Hong Kong heights (and haze)

Monday, November 15, 2010 - Thursday, November 18, 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

Yesterday I didn’t do much in Bangkok.  Woke up at 7am naturally, so I went down for breakfast to say goodbye to Donna and Norm.  Ended up eating with Ros since she was there too.  J.P. came back to the hotel to say goodbye.  I really can’t believe the tour is over.  Other than sitting by the pool and using the internet, I just went out for a late lunch.

Today my flight was at 11:55, so I basically woke up and headed to the airport.  Back in business.  At check-in I was given a VIP pass for security and passport control, so I breezed through those.  There was a huge line at the other passport control.  Once again, I’m so glad I upgraded my ticket.  It has definitely been worth it.  Had a lovely three-course meal on the plane and the two hour flight passed quickly.  It’s an hour later here, so by the time I got to the hostel (took the airport express train to the MTR) it was 5pm.  There’s a friendly German girl in my eight-bed female dorm, so we ended up getting dinner tonight at a Yoshinoya.  Wasn’t my first choice but its close by.  Have the next 2.5 days to explore Hong Kong.  Looking forward to seeing this city.  Night for now.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Starbucks

Walked to Victoria park and Causeway bay

MTR to Admiralty

Hong Kong Park – teaware museum closed

Dim Sum at Luk Yu Tea House

The Peak

Wax

Dinner at 8:30 at the Pawn with Danika, Ashwin, Lindsey, Julie. Hung out there until 1:30am

My old street in London in Hong Kong

View from the Peak

Dinner at the Pawn with Wash U people

APhi reunion: Me and Danika

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Kowloon: Waterfront, avenue of the stars, Clock tower, Luxury street

Science museum

Hostel to get ready

Afternoon tea with Lindsey at Mandarin Oriental

Drink with Fraser at the bar on the top floor followed by a fabulous (and enormous) meal at Zuma

Clock tower in Kowloon

Afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental with Lindsey

London reunion: Fraser and me at Zuma for dinner

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Checkout of hostel and went to Mandarin Oriental

Breakfast with Fraser

Got to ferry dock around 10:45

Got 11am ferry to Lamma Island.  Didn’t realize ferries ran so infrequently.  Rushed across 6km of the island (which is supposed to take two hours) in one hour to make the ferry at 12:40

Went back to Mandarin Oriental

Took my time showering and got ready for airport

Checked bag at train station

Passport control and security

Lounge

Flight

Lamma Island

Lamma Island

A backwards regime

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Today was a bit depressing.  We spent the morning (after being able to “sleep in”) in Phnom Penh visiting two sights (Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek) which pay tribute to the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime.  Before I talk about our visit, I think it is important to provide background information on Pol Pot’s rise to power and his ideology.  All information is from my Footprint guidebook.

Pol Pot – the idealistic psychopath

“Prince Norodom Sihanouk once referred to Pol Pot as ‘a more fortunate Hitler’.  Unlike his erstwhile fascist counterpart, the man whose troops were responsible for the deaths of perhaps two million fellow Cambodians has managed to get away with it.  He died on 15 April 1998, either of a heart attack or, possible, at his own hands or somebody else’s.

            Pol Pot’s real name was Saloth Sar – he adopted his nom de guerre when he became Secretary-General of the Cambodian Communist Party in 1963.  He was born in 1928 into a peasant family in Kompong Thorn, central Cambodia, and is believed to have lived as a novice monk for nine months when he was a child.  His services to the Democrat Party won him a scholarship to study electronics in Paris.  But he became a Communist in France in 1949 and spent more time at meetings of Marxist revolutionary societies than in classes.  In his 1986 book Sideshow, William Shawcross notes that at the time the French Communist Party, which was known for its dogmatic adherence to orthodox Marxism, “taught hatred of the bourgeoisie and uncritical admiration of Stalinism, including the collectivization of agriculture”.  Pol Pot finally lost his scholarship in 1953.

            Returning to a newly independent Cambodia, Pol Pot started working as a school teacher in Phnom Penh and continued his revolutionary activities in the underground Cambodian Communist Party (which, remarkably kept its existence a secret until 1977).  In 1963, he fled the capital for the countryside, fearing a crackdown of the left by Sihanouk. There he rose to become Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.  He was trained in guerilla warfare and he became a leader of the Khmer Rouge forces, advocating armed resistance to Sihanouk and his ‘feudal entourage’.  In 1975 when the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, Pol Pot was forced out of the shadows to take the role of leader, ‘Brother Number One’.  Although he took the title of prime minister, he ruled as a dictator and set about reshaping Cambodia with his mentor, Khieu Samphan, the head of state.  Yet, during the years he was in power, hardly any Cambodians – save those in the top echelons of the Khmer Rouge – had even heard of him.”

‘Pol Pot time’: building year zero

            “On 1 April 1975 resident Lon Nol fled Cambodia to escape the advancing Khmer Rouge.  Just over two weeks later, on 17 April, the victorious Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh.  The capital’s population had been swollen by refugees from 600,000 to over two million.  The ragged conquering troops were welcomed as heroes.  None in the crowds that lined the streets appreciated the horrors that the victory would also bring.  Cambodia was renamed Democratic Kampuchea (DK) and Pol Pot set to work establishing radical Maoist-style agrarian society.  These ideas had been first sketched out by his longstanding colleague Khieu Samphan, whose 1959 doctoral thesis – at the Sorbonne University in Paris – analyzed the effects of Cambodia’s colonial and neo-colonial domination.  In order to secure true economic and political independence he argued that it was necessary to isolate Cambodia completely and to go back to a self-sufficient agricultural economy.

            Within days of the occupation, the revolutionaries had forcibly evacuated many of the inhabitants of Phnom Penh to the countryside, telling citizens that the Americans were about to bomb the capital.  A second major displacement was carried out at the end of the year, when hundreds of thousands of people from the area southeast of Phnom Penh were forced to move to the northwest.

            Prior to the Khmer Rouge coming to power, the Cambodian word for revolution had a conventional meaning, ‘uprising’.  Under Pol Pot’s regime, the word pativattana was used instead; it meant ‘return to the past’.  The Khmer Rouge did this by obliterating everything that did not subscribe to their vision of the past glories of ancient Khmer culture.  Pol Pot wanted to return the country to ‘Year Zero’ – he wanted to begin again.  One of the many revolutionary slogans was “we will burn the old grass and new will grow”; money, modern technology, medicine, education and newspapers were outlawed.  Khieu Samphan… said at the time: “No, we have no machines.  We do everything by mainly relying on the strength of our people.  We work completely self-sufficiently.  This shows the overwhelming heroism of our people.  This also shows the great force of our people.  Though bare-handed, they can do everything.”

            The Khmer Rouge, or Angkar Loeu (‘The Higher Organization’) as they touted themselves, maintained a strangle-hold on the country by dislocating families, disorientating people and sustaining a persistent fear through violence, torture and death.  At the heart of their strategy was a plan to unfurl people’s strongest bonds and loyalties: those that existed between family members… Under heinous interrogation procedures people were intensively probed about their family members and encourage to inform on them.  Thos people who didn’t turn over relatives considered adversaries (teachers, former soldiers, doctors, etc) faced odious consequences, with the fate of the whole family (immediate or extended) in danger….

            People were treated as nothing more than machines.  Food was scarce under Pol Pot’s inefficient system of collective farming and administration was based on fear, torture and summary execution.  A veil of secrecy shrouded Cambodia and, until a few desperate refugees began to trickle over the border into Thailand, the outside world was largely ignorant of what was going on.  The refugees’ stories of atrocities were, at first, disbelieved.  Jewish refugees who escaped from Nazi occupied Poland in the 1940s had encountered a similarly disbelieving reception simply because (like the Cambodians) what they had to say was, to most people, unbelievable….

            During the Khmer Rouge’s 44-month reign of terror, it had hitherto been generally accepted that around a million people died.  This is a horrendous figure when one considers that the population of the country in 1975 was around seven million…. Although the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia may have been a period of unprecedented economic, political and human turmoil, they still managed to keep meticulous records of what they were doing.. Using Australian satellite data, the team was expecting to uncover around 200 mass graves; instead they found several thousand….

            How such a large slice of Cambodia’s people died in so short a time (1975-1978) beggars belief.  Some were shot, strangled or suffocated; many more starved; while others died from disease and overwork.”

At Tuol Sleng Museum (‘Museum of Genocide’) we saw some rooms where prisoners were held and devices used for torture.  “After 17 April 1975 the classrooms of Tuol Svay Prey High School became the Khmer Rouge main torture and interrogation center, known as Security Prison 21 or S-21.  More than 20,000 people were taken from S-21 to their executions at Choeung Ek extermination camp.  Countless others died under torture and were thrown into mass graves in the school grounds.  Only seven prisoners survived because they were sculptors and could turn out countless busts of Pol Pot.”  A number of the classrooms had multiple cells built from bricks.  Each prisoner was given a box to use as the bathroom and was only allowed to empty it when given permission. Just before the Vietnamese entered Phnom Penh, most of the remaining prisoners in S-21 were killed using various disgusting methods.  Our guide informed us that the seven men who survived had a variety of artistic talents and uses within the prison.  A terrible place.

 Our second stop was Choeung Ek, the execution ground for the torture victims of Tuol Sleng.  A huge glass tower stands on the site, filled with the cracked skulls of men, women and children exhumed from 129 mass graves in the area (which were not discovered until 1980).  To date 8,985 corpses have been exhumed.  Walking on the pathways, our guide made sure to point out various bones and clothes which are sitting at the top level of the dirt.  Since the entire site has not been cleared, the heavy rains cause remains to surface.  Really pleasant to be walking on teeth and rags.

Seeing the mass graves, I couldn’t help but compare to the Holocaust.  I’ve actually been in three countries in the last four months which have had huge purges of intellects: Russia, China and now Cambodia.  Unlike the Holocaust, these leaders targeted their own intelligent populations rather than targeting a specific religious group.  I just cannot comprehend the logic of these leaders.  How can killing all the smart people in your society help you progress?  I mean, I understand that they wanted to exert power and in order to stay in control they knew they needed a society they could brainwash, but still.  Anyway, this is a much longer conversation than my blog can handle.

After the depressing morning, we went to Friends restaurant for lunch.  Friends is an organization which provides aims to help street children (and their parents if they have them) by teaching them practical skills, like cooking. (More information on their website here)  I greatly enjoyed my passion fruit and vanilla smoothie, eggplant dip and fish with olive tapenade.  Eating for a good cause.  I also stopped into their shop, which sells items hand-made by the parents.

Lunch at Friends

We then had 2.5 hours to spend in Phnom Penh before heading to the airport.  I went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, built mainly by the French in 1866.  In the ticket line, I met a couple of Americans.  We ended up purchasing tickets off someone who couldn’t enter because of improper dress, so the four of us went in together.  One of the men was a Vietnam veteran and they’d stopped in Saigon as part of their two-weeks in SE Asia.  I took my time exploring the palace since I wasn’t in a rush to get back to the hotel.  Eventually, I walked back in the heat of the afternoon with an hour to spare before our bus left for the airport.  It was nice to relax as I’m feeling exhausted.

Detail, Royal Palace

We weren’t leaving until 5:15, but all of us were ready to go at 5pm, except for Ros who strolled in at 5pm and took a seat to relax and have a drink even though her bags were still upstairs.  She only thinks of herself.  I actually had to step away because I couldn’t listen to her and J.P. went to speak with her about getting ready.  Ela offered to help her with her bags and when the two of them came downstairs, Ros was empty handed with Ela carrying all her crap.  That girl is seriously unbelievable.

Since traffic can be unpredictable we gave ourselves too much time and had loads of time to kill at the airport.  We finally got on the plane and took off for Bangkok.  On arrival we said our goodbyes to Elli (she took a flight to Greece tonight) and transferred to the hotel.  Ela and Jacek are leaving at 5am, so I said goodbye to them at the hotel.  J.P. kindly gave me his room for the night (he went home) so that Ros and I could have our space and I could stay on for tomorrow.  It is so nice to have my own room; no noise right now but the sound of my typing.  The tour was fantastic in terms of where we traveled but, as I suspected from the beginning, the group was not like the one from the Trans-Mongolian.  I really enjoyed the company of Donna and Norm and Elli and can’t thank J.P. enough for being such a fabulous guide.

Tomorrow I’m going to spend the day relaxing since I’ve already seen what I wanted in Bangkok.  Last stop, Hong Kong, on Monday.  

To the capital

Friday, November 12, 2010

Another transfer day, our last, but there have been a number of days on this trip when at least half of the time is spent getting from point A to point B; we’re covering a lot of ground.  Dropped my luggage in the lobby before grabbing breakfast, and by 7:30am we were on the bus for Phnom Penh.  According to the itinerary, we were supposed to take a local bus (would have been the only local ground transport in 20 days) but J.P. was told to use the private van instead.  I’m not complaining.

We stopped in Kompong Tom, a town known for being the best place to try fried tarantula and also where Pol Pot was born.  I passed on having a nibble, but Norm was all about the spiders.  He had three on the front of his shirt at one time.  Gross.  J.P. also took some time on the bus to educate us on Pol Pot ahead of our tour tomorrow of the Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek.

Unlike the ride from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, this one was straight and relatively smooth.  We arrived in Phnom Penh at 1:30pm and headed to our rooms to freshen up.  Unfortunately, the room Ros and I were given smelled like smoke and I refused to stay in it.   Our fearless leader came through and got us another room (this one being extremely hot because the air con hadn’t been on).  At 2pm we ventured out into the city for a late lunch at a local Chinese joint.  I quickly ordered fried dumplings cause I figured they were a safe bet, but as always, Ros studied the menu trying to figure out what she wanted and asking 20 questions about the contents of each dish.  She really never stops.  And she ended up with two dishes which was way too much food.

By the time we got to the waterfront, it was already coming on 4pm.  Unlike Vientiane, Phnom Penh’s waterfront has been fully modernized with a beautiful walkway and flags from every country lining the water.  They even had the new Myanmar flag flying.  Before going to the National Museum, Elli, Ela, Jacek, Ros and I stopped for a coffee at Café Fresco.  Delicious latte.  Elli and I were the first to arrive at the museum and it turned out that it closes at 5, not 5:30 like our books said, meaning that we had about 20 minutes to explore.  We wandered in anyway figuring we could have a quick peak.  It mostly contained Khmer sculpture from the Angkor period, so we got to see original sculpture of some objects we saw at the temples.

On our way back to the Foreign Correspondents Club, where we were having drinks and dinner, Elli and I strolled along near the Royal Palace and waterfront talking about Cambodian history and other genocides.  A very upbeat conversation, or not, but it was really nice spending time with Elli.  I even told her it was a shame she booked her own room because it would have been nice to spend more time with her (and less time with Ros).

We were the first to going J.P. at the FCC for drinks.  Half-off all drinks between 5 and 7pm; I ordered an Angkor Sunset and then a strawberry daiquiri just before happy hour ended (I still hadn’t finished the first drink).  The group trickled in as it approached 7, and of course, Ros showed up just before 7.  You could tell that J.P. was getting nervous about her getting lost, but she just had her normal attitude and ordered two drinks just before happy hour finished.  She ended up at my half of the table because she took Jacek’s seat while he was enjoying a cigar (which I wouldn’t let him smoke near our table). 

The FCC is in a superb colonial building and acted as a wonderful venue for our last group dinner (our flight to Bangkok tomorrow is 8pm so we won’t have time for a group meal).  We presented J.P. his a thank you envelop and a poem (mostly written by Elli, below).  Since I felt like I’d tried enough Khmer I ordered a tapas style waygu taco and shared a margarita pizza with Elli.  The food was fair, definitely not the best meal of the trip.  Everyone was in good spirits, and as much as I’m looking forward to a break from Ros, the three weeks did pass quickly.  Hard to believe the tour ends tomorrow.  My time in Asia is almost over.  I’ll be back in the States in less than a week.  Ahhh! 

Sleepless along the Mekong River

An Epic Poem, by Elli Panagiotakou

One early morning JP the Viking

Took us to Myanmar for shoeless hiking

Pagoda-ing, templing, vomiting

Crapping, cruising and smoking

From Myanmar to Laos with a days delay

Onto the Mekong river to cruise for a couple days

In Luang Prabang we finally arrived

Looking for monks, elephants, Joma and the tree of life

On the road to Vientiane we set off early morning again

Ups and downs, rights and lefts, left us all stomachless

At last in Vientiane, but not for long

Yet another sleepless night to get to our next stop

In Siem Reap initially we got our tickets

With our wonderful artistic pictures

Sunrise by the temples next morning on

Meant none of us got much sleep once more

In pitch black morning with our torches we searched

For a right sot to view the magnificent set

Angkor Wat emerged from darkness

And JP got stung by monsters

With our Tomb Raider style

We ventured temples Angkor-wide

To see Siva eye to eye and

Climb up to heavens heights

We are now in Phnom Penh

To witness things very dark and disturbed

However the overall message is clear

The places we visited were unique and the people dear

John Petter our guide divine

Fought traffic and crowds most of the time

Generous, caring, protective and strong

He taught us what life is about in this part of the world

He made the children laugh and girls giggle

Every time he pretended to be part of the animal kingdom

He arranged a special plane on the road from Mandalay

And a private bus to Phnom Penh to spare our delicate tail

Now that our trip is almost done

We share the memories and laugh

And we say to JP: kah pun ka, tse zu be

Kop chai, agun tom tom and

Preah Oii!

Thanks J.P.  Preah Oiiiiii

Tonle Sap + Temples

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our last day in Siem Reap began, at 8am, with a drive to Tonle Sap, the main water source in central Cambodia.  The current reverses direction after the rainy season.  We hired a small boat to take us out to the lake and Kim, our guide, explained how drastically the water level changes (four times larger in the rainy season) allowing for a large fish population.  Apparently the Chinese want to build a dam somewhere along the Mekong which would greatly impact the natural process of change (fortunately there is a Mekong council to discuss such issues).  We stopped in a lake town to visit the school, wat and see local life.  Sadly, we were not the only tourists and J.P. remarked that the kids are now getting distracted from lessons.  What stuck out to me was the large quantity of trash on the ground, lining the “streets” or in piles for burning.  There needs to be a community service project to clean up the village and educate about trash (once again, like Vietnam, these communities weren’t used to wrapped foods).

While we were on motoring along the lake, I noticed that Ros was wearing a blood donation t-shirt.  Considering that she never actually gave blood, I found it ironic that she chose to wear the shirt in front of us.  Maybe she ran out of clean clothes.  Don’t know why she got one in the first place unless she considers having her period a donation.

On the hour ride back to Siem Reap we learned about the Rolous group of temples, two of which we were visiting, built in the late 9^th century.  We had limited time to walk around the Preah Ko complex but it was very compact.  It reminded me of Prambanan in Java, Indonesia.  At the second temple, Bakong, the group took a few minutes photographing the temple from afar.  When we reached the entrance to the temple, Kim started telling us the history.  Ros rudely interrupted him saying like “we only have 20 minutes and we just wasted five taking pictures so can you hold off until we get to the van”.  I couldn’t believe her.  First of all, no one said anything about a time limit at the temple.  Secondly, its just inconsiderate to speak to your local guide in that manner.  Kim ended up answering some questions from Donna, Norm and me.  A few minutes later, Ros had the nerve to ask what he had told us. I really thought I was going to tell her off; I reached a breaking point.  Instead, I just told Donna about it and chose to ignore Ros.

Preah Ko

Information on the Rolous group from my Footprint guidebook:

“Jayavarman II built several capitals including one at Roluos, at that time called Hariharalaya.  This was the site of his last city and remained the capital during the reigns of his three successors.  The three remaining Hindu sanctuaries at Roluos are Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei.  They were finished in 879, 881 and 893 respectively by Indravarman I and his son Yashovarman I and are the best-preserved of the early temples.  All three temples are built of brick, with sandstone doorways and niches.  Sculptured figures which appear in the Roluos group are the crouching lion, the reclining bull (Nandi – Siva’s mount) and the naga (snake).

            Preah Ko, meaning ‘sacred ox’, was named after the three statues of Nandi (the mount of the Hindu god, Siva) which stand in front of the temple.  Orientated east-west, there is a cluster of six brick towers arranged in two rows on a low rick platform, the steps up to which are guarded by crouching lions while Nandi, looking back, blocks the way.  The front row of towers was devoted to Indravarman’s male ancestors and the second row to the female.  Indravarman’s temple-mountain, Bakong, is a royal five-stepped pyramid-temple with a sandstone central tower built on a series of successively receding terraces with surrounding brick towers.  Indravarman himself was buried in the temple.”

Bakong

It was already after 1pm when I got back to Siem Reap town (the rest of the group was continuing to a silk factory) and I grabbed a quick sandwich and smoothie at Blue Pumpkin before treating myself to an ice cream on the way out.  In search of a tuk tuk driver, but not wanting to accept the ones who were hawking me, I walked down the street.  The guy I approached didn’t speak English well, but his friend, who came over to see where I wanted to go, ended up becoming my driver.  We started the long ride to Banteay Srei; it took over an hour to get there.

Banteay Srei

I spent only 30 minutes exploring the temple but I didn’t feel I needed any more time.  The main area of the temple was compact but the detailed carvings were beautiful.  I would try to describe what I saw but the guidebook can give more information:

“Banteay Srei was built by the Brahmin tutor to King Rajendravarman, Yajnavaraha, grandson of Harshavarman, and founded in 967.  Banteay Srei translates to ‘Citadel of Women’, a title bestowed upon it in relatively recent years due to the intricate apsara carvings that adorn the interior.  The temple is considered by many historians to be the highest achievement of art from the Angkor period.  The explicit preservation of this temple reveals covered terraces, of which only the columns remain, which once lined both sides of the primary entrance.  In keeping with tradition, a long causeway leads into the temple, across a moat, on the eastern side.  The main walls, entry pavilions and libraries have been constructed from laterite and the carvings from pink sandstone.  The layout was inspired by Prasat Thom at Koh Ker.  Three beautifully carved tower-shrines stand side by side n a low terrace in the middle of a quadrangle, with a pair of libraries on either side enclosed by a wall.  Two of the shrines, the southern one and the central one, were dedicated to Siva and the northern one to Vishnu; both had libraries close by, with carving depicting appropriate legends.  The whole temple is dedicated to Brahma.  Having been built by a Brahmin priest, the temple was never intended for use by a king, which goes some way towards explaining its small size – you have to duck to get through the doorways to the sanctuary towers.  Perhaps because of its modest scale Banteay Srei contains some of the finest examples of Khmer sculpture.  Finely carved and rare pink sandstone replaces the plaster-coated carved-brick decoration, typical of earlier temples.  All the buildings are covered in carvings: the jambs, the lintels, the balustered windows.  Banteay Srei’s ornamentation is exceptional – its roofs, pediments and lintels are magnificently carved with tongues of flamer, serpents’ tails, gods, demons and floral garlands.”

Banteay Srei

On the way back to Angkor, J.P. suggested I stop at the Landmine museum.  I thought I’d make a quick run through it due to its small size, but I was captivated by the movie showing how Aki Ra finds and destroys the mines.  He is nominated in the top 10 CNN heroes of 2010.  Fascinating story.  More information on CNN.

It was coming on 5pm by the time I left the museum, and my tuk tuk driver sped me back for sunset at Pre Rep.  "Pre Rup, the State Temple of King Rajendravarman's capital, was built in 961.  The temple-mountain representing Mount Meru is larger, higher and artistically superior than its predecessor, the East Mebon, which it closely resembles.  Keeping with tradition of state capital, Pre Rup marked the centre of the city, much of which doesn't exist today.  The pyramid-structure, which is constructed of laterite with brick prasats, sits at the apex of an artificial, purpose-built mountain.  The central pyramid-level consists of three-tiered, sandstone platform, with five central towers sitting above.  Its modern name, 'turning the body', derives from local legend and is named after a cremation ritual in which the outline of a body was traced in the cinders one way and then the other.  The uppder levels of the pyramid offer a brilliant, panoramic view of the countryside." Unfortunately, as I had anticipated, there were too many clouds to see much, but I did have a chance to discover the temple, another temple-mountain pyramid-style structure.  I’m glad I fit a couple more temples in, and even though there are still more than 200 to explore, I feel I’ve gotten a good sampling of Angkor.

Pre Rup

In honor of Ela and Jacek’s 32^nd anniversary today, I showered and dressed up for dinner.  We met in the lobby just after 7pm, everyone looking lovely in their best clothes and got in tuk tuks for the short ride to Café Indochine.  Ela and Jacek kindly treated us to a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine and I had a delicious curry-like soup with prawns.  It was a wonderful evening.  For a bit of exercise, Elli, Ela and I walked  back to the hotel.  On the way, I stopped at the gas station to withdraw some money as they stood guard; pretty funny scene.  That’s all for now.

Me with the happy couple

Amazing Angkor

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Today was amazing, but exhausting.  It’s 5pm and I’ve been awake now for 13 hours.  I feel like I’m going to fall asleep on the table.  We met this morning, breakfast boxes in hand, to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.  It was so dark as we walked down the path that I had no idea what surrounded me.  The sun slowly lit up the sky and the towers of Angkor Wat emerged from the darkness, reflecting on the water in the moat.  Tourists lined the water snapping shots of the temple, although the cloud cover was a bit too heavy for a beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

A bit of background on the Angkor temples from my Footprint guidebook before I continue:

            “The temples at Angkor were modeled on those of the kingdom of Chenla a mountain kingdom centered on northern Cambodia and southern Laos), which in turn were modeled on Indian temples.  They represent Mount Meru – the home of the gobs of Indian cosmology.  The central towers symbolize the peaks of Mouth Meru, surrounded by a wall representing the earth and moats and basins representing the oceans.  The devaraja, or god-king, was enshrined in the center of the religious complex, which acted as the spiritual axis of the kingdom.  The people believed their apotheosized king communicated directly with the gods.

            The central tower sanctuaries housed the images of the Hindu gods to whom the temples were dedicated.  Dead members of the royal and priestly families were accorded a status on a par with these gods.  Libraries to store the sacred scriptures were also built within the ceremonial center.  The temples were mainly built to shelter the images of the gods – unlike Christian churches, Moslem mosques and some Buddhist pagodas, they were not intended to accommodate worshippers.  Only priests, the servants of the god, were allowed into the interiors.  The ‘congregation’ would mill around in the open courtyards of wooden pavilions.

            The first temples were of a very simple design, but with time they became more grandiose and doors and galleries were added.  Most of Angkor’s buildings are made from a soft sandstone which is easy to work.  It was transported to the site from Phnom Kulen, about 30 km to the northeast.  Laterite was used for foundations, core material, and enclosure walls, as it was widely available and could be easily cut into blocks.  A common feature of Khmer temples was false doors and windows on the sides and backs of sanctuaries and other buildings .  In most cases there was no need for well-lit rooms and corridors as hardly anyone ever went into them.  That said, the galleries round the central towers in later temples, such as Angkor Wat, indicate that worshippers did use the temples for ceremonial circumambulation when they would contemplate the inspiring bas-reliefs from the important Hindu epic, Ramayana and Mahabharata (written between 400 BC and AD 200).

            Despite the court’s conversion to Mahayana Buddhism in the 12^th century, the architectural ground-plans of temples did not alter much – even though they were based on Hindu cosmology.  The idea of the god-king was simply grafted onto the new state religion and statues of the Buddha rather than the gods of the Hindu pantheon were used to represent the god-king.  One particular image of the Buddha predominated at Angkor in which he wears an Angkor-style crown, with a conical top which is encrusted with jewellery.”

Around 6:30 we were getting ready to leave Angkor Wat when J.P. got stung in the head.  He walked towards us grabbing his head and looked to be in pain.  After sitting for a minutes he was ready to go again.  Always our fearless leader.  Our first temple visit was Ta Prohm, well known because it featured in Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.  It was incredible seeing the enormous trees growing out of the ruins of the temple.  The trees are so much a part of the structure now that they can’t be removed.

Some background from my Footprint guidebook:

“The temple of Ta Prohm is the perfect lost-in-the-jungle experience.  Unlike most of the other monuments at Angkor, it has been only minimally cleared of its undergrowth, fig trees and creepers.  It is widely regarded as one of Angkor’s most enchanting temples.

Ta Prohm was consecrated in 1186 – five years after Jayavarman VII seized power.  It was built to house the divine image of the Queen Mother.  The outer enclosures of Ta Prohm are somewhat obscured by foliage but reach well-beyond the temple’s heart (1km by 650m).  The temple proper consists of a number of concentric galleries, featuring corner towers and the standard gopuras.  Other buildings and enclosures were built on a more ad hoc basis.

Within the complex walls lived 12,640 citizens.  It contained 39 sanctuaries or prasats, 566 stone dwellings and 288 brick dwellings.  Ta Prohm literally translates to the ‘Royal Monastery’ and that is what it functioned as, home to 18 abbots and 2740 monks.  By the 12^th century, temples were no longer exclusively places of worship – they also had to accommodate monks, so roofed halls were increasingly built within the complexes.”

Ta Prohm

Our next stop was Ta Keo.  We only had twenty minutes there, but Elli, Jacek and I took the challenge and climbed to the top.  The view was mostly trees but it was fascinating to see the temple complex from above. (I don’t have any written information on this temple.)

Continuing on… Victory gate of Angkor Thom, Terrace of the Elephants and Bayon, all part of the Angkor Thom complex.  We eventually left out of the South Gate, but I’ll get to that later.  As we just walked around to spend time exploring the various buildings  I will allow my guidebook to provide information of the Great City.

            “Construction of Jayavarman VII’s spacious walled capital, Angkor Thom (which means ‘great city’), began at the end of the 12^th century: he rebuilt the capital after it had been captured and destroyed by the Cham.  Angkor Thom was colossal: the 100-m-wide moat surrounding the city, which was probably stocked with crocodiles as a protection against the enemy, extended more than 12 km.  Inside the moat was an 8-m-high stone wall, buttressed on the inner side y a high mound of earth along the top of which ran a terrace for troops to man the ramparts.

            Four great gateways in the city wall face north, south, east and west and lead to the city’s geometric center, the Bayon.  The fifth, Victory Gate, leads from the royal palace (within the Royal Enclosure) to the East Baray.  The height of the gates was determined by the headroom needed to accommodate an elephant and howdah, complete with parasols.  The flanks of each gateway are decorated by three-headed stone elephants, and each gateway tower has four giant faces, which keep an eye on all four cardinal points.  Five causeways traverse the moat, each ordered by sculptured balustrades of nagas gripped, on one side, by 54 stern-looking giant gods and on the other by 54 fierce-faced demons.  The balustrade depicts the Hindu legend of the churning of the sea.

            The South Gate provides the most common access route to Angkor Thom, predominately because it sits on the path between the two great Angkor complexes.  The gate is a wonderful introduction to Angkor Thom, with well-restored statues of asuras (demons) and gods lining the bridge.  The figures on the left, exhibiting a serene expression, are the gods, while those on the right, with grimaced, fierce-looking heads, are the asuras.

            The Bayon was Jayavarman VII’s own temple-mountain, built right in the middle of Angkor Thom; its large faces have now become synonymous with the Angkor complex.  It is believed to have been built between the late 12^th century to early 13^th century, around 100 years after Angkor Wat.  The Bayon is a three-tiered, pyramid-temple with a 45-m-high tower, topped by four gigantic carved heads.  These faces are believed to be the images of Jayavarman VII as a Bodhisattra, and face the four compass points.  They are crowned with lotus flowers, symbol of enlightenment, and are surrounded by 51 smaller towers each with heads facing north, south, east and west.  There are more than 2,000 large faces carved throughout the structure.  The first two of the three levels feature galleries of bas-relief; a circular central sanctuary dominates the third level.  The bas-reliefs which decorate the walls of the Bayon are much less imposing than those at Angkor Wat.  The sculpture is carved deeper but is more naïve and less sophisticated than the bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat.  The relief on the outside depicts historical events; those on the inside are drawn from the epic world of gods and legends, representing the creatures who were supposed to haunt the subterranean depths of Mount Meru.  In fact the reliefs on the outer wall illustrating historical scenes and derring-do with marauding Cham were carved in the early 13^th century during the reign of Jayavarman; those on the inside which illuminate the Hindu cosmology were caved after the kind’s death when his successors turned from Mahayana Buddhism back to Hinduism.  Two recurring themes in the bas-reliefs are the powerful kind and the Hindu epics.  Jayavarman is depicted in the throes of battle with the Cham – who are recognizable thanks to their unusual and distinctive headdress, which looks like an inverted lotus flower.  The other bas-reliefs give good insight into Khmer life at the time – the warrior elephants, ox carts, fishing with nets, cockfights and skewered fish drying on racks.  Other vignettes show musicians, jugglers, hunters, chess layers, palm-readers and scenes of Angkor citizens enjoying drinking sessions.  In the naval battle scenes, the water around the war-canoes is depicted by the presence of fish, crocodiles and floating corpses….

Bayon

            In the front of the Royal Palace, at the center of Angkor Thom, Suryavarman I laid out the first Grand Plaza with the Terrace of the Elephants.  The 300-m-long wall derives its name from the large, life-like carvings of elephants flanking the southern stairway.  It is believed it was the foundations of the royal reception hall.  Royalty once sat in gold-topped pavilions at the center of the pavilion, and here there are rows of garudas (bird-men), their wings lifted as if in flight.  They were intended to give the impression that the god-king’s palace was floating in the heavens, like the imagined flying celestial palaces of the gods.”

           

We had free time to wander Bayon and were told to meet at the bus on the south side at 11:10.  When I got on at 11, the only one missing was Ros.  J.P. went out to look for her, even though she still had 15 minutes to spare.  Then it was 11:15 and she still wasn’t back.  At 11:30am when no one had spotted her, our guide Kim joined J.P. in the search for Ros.  J.P. had made a point at the beginning of the day that we needed to keep on a tight schedule in order to get to the temples before the crowds so at 11:45 we were about to make a circle around the temple when Ros pulled up in a tuk tuk.  She claimed that she got lost and had been walking around the temple, but that’s hard to believe since we’d all been sitting on the bus watching and no one spotted her.  It was pretty irritating and the fact that it took her 30 minutes to figure out a way to find us is a bit sad.  Maybe I sound harsh, but if you’d spent close to three weeks with this woman you would feel the same.

J.P. stopped at the South Gate as promised before we dashed to lunch.  He’s been to Angkor so many times the guy in the restaurant knows him by name and we were served quickly.  In the end, we got out of lunch on time.  We all ate pretty quickly.  Then it was back to Angkor Wat to go inside the famous temple.  What a magnificent sight.  We walked over the moat, through the front gates and into the main area of the temple.  Jacek, Norm, Elli and I climbed to the top terrace to visit the principal sanctuary.  A stunning piece of religious history.

            “The awe-inspiring sight of Angkor Wat, first thing in the morning, is something you’re not likely to forget.  Angkor literally means ‘city’ or ‘capital’ and it is the biggest religious monument ever built and certainly one of the most spectacular.  The temple complex covers 81 ha.  Its five towers are emblazoned on the Cambodian flag and the 12^th century masterpiece is considered by art historians to be the prime example of classical Khmer art and architecture.  It took more than 30 years to build and is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, personified in the earthly form by its builder, the god-king Suryavarman II, and is aligned east to west.

            Angkor Wat differs from other temples, primarily because it is facing westward, symbolically the direction of death, leading many to originally believe it was a tomb.  However, as Vishnu is associated with the west, it is now generally accepted that it served both as a temple and a mausoleum for the king.  Like other Khmer temple-mountains, Angkor Wat is an architectural allegory, depicting in stone the epic tales of Hindu mythology.  The central sanctuary of the temple complex represents the sacred Mount Meru, the center of the Hindu universe, on whose summit the gods reside.  Angkor Wat’s fiver towers symbolize Meru’s five peaks; the enclosing wall represents the mountains at the edge of the world and the surrounding moat, the ocean beyond.

            The temple complex is enclosed by a square moat – more than 5 km in length and 190 m wide – and a high, galleried wall, which is covered in epic bas-reliefs and has four ceremonial tower gateways.  The main gateway faces west and the temple is approached by a 475-m-long road, built along a causeway, which is lined with naga balustrades.  At the far end of the causeway stands a cruciform platform, guarded by stone lions, from which the devaraja may have held audiences; his backdrop being the three-tiered central sanctuary.  Commonly referred to as the Terrace of Honor, it is entered through the colonnaded processional gateway of the outer gallery.  The transitional enclosure beyond it is again cruciform in shape.  Its four quadrants formed galleries, once stocked full of statues of the Buddha.  Only a handful of the original 1,000-odd images remain.

            The cluster of central towers, 12 m above the second terrace, is reached by 12 steep stairways, which represent the precipitous slopes of Mount Meru.  Many historians believe that the upwards hike to this terrace was reserved for the high priests and king himself.  Today, anyone is welcome but the difficult is best handled slowly by stepping sideways up the steep incline.  The five lotus flower-shaped sandstone towers – the first appearance of these features in Khmer architecture – are believed to have once been covered in gold.  The eight-storey towers are square – although they appear octagonal, and give the impression of a sprouting bud.  The central tower is dominant, as is the Siva shrine and principal sanctuary, whose pinnacle rises more than 30 m above the third level and, 55 m above ground level.  This sanctuary would have contained an image of Siva in the likeness of King Suryavarman II, s it was his temple-mountain.  But it is now a Buddhist shrine and contains statues of the Buddha.

            More than 1,000 sq m of bas-relief decorate the temple.  Its greatest sculptural treasure is the 2-m-high bas-reliefs, around the walls of the outer gallery.  It is the longest continuous bas-relief in the world.  In some areas traces of the paint and gilt that once covered the carvings can still be seen.  Most famous are the hundreds of figures of deities and apsaras in niches along the walls.” (Footprint)

Our last temple for the day was Preah Khan.  As Kim was explaining the history of the temple, a huge group of school children approached us.  They were adorable, and their English teacher was a 17-year old from Northern California who is spending part of her year before college (since she graduated early) teaching at a school in Siem Reap.  When the children left, we got back to focusing on the temple.  Preah Khan reminded me a bit of Ta Prohm due to the number of trees growing among the ruins.  It also has long, dimly lit corridors.

            “The 12^th century complex of Preah Khan, one of the largest complexes within the Angkor area, was Jayavarman VII’s first capital before Angkor Thom was completed.  Preah Khan means ‘sacred sword’ and is believed to have derived from a decisive battle against the Cham, which created a ‘lake of blood’, but was invariably won by Jayavarman VII.  It is similar in ground-plan to Ta Prohm but attention was paid to the approaches: its east and west entrance avenues leading to ornamental causeways are lined with carved-stone boundary posts.  Evidence of 1,000 teachers suggests that it was more than a mere Buddhist monastery but most likely a Buddhist university.  Nonetheless an abundance of Brahmanic iconography is still present on the site.  Around the rectangular complex, is a large laterite wall, surrounded by large garudas wielding the naga (each more than 5 m in height), the theme continues across the length of the whole 3-km external enclosure, with the motif dotted every 50 m.  Within these walls lies the surrounding moat.” (Footprint)

Preah Khan

By the time we finished at 4pm, everyone was exhausted.  Since we had the evening to ourselves, I decided to get dropped off in town to go to the Blue Pumpkin.  I sat on the second floor on their bed-like couch eating a brownie ice cream (coffee and Bailey’s flavor).  Additionally, I ordered a chicken wrap so that I could spend the night relaxing at the hotel and not have to run out to dinner.  And that brings me to now.  Spending the night writing and eating my delicious wrap.  We finally get to sleep in tomorrow (meeting at 8am) after a fabulous but tiring day around Angkor.

On to Cambodia: Khmer cooking

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The hundredth early morning of this trip; in reality it’s only the eighth early morning but out of 16 that is a very high percentage.  We were in the lobby at 4:30am for the drive to Vientiane airport.  When we arrived, the airport wasn’t open and we were the first to check-in a clear security.  Sadly, we had a stop-over in southern Laos at Pakse, where we had to deplane and go through immigration, so the flight time was three hours.

Walking in to the beautiful Siem Reap airport was a huge change from Vientiane.  Small, but modern in an old style building.  There were about ten desks to handle visa-on-arrival, and I filled out my application so quickly that I was first in line.  Our driver was ready to transfer us to the hotel and we arrived at 10:45am, almost seven hours after waking up.  J.P. took us on a walk to downtown Siem Reap and lunch at Khmer Kitchen.  Donna and Norm chose not to join, and the rest of us enjoyed our first Khmer meal.  I ordered Khmer curry with chicken, a yellow curry with lots of potatoes and carrots.

From lunch, I ventured out into the city alone.  Spent some time in the old market and part of the waterfront.  Around 2pm I was really starting to drag from the early morning and decided to check out Bodia, the spa Becky recommended.  I treated myself to a 90 minute Asian-style massage after finding the discount coupon in a Japanese tour book since the spa was nicer than most.  The tiny woman climbed up on the table and the pressure was too much for me to handle.  Eventually we found a good balance.  Lovely!

By the time I finished my massage, I only had an hour to kill before my cooking class.  Since the hotel is a good walk from downtown, I spent a little time in the old market doing a bit more shopping.  Why I suddenly have the urge to buy things can only stem from the proximity of my return to the States.

Elli and I met at Le Tiger de Papier for our Khmer cooking class.  Unlike the Vietnamese and Thai cooking classes I attended, we got to choose our own starter and main to cook.  There were 14 of us total and I couldn’t figure out how we would all manage to cook different dishes.  Like the other classes, we began with a trip to the market to see some of the ingredients in person.  Even though there were only six of us, it was hard to hear our guide in the crowded, small space.

When we got back to the cooking school, there was a small kitchen for ten of us to cook in.  While we could all chop ingredients at the same time, we had to take turns cooking the food.  I prepared a spicy shrimp salad (which I made not spicy by leaving out the chili) and amok with fish.  Prep involved lots of grating and chopping; my eyes were extremely sensitive to the onion.  Elli and I took tons of pictures of each other as the class progressed.  I enjoyed spending time with her as we hadn’t spent too much time just the two of us on the trip.  I really wish she hadn’t paid for own room so that the three women could have rotated roommates and I wouldn’t have been stuck with Ros the entire time.

This afternoon when I walked around the city, J.P., Elli, Jacek and Ros went to the children’s hospital to donate blood.  When I asked Elli how it went, she told me that Ros wasn’t able to give blood because she had her period.  You think she would have known that given she’s a nurse.  Made me laugh so hard, just another stupid thing.  After over two weeks of dealing with her being patient is becoming increasingly challenging.  I can’t understand how she gets through the day on her own.

Back to cooking.  As a group, we got to prepare sticky rice with mango for dessert.  Basically you add coconut cream, sugar and condensed milk to the rice.  So bad for you, but so delicious.  After cooking my shrimp and mixing up the salad dressing with my hands, I took a bite of my creation – it was excellent!  Hopefully I can reproduce it at home.  The amok was equally tasty and I served it in a banana leaf bowl (which I also got to make).  J.P. booked a table for the rest of the group at 7:30pm so that we could all eat dinner together, but Elli and I didn’t end up coming down until 8.  Luckily no one had their food yet and we passed our around for the group to sample.  Ela ordered the amok with fish and thought my tasted better – go me!  A very enjoyable afternoon and evening.  Temple-ing tomorrow and another early morning.