LZ - Angkor Wat

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Operation Rosa Parks:

From the land of a thousand ao dai, to the land of a thousand Buddhas.

The last we heard of our hero, he was poised for another excruciatingly long trip up country. He had just spent a depressing day witnessing the crimes and horror imposed by a regime who brutally slaughtered 30% of the country's population in order to erase any existance of capitalism and bring communism to Cambodia under Pol Pot. Now he was ready to move on and see the wonders of ancient civilizations. However, there was a bit more uncertainty surrounding this next adventure as not only the mode of transportation would be in question, but also the conditions of the roads that would lead him there. In retrospect, this new adventure into the unknown would be luxurious compared to what was in store for him just a few days later.

At the ripe time of 6am, Lt. Col Lewin awoke in soaking wet bed. He knew he wasn't reliving his younger years when waking up in a pool something yellow and warm was not all that uncommon. This time was sitting in a pool created by the sweat of his own back. Of course there were two good reasons for this; Cambodia's extreme humidity and Cambodia's lack of electricity at night. The humidity can be explained by the season, but the electricity issue was a regular occurrence during the Lt. Col's stay. Perhaps, it might be more accurate to put the blame on the hotel and not the entire country. Selling a room with a fan that didn't work led to a restless night.
A quick shower and it was off to the bus station, or in this case, an open dirt parking lot in the middle of the city where about 10 tour buses sat in a cloud of dust. They were marked in Khmer, the language in Cambodia, and looked like this...งวลบมใวง. Upon arrival to the depot, about 10 men barked instructions, some of them with megaphones, about where the now hundreds of people should go. Again, this was voiced in Khmer, so Lewin and the other farang (foreigners) were clueless. Finally, the leader of the tour bus pit crew offered one simple instruction to the clan of foreigners..."sit down and wait." So, after an hour and a half of watching buses full of locals pull away and their numbers dwindle to one, the leader came back and pointed to the last bus. Considering there was nobody left waiting to get on a bus and this was the only bus left, Lewin and his fellow foreigners were all very appreciative of this man's instructions. After all, it could have been a very confusing time with only one bus left.
Like a cat, Lewin sprang from his dust covered, Rubbermaid plastic, kiddie chair and darted for the bus. Knowing that a front seat was gold, especially on long rides, he made his way up the stairs to the bus. To his surprise, there were still seats available, even the first row! What luck! At the exact moment, a brief question of why the others were moving to the back crossed his mind. Then, a harsh feeling overcame him when the bus driver told Lewin that his golden seat was for Khmer people. Lewin considered becoming the Rosa Parks of Cambodia and almost broke into MLK, Jr's "I have a dream" speech, but knew this just wasn't the place to do it. It even felt like the deep south of 1955 with the heat, dust, and racists. Ok, so maybe a few more seats back would be alright for Mr. Whitey. Nope...he wouldn't have it. The back of the bus is where I belonged. Ok, so Lewin picked up his things again and found a decent window seat close to, but not on top of, the wheel hub. The aisle seat was empty as well as the one across from him. Fleeting thoughts of a possible decent trip quickly dissipated when good ole Whitey came down the aisle and told Lewin to leave his beloved window seat and sit in the empty aisle seat next to another foreigner. This was all so that two Khmer girls, who probably smiled nicely to the driver, could sit together. Rosa Parks where are you now?
At this point, Lewin was fuming...FUMING! His next move was going to be to the far back where the seats were mostly vacant. Although it would be a bit more bouncey back there, Lewin thought it would be a good place to stretch out his legs and catch some sleep.
A few peaceful moments went by when Lewin saw the dark shadow of the driver come his way yet again! He thought to himself there was no way that he was going to move him elsewhere. One reason was because there were still some aisle seats around the back of the bus. The other reason was because Lewin was holding a 6-inch Rambo-style, hunting knife behind his back and was ready to plunge it into this skinny little man's leathery neck.
Lewin's red glare, into what would soon be a dead man's eyes, was slightly distracted by the high pitched giggle of a child being carried behind the man who was moments from death. Quickly, Lewin "sheathed his sword" and saw the family of three moving towards his position. There were three seats in a row and the driver wanted this Khmer family to have them instead of Lewin. Of course, Lewin was sitting right in between of the three vacant seats so this meant yet another move for our now, seething, hero. An aisle seat was available in the second to last row, which is where Lewin decided he was making his last stand. He'd change his name to Custer if he had to. "The Cambodian Custer!" Hmm, he thought it had a bit of ring to it, but then again, Custer got scalped and Lewin had bigger aspirations than starting a civil rights movement in a communist country. He was sure scalping was still in use as a form of punishment in these parts.
With a quick jolt, the bus was off, and so were the hinges on Lewin's seat. The back went straight into the knees of the father who was instructed to take my seat just 5 minutes earlier. After five, rather humiliating moves, Lewin was blessed with a broken seat. All of this made him wonder if the situation could get any worse.
Aside from the pool of sweat that Lewin and, probably, everyone else, sat in for 7 hours, there wasn't much more to complain about. The road was surprisingly paved for most of the trip and there were plenty of pit stops along the way.

As the bus entered the town of Siem Reap, the town closest to the ancient temples of Angkor, the question of where to stay and how to get there from the bus station entered Lewin's mind. Little did he and everyone on the bus know that this question would soon be answered for them. As we entered another dirt parking lot, a sea of shouting men, most in their early twenty's surrounded the bus on all sides, much like crazy teenage pop star fans. Some of the men held signs with hotel names, some with signs of names of people on the bus. All of them were shouting prices for transportation on their motorbikes or minibuses.
In a few moments, Lewin would step off that bus and know exactly what it must feel like to be a famous star. He would also know exactly how valuable a few body guards would have been in this situation. As the shouting and aggressiveness of the men increased, Lewin's desire to drive his blade into some more leathery necks also increased. It would take some cunning or perhaps even some help from another to get out of this mess.

to be continued...

I never finished my commentary on my Cambodian experiences. However, now that I am home, I will conclude the mission that Lt. Col. Lewin was assigned.

So, to recap the last scene...Lewin was surrounded, pushed, coerced, and yelled offers for rides or hotel rates from at least 20 little men at any given time. When he walked, they walked with him. So close were they to his face, that he could smell their horrible breaths. Since Lewin had made contact with one of these men prior to his arrival, he began asking them if they knew who or where he was. Of course, they knew who he was and they would take me to him...for a price of course. The boiling point was almost reached when out of the corner of Lewin's eye, he spied another minibus with two familiar faces inside waving him over. Lewin felt this was the time to make an exit from the clostrophobia and chaos and get on board. Inside the minibus were two guys he had met at one of the many reststops along the 7 hour journey. The first, a Filipino guy who was on vacation. The other, an American, the first Lewin had met in over 3 weeks of traveling in Asia. He had his arm in a splint due to a motorbike accident in Vietnam. They were both staying at a hotel I had read about so I joined them. We got hotel rooms next to each other for $4USD per night and Lewin bought the first round of Beer Lao, the best tasting beer in Asia. Unfortunately, this beer was only sold in Laos and Cambodia, but then again, that added to it's character.
After unwinding and chatting it up a bit with the guys who ran the hotel, it was decided that Angkor Wat would be visited at first light on the following morning. It was already 3pm and time to beat some Cambodians in pool. After a successfully demolishing them, I thought the little Hmong girls were better than these guys. Pretty sad since this was all the men did during the day. Most of them made their living taking tourists to the temples on their motorbikes. Unfortunately, tourists cannot rent their own motorbikes or vehicles in Cambodia which meant you always needed a Cambodian driver to take you wherever you were going.

Angkor Wat
At sunrise, 5am, Lewin sprung out of bed as fast as a slug. However, thoughts of seeing these wonders of the world inspired him to start moving a bit faster. After a 20 minute ride on the back of motorbike Lewin had arrived to the entrance. The cost to get in was the same as the admission to Disneyland, but it the ticket was good for 3 full days instead of just one day with a thousand screaming kids and an oversized rat. Upon entering the 40 square kilometer complex, one notices the big daddy of them all right away. Angkor Wat, just one of several "ginormous" temples in the area. "Angkor" means citadel or city, "Wat" means temple and this couldn't be a more fitting description. Surrounded by an outer moat and connected to the main road by a causeway, the creme de la creme of ancient temples was still about a 10 minute walk away. As the sun was creeping up behind the 5 spires that adorned the wat, the area was already littered with tourists trying to get a few early morning shots. Lewin made his way to areas less traversed by the tourists and snapped a few shots seen at the beginning of this journal page. Next it was time to explore the temples and see why they are so reveared throughout the world. After entering through what seemed several levels, Lewin finally reached the inner area where the famous spires could be looked at in closer detail. Getting up to the highest level of the temple was quite a harrowing experience. The steps leading up to the top were not for the weary or those afraid of heights. It wasn't the number of steps that was daunting, rather their shear size and the extreme angle that they were built. It required good balance and climbing skills to get up this very large and very steep stairway. Getting down safely was certainly an issue for a lot of the tourists. A fall would mean certain death or severe injury (which in Cambodia would probably be eventual death). Luckily, there was a metal railing on one side of one of the stairways that was used by most to get down.
In addition to the intricate artwork and carvings all over the inner temple walls, there was a bas-relief gallery that encompassed the entire temple. These reliefs told the story of the ancient gods, mostly Shiva and Vishnu, and the battles they fought. After a few more hours of exploring the temple, I went on to find my motorbike driver and some food. We made our way over to Angkor Thom, another large complex of temples down the road from Angkor Wat. I sat down to have some "breakie" as the Aussies call it. (why am i quoting aussies? ugh!) Banana pancake with chocolate and a coffee for me and a nap in a hammock for my driver. I went on to explore Bayon at the center of the Angkor Thom complex of temples. Bayon is characterized by it's many towers with four faces in the four cardinal directions. There is much debate over who the faces depicted. Some scholars thought they were faces of gods, others think they represented the apotheosis of Jayavarman VII , the great Angkor King during the 10th century.
Bayon is also remarkable for its bas-reliefs. Certain reliefs depict historical events such as naval combat against the rival, Cham, as well as everyday life of common people.
Perhaps 50 yards from the Bayon temple was an enormous buddha statue where many were praying and burning incents. Lewin found everything in this complex to be enormous and very sacred, especially the next site he set out for, which was Baphuon, or "mountain temple". Although there was a large reconstruction effort going on at this site and it was off-limits, one of the "stray" children in the area gave Lewin a guided tour around to the back of the temple. Along the way, they manuevered around huge boulders that had fallen from the ancient temple's crumbling walls. What was interesting, was that from the back, Lewin could that the boulders were deliberately placed in a way so that the shape of a reclining buddha could be seen stretching from one side of the back wall to the next. It was amazing, but sad that this once magnificent work of art was in such a weakened state.
A hundred yards through some overgrown trees, was the Royal Palace. The steepest and most dangerous of all the temples to climb on...so far. The Royal Palace, which was once covered in gold, would pose a fairly large challenge on it's descent rather than the climb up. Although, the climb did render Lewin completely drenched and dripping sweat from every pore, the way down was a bit tricky. I guess it didn't help that Lewin chose the one side that had the least supports and the most unsound construction. Lewin thought to himself, as he gingerly stepped down each level, at least he would die in a place of royalty and close to his throne.
Next on the list was Ta Prohm. Shrouded in dense jungle, the temple of Ta Prohm was highly anticipated by most tourists. Fig, banyan and kapok trees had spread their gigantic roots over the temple walls, pillars, terraces and roofs. Their branches often intertwined with the ancient edifice causing nature to play a dual role as destroyer and preserver of the temples structure.
After a full morning of exploring and melting under the sun and humidity, Lewin decided it was time to retreat to his hotel room for a midday nap and would return at sunset to capture some more scenic photos. However, before heading back, Lewin feasted on another banana pancake with chocolate sauce for lunch.

to be continued...

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Photos

Got Boob?
Some well endowed carvings in Angkor Wat.

Comments

[anonymous]

beautiful places, great photos, thanks for sharing :)