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Today 11 of us volunteers loaded into the back of a pick-up truck and went to Phnom Kulen National Park to see the waterfalls. It was about a 2 hour drive, mostly on good road except for the last few miles which were particularly bumpy, enhanced by the fact that we were sitting on the side of the trunk and constantly felt like we were going to fall off. However we did eventually get there, numb bums and all, and walked to the side of the river where we lay in hammocks and chilled out for a couple of hours. After lunch we were taken on a trekking tour around some of the surrounding villages and told very strictly not to stray from the trodden path as there is a large landmine risk in the area. In one village we went up onto a platform built around a massive rock where a reclining buddha had been carved into the stone, while by another we were shown a quicksand area (very scary!). The area is quite sacred and there was lots of Buddhist and Hindu religious imagery, including the "River of A Thousand Lingas" which is an area in the river in which are carved a thousand images of lingas - an image associated with gods and fertility. After the trekking tour we made our way down to the base of the waterfall - for anyone who has already made the connection that part of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was filmed around Siem Reap, the waterfall that we were at was the one she jumps from when she's running away from the bad guys, so it was really pretty cool that we were there! The water was suprisingly cold and there were some crazy fish that nibbled at your feet like the ones that eat dead skin - not nice! After everyone had had a splash around we made our way back, and had a pretty cold drive back to Siem Reap, but the day was totally worth it!
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