Cambodia Day 3 - Lake Village

Have we really been in Cambodia for only two and a half days? Our last afternoon in Cambodia was packed full of more great stuff. In between Ta Prohm and the lake village we saw our last temple of the trip. This one is also made of sandstone, but is a bit special because it's red sandstone, and also because this one was lost in the jungle for about 800 years (some French guys stumbled upon it in the 60's). How do you lose a temple?

Along the way we stopped at a small village to get a closer glimpse of how the locals live. I kept wondering what the yellow stuff in the bottles was. No, it's not that, it turns out that it's gasoline.

I didn't ask if the cow was for sale:

The children found us immediately. There was one little boy who kept yelling "Hello one dollar! Hello one dollar!" even though he had nothing to sell. I'm pretty sure he thought that's how you say hello in English.

Last on the whirlwind tour of Seim Reap was Tonle Sap. Did you know that right smack in the middle of Cambodia is Asia's largest freshwater lake? And in the wet season the size of the lake swells from 2m deep and 2500 sq km to 10m deep and 13000 sq km? It's also called "The World's Largest Fish Bowl", with 75% of the fish in Cambodia coming from this lake.

Basically people just live on rafts on the lake, and there are little kids everywhere.

We were there at the end of the dry season, so the lake was fairly low and full of sediment (it's not pollution).

We were tooling along at a pretty good clip, when all of a sudden this kid just appeared out of nowhere on our boat. He was selling pop ("hello one dollar!"), which we bought, and then he took a flying leap off the boat and on to an awaiting (and swiftly moving) smaller boat to pounce on the next lot of tourists.

In case you're wondering, I did not spot a life jacket or a set of water wings the entire time. This little girl rowed up in what looked like a large trash can lid. Again, you're not supposed to give them money, but we were so far out in the middle of the lake, I thought I needed to applaud her efforts.

And that was it. We left Cambodia less a stack of one dollar bills, but with a suitcase full of silk scarves and Warning: Land Mine t-shirts. And great memories. : ) Lia suhn hao-y!

Cambodia Day 3 - Ta Prohm

Or, "the one in Tomb Raider".

Okay, now this temple is my new favorite. "Built originally as a monastery in 1186 to honor the king's mother, this is one of the major temples of King Jayavarman VII. Ta Prohm features a set of concentric galleries..." Blah blah blah. What I like is that the trees grow right out of the top of the walls!

This place has the coolest atmosphere. Sort of haunted, but in a good way. I could have spent hours here, took a nap, had a picnic, and taken more than the 100 or so pictures that I already did.

How do the trees grow from the walls? They usually start where a bird has "deposited" a seed, and go straight up from there.

BTW, this is the doorway that Angelina Jolie ran through in tomb raider.

Cambodia Day 2 - Elephant Terrace and Angkor Wat

Bayon (the previous temple) was within walking distance of both Elephant Terrace and Angkor Wat. However, a 10 minute walk quickly becomes exhausing when you're trying to avoid dozens of kids peddling books, scarves, bracelets, wood carvings and postcards, all of them shouting "Hello one dollar! Hello one dollar!" I'm pretty good at fending them off, but David and Libby were complete suckers and were swarmed constantly.

I try to make it a rule not to buy stuff from the kids, no matter how cute they are. (If you buy stuff from them, they won’t go to school because they make more money selling stuff to tourists, and then it’s a vicious cycle of no education - no job - no money - needing your kids to sell postcards to tourists instead of going to school). But this little girl was so persistent, and she got to me when she starting counting all the postcards, “One two, free, four, five, six, seben, eight, nine, ten!” She counted in English way better than I count in Mandarin, and I was impressed. I told her I'd buy them if I could take her picture.

Elephant Terrace is so named for, well, the carvings of elephants. It’s where the kings and queens sat to be entertained by tight rope walkers, elephant battles (they would drug them to get them to fight), and whatever else they thought might be entertaining before the advent of cable TV. Fantastic carvings wherever you go.

And finally, Angkor Wat, the main temple. The place was massive, and surrounded by a huge moat. Depending on where you’re standing, you can either see three, four or five of the towers. Here is a five-tower view:

Inside was a bit anticlimactic, we were already exhausted from the morning’s tour, and it was HOT out, even compared to Singapore. This used to be the bath area (I dreamed of it being full so I could jump in and cool off), you can see how big they were by how small that woman looks.

People still actively worship here:

Here’s a famous relief, but darn it if I can’t remember why, I didn't really take notes. Something about the four sisters, and they each represent something, etc.

As we were leaving the guide made us turn around and say goodbye, as we may never be back here in our lifetime. “Finally.” I heard Libby murmur. “Can I get a Pepsi now?”

Cambodia - Day 2

Angkor Thom - Bayon

[Or, "The One With The Faces"]

Both David and Libby wanted to go on an elephant ride today. I had been on one in India, and was so completely underwhelmed by the experience (the ride was super short and they used these huge pokers to steer the elephants) that I wasn't too excited. But Libby had requested so few things on the trip, so I put on my enthusiastic face and the guide hooked us up. It turned out to be so much fun.

And they didn't use the big hook-prod things, they steered the elephants by rubbing their feel behind the elephant's ears, depending on which way they wanted them to go.

The ride was a good 1/2 mile or so, and was fairly smooth. And for $1, you could buy a bunch of bananas and feed your elephant after the ride is done. David didn't so much like his elephant, he though it was being "too grabby" with the bananas.

"Bayon" is part of Angkor Thom, which is a big complex of temples. With most of them being 1000 years old or more, any single temple alone would be worth a trip to Seim Reap, but with dozens of them in a single area, it's even more spectacular. Bayon itself is a maze of corridors and small sanctuaries, each with a different purpose. This was was where the ladies dances, as you can see by the carved reliefs.

Climbing up a couple of stories, you get to see what everyone comes here for - the huge faces. There were supposedly 54 of them (7, 28, 54 and 108 being sacred numbers), but only 39 remain.

This was only the first of three temples we saw that day, but Bayon was by far my favorite. I'll leave you with my favorite pic so far...