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Published: August 6th 2013
The next few days in Siem Reap passed quietly though too quickly. We enjoyed each others company as we wandered the shops and markets and spent many hours relaxing in the pool at the Frangapani Hotel. Mum and Suzie were eager to see ABC and Rice where the girls had volunteered so we visited the school one afternoon. As it was school holidays there were no students there (other then one little boy who due to a difficult living situation sadly spent most of his days in the school grounds) - at least he had somewhere safe to retreat to. They were very impressed, as I had been, with the colourful wall murals Deb and Ginny had painted.
The temple where the monks's cremation was to be held was very busy still with mourners chanting and paying their respects. There was the constant sound of drum beats coming from the temple as well. The temple was next door to Bou Savvy Guesthouse where Deb, Petra and Ginny were staying and they were told that the cremation would happen any time between three and seven days from the time the coffin had been bought to the grounds.The coffin was still high
on the silver tin dais in the grounds and nobody seemed to have any idea of exactly when the cremation would take place. It ended up happening at 2am on the third night, in the temple grounds, whilst we were all asleep. We were very pleased though to have experienced at least some of the colour and spectacle of the ceremony.
Another afternoon we visited Les Chantiers Ecoles, a workshop teaching the traditional Khmer arts of lacquer making, silversmithing, wood and stone carvings and silk weaving to impoverished young people. The attached shop, Artisans d'Angkor, was full of the stunning products produced in the workshops. Not cheap, but of very high quality. We all thoroughly enjoyed browsing and buying some lovely items to take home. I have a gilt lacquer panel of Buddha bought from there a few years ago and it is still one of my favourite overseas purchases. The weather was incredibly hot (close to 40* C each day) and Mum was finding it very draining - as were we all - particularly as less then a month before Jerry and I had been in sub zero temperatures. Therefore during the middle of each day we rested
in the hotel air conditioning - it was even too hot in the pool - or enjoyed lunch with the rest of the tourists in the Blue Pumpkin Cafe, one of the only places in central Siem Reap with reliable air conditioning (and the added attraction of a cold face cloth straight out of the refrigerator which was given to each person soon after they had sat down)...
Jerry left all of the women to their gossip and spent most of the final days of our trip alone, relaxing in and reading beside the hotel pool. He was happy winding down from the previous three months of constant travel knowing that within a fortnight he would be back at work in Australia. One day however even that small luxury could not be enjoyed due to the intense fumes coming from the large generator beside the pool. The power in the town was cut for hours and the hotel relied on this large smelly generator - good for the refrigerators and air conditioning, but not for the environment.
Mum and Suzie enjoyed being driven around the streets, watching life pass them by, from the comfort of the tuks tuks.
It was all a new experience for Mum. Early each morning Suzie and I would wander the streets watching the sunrise and exploring the city before returning to the hotel to join Mum and Jerry for breakfast. One morning we visited a local temple where, as we were sitting and chatting in the grounds, Suzie was accosted by a large pink pig! It came up to her and started nuzzling her - we both laughed when we noticed written on the side of the pig in blue biro the words - 'I Love You!' A young monk came and eventually took it away - maybe it was a temple pet - but I'm uncertain whether he actually understood what presumably another tourist had written on the pig.
Late one afternoon we queued to buy our three day temple passes - however our queue was still much shorter then the long one formed to buy the one day passes which became valid for use at sunset on the day of purchase. We also booked a minivan to take us all to visit Kbal Spean (River of a Thousand Lingas) - a spectacularly carved riverbed about 50 klms northeast of Siem
Reap. Jerry and I had visited it previously - in fact we had spread some of David's ashes at this beautiful spot - but the rest of the family had not visited the site at all. We decided to combine it with a visit to Beng Melea and Banteay Srei, another two out lying temple complexes some distance from Siem Reap.
It was an early start and our first temple we headed for was Beng Melea. We stopped enroute at a small and very traditional village where Deb chased a bullock cart up the road (she hadn't seen one in the country before) and we wandered down the 'main' street watching the local people begin their day. After buying a bag of very sticky donut shaped pastries which, after gluing our teeth together, we passed on to a couple of cheeky kids to finish we continued on to the temple complex. I was really pleased that Mum and Suzie had a chance to see some of the traditional villages and countryside. There were dozens of simple wooden houses on stilts, and many more constructed from palm fronds. We could see that most of the communities had been helped by
various charity aid organisations from around the world as they all had small signs in prominent positions with their donors details written on it.
It was only eight in the morning by the time we arrived at the entrance to Beng Melea but already very hot. Beng Melea was discovered buried under jungle undergrowth in and today is still unrestored. A fascinating place to wander in - though there is a wooden walkway you still need to do a fair bit of scrambling over rubble. It was constructed as a Hindu temple in the 12th century but little else is known about it's history. Recently a paved road opened to the site so tourism numbers to the temple will definitely increase. We all spent an enjoyable hour meandering around the ruins and enjoying the peaceful environment. The only other people there were a few children offering their services as guides.
Next stop was the car park at Kbal Spean - from there we had a 2 kilometre uphill walk to reach the actual river bed. Leaving Mum and Petra (who was feeling unwell) under the shade of a tin roof at a restaurant the rest of us started
to climb the path upwards. It was incredibly hot and though much of the path was under the shade of trees we were all still exhausted and sweating profusely by the time we reached the riverbed. We all counted down the 2 kilometre path, helped by the markers set at 100 metre spaces, and were very pleased when we reached the 1900 metre sign! Last time we visited the site there was a lot of water flowing over the carvings - this time the riverbedwas virtually dry and the carvings were therefore very evident. The thousands of carvings on the riverbed are principally lingams (phallic symbols of the Hindu God Shiva) though on the rocks of the banks are detailed carvings of a reclining Lord Vishnu, turtles and crocodiles. Some of the missing sections of the bas-reliefs are currently being restored by the graduate artisans from Artisans d'Angkor. Despite the intense humid heat I was glad to have revisited Kbal Spean. After the easier scramble back down to the car park and finding that Mum was still happy in the restaurant we headed back across the car park to join the guided tour at the Angkor Centre for Conservation of
Biodiversity. This organisation does a fabulous job nursing trafficked animals back to health.
Unfortunately the heat got to us all and it wasn't long before we left for the slightly cooler shade below the tin roof of the restaurant. After lunch we all wilted - but we still headed off to visit Banteay Srei on the way home. Banteay Srei (Citadel of the Women) is one of my favourite temples. Constructed from pink stone, the carvings which cover this small temple, are very detailed. Last time I visited the temple it was being restored - now most of the restoration seems to have been completed - and it was great to wander the small site. As we approached the entrance to the site we passed a lush green rice paddy - presumably there just for the tourists - as it was the only green one I saw in the Siem Reap region. The remainder were just dust bowls as rice planting season hadn't begun. The temple was as pretty as I remembered - the carvings were beautifully detailed and I spent an enjoyable half hour wandering amidst them. We then returned to Siem Reap totally exhausted from the long
day in the heat - the daytime temperature had reached 39* - and headed for showers and another poolside dinner.
Early one morning we headed out to spend the day at the main temple sites - Mum decided not to come because as much as she would have liked to have seen the temples up close she felt that the heat would be just too much for her. For the next few hours we explored them - second time for me, the end of a month of temple visits for Deb and the first time for Suzie. We hired Maes to drive us between the sites and headed off for sunrise at Angkor Wat. The temple was still covered in blue plastic (because of the ongoing restoration work) but was still as spectacular as I remembered it. The silhouette is very distinctive - once seen, never forgotten. The sunrise viewing area was very crowded and because of cloud cover the silhouette and reflections in the water filled moat were certainly not as photogenic as they had been on my previous visit. The temple itself is truly stunning and Suzie was blown away by the detail of the carvings of
the bas reliefs, which extend for 800 meters around the outside of the central temple. This central temple rises 31 meters above the third level of Angkor Wat - one of the reasons why the silhouette is so stunning.
After exploring, and just sitting enjoying the atmosphere, for a couple of hours we headed off for a coffee in the Artisans d'Angkor shop opposite the complex. On the way out we spotted a group of sand stupas near a modern temple - later inquiries revealed these stupas are built as part of the Khmer New Year celebrations. They symbolise the stupa where Buddha's head, diadem, and tooth are buried. In certain regions of Cambodia some people build stupas from piles of rice. The next few hours were spent exploring the other principle temples - including the amazing Bayon temple with it's 216 faces, all resembling Cambodia's legendary king of the era, Jayavarman V11. The site was thronged with people - far too many to view the ruins in any form of comfort, as you were being constantly jostled and pushed.
After we left Bayon we were shocked to see a group of Asian tourists man handle a group
of young children collecting fire wood in the grounds. They pushed the children into a group before proceeding to push camera lenses into their faces and photograph them. They left without even offering the kids any money which made it worse. I loved seeing the once hidden (discovered during renovation) walls of the Terrace of the Leper King - the front walls are decorated with some amazing carvings but behind the 7 meter high platform is a narrow access to the hidden passage which was covered up when the outer structure was built. Lining the walls of the narrow zig zag passage are some really stunning carvings. Deb pointed them out - she had discovered them previously - Jerry and I had missed them on our previous visit As they are not easily noticeable. The sun was high in the sky when we left the site for the air conditioning. The heat did not make temple exploring the most enjoyable occupation!
Over the next few days we spent more time exploring the markets, enjoying the local food and each others company. We all found time for a massage as well.. Ginny had even found a second hand clothing store
in a street close to our hotel where we all purchased quantities of beautiful Japanese blue and white porcelain for give away prices. One afternoon we celebrated Petra's birthday in style with high tea at the Victoria Angkor Resort. Tasty trays of dainty food accompanied by champagne - another lovely family memory to store away. After we spent some time wandering the 'Made in Cambodia' market - a recently set up monthly affair highlighting some of the beautiful cottage industries. Another highlight was the evening we spent the Aspara Theatre, a purpose built restaurant theatre in the grounds of the Angkor Village Resort. The theatre was very intimate and we were served individual trays of traditional food (nicely presented in small dishes upon the tray) whilst we watched a display of five Khmer dances. The costumes were wonderful (especially the dances held for Royalty) though we all enjoyed the village dances (especially the Fisherman's dance) the most.
Sadly the week passed far too quickly and before we knew it we were waving Mum and Suzie off to the airport. They travelled one last time in Maes hot pink tuktuk - the tuktuk rides were one of Mum's favourite things
she did in Cambodia. Jerry and I followed a few hours later (after enjoying a last meal at Blue Pumpkin) to fly to Singapore. We were to spend another couple of days in Singapore with Mum and Suzie before we all flew back to Australia. Ginny, Deb and Petra were to catch a bus next morning to Bangkok where a few days later Petra flew back home to England, Ginny flew back to Australia (after three months away) and Deb began the next part of her adventure - another three months of independent travel in India and Vietnam.
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GRACIELA
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GREAT MEMORIES......
I always remember SR. There is an NGO that works very hard with dissabled children over there, it´s called ODA. Those children study and also paint and sell whet they create. I miss them. Hugs from Argentina.