Sunday, September 24, Day 3, Car trip

We ate from the hotel breakfast buffet again. Neil likes oatmeal for breakfast and he likes seafood, and he was delighted to find bits of fish and squid in his first spoonful. These Cambodians sure like to put fish in everything! The sweet little woman at the omelet station made us delicious omelets with ‘everything,’ but oddly, there was no fish or squid – I guess they were Western omelets.

Today we were going farther outside of town and into the mountains. We booked the hotel car for the tour and it turns out Mr. Thom continued as our driver. Mr. Nara met us at 8 am in the lobby. Before we left, Mr. Neil offered each of them a ball cap from the selection he had brought along from Maui. They were so excited to get them. 

Our first stop was Banteay Srei, referred to by the locals as the “ladies temple.” The actual translation according to Mr. Nara is the Citadel of the Women. It is known for its beautiful red stone and deep intricate carvings in the temple walls. I really enjoyed seeing this one.

It had taken about 45 minutes to get to the temple and another 30 minutes more driving brought us to the Phnon Kulen Mountain checkpoint. This required a separate ticket which we had purchased in town before we left. We proceeded up a steep concrete road twisting through hairpin turns as we climbed the side of the mountain. As we started to level out, the road turned into a red dirt road or, more accurately, a red mud road.  I was especially impressed with the motor scooters navigating the calf-deep mud in places.

We went to the end of the road and then walked through local shops and restaurants to get to a long flight of stone steps. I didn’t understand what we had come to see here. We took off our shoes and climbed higher until we came out to a platform that allowed us to go in to see a giant reclining Buddha carved into the top of a huge boulder with a magnificent view. Known as Preah Ang Thom, it is believed to have been carved in the 16th century and was lost for centuries because the wooden stairs and roof had rotted away. A hunter rediscovered it when he climbed a nearby tree to retrieve his prey.

We had left our raincoats in the car and as soon as we came down the steps from the reclining Buddha, it poured. We took refuge under a leaky-roofed shelter with a modern Buddha and Neil and I took the time for meditation.

Next stop going back down the road was at Kbal Spean, where more than 1000 lingas and other holy images have been carved into the river bedrock. The Hindus believed that water flowing over them became holy and served as a continual blessing to all the people as it flowed downstream into the Siem Reap River and thence into all the reservoirs at Angkor Wat. Due to recent rains, the stream was full of water but we could still see some carvings through the water in a few places. They are more visible in the dry season and Neil will include a few photos from the internet as examples. We walked upstream and came to a sacred spring off to the side of the river that was a beautiful blue turquoise color.

We next drove a short distance down the road and turned off into a parking lot with a hundred other cars. We walked downhill and came to a waterfall where people were wading and frolicking, but we could see that it fed another waterfall right away. There were safety lines to keep people from being swept over the higher falls. We waded out for our photo to be taken and the current was so strong we had to be careful to place each foot carefully. One of us taking a single step at a time while stabilizing each other. Mr. Nara took a few nice photos and then we continued to the bottom of the huge waterfall known as Kulen Waterfall. Due to the recent downpour, there was an impressive amount of water coming over the falls and at the bottom it produced a strong wind heavily laden with water droplets and mist. We were told this was another location used in Tomb Raider. We loved the mist and power of the falls. Mr. Nara proposed the restaurants on the path would be a good place for lunch before driving back to town. I am sorry to say this was the most expensive and most disappointing lunch we had had on the trip so far. Neil’s soup was so full of tiny needle-like fish bones, they sank to the bottom and got into the vegetables so badly he couldn’t even eat those.

Further down the road Mr. Thom pulled off to the side and we climbed out not knowing where we were going. What we found was Poeng Ta Kho, an incredible overlook on top of sheer cliffs. Mr. Neil directed Mr. Nara where to go to take that breathtaking picture of us. Seems like he’d never discovered that spot before because he got so excited he asked Mr. Neil to take a photo of him on his own phone. He immediately sent it out to his family!! 

On the way back Mr. Neil was asking about the groves of cashew trees and Mr. Nara had us pull over to look at them up close. He explained that the tender new leaves were edible and used in cooking some dishes. Neil put some partially nibbled leaves in the cup holder and later felt something walking up his arm. It was a tiny praying mantis the same color as the leaves! We stopped to release it among some trees. It was after 5 pm when we finally arrived at the hotel and said our goodbyes to Mr. Nara. We knew we would be seeing Mr. Thom in the next few days since he worked at the hotel and we would need transportation for dinners and to the airport.

Saturday, September 23, Day 2, Grand or Large Circuit, Equinox 

Breakfast was included with our room and it was a large buffet with a mix of European, American, and Asian foods as the hotel has a diverse international clientele. Mr. Nara met us in the lobby at 8 and he double checked that we had our Angkor Pass with us. They not only check it when you drive into the Angkor Complex on the road but they look at it at each temple as you enter. Mr. Thom was our driver again.

Our plan for the day was to follow what they term the grand or large circuit because it goes in a larger circle around the tight grouping of temples we visited the first day known as the small circuit. We requested two additions: the first was to visit the third floor of Angkor Wat because it had been closed to the public yesterday. And we asked to visit a temple we had read was a small hidden gem that is right outside the Victory Gate. 

We started with the Angkor Wat third floor visit, entering the grounds by crossing the moat from the East over a “temporary” dirt road causeway that was created by the French when they were working on restoration decades ago. They built the causeway as a way to get heavy equipment and supplies into the temple complex without damaging anything of historical value. The third floor contains the central tower and is anchored on all four corners by the  next four tallest towers. The five towers represent the peaks of Mount Meru. It was exclusively for spiritual use by the king and queen. The center tower has buddhas in all four nooks and monks actively providing blessings. Magnificent views can be seen from the third floor tower windows and Neil got great photos. Neil requested we visit the Buddha on the first floor again and Mr. Nara took us downstairs and this time he had us sit and remove our shoes to show our respect. Once again the energy and blessings flowed to us in meditation and I felt the peace to all humanity to end war moving out from this spot and spreading around the world. That is the vision I hold every day for world peace. Neil was overcome with a similar vision: compassion and forgiveness and healing peace spreading across the globe. We shared this with Mr. Nara and we think we continued to blow him away.

Exiting from the back East entrance, we paused to view more bas-relief carvings. This East gallery wall depicts the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk.

We stopped at so many temples on our tour, I am only going to say a few words about our impressions and you can follow the links for more information on each. There are a lot more photos of the two of us together because our guide was enthusiastic about taking our photo at multiple stops.

Our next stop was at Pre Rup which was a Hindu temple built in the early years when they were using brick for their structures and stone for carvings. The carvings are still clear in much of the stone work. Pre Rup was built to be a duplicate but more accessible version of East Mebon which was built on an island in a reservoir 3 km by 7 km! Temple-goers had to take a ferry about 1.5 km (more than a mile!) in order to visit and the time and expense were inconvenient for most commoners. Just pause for a moment and imagine the vast scope of what we were seeing, of what these people built and how magnificent it must have been back in its day. The reservoir wall was breached centuries later and the water has since mostly drained but it was said that since not all people were able to access the island temple, the king built Pre Rup on land so more worshipers would be able to access it. East Mebon has a large base of stones that were originally below water level. There are elephant sculptures at each corner that were carved out of a single block of stone. Someone earlier that morning had left a fresh offering of sugarcane at each one.

Ta Som was built to honor the king’s sister, according to Mr. Nara. It was one of the loveliest temples I saw. It was also unique in that it has a double moat. Mr. Nara explained the moats had an important function beyond what you would think of as protection, they were to keep the ground under the temples with the right amount of moisture to support the heavy stone structures of the temples. Too little or too much water would cause the heavy stones to sink and become unstable. 

Mr. Nara often referenced the number of hospitals the kings had established around the county for the people (more than 100). The kings really did care for their people, building schools, libraries, hospitals, and roadways. Neak Poan was one of these hospitals or healing temples. Today, we would call it a healing center or clinic because they did not stay in rooms or beds for extended periods of time like we are accustomed to. It has been well restored. The people would be diagnosed and treated by the resident healers, they would be given medicinal herbs and whatever else they needed, and they and accompanying family members would be reimbursed for their travel expenses to get there and home. 

Re-crossing the moat we could see dark clouds and a heavy cloudburst rapidly approaching. We hurried and got under cover at a wall-less open air restaurant for lunch just as the heavy downpour swept over the area. Even the wild chickens and stray cats ran into the shelter of the restaurant shaking water off their feathers and fur. There was a momentary interspecies truce as we all watched the sheets of rain. The rain mostly ended by the time we finished lunch and from our sheltered seats in Mr. Thom’s tuk tuk we bought cheap plastic raincoats from a happy stall keeper just in case.

Preah Khan temple was built to honor the king’s father. The temple is huge with what was once tightly packed towers. There are piles of stones around but enough has been restored to give the impression of the impressive temple that it once was.

Chau Say Tevada was the small gem temple that Neil had read about and wanted to see. The entrance and temple building is partially restored and the grounds are cleared of excess stones and it is a picturesque temple. Immediately across the road is another small temple: the Thommamon temple. We read later that this is one of the most restored temples, at least on the exterior as they often hold official dinners here in the courtyard with the temple as the picturesque backdrop. 

It had been another long day for all of us. Neil and I had a little down time and then headed out on foot to dinner. I had seen a restaurant that was within walking distance that was well lit and always busy. We heard it was a “noodle shop” and walked there for our evening meal. It was a cook-your-own soup at your table kind of family restaurant and we were the only tourists in the place. One of the waitresses had enough English to say they only served the one thing and we nodded that was fine. They brought a broth base in a pan they set on the burner at the table and then several little plates from which you can choose what to put in your pot. Noticing we were clueless, she came to help us and we put everything in and let it cook and put it on simmer. She later checked and we weren’t eating. I said we didn’t have any utensils and she ran off to get us bowls, spoons, and ladles. It was a really fun experience.   

Cambodia Log, Friday, September 22, Day 1 small circuit continued

Onward to the next temple. Actually our next stop was Angkor Thom (also RenownTravel link) which was the walled royal capital city with several temples inside. The wall is 26 feet high running for 7 ½ miles surrounded by a moat 330 feet wide and 1.8 square miles in area!!! You get the idea, huge! Angkor Thom is also described as the City of Faces. There is a gate to the city in the middle of each side – South, West, North, East – with a 5th gate on the East side which Mr. Nara later named as the “Victory Gate” that leads directly to the Royal Compound. We were dropped outside the South Gate and Mr. Nara explained the significance of the symbolism on the causeway and the gate itself before we walked across the causeway and through the gate. Again, too much to put in words when so much is written about it but the imposing aspect is the 4 faces high on the gate facing in each direction. All the five gates are the same exact design.

Mr. Thom picked us up on the inside of the South Gate and dropped us a mile further on at the Bayon Temple. Bayon Temple (also RenownTravel link) is in the center of the royal city with its four temple entrances lining up with the four gates and roads into the city. It had 49 towers that were all decorated with gargantuan faces; four on each tower facing four directions just like the gates (many towers have collapsed but restoration is ongoing.) It has bas-reliefs intricately carved all around the outside temple walls, most of which are still in good shape.

The path to Baphuon Temple took us through the park-like trees and we walked past a stand-alone modern day Buddha busy with active worshipers. Baphuon Temple is shaped like a pyramid and was one of the earliest temples built in Angkor city. We learned from Mr. Nara that almost all the temples use limestone rock for the base of the temples due to its strength. The earliest built temples used red clay bricks covered by stucco for the exterior finish and as a base to carve the art. But later temples used sandstone blocks that were quarried in the Kulen Mountains and transported to Angkor for the temple construction. Sandstone supported the artistic carvings better. All early temples were built to honor the Hindu gods but later Kings converted to Buddhism. In their desire to maintain religious harmony in the general population, rather than replacing everything Hindu, Buddha was integrated into the existing temples, creating a merging of the two religions. Baphuon, for example, had a huge reclining Buddha built into the side of the temple. I decided not to climb to the top of the tall pyramid-shaped Baphuon so I got a photo of Mr. Neil and Mr. Nara on top. This temple is also known as the world’s biggest jigsaw because in the early 20th century French archaeologists took the temple completely apart, making meticulous notes so they could rebuild it with better support. However, the notes were lost during the civil war in the late 20th century and it became a giant complicated 3-D jigsaw puzzle process to rebuild it.

We proceeded past the small pretty temple of Phimeanakas and on to the Royal Enclosure which was the palace home of the king and queen. There is nothing there now but forest. When we asked Mr. Nara, he explained that homes were built of wood and only the temples and terraces were built of stone. In fact, the wood used for ceilings and roofs of the temples has long since rotted away. With his explanation, I was able to picture a bustling city of wooden structures for homes and business with the stone temples rising high above.

We walked out of the Royal Enclosure onto the Terrace of the Elephants which looked out on the army’s practice field and parade grounds. It was said the king would often watch his soldiers practice. The 2nd East entrance road goes straight out from the Terrace of the Elephants and is where the army would march out to battle. Ordinarily, this road and gate were reserved for the exclusive use of the king, so marching out of it was a huge honor and carried the Royal blessing. If the battle was successful, they would come back through the same gate, and thus it came to be known as the Victory Gate. Incidentally, the other East gate became known as the Death Gate. Prior to the Victory gate, the east road intersects the 12 towers of Prasat Suor Prat. During certain festivals, cables were stretched between the tops of the towers and acrobats would perform on them! Imagine performing so high above the ground with no safety net! Also, the towers would sometimes be used for resolving difficult civil cases. If a judgment could not be reached between two parties, they were each put in separate towers, and the guilty party would get sick thus identifying the innocent. This often took many days and was sometimes fatal to the one who got ill.

Mr. Thom picked us up at this point and we put-putted east through the Victory Gate to the Ta Prohm temple (RenownTravel link). This temple was dedicated to the king’s mother who was a teacher of dance. It is full of images of beautiful dancing women. Although there has been much restoration in this temple, they decided to leave some of the huge iconic trees still in place. There are huge Spung trees covering many of the walls. This temple is famous for being used in a scene in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Also it is famous for one of the carvings that is still unexplained: a clear carving of a Stegosaurus dinosaur!

(Neil’s side note: Looking back through my photos I noticed a stone wall with curved tight joints that reminded me of the ancient megalithic construction techniques of South America and the Levant. I contacted an archeologist about it but he couldn’t point me to any comparative studies. In recent decades scientists have found temples in SE Asia and elsewhere at least 26,000 years old. And decades ago a paleontologist found dinosaur bones in Montana about that age that still had soft tissue cartilage attached. Very curious!!)

We had lunch at a place next to Ta Prohm and then visited a bonus temple right nearby.

Banteay Kdei is in the process of being restored. There was a crane and several craftsmen fitting stones into rebuilding the entrance gate. There were stones laying everywhere that had fallen out of the temple walls and towers. I can only imagine that most of the rediscovered temples looked like this before a great deal of restoration work was done and this temple gives evidence to the amount of work needed to restore.

It was hot and humid for our day of exploring and we were happy for a shower and rest before heading for dinner at a street corner restaurant popular with locals, and narry a tourist in sight. It was easy to call it an early night since we were still adjusting to the time change.

Cambodia Log, Friday, September22, Day 1, Small circuit

Angkor Wat is one of the places I have always wanted to see. The history of the Khmer Empire’s dominance in Cambodia started in the 9th century, peaking in the 12th century (spreading from Vietnam, Cambodia, and into Thailand up toward China), and then declining by the15th century. Most of the elaborate carved stone Hindu and Buddhist temples fell into ruin as they were forgotten and nature took over. Only Angkor Wat (Lonely Planet link) remained in continual use. Late in the 19th century, more of the forgotten temples were “rediscovered” by adventurers. Impressive restoration work began by many domestic and international archaeologists, Angkor Wat (UNESCO link)  was declared a World Heritage Site in 1992. Angkor is the Empire’s historic name for this capital city and Wat means temple. The Khmer Empire conducted a great deal of trade with India and gradually integrated the Hindu and Buddhist religions  into their society. The kings of the Empire commissioned numerous temples over the 600 years of Khmer power. The Angkor Wat (History Channel link) temple complex was built in the 12th century and there is much written about it. By choosing to go during the Fall Equinox we were able to view sunrise over the astronomically aligned Angkor Wat complex.

It wasn’t hard to get up early as we were still adjusting to the time change. We met our hotel-arranged guide Mr. Nara (yes, his first name is Nara) in the lobby at 4:30 am. The guides for the Angkor Heritage complexes need to be licensed by passing a test and they wore official shirts with embroidered patches. Mr. Thom, our smiling driver, was standing by and we all boarded his tuk tuk setting off through the town in the dark. We showed our Angkor Heritage Complex pass (that Neil had acquired online for us before we left) at the check station and we were soon offloading in the dark with 100s of other visitors. We walked across the moat and through the west entrance gate into the temple grounds, although in the dark we couldn’t fully appreciate that the temple grounds are surrounded by a 3 mile nearly square moat with the only original access to the temple being across the 620 foot moat causeway through the West Gate. Just inside the Western Gate, Mr. Nara took us off to the side of the main crowd so we could sit on a stone ledge and be more comfortable. As it started to get light, the color in the clouds moved from red to orange to yellow – gorgeous. What a beautiful morning. 

To be respectful, I put on my wrap-around skirt over my shorts before we walked to the central temple. (No mismatch fashion comments, please.) The massive size of the temple absorbed the 100s of visitors so it didn’t feel crowded! Our guide led us to the bas-reliefs carved on the inside walls of the outside  galleries and told us some of the stories depicted in the carvings. I couldn’t retain all the information but there are websites that explain the bas-relief carvings (Angkor Wat Bas-Reliefs and HelloAngkor). In all, there is over 1700 feet of epics carved in the walls surrounding Angkor Wat. We moved inside and toured the lower level and middle terrace with Mr. Nara explaining the religious and cultural meaning of what we were seeing. There is so much to see it is beyond words to describe. I will let Neil’s photos tell the story. [For those who are interested, the merchants nearby do sell books entirely devoted to showing photos of the carvings and giving more detail to what Mr. Nara was summarizing for us.] As we were completing the inside tour, Mr. Nara took us to where there were some Buddha statues that remained complete (almost all have been destroyed by thieves or by followers of other religions.) The energy surrounding one particular Buddha was incredibly peaceful and profoundly compassionate. Neil and I both stood there in meditation for several minutes and felt blessings pour out to us and through us. It was a beautiful peak experience of our trip.

As we exited, monkeys were running around the rooftops and walls outside the entrance. They left us alone but we heard they can smell if you have food. One monkey ambushed a pair of visitors and stole their bag of breakfast. Fortunately, our breakfast to-go box packed by the hotel was safely with our driver. Mr. Nara took us to a nearby restaurant where we ordered smoothies and ate our hard boiled eggs, yogurt drink, and bananas.

We will continue our first day description in the next post! Click on the first photo below to see the slideshow arrowing through the photos with descriptions.

We departed Maui on Tues Sept 19 around noon and arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Sept 21 at 10 am after crossing the international date line. It was 29 hours in transit. We flew to LA first, going the wrong way, then LA to Singapore on a 16-hour flight that included three meals, and our last flight was 2 hours from Singapore to Siem Reap. I’d heard Angkor Wat was very hard to get to but that changed around 1990 when the French built an international airport nearby. Sadly, the sweet little airport where we arrived will be closed in October, being replaced by a Chinese-built airport an hour away from town. 

 Thursday, September 21

Yay! We finally arrived! Siem Reap airport is small and quaint and mostly vacant since it’s off-season. [Siem Reap is pronounced by the locals like see-em ree-a, ending with the faintest of a ‘p’ sound similar to the ‘b’ in the word numb.] We were picked up by Mr. Thom from the hotel (to show respect, they use Mr. with a man’s first name, so we did the same). Remember seeing rickshaws in the old movies? A two wheeled carriage with long front forks pulled by a little man who runs down the street? Well, replace the man with a little motor scooter and shrink things down a bit and we have the modern descendant of that. They call it a Remork, but almost all the tourists just call them tuk tuks. 

To familiarize ourselves with the area, we had Mr. Thom take us through the main part of town on our way to the hotel and we changed some cash to the Cambodia Reil. We later found that they will take US dollars as readily as local currency and they do prefer crisp new bills especially in the small denominations. We arrived at our hotel, the Bayon Modern Residence, with a flurry of greetings and a welcome drink. We were personally escorted to our room. The room was beautiful and we were settled in by 11 am. Not wanting to lay around napping after our long flight, and wanting to save Angkor Wat for sunrise, we rested only an hour before we had Mr. Thom tuk tuk us to the Kompong Phluk floating village (Lonely Planet Kompong Phluk link) and sunset boat ride on Lake Tonle Sap [likewise, barely pronounce the ‘p’ if at all.]  On the way back we stopped at the bustling riverside district near the Old Market for dinner. Then we collapsed into bed and slept till 3:30 am.

Click on the first photo to go through the slide show.