indiana gunk and the temples of angkor

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ok, ok.
the big temples entry.

when i left you, i was riding away from some crazy 18-year-old on the back of a moto. i caught the bus to siem reap and settled down for the ride. it seemed like a lot longer than it really was (about 6 and a half hours), but i made it in the end. siem reap was dark and full of people and lights when i got there. i got off the bus and was instantly mobbed by a surging throng of moto and tuk-tuk drivers, all competing for my business. i yelled "just let me get my bag!" several times, and they'd back away for a moment, only to surge closer two seconds later.
i finally managed to find my big bag and was then being argued over by two different drivers. "you must make decision", they said. i looked at one of them. "you said you spoke to me first? ok, ok, i'll go with you".
the driver smiled, and took me to his tuk-tuk (interestingly, driven by another guy), where he tried to get me to go to a certain place, but wasn't too pushy, and was generally really nice and helpful. very friendly and talkative.

he helped me bargain for my room at number nine guesthouse (i got it down to $4 for a nice enough room with a really comfy massive double bed and my own bathroom. and when i took a shower later, i was suddenly shocked to realise that the water was heating up! not hot exactly, but quite warm. wow! i can't remember the last time i had a hot shower. probably in china).
we arranged to meet very early the next morning so that i could see angkor wat for sunrise.

after a tasty eggplant curry at india gate, which was near the main tourist drag (called the old market), i headed home for some sleep.

the next morning, i was up at 4:40am, drinking my can of soy milk and getting dressed, then hurrying out the door. sure enough, my driver visal was waiting there on his motorbike. i hopped on and we drove to angkor, shivering slightly in the cool early morning air.
we got to the wat and arranged to meet 2 or 3 hours later. he'd said 3 hours was how long most people wanted, but i thought two would probably be enough.

i stumbled up and down crumbling steps before i remembered i had my new headtorch with me. turning it on, suddenly it seemed a lot safer. there were a few other tourists moving around, but not too many, really. it was still really really dark.
i went past a buddha statue and shrine at the first entrance, and then was in the main temple compound. i couldn't make out the figure of angkor wat, about two hundred metres ahead, just yet. i wandered around and then sat near some steps, waiting for the sun. to my left, there was an increasing group of people gathering at the edge of a large pond.

the sun started to come up, and i could see the turrets (not the right word, but whatever) of the wat ahead of me. i started taking photos, but of course none of them really came out. i've been enjoying having my camera lately - especially for the temples. i would've gotten bored really quickly without it.
when the sun was a bit higher, but still not fully risen, i went inside to have a look around. there were lots of beautiful carvings, and generally the form and symmetry of the place was really lovely. there were some broken-down ruined parts, and even some scaffolding around some of the areas. i happily clicked away fairly indiscriminately.

when i got sick of wandering aimlessly, i decided it was time to go back. it was only about 7am, but i'd been there since 5:30, so i figured, oh well, i'm over it now.
there was no sign of my driver. i wandered around for ages looking for him, and kept getting hassled by the other drivers, but he was nowhere to be found. i was quite disappointed in him, really. at the suggestion of one of them, i went and sat on the opposite side, so that he'd see me right away. one young guy (another moto driver), came to sit and chat for a while. it was about quarter to 8 when he suggested that maybe my driver wouldn't come for a long time, and that i could go with him. i thought about it for a bit, and said, ok, yeah. i felt really bad, but visal was nowhere to be found.
so, i had a new driver, dada.

the next temple on the list was bayon temple, (which i keep thinking of as "baygon" temple). this was probably more my style than angkor wat itself - more of that great broken-down building aesthetic that i love. there were also these incredible buddha faces that stared out at you from everywhere, and some lion gatekeeper statues with very impressive arses. all in all, a pretty cool temple.

i lost track a bit of them all after that. the one that really stuck in my mind was ta prohm, which was used in tomb raider. i think this one ends up being a lot of people's favourite, and with good reason - the old stone buildings are slowly being choked by these fantastic huge trees and their roots. it's really really incredible. i spent a little while there, trying to dodge the other tourists and get a people-free photo of some of the tree-choked doorways and such.
on the way into that one i also saw some musicians busking and selling cds - they were all landmine victims, and using music as a way to earn money without having to beg. i stopped to listen and took a couple of photos, leaving a couple of thousand riel for them with a smile and thanks.

saw lots more temples. i actually did the mini- and grand tours in one day. i was home by 2pm, after exhausting myself climbing the whole way up the last one and enjoying a view of the angkor area from up high.

i arranged to meet dada the next day around 8am, and we'd go to banteay srei, and maybe another. i flopped happily onto the mattress when i got back, and just chilled out for a while.

the next morning, we took a long, dusty motorbike ride out to banteay srei. by the end of it, my bum was feeling a bit unimpressed, but banteay srei turned out to be pretty amazing. of all the temples, this one had the best-preserved carvings, and these are what people come to see. i heard a few different guides talking about the various meanings of different freizes. there were some kids around posing in doorways for photos, which seemed kind of weird, but ok. there were lots of kids around the temples, actually, selling books and weird little instruments, t-shirts, cold drinks, whatever. i gave some paper to some of them when they asked (they saw my notebook in my bag when i went to get the camera out).

after banteay srei i was at a bit of a loss. "are there any other temples around here?" i asked dada. he wasn't sure, but found out that there was one, kbal spean, about 14km down a dirt road. so we went.
dust clouds abounded. and bumps, and potholes, and sore bums. i thought about saying "oh, never mind, let's just go home", but then decided against it. might as well do this thing.

kbal spean turned out to be a fairly long hike through the jungle, which was really pleasant in the shade of the trees. i felt like i was visiting some scene from "the dark crystal" or something. but there didn't seem to be much by way of a temple. eventually we reached a waterfall - dada (who had followed me up, i discovered when i sat down to rest there) had a shower whilst i sat and enjoyed the serenity. there were a handful of other tourists, but mostly people kept to themselves, so it was quite a solitary experience.
a bit further up the hill, in the river bed, there were several yonis and lingas, but not much else. we saw some carvings, but it was too shady to get a good photo of them. after a sit-down at the top, we descended.

and that was it for my temple experience!
apart from that, i went for a drink with dada and his friends along the side of the road, near angkor. in the evenings hordes of locals come and buy food from the vendors, and sit on woven mats drinking and eating and hanging out with their friends. none of dada's friends really spoke much english beyond "hello how are you what is your name?", so i listened to them speak khmer, and kept hearing "barang" (foreigner). guess they had lots to say about me. we went to a karaoke bar later, where i ate peanuts, chinese style with chopsticks, drank beer, and watched dada get up on stage and sing. it was a cool evening, because i got to meet people and get a taste of what life is like for local cambodian youth (dada is 25, and i think most of his friends are about the same age). when he dropped me home, he invited me to come back and visit him some time.
maybe.

so today i'm just bumming around siem reap, eating some good food and maybe meeting some new people. tomorrow, i fly to hanoi!


nb. a note on the photos - i've only put a very few on here, and unfortunately none from the second day, cos the camera's having issues today. but you can see the lot on facebook, as well as the ones from kampot (which i really can't be arsed editing into the last entry, sorry, but it's so tedious!)

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Photos

angkor wat
part of the main temple building at angkor wat

the face of buddha
kinda imposing..... there were lots of these at bayon temple

nice arse!
the lion with the impressive bum, bayon temple

play some music...
landmine victims playing traditional music

shrine
i can't actually remember the name of the temple this one was in..... but there were a lot of them about the place. strangely enough.

tree at ta prohm
one of the nicer tree photos (there are oh-so-many) from ta prohm.