The Outlying Temples May Even Be Cooler Than The Big Ones

More Temples, More Heat and More Tree House

Early Mornings are Not My Thing

Despite my strong dislike of early mornings I managed to scrape myself out of bed at 5:15am to get an early start on the day. Kel and I got our morning routines accomplished and got on the road with Mr. Han at 6am. Siem Reap is gorgeous at this time of the morning if for nothing more than the cool temperature.

As the sun rose we moved past the huge crowds of sunrise tourists at Angkor Wat and headed through Angkor Thom to be able to see the South Gate of Angkor Thom with no one around. The South Gate is the most important entrance to the city of Angkor Thom because of its location and the quality of the statues still standing. It was really cool to be able to get pictures with literally no one around. There are times when this gate has 20-30 minutes of backed up traffic, so to be able to be there with it empty was great and worth the early morning.

From the South Gate we headed through Angkor Thom and then out the East Gate. Mr. Han stopped and quickly led us up a hill to the top of the wall. At this point Mr. Han was moving with purpose because he wanted us to see some cool stuff before the crowds arrived. At the top of the wall there is a really clear view of one of the gate’s faces, the face of the king as a god, which was surrounded by tree roots. Mr. Han was excited for us to get a pic of this, he said many tour guides never even tell people you can get up on the wall, let alone see something as special as this.

The tree ensconced face was just the beginning of our run ins with nature for the day. Our next stop was Ta Phrom which is well known because of the vegetation that has grown around and through the buildings. Most of the temples, when rediscovered at the turn of the century (1900ish), were overgrown but were cleared of their vegetation in order to ensure that the temples weren’t destroyed over time. Only a few of the temples were left as they were found and Ta Phrom is the largest and coolest of these untouched temples. Due to its giant tree roots and great picture opportunities the crowds flock here but usually not until after seeing Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom; thus, 6:30am is the perfect time to be there. With only ten or so other people in the whole complex it was really easy to run around, explore and get some good pictures. The pictures, unfortunately, aren’t perfect due to some strange lighting conditions but we were able to get them without any other tourists in them so we were more than satisfied.

Mr. Han then took us to a small site that is much older than most of the Angkor complex. The five towered temple was built in the mid 900’s and has some really clear sanskrit writings and brick statues. While most of the Angkor complex is built of stone blocks which are very large, this particular temple was built completely out of brick and has held up very well due to the strength of the old bricks and the mortar used in ancient times. While other temples have almost completely crumbled, this small temple only needed a little reconstruction which was accomplished by the French in the 1920’s.

After getting some great pictures, one taken by Mr. Han of Kel and I with the temple in the background, we moved on to Pre Rup which was the one temple we missed the day before. Sometimes you can view Angkor Wat itself from the top of this fairly tall structure but it happened to be hazy this day, so we ran around pretty quickly and got a feel for the site and then prepared to move on. After a while these sites can get kinda boring due to their similarity, but every once in a while you stumble across some sights that refresh your sense of awe. Our next sight was one of these.

The Outlying Temples

Mr. Han suggested that we head on to the outlying temples because he said there were a few of them that are pretty important due to the quality of their craftsmanship and the unique stories involved in their history. Despite the extra $10 to see these sights, Kel and I quickly agreed and off we shot in the Mr. Han mobile.

Our first destination was Banteay Srei which is 32 km from Siem Reap and about 28 km from our last temple. The dusty ride gave us a chance to see some more of the Cambodian countryside and some smaller villages. We found out, in a short time, that the superb roads near Siem Reap are obviously kept up for tourists. The roads outside of the Angkor main area are falling apart which created some interesting adventures in our little tuk tuk. To Mr. Han’s credit, he did his best to dodge the holes but by the end we felt a little bit like a James Bond martini that was shaken…not stirred.

In stark contrast to the tall trees and lush overgrowth in the Angkor main area, most of Cambodia appears to have been cleared for cultivation which makes it flat and very dry during this particular season. The cattle look emaciated due to the lack of food and the ground is parched and yellow because of the lack of rain fall. I imagine that all of this is very different during the rainy season, but who wants to vacation in the rain?

We were lucky enough (sarcasm here) to show up at Banteay Srei just after a few bus loads of Japanese tourists arrived. In answer to a question we received: most tourists in SE Asia are European (English, German and French for the most part), Australian (the Aussies travel a ton more than the rest of the Anglo world) or Asian (in order of numbers: Japanese, Chinese and a few others). You find very few Americans in this part of the world and the overwhelming majority of the travelers you see are Asians in huge tour groups. The Asians are not overwhelming as individuals...they are actually quite courteous and friendly but, they are overwhelming in numbers. One minute you will be standing in a deserted temple enjoying the beauty only to have four tour buses of Japanese show up and flood the temple in the matter of seconds. To make matters funnier, the Japanese view every moment of travel as a chance for a modeling shoot. Anything worth having a picture of is shot with at least two friends/family members standing in front of it flashing the peace sign. For some reason the Japanese feel very strongly about peace (or victory) and therefore take all of their pictures while turning one head at an angle, giving a huge goofy grin, and flashing one or both hands with the V around their smiling mugs. It actually makes for some very interesting entertainment for the casual spectator…that is unless you too would like a picture of what they are standing in front of then - you then find yourself fuming over the pure numbers of people you are attempting to contend with for your shot. It’s all very funny actually…you have to laugh!

To make matters even more interesting the Asians are really caught up with the color of their skin - the lighter the better. This obsession is almost beyond understanding to us and shows itself in many ways. First, if you find yourself looking for simple toiletries you notice immediately that everything has whitening agents in it. Companies that make cosmetics in the US have totally different products for over here that all contain a whitening agent in them. Where this crazy obsession becomes the most apparent is when you are out in a really sunny temple. After the first groan you emit when the tour bus shows up you find yourself speechless as the Japanese pile off the bus. Kel and I are dressed for the heat - it’s 30 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) with 98 percent humidity. These newly arrived tourists are covered from head to toe to ensure the sun does not touch their skin. This entails short sleeve shirts with white elbow length gloves, pants, heavy shoes, large unattractive hats or these uber-visors that have twice the bill of a normal visor and finally topped off with a designer surgical mask to cover one’s face. AMAZING! Kel and I are dying from the heat and these people look like they’ve just stepped out into a nuclear waste zone with the designer equivalent of a biological hazard suit on covering them from head to toe. Wild!

So, we enter Banteay Srei which has some of the most beautiful stone carvings of any temple in the area. The temple was created to honor a group of women who fought in a war with some neighbors in 967. The women asked to have the temple built out of rare pink sandstone making the temple unusual as well as beautiful. Despite the teeming masses, I was able to get a few pictures while Kel hid in a corner. She was uncomfortable with the press of bodies from the horde and wanted to get out of there fast. While we wanted to be polite during our exit attempt, one can only wait so long for pictures to be taken before one just gets tired and steps in front of the cameraman and say sorry. Well, imagine having that problem with a string of fifty cameramen in a row. Its like running the gauntlet. I did my best to dodge and duck my way past the camera but I finally just got tired and stepped in front of anyone in my way. Whew!

Thanks to Mr. Han’s guidance, this was the first, and thankfully, the last time we ran into a mass of people like this. He said he was a little surprised at the crowd since normally people don’t show up here until a little later in the day. It seems we were really lucky because some other people we talked to were fed up with Angkor due to the constant crowds which made it rather unenjoyable. Each year more and more people show up to see these sights which makes the crowds worse and worse…my only recommendation is to get up early and get an experienced guide who will help you try to catch things at less crowded times.

We next went to one of our favorite temples, Banteay Samre. I will try to briefly tell the story behind this temple because I though it was pretty cool. Bear with me as I try to be brief.

Banteay Samre: Watermelon Farmer Becomes the King
A small time farmer by the name of Pou was the first person in Cambodia to grow watermelons which he eventually presented to the King. The King was so amazed by these watermelons and their tastiness that he gave Pou the royal spear and gave the authority to Pou to kill anyone who enters his farm trying to steal the watermelons. Late one night the King got a hankering for some of that tasty goodness and left the palace to go to get some watermelon from his faithful servant Pou. In the dark, Pou mistook the King for a burglar and used the royal spear to defend his property via the Kings instruction. After discovering that he had killed the King, Pou freaked out and buried the King in the farm. Days pass and no one knows where the king has gone. Fearing that the King has perished, the palace staff sent out the royal elephant who has the mystical ability to either find the present King or will find the next person who should be King. The elephant went to Pou’s farm because he sensed that the King was there. The palace staff mistakenly assume that the elephant has brought them to the farm because the King is dead and Pou is supposed to be the new King while in reality, the elephant is in search of the old King’s body buried in the farm. Pou becomes King and every subsequent King of Cambodia was a descendant of Pou. The temple was built on the site of his watermelon farm and commemorates this “rags to riches” story.

This temple is nearly deserted because of its out of the way placement but has a ton of intricate stone carvings and structures. I think we enjoyed the temple mostly because of its freedom from the crowds that had plagued us at Banteay Srei but I would still highly recommend this site because of the great carvings.

Our final temple of the day was back closer to Angkor Thom. Across the street from Ta Phrom is Banteay Kdei. Similar to Ta Phrom, Banteay Kdei is overgrown with trees and plants which makes it an interesting place to take some neat pics. Also the carvings of Vishnu are really cool and worth at least a few pictures. By this point Kel was getting overheated so she sat in the shade while I played photographer and ran around with my camera.

We ended the day much like we had ended the previous one. Kel cooked us dinner back in our trusty tree house and we disappointed Mr. Han by not going out on the town. I guess we are pretty dull, huh?

Post Script:

Since our time in Cambodia we have been hanging out in Bangkok again. Kel’s official time at Capital One has just ended so we have been camping out here at Jack and Diane’s house waiting for our insurance paperwork to arrive (thanks to my parents for sending it!) so that we can start our time on COBRA (for you non US types this is the only way to keep decent health insurance after your employment has ended). The paperwork just arrived today so we should be on our way soon. Our plan is to head through some beaches in southern Thailand, head on to Malaysia and Singapore (to visit my our friend Brian Schiller) and then on to Australia and New Zealand. We plan to be in Australia by the 21st of March so stay tuned for some cool beaches and for everyone’s favorite land of Kuala Bears and Kangaroos.

Miss you all! Hope you are all doing wonderfully back home!

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