Ta Keo Cluster, Tonle Sap and Pub Street in Siem Reap

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July 9 Ta Keo Cluster<br style="color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;" />

This morning Angelina Jolie was on my mind as Samadeach and I headed to a temple complex farther north east of Angkor Wat, and east of Angkor Thom. Ta Phrom is the temple where parts of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed. The restoration work at Ta Phrom is a joint project undertaken in conjunction with Archeological Survey of India. Banteay Kdei is ruined in such a way that it has been stripped down to the just the foundation for the most part. A few stone archways and enclosed structures have survived the centuries. The first stop was Ta Keo. The guide book dubs it as a Design 101 for Angkor temples. This is another of those that are pyramidal and have steep stairway scaffolding. I climbed up and to the top. At the top is a functioning Buddha temple, with an old lady offering incense etc. to offer to the Buddha and seek blessings. The main altar is surrounded by narrow french window style openings in all four directions.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Ta Keo © Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


From Ta Keo we headed to Ta Phrom. I had my camera primed. The gigantic Khmer Spoong trees were visible from outside. The entrance is lined by vendors selling single stringed and woodwind musical instruments. The first stop was a wall that had been clasped by the roots of the Khmer Spoong. This seemed like a photo stop for many tourists. I had to wait a bit for the crowd to thin out to get a clear shot. Then there was the famous Lara Croft portal, again dwarfed and embraced by roots of a peepal tree which in turn was in a held in a deadly embrace by a Spoong.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Ta Phrom © Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


The temple seems to be in an eternal state of ruin. There are doorways that are blocked by fallen stone blocks. There are heaps of broken archways and lintels lying at every turn. Parts of the insides are very dark. I found an interesting spire with the top missing, letting in a delicate shaft of light. I set up my tripod in the dark, on the only platform to ply people across. It was worth the effort. And here's the result.


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After Ta Phrom, we headed to Banteay Kdei. This follows the same style as Bayon, but is said to have been built in a much simplistic design and used poor quality sandstones. I came across an eager local chap who seemed to have figured out a means to lure unsuspecting tourists, hopefully to a souvenir vendor and nothing more dangerous. His scheme was to first get the tourist off the main path and onto one of the cloisters. To do this he had stuck a peepal twig with a few leaves to make it look like it was growing between the stones. This in itself is quite common for a peepal tree. The attraction was a beautiful spider clinging to the twig. He asked me to take pictures. The next step was to show me a Buddha statue farther down the cloister. I was curious, but wanted to complete seeing this site and head to the next. So I said 'No. Thanks' and walked on.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">The spider lure (?) © Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


A few steps past I turned to peer into another cloister, or what remained of it, this time on my left side. Sitting on a stone ledge was a lone Chinese tourist. We were both a bit startled by each other since this temple was totally devoid of the mainstream tourist crowd. I counted about 4 people the entire route. She composed herself and said 'Ni Hao'. I said 'Ni Hao' back to her instead of my usual 'Hello'. She was happy to see I knew the greeting. After the Ni Hao I moved on. Samadeach had worked out a weird scheme for my visitations. He would drop me at the rear entrance of every temple and would pick me up from the front. So I would work my way in the opposite direction and end up at the front. The Chinese girl also seemed to be following the same route, and later information exchanges made me think that all or many tukuk drivers have adopted this method. The front of Banteay Kdei has a large platform with huge peepal and Khmer Soong trees growing. I saw people resting under them. Here again, my new Chinese friend and I ran into each other. She wanted to do symbiotic photo shots. I shoot her, she shoots me. We chatted a bit and she asked me if I was traveling alone. I said yes. She said she was too. Our chat was broken up by an impatient European tourist who wanted to take a picture of the temple facade sans tourists. I noticed her borderline irksomeness and we dispersed heading out to the front entrance to the next stop. The next stop was across the road leading out of Banteay Kdei. Called Srah Srang, it is a large reservoir, almost the size of a small lake with stone steps leading into the water and trees lining the perimeter. I stopped there to hydrate myself, not from the water in the reservoir, but from my water bottle. The Chinese tourist was already there. We greeted each other again. She took a few tens of seconds to compose a question. She asked me how much I was paying for my tuktuk for a full day's hire. I said $15. She said she had an all day hire for $13. She asked if I was interested in sharing a tuktuk the next day, and indicated that we could use her tuktuk since she had negotiated a cheaper fare. I was interested. But I asked her where she was planning to go the next day. My temple visits were almost done. There were a couple more clusters in different directions, and I had not included them on the itinerary. So not knowing whether we would be heading to the same places, she decided we should exchange contact information and proceeded to give me her phone number and hotel information. I had no local phone card, so I just gave her my hotel information. She wrote her name down - Yingzi. I repeated it a few times to get the right pronunciation. I said I'd let her know where I decide to go and then we could decide about tuktuk sharing. From here, I stopped at another smallish temple. This was very elegant, even if small. It was not built by a king like most others. But by a nobleman or some high official in the king's court. Prasat Kravan is also different from the other temples in the complex, which even a lay person like myself could notice. It is either built using brick sized pink sandstone, as opposed to the huge green sandstone blocks that all other temple are built from. The main deities are all formed by an intricate assembly of the bricks and are rendered three dimensional humanoid shapes by brilliantly sculpted individual bricks. Taken by itself each constituent brick would just look like something that might be used to edge a flower bed. But they all come together to form the shapes of gods, goddesses and demigods. This temple's main deity is Vishnu. The temple's restoration is being undertaken by University of Cologne. I liked Prasat Kravan for it's simplicity and elegance.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">© Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


Having spent about 30 minutes at Prasat Kravan, I headed to the tuktuk to discuss the plans for the rest of the day and the next day. It was close to 3 pm and I wanted to get back to the hotel before 7 pm. That meant I could not visit any of the other temples since they were much farther away. Boat ride on the Tonle Sap lake was one option suggested by Samadeach. He said that he could take me there, and have me back at the hotel before 7, the duration inclusive of an hour long boat ride. So we set out. And drove past Tara, and the city center. The lake was about 12 km from the hotel. It took about 45 minutes on tuktuk. The ticket to the boat ride at $27 was the 2nd most expensive, after $40 3-day Angkor pass. And it was a colossal waste of time and money. The ride apparently is through a dredged part of the lake which is lined with floating houses. The whole thing is called the Floating Village. Migrant Vietnamese have made a home here. The dredged channel is about 80 meters wide and 2-6 meters deep depending on the rains. I must say that it is the filthiest part of the lake, given that about a 1000 families live here - wash, cook, bathe and clean babies' bottoms in the same nearly still and locked in waters. All the fish are dead. Fortunately, USAID has a water purification plant (also floating, because everything in the Floating Village has to be floating, including a token Police Station, school, hospital, temple, basketball court) and sells large canisters of water at about 20 cents. The self-appointed guide, a high school kid on vacation pointed out that part of the ticket money would go towards improving the village. I did not see any signs of that. The boat rides were run by a private company. And I could see a new pier being constructed with solid masonry and large shopping areas. The boat goes down the channel and barely reaches the real lake where the waters are cleaner, and then turns around after a brief stop at a 'Floating Crocodile Farm'.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:񑘕 font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Floating Village, Tonle Sap © Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


Once done here, I headed back to the hotel. I reached there at about 6 pm. After some rest and freshening up, I set out to the city center. Pub Street was my destination. Enroute, I noticed the hotel that Yingzi was staying at. I stopped there and left a message for her at the front desk. Yingzi had already informed the lady at the front desk to expect a message for her. I left a message saying that I had done the lake visit and could share a tuktuk to visit the ROLUS group of temples, since she had indicated that's one of the places she was considering visiting. I started walking out towards Pub Street to scope out a place for dinner. A few 100 feet must have passed, and I ran into Yingzi. I told her about the plan. But she had decided to rent and bicycle and revisit the Angkor Wat complex. I told her I was heading for dinner. She said she already was done with her's but would join me anyways, and have a drink while I ate.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">After the serendipitous dinner at Le Tigre de Papier</td></tr></tbody></table>


What ensued was a very interesting dinner conversation. She said she was not very fluent with English. So we had to very carefully choose the topics of conversation. Only ones that could be carried out by employing the fewest of popular words that she might know. As the evening progressed, we found it easier to build on a topic so that we already had the context established, and was easier to interpret. She found it easier if I typed things out on my phone. I used Google Translate, but she found it easier to read the English that I had typed out, rather than the translation. She had just shopped at the Night Market and showed me her new acquisitions. A pair of flip-flops and a runner with silk embroidery. I told her that I bought a similar runner that morning. She said she paid 5 dollars, and asked me how much I paid. I opened up five fingers on one hand and my thumb on the other. She displayed utter shock. I figured out soon that she interpreted that as 56 dollars. I then conveyed that it was 6 dollars, by writing it out on a napkin. She proceeded to teach me how numbers are displayed by hand signs in China. She first clarified that they resemble the shapes of the number in Hindu-Arabic form. Once I learnt that, there was no confusion about communicating small numbers. We talked about where we live. I pulled up Hillsborough on Google Maps. She showed me Chengdu, in the Sichuan province, in southwestern China. She pulled up pictures of a beautiful lake, and said I should visit. We then talked about where we work. It was close to 11 pm. I had to wake up at 4.30 am to head to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. I told Yingzi that I could pick her up. She said she liked to wake up late. So we bid goodbye and headed to our hotels. She was close enough to walk to her's. I had to hop on to a tuktuk. July 10The next morning, I was up at 4.30 am and the plan was to leave for Angkor Wat at 5 am. It was a toss up since the sunrise spectacle is dependent on the cloud cover. This morning the sky was covered with thick clouds and the sky barely turned orange. It was bright for a short while, till about 6 am. And then it became gloomy and wet. So I just circled inside the first inner perimeter of the temple, stopping to take pictures.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">© Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>




I was starting to feel hungry and the breakfast buffet at Tara beckoned me. I headed back around 7.45 am. I had no particular plans for the rest of the day. So I terminated the tuktuk hire and bid goodbye to Samadeach. Back at the hotel, I got ready for the day, had breakfast and decided to visit the Cultural Museum in Siem Reap. This is a place best visited in the afternoon. The only interesting part of the museum are the various dance performances. And all are scheduled in the afternoon. When I went there in the morning, the performers were rehearsing. I stopped to watch them for a while.


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And headed back. Back at Tara, I headed to the pool with my laptop. I had not done any research for my Bangkok visit. So I decided to use the time for creating my Bangkok itinerary. I went to Pub Street again that evening for dinner. And like the previous night, ran into Yingzi, this time in the Night Market. She had an appointment for a massage and was waiting out, browsing through the myriad stores in the Night Market. 'Night Market' apparently is a generic neon sign, and one will notice more than one such place, with animated neon-lit arrows beckoning you in their direction. I had bought a painting/imprint of Tin Tin, Captain Haddock and Snowy, a depiction from one of the books. It is designed as a picture frame, with the imprint on solid wood base. Haggled down to $4, I am delighted to have made this purchase. Yingzi had not heard about Tin Tin, but she liked the gleeful dancing trio anyway. She said I should email her if I was ever visiting Chengdu. I said I would, and vice-versa, if she was on the east-coast of the US. She was skeptical about that ever happening because, it apparently is very hard to get tourist visas.


<table class="tr-caption-container" style="padding: 4px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">© Vikram Krishnamurthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


Back in my hotel room, I finished most of the packing, since I had to leave early to catch the 9.45 am flight to Bangkok.



July 11 To Bangkok, Thailand

The airport in Siem Reap is much bigger and more modern to cater to the much higher tourist traffic. The flight was on time. I had reached there early and used the time to update the blog and check emails. And as it turned out, Bangkok far exceeded my expectations...

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