Cambodia update

Thursday 21st May
Today we got up early to visit the Temples of Angkor. These are temples which date back to the 9th century. They are spread out across a large area mainly to the North of Siem Reap. We met our guide shortly after 8.00am. He was a young man who was clearly knowledgeable about what we were about to see. The good thing about using the official guide is that they have been well trained in dealing with tourists. The only down side we quickly realised was his manner of speaking English in which he would emphasise every syllable and stress the last word of every sentence. He had clearly used the same school of learning as our Thai cooking teacher (see Chiang Mai section of blog )
We all three set out in our moto tuk tuk to the first temple. This was called Ta Phrom -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_Prohm) and http://impressive.net/people/gerald/2007/03/ta-phrom.html for photos

Rather than being cleared and restored it had been left to the jungle. Roots and trunks mingle with the stones and seem to be part of the structure. This was also our first sight of the incredible craftsmanship and carving surrounding the doorways of all the temples. It is nothing short of mind boggling to think that this detail could have been completed over a thousand years ago. Our guide was excellent at pointing out the religious significance of it all and the stories behind some of the carvings. The temples were either Buddhist or Hindu. This one had started as a Buddhist temple but had then been converted to Hinduism. Many of the carvings of the Buddha had been defaced when it was taken over. Places of worship now contained Linga ( symbols of fertility ) rather than buddhas.

After this temple we moved onto Angor Wat see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat, which is the jewel in the crown. As you approach you are struck by the moat which surrounds it. A wide body of water which we were informed used to have crocodiles in it to deter any possible invaders. The entrance is across a wide causeway which has a snake balustrade running along each side ( Naga ) When you get through the western gate you are struck by the magnificence of the central towers which rise .up to the heavens. These are designed to look like lotus buds and are quite breathtakinglyibeautiful. Our guide took us to the central temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. This is where the famous Gallery of Bas Reliefs is found. These are carvings which cover almost the entire wall on the first level. They are 700 metres long and two metres high and they show various battle scenes and Hindu epics. Our guide Kahem was very good at explaining the stories behind them but lost us at time with some of the jilted English and the complexity of the characters.

Lin here, writing this on Sunday, a much needed rest day after 3 long, fascinating days! After Angkor Wat we went off to lunch and I enjoyed a good curry served in a coconut. We then spent the afternoon visiting Angkor Thom, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Thom which was the last Khmer city and was very interesting, with some amazing sculputres. One area that really sticks in my mind was the Bayon- many Buddhist temples have these towers with 4 faces to represent the elements, but here there were 54 of them, many of which were very clear to see. Standing amongst these hugh carved faces is awesome. There was also a fantastic terrace of elephants, one with 3 heads. Near the end of the afternoon we visited Phimeanakas, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phimeanakas
Here we climbed a very steep wooden staircase, covering the eroded temple steps. Our guide remained at the bottom, whilst we ascended to 'heaven' and at the top we were greeted by a young, knowledgeable young man. He asked us questions about England and was qute chatty and friendly. He then proceeded to follow us around the temple top, giving us information about the history and the carvings. Lo and behold when we came to descent the steps his voice changed to a whining plea, as he asked us for money to fund his studies, as he was from a poor family. We reluctantly coughed up a dollar. One of the bits of info he gave us was about the 2 bathing pools down below, one of which was larger than the other. The larger one, he said, was for the Kings wives and concubines, whilst the smaller was for the King and his men. Once we were back down Kahem did his teacher bit.. which became a regular part of the 2 days: he would ask us a why do you think question. This time it was about the pools and Brent did a mmm...let me think about that.. before coming up with the right answer, directlly from our young guide... Kahem was delighted, slapping brent ( or Breast, as he called him) on his back in delight... have to say it was worth every cent of that dollar for the crack!!

By 4.30, when we got back to the guest house, we were absolutely knackered, but too tired to sleep!! We rested up in front of the TV. Just after 6.30 I approached the reception area: we knew a show was included in our tour deal and thought it was at 7.30, but the description had been a bit sketchy, so thought I should check. Lucky I did, It turned out that we needed to leave by 6.40 as a table was booked for us to eat before the show at 7.30. A mad rush followed and we ended up arriving around 7pm at an amazingly posh restaurant. It was all a bit weird. We were ushered to a table for two at the front of the huge ballroom type area. A few other tables were occupied, but many were set, but empty. As soon as we sat down 2 waiters approached with wine menus and hassled us to choose a bottle. Meanwhile other diners headed off for the buffet bar. It all felt very rushed and i just wanted to get sorted before the show. I fancied wine for a change from the very average beer, but at $18 a bottle Brent was not keen. No tother drinks menu had been given to us, and in the end we went for the wine, but the whole thing ruined our evening and we almost left before the show began.. In the end we stayed, but the food was not very hot and very average, the wine nice but expensive. Also as we got ourselves sorted a whole load of bus tourers suddenly appeared, filling up all those empty seats....so my fear that we were delaying proceedings was totally unfounded and I felt almost exploited. The dancing itself was quite interesting. Beautiful women began with what looked like a dance to the King, the sort of thing his concubines may have performes. Slow rhythmic music with deliberate stepping, balancing on one bent leg and lots of hand contortions... followed by a couples dance, which was a different type of traditional dance, more of the people. It was all over by 8.30, by which time we were fed up and tired.

Friday 22nd May
Our second day exploring the temples. Today began with a long moto tuk tuk drive to Banteay Srei, which was a 10th century Hindu temple, dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banteay_Srei
This building, like the others we'd seen was built with lava stone faced with carveable sandstone. The difference here was that the sandstone was pink, which was quite striking, and the sculptor's carvings were much deeper and therefore clearer than in previous temples. Kahem told us that this was his favourite ( as Brucy would say!). We then returned towards Ankhor Thom, stopping for lunch in a restaurant definitely targetted at tourists, where we had a very average lunch before continuing to Banteay Samrea, followed by what was called he Grand Tour of Angkor temples. including a beautiful temple with a central tower surrounded by 4 pools. This turned out to be a Buddhist healing area. We saw the remains of doctors 'surgeries.” Each patient was sent to the relevant healing pool: one for water, one for fire, one for earth and one for wind. Each pool had a shrine with an animal statue, with water flowing through it. This was holy water and patients would drink some in order to be cured. Our final temple, Prea Khan, a temple surrounded by jungle, with trees infringing on it. It felt like we'd come full circle and we were pretty templed out. It had been very interesting to see:

changes from earlier Hindu temples through to Buddhist temples with many changing from one to the other. For example we saw lots of Buddhist temples where the buddhas had been removed..or part of them had, by the Hindus, who'd converted the same temple to Hindu. King Jayavarman V11 had chosen to incorporate Hindu elements eg lintels with carvings of Hindu mythology, into his Buddhist temples, in an attempt to unite the 2 religions. ( We'd already recognised in our SE Asia travels the inclusion of Hindu elements in all the Buddhist temples we've visited)

changes in construction techniques. Volcanic rock faced with sandstone was later faced with brick. The brick could still be seen and many of the bricks had holes in: “Why do you think this was?” our guide asked... we guessed the holes were for gemstones, as we'd seen this before, but no! They were to retain the stucco, which used to cover the bricks: apparently the sculptors would do an outline carving directly onto the brick and then build up the carving with stucco. This was nowhere near as effective as the sandstone and remaining stucco statues were badly eroded.

how the surrounding countryside added to the sense of awe about these temples: wide, paved avenues, with bridges carved with the Naga, Beautiful water filled moats, which reflected the countryside and the temple buildings: all quite magnificent and of course the effects of erosion with trees taking over buildings

the development of tourism. For the first time in SE Asia we found tourism to be incredibly well organised: the US dollar had become the principle unit of currency and prices for the tours were surprisingly similar to those at home ($40 dollars each for a 3 day pass). An entrance ticket with photo ID was supplied at a purpose built ticket office upon arrival. This was carefully checked at each temple and proved to be a very efficient system. We couldn't believe the level of English we came across, particularly from young children. At entrances to each temple we were thoroughly hassled in English by young kids trying to sell us the usual tourist stuff: postards, books, bracelets and scarves etc. Af first we found them engaging, but by the end of the 2nd day, when we were hot and tires it actually got to be too much.

At the end of today we headed for Pub Street, which is another interesting tourist spot in Siem Reap. The whole road is sort of sealed off by tourist police with motorbikes at each end of the street. We found a spot with a good view at the Temple Club, where we ate and enjoyed people watching. At times we felt like animals in a zoo: especially when a large group of chinese touriests rambled past looking at all of us in the restaurants.They wandered back and forth without stopping, clearly just enjoying the crack. We also spotted a few ladies of the night, who appeared to be unhassled by the police. As we finished our meal and paid the bill we were 'attacked' by tuk tuk drivers from all directions. Brent bartered the price down to a dollar and we headed home for another early night.

Looking forward to our visit to the floating village tomorrow!