Day 20 of 36
Siem Reap, Cambodia
We woke up early at 6 with a wake up call since we have to meet our tour guide at 7:30 to begin exploring the Angkor temple ruins. We showered, dressed, and went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel that is included with our room. The La Residence d'Angkor is fabulous - a 5 star hotel - beautiful and there aren't many people here so we feel that we have the place to ourselves.
After breakfast we met our guide "T" in the lobby and headed off with he and the driver in our air conditioned van. It was only a short ways to the ruins area. We stopped to buy tickets and got 3 day passes for $40 each. We'll be with the guide for 2 days and then on our own on Saturday. First stop was Sras Srang, a large man-made lake with the ruins of a temple on the side. The lake was used for ritual cleansing services to purify the body. There used to be a tower in the middle of the lake but it has fallen. They can see the remains of this when the water is low in the lake when it isn't rainy season. We were approached by children at every stop trying to sell us post cards, fans, you-name-it. But they didn't touch - just talked. Seems like everything was $1. At one temple, Larry bought 10 postcards from a small girl (who was very dirty) for $1. What a deal.
We got back in the van and drove a short distance to Ta Prohm - this is where the Angelina Jolie's movie, Lara Croft - Tomb Raider was made. Here huge ficus trees (and others) have overtaken the structures and caused many of them to fall apart. We had our picture taken at the famous ficus tree covering the structure - shown above. T explained the purposes of the various buildings and rooms. There were yuni (female sex organ) about but not many linga (male sex organ). They built these to run water through thinking that this would help humans with fertility. Women would touch or drink the water and become pregnant. This was dedicated to the king's mother.
We then went to a remote temple, Ta Nei. We parked the car and walked for about 20 minutes. We were the only tourists there. Some Japanese were cleaning the grounds as volunteers and other yardworkers who were hired by the government to do this. We climbed through the structures, some of them precariously positioned above. The stone roofs had collapsed on some and were ready to fall on others.
We walked back out the muddy, puddled dirt road and stopped at Ta Keo - a very tall structure that was well preserved. Tim and I climbed the very, very steep steps up 3 levels to the top. Great view of the grounds. Hard climbing at times since it was so steep. We were sweaty when we got back down. This would have been one of the finest structures in its time and was built entirely with sandstone and dedicated to Shiva. It was never completed and they think the sandstone was too hard to carve.
Then off to our last stop for the morning, Banteay Kdei, a beautiful large structure with many rooms in the middle. Lots of ingraving on the walls. This is a massive Buddhist monastery built in the 12th century. The inside of the central tower was never finished. Fascinating.
T talked to us about death in Cambodia, how funerals work, and cremation or burial. He talked about courtship and marriage. And he freely talked about the dark period in Cambodian history with the Khmer Rouge - 1975 to 1979. His father was killed when he was 10 and he was raised by his mother on a farm. He was the youngest and the only child to get to go to secondary school. He is in University now taking English history. He has a small daugher - 7 months old - and his wife teaches Japanese. His wife was an orphan. Gee - we learned a lot from his this morning.
He dropped us back at the hotel at noon and we had lunch outside at the hotel - Tim had fish brochette and Larry had teriyaki beef. The french baguettes were excellent and the vanilla ice cream taste for dessert was yummy.
T picked us up at 2:30 for the afternoon visit to Angkor Thom - this was the city where the people lived in the 12th century or before. In 1181 the Cambodians threw out the Cham invaders and this civilization blossomed. They abandoned the area in the 14-15th area when the Thai were constantly invading. So the emperor moved everyone south where they could be closed to the Mekong River so trading was easier. Can you imagine just walking away from these palaces and temples and moving everyone - and I mean everyone?
This was a large fortified city 6 sq miles total built in the 12th century. At its height it most likely supported 1 million people. The outside wall is 24 ft high. We entered through the south gate where the giant statues of 54 gods to the left and 54 demons to the right stood on a causeway that was originally built over he moat.
Inside the south gate was Bayon that had 54 towers decorated with large smiling faces of Buddha, that looked strikingly like the face of the king who built it! There were 54 since there were 54 provinces in the kingdom. There were bas reliefs - some deeply carved in the stone. Very extensive - estimated to be about 1 mile with 11,000 figures. Every day life, battles, etc.
We then walked to Baphuon more commonly referred to as the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle. The French were restoring it but when the Khmer Rouge started work stopped for over 20 years. The Khmer Rouge destroyed the plans so there are over 300,000 pieces that they are trying to figure out how to put back together. They had the pieces all laid out in rows and rows and rows. What a formidable job. On the western side there is a reclining Buddha laying on its right side - it is unfinished and somewhat difficult to make out but it is massive.
We walked through the gates to hte Royal Palace and went to Phimeanakas, a temple near where the king lived. He used to meditate with the gods on top of this temple. The stairs were very steep and narrow - a bit disconcerting.
We then walked past Sras Srei where they used to bathe. There were young boys skinny-dipping in the pool (which was a bit dirty looking!). On to Preah Palilay, another temple with a Buddha and then to Tep Pranam where the Buddhist monks were calling people to prayer with drums. It was here that we walked past a Buddhist temple and the monk was doing a water blessing on a family - unlike our sprinking he was dousing this family - over and over again - with buckets of water. They sat there and took it in. Supposedly this washes away your bad luck and purifies you. I suggested that Tim needed to do that, but he declined.
Thenn on to the Terrace of the Leper King. The guide book says one of the kings was a leper but T, our guide, says no. Who knows? There was a huge parade ground here where the shoulders paraded for the king.
We then went to Phnom Bakheng for sunset, the ruins of a temple on top of a high hill. This overlooked the area and we got to see Angkor Wat in the distance. A large fresh water man-made lake was in the west. We watched the sun setting but there were so many people we decided to beat the crowds descending and we left before the crowds.
T took us back to the hotel and we showered and changed clothes - we were so sweaty again and that felt really good. Off to the lounge for martinis and scotch! Our dinner tonight is at the hotel (included with our hotel is one free 3 course dinner!) and tonight they have a "show" of some sort. Tim is so excited about this. The server didn't seem to know about the free dinner so we ordered and then were informed that most of the menu wasn't available. We were shocked. But the short show of the "Apsara dancers" was entertaining. There were 9 young women and 4 young boys and they had colorful costumes, the dancing was good, and the Cambodian music was interesting (yet a bit monotone with no harmony).
A full day of walking, climbing, seeing new things and learning about things we had never dreamed of. Bring on tomorrow!
