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Published: August 9th 2007
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Let's get on with these blogs, shall we?
I'm in Bangkok when writing this and need serious therapy after Kho Pha Ngan parties... However, I still have to tell you about what happened in Cambodia, right?
For those who don't know (and I've met some people who didn't), Cambodia is famous for Angkor Wat - one of the most amazing temples you'll ever get to see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat
It is so famous there that you can see it pictured everywhere you go and it is of no surprise as it is truly an amazing piece of architecture that you should see at sunrise, at sunset and any other part of the day if possible. Unfortunately, together with its popularity come the tourists and there are herds of them! You literally can't take a picture without someone in the background. Oh well, the price one has to pay for beauty!
Before I go haywire about the whole story, let me go back to where it started: at the airport. Landing in Cambodia was like a balm for my soul after the Vietnamese experience. Cambodian people, unlike those in Vietnam, turned out to be so lovely. I really regretted I couldn't
see more of the country but had no choice, so just got on with things as they were. While queuing to the immigration desk, I met 2 American girls who were stopping in Siem Reap for a couple of days and after a brief chat, we decided to hang out together. They were only on a 2-week holiday and had everything pre-planned and paid for which sounded like such a weird thing to do. It was too easy not to join them though as it meant I just didn't have to worry about a single thing. And after all the rush, it was exactly what I needed.
So, the main purpose of everyone who's staying in Siem Reap is to see the before mentioned Angkor Wat. Just to give you some idea of what it's all about: Angkor is a Hindu/Buddhist temple built for a Hindu God Vishnu and it's not the only temple in the whole complex (have you seen Tomb Raider? Angelina Jolie is messing around in a Jungle Temple which is pretty cool as well!).
Anyway, that's where a bit of cultural info can be handy: there are 3 main Gods in the Hindu religion:
Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Maintainer) and Siva (the Destroyer). Siva is the most powerful as he destroys everything but then again Vishnu has a big job as well as he has to maintain the world until Siva gets around to his business.
Right before the entry to Angkor Wat you can see two rows of statues: on the left there are Gods (see picture) and on the right there are demons. They are facing each other in what is called "the turning of the ocean of milk". Now, that is one of the stories coming from the 10 reincarnations of Vishnu. The milk story goes like this: Vishnu decided to give away the water of eternity and so other Gods & Demons stood against each other in a "fight". The fight itself involved getting a big cobra snake to agree to twist around a tree and the Gods & Demons grabbing opposite ends of it...and turning the ocean of milk. I know, it all makes sense, doesn't it?
Then, the story goes on to say that it was the Gods who were going to get the water. One of the demons, who didn't really go to hell, heard
that Vishnu is giving away the water of eternity and quickly disguised himself as one of the Gods. In the meantime, The Sun & The Moon heard about the demon's trick and quickly went to tell Vishnu about it. As the demon was drinking the water, Vishnu beheaded him before the water got past his throat. So, he was imprisoned in eternity from top of his head to his neck - not the deal he wanted... Being obviously quite angry, he decided to take revenge on the Sun & the Moon and every time he catches up with them, he swallows them, hence the eclipse... Since he doesn't have much of a body anymore, the Sun & the Moon come out pretty quickly and that's how it's been going on for centuries. I hope it all makes sense to you now!
After getting educated on the Hindu and Buddhist religious nuances, we climbed the many steps of Angkor to see the amazing grounds that are surrounding the temple. And this is when I have to mention that Japanese tourists are the universe revenge on the rest of the world's travelers. There should be separate places or times for Japanese
tourists and I don't mean to offend anybody but when you are climbing the steep and rather high steps of an ancient temple and there is nothing you can hold on to (apart from the steps), the last thing you want are the overexcited Japanese who 1. don't have any personal space, so end up pushing you and jumping right in front of you and 2. always get in your picture... It doesn't get any more annoying than that, you know!
After trying not to explode in front of a Japanese group or even better, managing to stop myself from throwing one of the monkeys onto them (hopefully with rabies), we moved on to see other temples. As I mentioned before, Angelina Jolie made one of them quite famous (the Jungle Temple) and so, as predicted, it is also packed with Japanese tourists with cameras exercising a variety of poses, probably inspired by the Tomb Raider's main character. God give me strength...
I can't even remember how many different ruins I got to see that day but I know one thing: after a day out there, I was Angkored out. And I was glad as I had only
one full day to see the place - some people buy 3-day passes but as cultured as I can get, that would have been waaay too much.
So, the next day was the day I was flying out to Bangkok and meeting Angela who came for her 2-week holidays that we spent on the islands. That's a separate story which I will get to in due course.
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