15.07.26

I am in a new country.  Cambodia.  The rain has stopped.  Today was bright sunshine as we spent the day in the Old Market of Siem Reap.  Yesterday was a 13 hour journey from Bangkok to get here.  5 hours to the border at PoiPet; 2 hour wait; then 6 bumpy hours to cross 150kms of Cambodia to Siem Reap.  We were 13 passengers in a pickup truck (including a girl who attempted to hire a private ride for the journey and got robbed and dropped on the side of a rice field by her driver).  Five girls and driver in the cab and boys in the back.  Our guide wore an orange shirt, had dark skin and a big smile.  He adjusted us a little to Cambodia before we arrived.  We were greeted at the border by barefoot children with hair in tangles carrying even smaller children on their backs.  Pointing at the tiny mouths, the older kids extended hands and supplicant eyes.  Impossible not to give something.

It feels good to be here.  Crossing the landscape at dusk last night was exhilarating.  Poetic.  Much of that is lost now in the scorching afternoon sun with a sore throat and a few bad nights sleep under my belt… still, I’ll try to recall… it’s no use.  It was something about an explosionless sky and the horizon, darker still.  Not quite night.  No trace of day.

Today we bought a silk shirt (for Rod), elephant print pants (for me), a mask, a silver necklace and a watercolour painted by an artist injured by a landmine.

Our plan for the afternoon is to catch a view of Angkor Wat at sunset.  Tomorrow we begin our 3-day tour of the temples.  I hope it remains sunny.  We had pizza and lychee drinks for lunch.  A child followed Rod, tugging at his shirt for much of the morning.  I spoke French in the market.  Vestiges of that colonialism.  Now it’s English.  What next?
 

15.07.28

Still in Siem Reap.  Before I forget, I want to list the temples we’ve seen each day.  We bought a 3 day pass for $40USD.  Money goes straight to a Japanese hotel company.  I’m certain they’re being fair about redistributing the profit to the people of Cambodia (puke).

July 26th (evening)- sunset at Phnom Bakheng (hill).  Some boys showed us a safer way up the steep temple and asked us for tuition money.

July 27th(morning)-sunrise at Angkor Wat.  The main temple is huge and is surrounded by a moat.  Elaborate bas relief carvings.  All Buddha statues had heads removed.  Climbed the 70degree angle steps to the top of the temple—representing ascending into heaven.  Getting into heaven, apparently is easy.  Coming out again is another story.

-Bayon.  The faces.  The 2nd most popular temple.  Must have taken an entire roll of film.  The heat and my ongoing headache forced us to break for a few hours.

Evening at Ta Phrom.  Combination of temples and jungle.  Trees pushing through stone.  Cows grazed at the front of the complex.

Sunset- back to Angkor Wat.  Ran into Alex from our guesthouse.  No sunset due to clouds of rainy season.

July 28th(morning)- sunrise at Sras Srang.  Built in honour of Hindu God of love, Kama.  Stone pavilion overlooking a romantic lake.  Great view of countryside and Banteay Kdei Temple.
Ta Som- ruined condition.  Huge tree grows through the centre.
Neak Pean- island temple.  Public bath.  Very atmospheric.  Friendly Cambodian workers sweeping the area.  No tourists.  Central monument shaped like a lotus.
Preah Khan- a maze.  Dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.  Garuda line the entrance.

July 29th- 6:30am.  Angkor Wat.  Sketched and wrote until 8am.  Climbed the 40 steep steps again.  Heaven is worth returning for, I suppose.
Baphuon- nice walking path through the jungle.
Terrace of the Elephants—indeed.  Elephants lined up for a few hundred metres.
4:30pm- Ta Phrom.  “Ta Phrom’s state of ruin is a state of beauty which is investigated with delight and left with regret.  But one can always come again.  And one always does.” (p.219, Angkor).  Apparently so.  We’re back to sketch the tangle of trees and temple.
 

15.07.29

I’m sitting overlooking the northern library at Angkor Wat.  Crickets and birds chirp in the hot, thick air.  The grass is green with rain and the sky is grey, clouded for more.  In the east, the sun glows through the clouds.  Rod is sitting beside me sketching, as I read from Dawn Rooney’s Angkor.

“Angkor Wat, in its beauty and state of preservation, is unrivaled.  Its mightiness and magnificence bespeak a pomp luxury surpassing that of a Pharaoh or a Shah Jahan, an impressiveness greater than that of the Pyramids, an artistic distinctiveness as fine as that of the Taj Mahal.” (p. 125)

Some Facts about Angkor

- Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument ever constructed
- Angkor Wat was built in the first half of the 12th century
- It was a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu
- it took about 30 years to complete Angkor
- Angkor was likely constructed as a temple to a God and used as a mausoleum to the King after his death
- The central tower is 65 metres tall (equal in height to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris)
- The profile of the complex is shaped like a lotus bud
- It is a stone replica of the universe
- Angkor Wat occupies a rectangular area of about 210 hectares (500 acres)
 

Some Quotes

“One can never look upon the ensemble of the Wat without a thrill, a pause, a feeling of being caught up into the heavens.  Perhaps it is the most impressive sight in the world of edifices.” (p. 130 Helen Churchill Candee, 1950s)

“One cannot but feel that only a few hours ago it was palpitating with life.  The torches were burning about the altars.  Companies of priests were in the galleries chanting the rituals.  Dancing girls were flitting up and down the steps… this was only an hour ago, monsieur… it cannot have been more.” (p. 134, R.J. Casey, 1920s)
 

15.07.30

We are in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Pehn.  We came on the Angkor Express down the Siem Reap tributary and through Tonle Sap (lake).  Huge and brown and rich in fish.  The creamiest water I’ve ever seen.  From Paradise Guest House in Siem Reap, we were passed on to their cousins in the capital at Okay Guest House.  It’s only 7pm but I could sleep.  The heat tires me out and I’m still on the Angkor sunrise schedule—getting up at 4am.  We’re in the big city now, though.  Our guesthouse is near the river and beside the Royal Palace and National Assembly.  This part of town houses all the foreign correspondents, who enjoy the adventure of political unrest and the NGO workers who live to clean up the mess, and all the rest (we fit in this category) searching for themselves where they’ll never be found…

We’re planning to stay in Phnom Pehn for 2 more days before pushing on to Ho Chi Minh City, the next phase of our whirlwind tour.  Finally, it’s north to Hanoi and Halong Bay.  But we’re not at the half-way point yet, so let’s keep enjoying.  Finished Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart.  On to Amy Tan’s Hundred Secret Senses.
 

15.07.31

Day 2 in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia.  We ventured out to the Royal Palace, which some cyclo driver told us was closed.  Checked out the elaborate buildings inside, including the Hall of the Emerald Buddha.  A small, glowing green statue atop a golden perch.  We had to change rooms last night because the bed was hopping with critters.  Fleas, lice, bedbugs… take your pick… perhaps a combination…. When we showed the moving black tapestry to a staff member, his reaction was: “Oh, there are a lot.”  I suppose we wouldn’t have had cause to complain had there only been a few.  Needless to say, despite the new room, we slept like shit.  All you can expect for $5/night, I suppose.  The new room does seem better though.

This afternoon we visited the National Museum of Cambodia.  It felt a little like being back at Angkor.  Mostly stone sculptures of Hindu deities and Buddha, many taken from the temples in Siem Reap.  The actual museum building was lovely dark wood, with the Thai-style ornate roof.
 

15.08.01

A new month.  August.  Today had been our last day in Cambodia.  We started out at the Tuol Sleng Museum, S-21, the school turned into torture/prison/execution site by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.  The place was ghastly.  Orange streaks of blood remained on the checkered floor tiles.  Only dusted over.  The walls were beige and chipped.  The ceilings tall.  The grounds were thickly barbwired in rust.
 

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