SE Asia 2014 Day 17

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Big disappointment this morning. We had put in a wake-up call for 5 am in order to attend the alms-giving ceremony. But our call was forgotten by the hotel and we missed it.

Now even poor Kien seems to have picked up the circulating stomach bug. After a bit of a rough spot yesterday, I seem to be alright. Vi is doing fine as well.

Today we say goodbye to Luang Prabank and to the country of Laos. Our bus takes us to the airport and we board another Air Lao turboprop for the flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Upon arriving, another negotiation of the bureaucratic maze to receive landing visas and enter the country. Slightly less inefficient than the entry into Laos. We are met at the airport by local guide Sinat.

Siem Reap is bigger and more developed than I expected. It has 140,000 people and is rapidly switching over to a tourism-based economy. Roads in the city range from modern to barely more than bumpy tracks, and the transition from the former to the latter can be sudden. The soil is deep red and sandy, and bears clear evidence that not long ago everything was a sea of mud. Interesting that the tuk-tuks here tend to be motorcycles pulling trailers rather than special vehicles.

North of the modern city of Siem Reap lies the ancient city of Angkor Thom. It was built in the late 12th century by Jayarvarman VII and is roughly 80 years younger than Angkor Wat, which we will see tomorrow. The city encompasses 10 sq. km.

The first stop is to have our photographs taken for our individual passes. The entire area is a UNESCO heritage site and access is carefully controlled. Everyone has to present their photo ID at each of the protected locations.

There are street vendors everywhere and they are the most aggressive yet on the trip. If you even glance at their wares they will follow you practically onto the bus. And the most heart-breaking aspect is that little boys and girls are pressed into service. It's hard to be strong when an adorable but skinny little wraith holds out a plastic flute.

We enter by the south gate, traversing an impressive moat over a bridge that features warriors and demons on both sides in a tug of war using a giant snake. The bus barely makes it through a narrow ancient gate in the thick walls. We then drive several kilometres through forests where once the wooden homes of ordinary people stood, long since rotted away. At the zenith of this culture, over one million people lived here at the same time in history that London, England had a population of 30,000. We arrive finally at another moat and wall that together protect the king's palace at the centre of Angkor Thom, known as the Bayon.

We disembark and cross the bridge on foot. Fierce warriors and demons stand guard along the bridge. Some are in ruins, some repaired, and one or two have survived the centuries more or less intact. The Bayon is astonishing. The king's lucky number was 9, and this number pervades the architecture. There are 54 rectangular towers (5+4=9), each with four giant images of the king, smiling enigmatically. Every possible surface is covered with finely detailed bas-reliefs depicting activities of everyday life, as well as great battles. Humans and animal figures mix freely. The king must have been fond of dancing girls, because they are everywhere, striking impossible poses and smiling seductively.

We climb through the heart of Angkor Thom, up and down steep stone stairways or, in places, modern wooden replacements. The sheer antiquity of the places gives me shivers, despite the devastatingly hot temperatures. I snap picture after picture and try to imagine the awestruck feelings of Europeans who "discovered" the ruins of these huge ancient edifices in the jungle a century and a half ago.

As we explore Angkor Thom, there is a constant piercing drone all around, coming from the forest around us. Sinat tells us the sound comes from cicadas. I've heard cicadas before, but not at this volume!

The bus next takes us to our hotel, which is the grandest yet on the trip. It uses Angkor themes throughout, notably the serene faces from towers of Angkor Thom and the bare-breasted dancing girls.

After a quick but badly needed freshen-up, the bus takes us to supper, which includes a live show. Beautiful young Cambodian men and women in exquisite national costumes recreate traditional dances to live music. The music is unrelentingly pentatonic. I like the way they use major and minor pentatonic in the same harmonic space; e.g., a piece starts off major, then by dropping a minor third, it uses the same five notes in a minor context. Occasionally a sharp 4th is introduced, which makes your ears prick up. All pieces are 4/4, but the drums do some nice syncopations, and the bar cycles are not always even; a cycle of nine bars seems to be a favourite.

The show is excellent, the food is ok, but the service is slow and several drink orders are mixed up.

Back at the hotel, Vi and I visit the hotel souvenir shop, which has some very nice merchandise at inflated prices. Unfortunately, I "buy" a marble statue of Buddha in the enlightenment position by knocking him over and breaking one ear and one hand. The very apologetic sales clerk allows me to get away with paying what I presume is the base price. So now I know that prices are marked up by at least a third.

Very happy to get to bed. Big day tomorrow: we are visiting Angkor Wat, a place that appears on every top 10 list of places in the world to see.

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Photos

South entrance to the Bayon, Angkor Thom
Look for the faces of the king