sister while in line for our 3-day Angkor pass.

"Oh no, I'm not.  I'm Filipino.", ETS replied.

"Oh, sorry! I asked because Cambodians can go and see the temples for free!"

"You should have told me before I bought the tickets (laughs)!"

That was the first of the bazillion times ETS was mistaken for a Cambodian.  She must have been, at least in her past life, because you could see the sparkle in her eyes the entire time we were in Cambodia, like a child's in a candy store.

"You know, you are lucky that we have a good weather.  It was raining a lot the past days.", said our first day tour guide Sam, that cuddly bald Cambodian "cousin" of ours.

"You are lucky Sam because we brought the sunshine here!" our immediate reply.

Based on experience, every single trip that ETS and I had in recent memory was blessed with very good weather.  Even despite a typhoon forecast.  The sun would be at its brightest, allowing us to take the most spectacular pictures.

"Our first stop would be Banteay Srei.", said Sam, which officially started what would be a three-day ancient temples overload.

(Wikipedia: Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey (Citadel of the Woman or Citadel of Beauty) is a 10th century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.  Located in the area of Angkor. It lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25 km (15 miles) north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. These factors have made the temple extremely popular with tourists, and have led to its being widely praised as a "precious gem", or the "jewel of Khmer art.")

What striked me most about this temple are the intricate carvings everywhere.  Because the temple was built largely with hard red sandstone, it could be carved like wood, making it a lot easier for smaller, more elaborate details.  Although not much stands of the main structure, the smaller structures, the libraries, are largely intact.  Like in the case of most Cambodian temples, Banteay Srei was eaten up by the forest into oblivion until accidently discovered in 1914.

I don't know with other people, but being in a place as old as this 1oth century wonder gives me and ETS a certain high.  A sense of awe that we were actually walking on the very same paths royals past threaded,  seeing and touching millenium old artifacts.  It is making love with history itself.