Grand Palace
My attempt at an "artsy" shot of the golden Stupa
The "Lazy" or Reclining Buddha
Khao San Road
Food stall at the weekend market
Wat of the Emerald Buddha (Grand Palace)
Golden Stupa
Statue at the Grand PalaceMonday, May 26, 2008
Bangkok pictures
Grand PalaceMy attempt at an "artsy" shot of the golden Stupa
The "Lazy" or Reclining Buddha
Khao San RoadFood stall at the weekend marketWat of the Emerald Buddha (Grand Palace)Golden StupaStatue at the Grand Palace
City of Angels
I'm probably making this up but I think Bangkok is the "City of Angels" if not I apologize. I hoped from one capital to another, this time in Thailand to its "ultra-modern" capital. Bangkok is huge and fairly well developed (more on this later) and houses one of the most well known backpackers spots on the globe....the infamous Khao San Road where anything is possible. During the day there are shops and stalls, at night this place lights up like Vegas and is a raging party, all night long. Sex tourism is a huge thing in Thailand, especially Khao San Rd area (though its worse in other parts of town), I think its disgusting, but its quite amusing to see these nasty old guys courting around these skinny little young Thai girls. And if you every want cheesy tourist gifts they are all over the place, particular the women trying to sell you these blocks that look like frogs that have make frog noises....or if you are in the market for suits there are probably a dozen or so places in this quarter mile strip to fulfill your needs. And 7-11's are everywhere, there are literally 2 stores across the street from each other on Khao San Rd. It's a fun place to watch life go by if you ask me.
I fortunately came to Bangkok on a weekend which meant the weekend market was open. It has 15,000 stalls there and sees about a quarter million people everyday its open. It was mostly clothing and accessory shops, not my forte, but it was neat to see. To get there I got to ride on the Sky Train, basically a super fancy above ground metro. Its air-conditioned which is heavenly as its about 100F everyday here with nasty humidity and its super clean. On the way back from the market I stopped by Siam Paragon which just so happened to be the nicest mall in the history of the world I'm sure. It was ridiculously well maintained and had lots of fancy stores. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because of the AC. The place was commercialism at its best and there were teenagers running around updating their wardrobes I suppose. I must note that I don't quite understand SE Asian teenage culture, I think they dress funny...and I'm sure they would say the same about me, but "trendy" clothing to them is quite hysterical looking I think.
I also got to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. And wow...they were impressive. The Grand Palace isn't all that great, but in the complex is Wat Phra Kaew, definitely the coolest modern Wat that I've seen on this trip. The place was elaborately decorated beyond belief. I've probably said that a bunch to describe the stuff I've seen but this one is the hands down winner for over the top detail and beauty. It houses an Emerald Buddha that has a crazy history, but I thought looked ehh....not that impressive in my opinion. It was the outside of all the buildings that captured my eye. The detail, most of it in gold, of the outside of these buildings was immaculate. There was a golden stupa (I think they call them chedis here), statues of religious figures all over, and really cool landscaping.
Wat Pho houses what I like to call the "Lazy Buddha", most people call it the reclining Buddha because my good pal Mr. Buddha is lying down in it. There are 13 (I might be making that up) poses of Buddha each representing a different thing, like Buddha dispelling evil, or Buddha cleansing the earth. The reclining Buddha represents Buddha entering his final nirvana. There are reclining Buddha statues all over the place, but this one is famous because its roughly 50 feet high and 150 feet long. Its core is made of 80,000 bricks covered in plaster and then gold. The eyes and bottom of the feet are made of mother of pearl. The Lazy Buddha is really cool, my favorite Buddha statue. The size of it was just amazing, standing at either the head or the feet and looking down its length is quite impressive.
Bangkok certainly takes the cake for going over the top with its religious displays, I suppose its deserving that its called the Vatican of Buddhism.
I fortunately came to Bangkok on a weekend which meant the weekend market was open. It has 15,000 stalls there and sees about a quarter million people everyday its open. It was mostly clothing and accessory shops, not my forte, but it was neat to see. To get there I got to ride on the Sky Train, basically a super fancy above ground metro. Its air-conditioned which is heavenly as its about 100F everyday here with nasty humidity and its super clean. On the way back from the market I stopped by Siam Paragon which just so happened to be the nicest mall in the history of the world I'm sure. It was ridiculously well maintained and had lots of fancy stores. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because of the AC. The place was commercialism at its best and there were teenagers running around updating their wardrobes I suppose. I must note that I don't quite understand SE Asian teenage culture, I think they dress funny...and I'm sure they would say the same about me, but "trendy" clothing to them is quite hysterical looking I think.
I also got to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. And wow...they were impressive. The Grand Palace isn't all that great, but in the complex is Wat Phra Kaew, definitely the coolest modern Wat that I've seen on this trip. The place was elaborately decorated beyond belief. I've probably said that a bunch to describe the stuff I've seen but this one is the hands down winner for over the top detail and beauty. It houses an Emerald Buddha that has a crazy history, but I thought looked ehh....not that impressive in my opinion. It was the outside of all the buildings that captured my eye. The detail, most of it in gold, of the outside of these buildings was immaculate. There was a golden stupa (I think they call them chedis here), statues of religious figures all over, and really cool landscaping.
Wat Pho houses what I like to call the "Lazy Buddha", most people call it the reclining Buddha because my good pal Mr. Buddha is lying down in it. There are 13 (I might be making that up) poses of Buddha each representing a different thing, like Buddha dispelling evil, or Buddha cleansing the earth. The reclining Buddha represents Buddha entering his final nirvana. There are reclining Buddha statues all over the place, but this one is famous because its roughly 50 feet high and 150 feet long. Its core is made of 80,000 bricks covered in plaster and then gold. The eyes and bottom of the feet are made of mother of pearl. The Lazy Buddha is really cool, my favorite Buddha statue. The size of it was just amazing, standing at either the head or the feet and looking down its length is quite impressive.
Bangkok certainly takes the cake for going over the top with its religious displays, I suppose its deserving that its called the Vatican of Buddhism.
Fun and horror
I arrived in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) on a mini-bus service that claimed to not use blare loud Cambodian music, like most buses, instead they just blared U2 the entire time and I still ended up getting off the bus with a splitting headache. At the bus station where they drop you off are hoards and hoards of tuk-tuk (the local taxi) drivers literally fighting for your services. I wasn't sure if I was suppose to be impressed that I was getting so much attention (4 of them were banging at my window the second the bus stopped), scared that I was about to be mauled (there are more drivers than people on the bus so they were literally fighting for position), or upset at the poor economic state that these drivers must be in for having to fight for a $2 ride. If you think government employees aren't payed that well in the States then go to Cambodia, where local police get a whole $35 per month! The drivers must have been upset with me because I opted to walk the mile or so to lake where a lot of the budget guesthouses are.
I found a decent place near the lake but didn't stay there long as I went off to visit the Royal Palace and National Museum. Again, opting to not get a ride there but instead walk proved to be an excellent decision because I got to see a whole lot more of the city than I otherwise would have. In between the various rows of touristy streets are the typical city streets of Cambodia, dimly lit, dirty, and altogether not looking like a place I'd want to go alone. I have heard some horror stories about backpackers being beaten and in two cases killed (though these were probably exaggerations) over their belongings. Stealing a camera and selling it on the streets might only be a $30-50 profit for them, but thats probably a month's wage so the risk is worth it to people I suppose. I had zero problems in the city but was told by a few people to be careful where you take your camera out. Fortunately the Royal Palace was a place to take it out because it was beautiful there. The architecture screamed "Asian" to me, and I mean that in a good way. It was extremely beautiful and elaborately decorated with beautiful tiled roofs (see the pictures in a previous post). The Royal Palace houses the Silver Pagoda, which is aptly named due to the 5,000 silver tiles covering the floor (you do walk on carpets to hopefully not ruin them). The Pagoda also contains a near life size golden Buddha dressed with over 9,500 diamonds, a crystal Buddha, and an emerald Buddha as well....quite impressive. The grounds were very well kept and made for a pleasant afternoon.
That night I think I met up with every British backpacker in Cambodia and stayed up until 4am watching the European Champions League final between 2 British teams, Chelsea and Manchester United. It was the first all British final ever I think and the game was quite entertaining to watch with a group of rather drunk Brits. There was a line drawn down the middle of the bar for the Chelsea and Manchester supporter to separately themselves, and in the middle they put the Americans and Canadians because we were more or less neutral. Manchester won in penalty kicks by the way.
The next morning started far too early. It was a day that I had long looked forward too but was queasy about nonetheless as I was planning to visit the museums regarding the recent tragic history of the country. The first stop was to Tuol Sleng, commonly known as S-21. Tuol Sleng was at one point a school, and the buildings by and large very representative of a typical school....except for the barbed wire surrounding just about everything. In 1975 when Pol Pet's forces took over the city to start their "revolution" they transformed the former school to a security office, S-21. Thousands upon thousands of prisoners were held, interrogated, and tortured here before they were shipped off to the Killing Fields just outside of town for execution. All-in-all there were only 7 survivors from this place. Cambodians, those supporting the revolution and common people who were accused, by and large without evidence, of being against the revolution were brought here to be interrogated. They submitted thousands of pages of documentation about evidence linking themselves to the CIA or Vietnamese forces before being executed. When they refused to talk or had no information to give they were tortured by being whipped, hung, and generally beaten until they talked. The museum now shows several pictures and the rooms that the people were inhumanely kept in and is an extremely overwhelming experience at times. The Khmer Rouge had no regard to the age of its victims and showed no mercy. They were trying to return Cambodia to its rural roots and not allow for education of any kind. Doctors, teachers, engineers were among those especially targeted by the forces. All of this happened just a few decades ago and it certainly has not left the minds of many Cambodians. It still haunts them to this day for various reasons, adding to this is their belief that your body becomes a ghost without a proper burial, which none those at S-21 received, meaning the country is still haunted by their past. A truly remarkable sight to see.
After S-21 I headed over to the Killing Fields themselves which were odd. They were in a former park and today it basically looks like a park again with a school just outside its borders where children were playing and screaming like any other school day. At the Killing Fields people were brought, kneeled over a mass grave, and were hit in the back of the head with farming tools (bullets were too expensive for the Khmer Rouge to waste on these people) before their throats were slit to finish the execution. That is the basic history of it. Some 130 or so mass graves exist and you are allowed to walk around some that have been dug up and excavated, but there isn't really much there anymore besides ditches in the ground and signs saying things like "This is the tree that the babies were hit against"..."This is where the killing tools were stored"...etc. Not too much to see, but the history of it all is still remarkable and made for one of the most moving sights I've ever seen.
I found a decent place near the lake but didn't stay there long as I went off to visit the Royal Palace and National Museum. Again, opting to not get a ride there but instead walk proved to be an excellent decision because I got to see a whole lot more of the city than I otherwise would have. In between the various rows of touristy streets are the typical city streets of Cambodia, dimly lit, dirty, and altogether not looking like a place I'd want to go alone. I have heard some horror stories about backpackers being beaten and in two cases killed (though these were probably exaggerations) over their belongings. Stealing a camera and selling it on the streets might only be a $30-50 profit for them, but thats probably a month's wage so the risk is worth it to people I suppose. I had zero problems in the city but was told by a few people to be careful where you take your camera out. Fortunately the Royal Palace was a place to take it out because it was beautiful there. The architecture screamed "Asian" to me, and I mean that in a good way. It was extremely beautiful and elaborately decorated with beautiful tiled roofs (see the pictures in a previous post). The Royal Palace houses the Silver Pagoda, which is aptly named due to the 5,000 silver tiles covering the floor (you do walk on carpets to hopefully not ruin them). The Pagoda also contains a near life size golden Buddha dressed with over 9,500 diamonds, a crystal Buddha, and an emerald Buddha as well....quite impressive. The grounds were very well kept and made for a pleasant afternoon.
That night I think I met up with every British backpacker in Cambodia and stayed up until 4am watching the European Champions League final between 2 British teams, Chelsea and Manchester United. It was the first all British final ever I think and the game was quite entertaining to watch with a group of rather drunk Brits. There was a line drawn down the middle of the bar for the Chelsea and Manchester supporter to separately themselves, and in the middle they put the Americans and Canadians because we were more or less neutral. Manchester won in penalty kicks by the way.
The next morning started far too early. It was a day that I had long looked forward too but was queasy about nonetheless as I was planning to visit the museums regarding the recent tragic history of the country. The first stop was to Tuol Sleng, commonly known as S-21. Tuol Sleng was at one point a school, and the buildings by and large very representative of a typical school....except for the barbed wire surrounding just about everything. In 1975 when Pol Pet's forces took over the city to start their "revolution" they transformed the former school to a security office, S-21. Thousands upon thousands of prisoners were held, interrogated, and tortured here before they were shipped off to the Killing Fields just outside of town for execution. All-in-all there were only 7 survivors from this place. Cambodians, those supporting the revolution and common people who were accused, by and large without evidence, of being against the revolution were brought here to be interrogated. They submitted thousands of pages of documentation about evidence linking themselves to the CIA or Vietnamese forces before being executed. When they refused to talk or had no information to give they were tortured by being whipped, hung, and generally beaten until they talked. The museum now shows several pictures and the rooms that the people were inhumanely kept in and is an extremely overwhelming experience at times. The Khmer Rouge had no regard to the age of its victims and showed no mercy. They were trying to return Cambodia to its rural roots and not allow for education of any kind. Doctors, teachers, engineers were among those especially targeted by the forces. All of this happened just a few decades ago and it certainly has not left the minds of many Cambodians. It still haunts them to this day for various reasons, adding to this is their belief that your body becomes a ghost without a proper burial, which none those at S-21 received, meaning the country is still haunted by their past. A truly remarkable sight to see.
After S-21 I headed over to the Killing Fields themselves which were odd. They were in a former park and today it basically looks like a park again with a school just outside its borders where children were playing and screaming like any other school day. At the Killing Fields people were brought, kneeled over a mass grave, and were hit in the back of the head with farming tools (bullets were too expensive for the Khmer Rouge to waste on these people) before their throats were slit to finish the execution. That is the basic history of it. Some 130 or so mass graves exist and you are allowed to walk around some that have been dug up and excavated, but there isn't really much there anymore besides ditches in the ground and signs saying things like "This is the tree that the babies were hit against"..."This is where the killing tools were stored"...etc. Not too much to see, but the history of it all is still remarkable and made for one of the most moving sights I've ever seen.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Some pictures from the last month
Staircase at the abandoned casino at Bokor Hill Station 
Creepy catholic church at Bokor Hill Station
Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Sunset at Koh Tao with longtail boat and dive boat in the water
One of the many faces at the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom (part of the Angkor Wat complex) 
Angkor Wat from further away
Closer view of Angkor Wat...and one of the lovely tourists that I shared it with
Angled shot of Angkor Wat with reflection in the pond
Sunset at Otres Beach - Sihanokville, Cambodia
Tuk-tuk ride to Angkor Wat
Tree busting through a wall at Ta Prohm, the Jungle Temple (my favorite, part of the temples of Angkor))
Tree busting through the East entrance of Ta Som (Angkor complex)
Longtail boat at Railay Beach - Krabi, Thailand (thats the water I was diving in)
Monday, May 19, 2008
If we die, we die together
Finally made it to rural Cambodia. My first two stops in the country were in much more touristy areas, but I'm here now in Kampot (southern Cambodia). It's home to durian fruit and black pepper plantations. I think durian fruit is jack fruit in the States (not sure though), regardless the stuff stinks. I ate some the other day because I felt the need to at least try it, but my senses were overwhelmed with the rotten smell of it. Its actually not allowed in some of the nicer hotels around the area because it really does stink. But the black pepper here, although very strong, is delicious.
The town itself is quite small, takes about 10-15 minutes to walk around the entire thing but quite nice, for once I actually feel like I'm in Cambodia. School children running around, a smaller market in town, and there arén't restaurants and guesthouses everywhere, that is sure to change as they are building a deep-water port here and currently building 5 star resorts, which other tourists complained about but I think our guesthouse owner (British) is right when he says the country deserves it since it has essentially been raped by itself and others for the past 3 decades with all of the fighting that has happened here. My favorite part of being here are the daily boat races at sunset on the river. Granted the boats are longboats and cruise at about 3mph so its like watching paint dry, but there is an announcer and crowds of kids gather to wave at the "racers". It's a short race and I guess the keep points throughout the year and crown a winner at the end of the wet season when the river turns from fresh water to salt water as the ocean water comes back up it. The boat races add a nice hometown feel.
The reason tourist come here is for Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Which I got to tour yesterday. The hill station is a former French resort with a casino, hotel, church, and a few other buildings. It was abandoned back in the 60s right before the Vietnam War and now is a ghost town of sorts. The drive up there is up a dirt road on a mountain. Good thing its only the start of the monsoon season so the mud on the road was only a few inches deep. I mean we only go stuck and had to be pushed out once so thats a good thing right? To get up there you ride in the back of a pickup truck on benches and it was pouring rain the entire way up. We got a little wet, and at elevation the temperature actually dropped a bit so it was chilly for once in SE Asia. Once on top the rain slowed and eventually stopped, thank god, one of the tour groups that came up actually went down without seeing anything because they were too cold....thankfully our group was amazing and we had a great time singing "Here comes the sun" and other tunes with the word sun in it....only one knew "sun, sun, mr golden sun, please shine down on me" so I had to teach them. It was a fun international sing around, we even tried it in French for a bit....that ended poorly.
The Hill Station was spooky, real spooky, like something out of a horror movie. The sun never came out despite our singing and the abandoned buildings were covered in a misty fog which only added to the effect. It was an amazing site though, the buildings were fading to orange due to the material used in construction and were being over run by moss and plants. You could look down long dark corridors to single side window where the line shined in to illuminate the mist that was all around and it looked like we were in a horror movie. This was the casino/hotel which had 38 rooms to explore. The church was somewhat boring on the inside but the outside of it had a very strange feel with its steeple and cross (Catholic church) barely visible in the fog. There was also a cliff up there, the most popular place to commit suicide back in the day apparently that had very strong gusts of wind blowing up. Leaning over the edge almost felt like flying because the wind was so strong.
After the Hill Station we trekked 2 hours through the jungle up there, where we saw a cobra, to a massive waterfall. It was the largest I'd ever seen, granted Í have only see a few proper waterfalls in my day so that may not be saying much, but I was really really impressed. It had 3 tiers, though only 2 were big, and dropped about 100 feet in total. There was a huge volume of water coming over which made the bottom of the falls be covered in mist. It was pretty cool if you ask me. On the way back we ate some berries off this bush, they were kind of like soft acorns that you had to peel the shell from before eating. All the tourists looked at each other before we ate them before our guide, Viet (amazing by the way, probably the best guide I've had for anything yet) ate his and said well at least if we die we die together...cheers Viet.
We survived the bumpy and muddy journey back to town for a slow boat cruise back into town as the sun was setting. All in all a great day. Cambodia has thus far been 3 for 3 with awesome stops, one more to go in Phnom Penh before New Zealand, how did that happen?
The town itself is quite small, takes about 10-15 minutes to walk around the entire thing but quite nice, for once I actually feel like I'm in Cambodia. School children running around, a smaller market in town, and there arén't restaurants and guesthouses everywhere, that is sure to change as they are building a deep-water port here and currently building 5 star resorts, which other tourists complained about but I think our guesthouse owner (British) is right when he says the country deserves it since it has essentially been raped by itself and others for the past 3 decades with all of the fighting that has happened here. My favorite part of being here are the daily boat races at sunset on the river. Granted the boats are longboats and cruise at about 3mph so its like watching paint dry, but there is an announcer and crowds of kids gather to wave at the "racers". It's a short race and I guess the keep points throughout the year and crown a winner at the end of the wet season when the river turns from fresh water to salt water as the ocean water comes back up it. The boat races add a nice hometown feel.
The reason tourist come here is for Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Which I got to tour yesterday. The hill station is a former French resort with a casino, hotel, church, and a few other buildings. It was abandoned back in the 60s right before the Vietnam War and now is a ghost town of sorts. The drive up there is up a dirt road on a mountain. Good thing its only the start of the monsoon season so the mud on the road was only a few inches deep. I mean we only go stuck and had to be pushed out once so thats a good thing right? To get up there you ride in the back of a pickup truck on benches and it was pouring rain the entire way up. We got a little wet, and at elevation the temperature actually dropped a bit so it was chilly for once in SE Asia. Once on top the rain slowed and eventually stopped, thank god, one of the tour groups that came up actually went down without seeing anything because they were too cold....thankfully our group was amazing and we had a great time singing "Here comes the sun" and other tunes with the word sun in it....only one knew "sun, sun, mr golden sun, please shine down on me" so I had to teach them. It was a fun international sing around, we even tried it in French for a bit....that ended poorly.
The Hill Station was spooky, real spooky, like something out of a horror movie. The sun never came out despite our singing and the abandoned buildings were covered in a misty fog which only added to the effect. It was an amazing site though, the buildings were fading to orange due to the material used in construction and were being over run by moss and plants. You could look down long dark corridors to single side window where the line shined in to illuminate the mist that was all around and it looked like we were in a horror movie. This was the casino/hotel which had 38 rooms to explore. The church was somewhat boring on the inside but the outside of it had a very strange feel with its steeple and cross (Catholic church) barely visible in the fog. There was also a cliff up there, the most popular place to commit suicide back in the day apparently that had very strong gusts of wind blowing up. Leaning over the edge almost felt like flying because the wind was so strong.
After the Hill Station we trekked 2 hours through the jungle up there, where we saw a cobra, to a massive waterfall. It was the largest I'd ever seen, granted Í have only see a few proper waterfalls in my day so that may not be saying much, but I was really really impressed. It had 3 tiers, though only 2 were big, and dropped about 100 feet in total. There was a huge volume of water coming over which made the bottom of the falls be covered in mist. It was pretty cool if you ask me. On the way back we ate some berries off this bush, they were kind of like soft acorns that you had to peel the shell from before eating. All the tourists looked at each other before we ate them before our guide, Viet (amazing by the way, probably the best guide I've had for anything yet) ate his and said well at least if we die we die together...cheers Viet.
We survived the bumpy and muddy journey back to town for a slow boat cruise back into town as the sun was setting. All in all a great day. Cambodia has thus far been 3 for 3 with awesome stops, one more to go in Phnom Penh before New Zealand, how did that happen?
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Or you can have that......
Finished my stop over in Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor with an amazing last day of site seeing. We actually almost saw a real sunset at Angkor Wat on the last day which I was pretty happy about. My final meal in Siem Reap was delicious as well. Cambodian BBQ, and I got the ostrich. It was like a mix between beef and chicken, and extremely delicious, though not as good as my pumpkin in coconut soup from the day before....I'm being spoiled these days.
Anyway, headed down to Sihanokville (it's a mouthful) with some friends in southern Cambodia. Its the beach town of the country. We decided to head to Otres beach, which during this season (the start of the monsoon) was truly deserted. We had a beautiful white sand beach to ourselves....literally. I saw about a dozen local fisherman the entire time we were there. We could have stayed in town at the bigger beaches where the people tend to go but we decided against that in favor of quiet, and we found it. Running along the beach was amazing and peaceful. The only downside to the distance from civilization is the amenities of the place we stayed at. No running water, electricity by generator only and very very limited menus for food. Kinda like being in the Nepalese mountains again but with a beautiful beach. The water was quite as clean at peaceful as the beaches in Thailand but the stay here was relaxing nonetheless. And we had some adventures here.....
We decided to have dinner at a "restaurant" up the road from our guesthouse. We find this place on the side of the road with 2 tables and chairs...thats our place. We ask what we can get, fried noodles or rice with beef were our only options.....or you can have that the owner says pointing at a chicken. The chicken was alive at the time and we decided it best be to eat fresh, our guesthouse owner was fishing for our food everyday before that so why not keep up the trend. We helped the family a bit trapping the chicken, I think it saw the hunger in our eyes, and once captured....well, things got messy. It's head came off with a quick swing of a cleaver type knife and it kicked its last few beats before the owner of the place squeezed the blood out, de-feathered it, and fried it up for us (I was traveling with 2 other guys and a girl from UK and the States). It wasn't the best meal I'd ever had but it was certainly one of the more memorable adventures I've had in Southeast Asia.
After dinner we had some drinks with the family and talked about life and things. It was amazing to discover that most Cambodians cannot afford to go to college because it costs between $500-800 per year. My books cost more than that for a year. Quite different than the states. An amazing fact of Cambodia, and its somewhat disheartening to me, is the currency that they use....the US dollar. Go to an ATM and thats what it spits out. The Cambodian currency called the riel is more like the change. It is completely dependent on the dollar and it fixed at 4000 riel per dollar. So if I go to the store and it costs $1.50, I'll pay with $2 and get 2000 riel back. Its unfortunate that the country doesn't operate on its own currency, especially considering the fact that the currency is beautifully decorated. And they also drive on the right side of the road, something that I hadn't seen for sometime before arriving here.
'
From Sihanokville I headed to Kampot to go to a national park and check out some caves that the Khmer Rogue used to hold "prisoners" in. There are suppose to be very old religious monuments in these caves as well which should be interesting to see.
Anyway, headed down to Sihanokville (it's a mouthful) with some friends in southern Cambodia. Its the beach town of the country. We decided to head to Otres beach, which during this season (the start of the monsoon) was truly deserted. We had a beautiful white sand beach to ourselves....literally. I saw about a dozen local fisherman the entire time we were there. We could have stayed in town at the bigger beaches where the people tend to go but we decided against that in favor of quiet, and we found it. Running along the beach was amazing and peaceful. The only downside to the distance from civilization is the amenities of the place we stayed at. No running water, electricity by generator only and very very limited menus for food. Kinda like being in the Nepalese mountains again but with a beautiful beach. The water was quite as clean at peaceful as the beaches in Thailand but the stay here was relaxing nonetheless. And we had some adventures here.....
We decided to have dinner at a "restaurant" up the road from our guesthouse. We find this place on the side of the road with 2 tables and chairs...thats our place. We ask what we can get, fried noodles or rice with beef were our only options.....or you can have that the owner says pointing at a chicken. The chicken was alive at the time and we decided it best be to eat fresh, our guesthouse owner was fishing for our food everyday before that so why not keep up the trend. We helped the family a bit trapping the chicken, I think it saw the hunger in our eyes, and once captured....well, things got messy. It's head came off with a quick swing of a cleaver type knife and it kicked its last few beats before the owner of the place squeezed the blood out, de-feathered it, and fried it up for us (I was traveling with 2 other guys and a girl from UK and the States). It wasn't the best meal I'd ever had but it was certainly one of the more memorable adventures I've had in Southeast Asia.
After dinner we had some drinks with the family and talked about life and things. It was amazing to discover that most Cambodians cannot afford to go to college because it costs between $500-800 per year. My books cost more than that for a year. Quite different than the states. An amazing fact of Cambodia, and its somewhat disheartening to me, is the currency that they use....the US dollar. Go to an ATM and thats what it spits out. The Cambodian currency called the riel is more like the change. It is completely dependent on the dollar and it fixed at 4000 riel per dollar. So if I go to the store and it costs $1.50, I'll pay with $2 and get 2000 riel back. Its unfortunate that the country doesn't operate on its own currency, especially considering the fact that the currency is beautifully decorated. And they also drive on the right side of the road, something that I hadn't seen for sometime before arriving here.
'
From Sihanokville I headed to Kampot to go to a national park and check out some caves that the Khmer Rogue used to hold "prisoners" in. There are suppose to be very old religious monuments in these caves as well which should be interesting to see.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Temples of Angkor
My first stop over in Cambodia has been the small town of Siem Reap. Thanks to the rains that have recently come it floods everyday and is a joy to wonder around. Though I have come to love this place, there is an old and a new market here that have been fun to stroll around. The haggling of prices here is quite amusing, in fact anyone could really do it, as long as you say 'no' to whatever they offer the price will drop. There have been the nice paintings of the temples in the town and I was just curious at how much they cost, not interested in buying one, so as I woked away after she told me the price magically dropped in half. Tempting I thought. You can also get Lonely Planet books here for $2, kinda crazy since they cost $15-30 at home.
The recent history of Cambodia is about as gruesome as it comes in the world, but so far I haven't been exposed to too much of it. Siem Reap has to be the place most tourist come, especially with its close proximity to Bangkok and they are coming for the temples, not the recent history of the country. But evidence of it is still everywhere. Landmine victims hobble around begging for money, and at the temples here they have even created their own little band, albeit simple, to play music to the guests and sell CDs that they have made. I found there ambitious quite admirable since they refuse to beg as they would rather live with dignity. There are also billboards that I've seen around showing a cartoon war and one half and sunny skies with kids playing and rainbows on the other saying how the country no longer needs guns because the streets are safe again. I am very interested now in heading over to the capital, Phnom Penh, to check out the real sites where the massacres actually occured, though I'm assuming the trip will be intense.
Nonetheless, Im in Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor. They were built in the 12th century as religious monuments for the Khmer dynasty. Back in the day, 12th century, this area of the world boasted over a million people, at the time London had about 50,000 occupants. The empire they established spread from the borders of present day Thailand to those of Vietnam, so the area of their influence was not to be discounted, nor is the shear beauty and magnitude of the temples that they built. The most famous of which, Angkor Wat, is the largest religious structure in the world. It takes a solid 2 hours to stroll around it, and that would be without taking in much of it. The other temples are generally smaller and in various states of decay.
To get around the area you hire tuk-tuk or motobike drivers for the day. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike that pulls along a cart that 2 or 3 people can sit in, they are norm in terms of taxis for the area. I, along with someone from my guesthouse hired a driver for the day and were off. We both got 3 day passes to the temple complexes at the entrance and our first stop was Angkor Wat. The temple is surrounded by an enormous moat, probably 300 feet wide and stretching about a mile on each side, possibly more. From the 'main' entrance you cross a causeway where little kids jump off into the water to cool down towards the outer wall of the temple. Its characteristic towers loam in the background and create the typical Cambodian viewpoint. Angkor Wat is on everything here, its the name of half the guest houses/restaurants here, its on the money, and on nearly every sign. The temple is simply iconic and its beauty is deserving of its fame. The walk up to the temple is over a quarter mile long and the views are incredible. These temples were built by tens of thousands of workers in the twelfth century and still stand today with marginal help (in some cases its a lot of help) from re constructive projects, but the beauty of them is something to behold. Angkor Wat is in the shape of a crucifix (though it is a Buddhist temple) with concentric square walls slowly rising up to the main courtyard where the temples 5 pinnacles stand symbolizing Mt Meru I believe, all are ornately decorated. Along the inner wall of the temple is a string of bas reliefs (carvings) that span all four sides of the temple. Each side has to be a few hundred yards long and the reliefs have a ridiculous amount of detail in them. Each relief (8 in total) depicts some religious scene or scene from a battle that the ancient empire took part in. The characters in the relief are beautiful and aside from erosion, remember they are 800 years old, in some parts the detail of them is still there. One of them, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk depicts angels and demons (170 or so in total) trying to churn the ocean to bring up the elixir of immortality...thats a good one to have I'd say. Despite the towers of the temple being the iconic simple of all of Cambodia I found the reliefs to be my favorite part of the temple.
After a solid 3 hours Angkor Wat is was off to Angkor Thom, which is a walled in city that contains several other temples, the most impressive of which being Bayon in my opinion. All of the temples here feature certain statues or reliefs that display an insane amount of detail. At Bayon, there are over a hundred giant faces, each the size of an adult looking out into the forests. The faces aren't carved out of a single stone but rather several stones neatly piled together. So over the course of 800 years some portions of the stone broke away, were defaced by invaders, or eroded by other means (like stupid tourists climbing on them) making portions of the faces be missing. The art certainly wasn't perfect, but in its character and age you could still see the beauty. All of the artwork here was made using a series of smaller stones that are linked together so that they all line up properly, and in some cases the original stones have simply fallen away and lay in huge ruins in the middle of these temples. In others recontructive projects have put in new stone as a replacement and they look somewhat amusing. On the left you'll see this old faded stone, on the right is an immaculate clean stone. It didn't detract too much from the feel of the temples, especially considering that without them the temples would probably fall apart even further or they would be very difficult to figure out what you were looking at.
From Bayon we saw some smaller temples, the pyramid shaped Ta Keo and the larger Banteay Kdei, but my favorite of the visit thus far had to be Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple. Remember the jungle ruins you see in Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well the scenes basically came from here. Most of the temples here have been cleaned up a bit so that they landscaping around them is suitable. Cambodia is in the tropics and trees would take over if left to their own devices. Place like Angkor Wat and Bayon have largely been cleared out, but by and large the temple of Ta Prohm gets its name because the jungle kind of took it over. The temple itself isn't that impressive because of the carvings or the structures here but the unique harmony between the temple and the jungle. The trees literal explode through some of the walls of the temple ripping them apart. Its difficult to describe without seeing it, but the tress grow through and around the walls and in many cases the trunk of these massive trees sit right on top of the walls with the smaller roots curving down to the ground. The stones at this temple have green moss covering parts of them which truly make it feel like a jungle temple. One of the trees here that is snaking its destructive path through a section of the temple here is said to be the most photographed tree in the world. A few of the other temples here have these characteristics as well, my favorite tree blasting through a temple is at the smaller and less popular Ta Som. Its gorgeous and I promise I'll put pictures up as soon as I can.
I've still got one day left at the temples and will be heading to the farther out ones today. Lonely Planet says that one of them is so overgrown with jungle that it makes Ta Prohm look like someone forgot to mow the lawn, can't wait to see it.
The recent history of Cambodia is about as gruesome as it comes in the world, but so far I haven't been exposed to too much of it. Siem Reap has to be the place most tourist come, especially with its close proximity to Bangkok and they are coming for the temples, not the recent history of the country. But evidence of it is still everywhere. Landmine victims hobble around begging for money, and at the temples here they have even created their own little band, albeit simple, to play music to the guests and sell CDs that they have made. I found there ambitious quite admirable since they refuse to beg as they would rather live with dignity. There are also billboards that I've seen around showing a cartoon war and one half and sunny skies with kids playing and rainbows on the other saying how the country no longer needs guns because the streets are safe again. I am very interested now in heading over to the capital, Phnom Penh, to check out the real sites where the massacres actually occured, though I'm assuming the trip will be intense.
Nonetheless, Im in Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor. They were built in the 12th century as religious monuments for the Khmer dynasty. Back in the day, 12th century, this area of the world boasted over a million people, at the time London had about 50,000 occupants. The empire they established spread from the borders of present day Thailand to those of Vietnam, so the area of their influence was not to be discounted, nor is the shear beauty and magnitude of the temples that they built. The most famous of which, Angkor Wat, is the largest religious structure in the world. It takes a solid 2 hours to stroll around it, and that would be without taking in much of it. The other temples are generally smaller and in various states of decay.
To get around the area you hire tuk-tuk or motobike drivers for the day. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike that pulls along a cart that 2 or 3 people can sit in, they are norm in terms of taxis for the area. I, along with someone from my guesthouse hired a driver for the day and were off. We both got 3 day passes to the temple complexes at the entrance and our first stop was Angkor Wat. The temple is surrounded by an enormous moat, probably 300 feet wide and stretching about a mile on each side, possibly more. From the 'main' entrance you cross a causeway where little kids jump off into the water to cool down towards the outer wall of the temple. Its characteristic towers loam in the background and create the typical Cambodian viewpoint. Angkor Wat is on everything here, its the name of half the guest houses/restaurants here, its on the money, and on nearly every sign. The temple is simply iconic and its beauty is deserving of its fame. The walk up to the temple is over a quarter mile long and the views are incredible. These temples were built by tens of thousands of workers in the twelfth century and still stand today with marginal help (in some cases its a lot of help) from re constructive projects, but the beauty of them is something to behold. Angkor Wat is in the shape of a crucifix (though it is a Buddhist temple) with concentric square walls slowly rising up to the main courtyard where the temples 5 pinnacles stand symbolizing Mt Meru I believe, all are ornately decorated. Along the inner wall of the temple is a string of bas reliefs (carvings) that span all four sides of the temple. Each side has to be a few hundred yards long and the reliefs have a ridiculous amount of detail in them. Each relief (8 in total) depicts some religious scene or scene from a battle that the ancient empire took part in. The characters in the relief are beautiful and aside from erosion, remember they are 800 years old, in some parts the detail of them is still there. One of them, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk depicts angels and demons (170 or so in total) trying to churn the ocean to bring up the elixir of immortality...thats a good one to have I'd say. Despite the towers of the temple being the iconic simple of all of Cambodia I found the reliefs to be my favorite part of the temple.
After a solid 3 hours Angkor Wat is was off to Angkor Thom, which is a walled in city that contains several other temples, the most impressive of which being Bayon in my opinion. All of the temples here feature certain statues or reliefs that display an insane amount of detail. At Bayon, there are over a hundred giant faces, each the size of an adult looking out into the forests. The faces aren't carved out of a single stone but rather several stones neatly piled together. So over the course of 800 years some portions of the stone broke away, were defaced by invaders, or eroded by other means (like stupid tourists climbing on them) making portions of the faces be missing. The art certainly wasn't perfect, but in its character and age you could still see the beauty. All of the artwork here was made using a series of smaller stones that are linked together so that they all line up properly, and in some cases the original stones have simply fallen away and lay in huge ruins in the middle of these temples. In others recontructive projects have put in new stone as a replacement and they look somewhat amusing. On the left you'll see this old faded stone, on the right is an immaculate clean stone. It didn't detract too much from the feel of the temples, especially considering that without them the temples would probably fall apart even further or they would be very difficult to figure out what you were looking at.
From Bayon we saw some smaller temples, the pyramid shaped Ta Keo and the larger Banteay Kdei, but my favorite of the visit thus far had to be Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple. Remember the jungle ruins you see in Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well the scenes basically came from here. Most of the temples here have been cleaned up a bit so that they landscaping around them is suitable. Cambodia is in the tropics and trees would take over if left to their own devices. Place like Angkor Wat and Bayon have largely been cleared out, but by and large the temple of Ta Prohm gets its name because the jungle kind of took it over. The temple itself isn't that impressive because of the carvings or the structures here but the unique harmony between the temple and the jungle. The trees literal explode through some of the walls of the temple ripping them apart. Its difficult to describe without seeing it, but the tress grow through and around the walls and in many cases the trunk of these massive trees sit right on top of the walls with the smaller roots curving down to the ground. The stones at this temple have green moss covering parts of them which truly make it feel like a jungle temple. One of the trees here that is snaking its destructive path through a section of the temple here is said to be the most photographed tree in the world. A few of the other temples here have these characteristics as well, my favorite tree blasting through a temple is at the smaller and less popular Ta Som. Its gorgeous and I promise I'll put pictures up as soon as I can.
I've still got one day left at the temples and will be heading to the farther out ones today. Lonely Planet says that one of them is so overgrown with jungle that it makes Ta Prohm look like someone forgot to mow the lawn, can't wait to see it.
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