Our final temple stop was at Bante Srei – The Citadel of the Women, a gorgeous smaller scale temple with the most ornate carving I have ever seen. It is all a lovely pink shade too being made of red sandstone.
The temple was rediscovered in 1914 and has the most intricate bas relief carvings covering every surface in eye boggling detail.
We then moved onto Tonle Sap lake, an incredible floating community. The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot.
Here’s one of the floating traders plying her wares and some local kids saying hello!
The woman above on the left is rowing a sampan . According to Wikipedia the word sampan comes from the original Hokkien term for the boats, 三板 (sam pan), literally meaning three planks.
The name referred to the hull design, which consists of a flat bottom (made from one plank) joined to two sides (the other two planks).