Neak Poan temple - An ancient hospital

The previous post in this series is here..

After walking through the Ta Som temple, our next stop was a short drive away. The Neak Poan temple.. I remember it being referred to as the Prasad temple! The temple itself is a small shrine on a side hillock. What is spectacular about this is the access to get to the temple across a bridge. The landscape with lotus everywhere is surreal. It was hot and humid and I was told not to stop for photos by my darling wife. Neither one of us had caps and the sun was really beating down on us.

Once we walked past the bridge, we saw what appeared to be a submerged temple. Turns out there are four pools on four sides of the tower and each had different medicines in it that were connected to earth, wind, fire and water and depending on the ailments, folks would have to take a dip in different pool(s). There were some high profile politicians with security forces visiting this temple to light agarbaththis.. so we walked around the pools real fast and got out before any further jam.

Our driver told us that he would wait at the parking lot nearby. When we came out it took us some time to find him. Then we told him that we needed a chai break. There were a few dhaba looking restaurants in the parking lot. So he managed to get hot water in one of those places. We paid them 2 bucks for the hot water and cups and they were happy to watch us make ginger tea and drink. Everyone at the restaurant spoke fluent English! There was a rooster making a racket where we were drinking tea that made this session memorable..

Here is a video highlight reel..

we had no clue that the temple was the four pools when walking through. There were no boards to explain this at the temple or we missed it! Had to come back to the hotel to wiki and understand what it was all about..

The reflections of the towers in the four pools were amazing.. I love reflections. got a lot of nice photos..

After chai we were recharged. So we told Saruk we were ready for the next temple…

Balsem Harimau

The easiest way to get around a head splitting migraine is to rub some Tiger Balm on your temples, tie a towel around your head, switch off the lights and close your eyes for an hour or so.

The rest of the stuff will still do it, but the Tiger speeds up the healing by leaps and bounds!

My daddy was and is a big fan of Tiger Balm. So were all the folks on his side of the family. My mothers dad on the other hand would just crush some camphor with Tulasi leaves (Holy Basil) and keep that near my nose and my headache would go.

When I was old enough to read ingredient labels, found that the main ingredients in Tiger balm are not far from Camphor + crushed Tulasi and it all made sense.

Little wonder then that Hanuman temples were my favorite hangout during hot migraine prone summer days. The smell of the temple was just so soothing!

Anyways, back to the balm. MIL realized that the small vintage bottles that are currently in use are from as early as 1999 and was shocked. The bottles are so old that the labels are smudged and the expiration date isn't exactly obvious. So on her way here, she picked up a nice new bottle for me.

It has been a long time since the last bottle was purchased and the packaging sure has come a long way while the bottle still retains its old world charm. Saw the instructions in many languages inside the bottle and started laughing..

Indications: Effective in relieving headaches, stuffy nose, insects bites, itchiness, muscular aches and pains, sprains and flatulence.

Directions : Apply TIGER BALM gently on affected areas.

Yes.. at first I read it and said "hmmm.. doesn't flatulence mean...?" It has been a long time since those damn GRE practice tests and had to google to confirm the hunch.

One question leads to another.

So, you rub tiger balm on your tummy and you can get rid of gas?

Has anyone actually tried this trick?

Please do share your experiences.

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