Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2006
Angkor Wat1
w/ the moon in backgroundDay 2…
ANGKOR WAT, again!—Phal, my wonderful escort around Siem Reap, and I were on the road by 5am the next morning to watch the sun grace Angkor Wat with its warm morning rays of sunlight! There were a few times I had to say to myself, “I’m in Cambodia right now!!” It was the most spiritual moment I have experienced since traveling in SEA and I just satdown to meditate and reflect on what I was actually whitnessing till 7am when the crowds just got to be too aggressive.
BANTEAY SREI—a ways away but the bike ride was very relaxing and it was fun to see so much of Siem’s countryside! BT was a smaller temple and it’s modern name means “citadel of beauty,” which refers to it's size and delicacy of it’s decoration. It was also just recently discovered in 1914 by the French. Throughout the sanctuary were mythological stones and stories of Shiva and Vishnu.
EAST MEBON—I ran out of memory on my camera card right before getting here, boy was I upset ... I went a little picture crazy the day before and took 450 photo!!! Took a break to delete some unfortunately so I
did get to take some pictures of the stonework here... a really cool one of two elephants sprinkling Lakshimi with water from their trunks and one of Ganesha riding his own trunk.
TA SOM was a quick visit. It’s a small, miniature version of Ta Prohm.
JAYATATAKA AND NEAK PEAN TEMPLE—Neak Pean is an island temple (moat is now dry though) with a Buddhist influence and a sculpture of the horse Balaha. The monument is spse to represent the sacred Himalayan Lake of Anavatapta--famous for it’s miraculous healing properties. The island is encircled at its base by two naga serpents, their heads on the east, tails intertwined on the west. They are to represent the naga kings Nanda and Upananda, whom are linked to the Lake Anavatapta in Hindu mythology. At the four points beyond the monument are chapels and inside were sculpted fountainheads.
PREAH KHAN was our last and final stop. PK was a Buddhist university and city. I got lost a few times and tried to follow my guide book though the buildings with little success!! Each corner of the temple was dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva, and the late King and Queens of Cambodia.
That night Phal invited me to his family’s house in the “countryside.” About 7k down the road and we pulled into his family’s driveway! Haha.. I met two of his brothers, his sisters, aunt, parents and some nieces and nephews! Due to language barriers it was a little awkward at first but eventually Phal’s brother, Bunda and I got to talking and boy did he have a lot to express! We talked about everything from how corrupt he found Cambodia to be, the lack of emphasis on education, free trade, multinational companies, how Cambodia can take a lesson from India and how the IT and telecom industries as helped India's economy, the corrupt cops, to how landownership works in Siem Reap. As you can see, he was very opinionated and smart! He’s ready to leave Cambodia and jokingly asked me to hook him up w/ my sister Kayla so that he could live in the US!! haha..I couldn’t even start to talk about our own problems here in the States, they just seemed so menial or petty compared to this country’s problems. I wished there was a solution to problems like this... but the corruption in this country (according to
Bunda) is so enormous, where do you begin!?? Just thinking about the depth of their problems pains my heart... and I will most definitely be reflecting on this over the next few months!!
On Tuesday the 28th I began my route back to Bangkok... The ride was just as bad and I even lost transportation on the Thai border due to a travel agency that doesn’t even exist...but I eventually made it back to BK and that’s what really matters... Besides I was still high from the wonderful and educational experience I had in Siem Reap to let anyting get me down!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0609s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
