An apsara is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. An apsara is also a dancing figure seen all over Cambodia. On the road up to the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, (Brent’s working on a post about that, hopefully he’ll have that up in a few days), we kept seeing a sign for the Apsara Spice Garden on the west side of the road. After we had our fill of temples, we decided to walk out to the garden and see what’s there. There wasn’t much info on the web about it, we weren’t even sure we would be allowed in, but… We were!

Here’s the sign to look for on the west side of the gardens

There was a man in a hammock just inside the gate, napping. He raised his head, smiled at us and went back to sleep. This place is a treasure.
Green Peppercorns

Thai lemongrass- young plants, there were large ones elsewhere.

Coleus tenuiflorum, probably holy basil

Eryngium foetidum, Culantro. Aka Vietnamese coriander.

Kaffir lime leaves!

I don’t know what this one was, there was no sign, but it’s a pretty evil looking plant- those thorns are sharp!

Tons and tons of different types of peppers, here are a few, also unnamed

And a couple of long shots of the nursery.

This was one of our favorite places we visited, calm, quiet- the workers were napping in the shade, as it was midday and hot, so were completely undisturbed. That is rare here. Then we went back to Mie Cafe :). It was on the way home!