No Anger in Angkor... and more

O.K. a little carried away with the sepia tone effect in my camera... but whatever magic you think this photo depicts... it pales in comparison to the real thing.


Hello again:

Still one day behind on my reporting. Yesterday, Monday... we started the day off with our driver Mr. Visoth whom we have employed for three days. Today we will go extra far to a place Bob and Vivian have been to before called Kbal Spear, a place up a mountain famous for the carvings in the river and the stone lingems and yonies (sp?) everywhere. But first we stop at Pre Rup on our way out to the site. Pre Rup is a beautiful and smaller temple with far fewer tourists and we have it all to ourselves this morning at 7:30 am. It is bathed in soft eastern morning light and the carvings are nicely accented on the east facing side.

45 minutes later, we arrive at Kbal Spear and begin our climb up the graceful path leading up the mountain. Cambodia is mostly a flat country with few mountains... so when they have a few, it is a big deal. This partly explains why the temple sites are all about efforts to build tall mounds simulating mountains.

About half way up the hill and 20 minutes from our start, we encounter large boulders with spirit sticks under them propping them up... of course in ritual only. The many assorted trees we are walking through are all labeled and identified by their Latin names... many I recognize as gum trees and ficus. We arrive at the top and find low water in the small waterfall area but in many ways this is good because we can see the thousand or so "lingums" carved from stone in the river basin. Interspersed are the occasional Yoni, the equivalent female part being impregnated by all the lingums that surround it under water. Beautiful carvings abound but all those of human or godly depiction have had their heads whacked off through the centuries by warring neighbors. Nothing much has changed since then. We are a species that has honed its ability to destroy over a very long period of time. We're still working on it. There is an area below that is also interesting and the shade makes it all the more pleasant.

Mr. Visoth is waiting for us when we return and takes us to our next destination point... the beautiful and sensual temples of Banteay Srei. These are carved in Red Sandstone and are perhaps the most ornate of any of the temples. These were my favorite in '04 and well worth a revisit today. Banteay Sauire is next with some beautiful lions posing on a southern facing terrace. That is me with the lion... he is a bit scary.

From here we go to Ta Prohn for what is the most classic views that many people will recognize at the Angkor complex. This is where the jungle and the ruins compete. They are so entwined with one another that to remove one is to destroy the other... they are the living definition of symbiosis.

(left) The tree/three of us... competing

I have taken a sepia toned photo (above) to add to the otherworldly feel this place has in abundance. Of course, the often loud and thoughtless tour groups are a minor annoyance, but tolerable. The minor temple of Prasat Kravan is a stop on the way back where we see a simple unfinished temple with decorations made of brick.

Mr. Visoth takes us back to the Old Market ares of Siem Reap (Siem = Thailand, Reap = destroyed, therefore a name harking back to a victory in war over Thailand... a war where Thailand tried to take the temples of Angkor for themselves. Today, Siem Reap has over 2 million visitors a year and it is the economic boom town of Cambodia. Huge and many hotel complexes are up or being built everywhere... with high end resorts and gambling part of the offering. If that isn't enough, there are massive shopping malls as well.

We, on the other hand are delivered to the Old Market area where we find an ATM machine with no money in it... and so we opt instead to do some early evening street grunting... the art of eating street food I first learned while traveling through Mexico during the late 60's and 70's. Bob and Vivian are even more experienced and so when we see the outdoor tables and smell the bar-b-ques going along the street across from the famous Red Piano, we know this must be our dinner spot. We had delicious noodle, chicken and vegetable dishes with the most fantastic fruit shakes ever. Delicious. But expensive. About $2 per person... and believe it or not, for Cambodia, Siem Reap is expensive. High end hotel rooms can start at $400/night and easily go up to $1000/night. A beer on the rooftop of our hotel, under a thatched roof and back down for a nice night of sleep. More to come.

Post script: It takes about five minutes for each photo to post on this slow computer... so rather than the five pix I had hoped to post... I will have to settle for two. I'm trying to work on this.