August 5 to 6—Angkor Days 2 and 3: Landmines and Chauffeurs

Dear Family and Friends,

Sunday, August 5, we began Angkor Day 2 with breakfast at the local pizza shop to get cheap coffee, a banana pancake for Dani and a ‘breakfasty’ pizza for Martha of cheese, sauce, onions, and an egg in the middle. Tasty, but Dani had to eat a bit of the pizza, too, just so that all of the bad breath was not confined to Martha! Energized, we encountered Tong, a man in his mid-thirties to early forties, who agreed to take us on the Grand Tour, but also farther North more than 30 KM to Banteay Srey and the Landmine Museum, a full day of touring for 15 USD.

The ride North was gorgeous, and we felt like royalty with the open front of our tuk-tuk and our own personal driver for the day. Dani has taken a particular liking to having a chauffeur, and we may be in trouble when she has to driver herself around again in the states. For today, however, we cruised through the countryside, open spaces segmented by collections of homes along the roadside, each with a stand of wares in front, in case your shopaholic tendencies have not yet been quelled. [Note to shopaholics: DO NOT COME TO THIS COUNTRY! The shopping opportunities for exotic items would be too much for you to handle, surely to increase your quotient of schtuff at home.]

We stopped at Pre Rup and East Mebon ruins on our way North; the elephants at each corner of Pre Rup gave us a very steady photo op. The climbs were easier this day as our feet have gotten more adjusted to the narrow steps and our knees more adapted to the steep lift of our bodies skywards. Our journey took us through the town of Prea Rup, where kids played below the main floors of houses on stilts and people worked among the rice patties and in the numerous shops. Between town and temple, water buffalo grazed in the fields.

Banteay Srey is worth the effort to make it up that far, as none of the other temples compared in intricacy of ornate detail (save Angkor Wat’s grand bas-reliefs, that is) found at this, the Citadel of the Women. Thousands of aspara (dancing women) adorn the temples of Angkor, and these were glorious. The stonework tapestries hanging above each doorway of the structures, depicting different scenes in Hindu lore and moralization, were impressive in their durability as well as their detail. Doorways held well-maintained script, perhaps dedications to those who created the original buildings, or the gods who guided them in so doing. We took our time through Banteay Srey temple and enjoyed the music of a band comprised of land-mine survivors who had set up outside the main wall to play for tourists. The music added such a sweet touch to viewing the ruins.

On our way back towards the Grand Tour loop, we stopped at the Cambodia Landmine Museum, created by an impressive hero named Aki Ra, a Khmer man of perhaps 34 years now who had been a child soldier before the wars ended. He had created and planted an incredulous number of landmines across his fair country, and was seeing the post-battle impact of these nasty little bombs. Children were walking through their family’s farm only to poke at the wrong piece of metal or step on the wrong part of the path and lose a limb or more. Aki Ra could not live with his contribution to this ongoing problem, which still affects and cripples hundreds a year in this small country of 13 million people, many many many of whom are kids who may just not know any better. Aki Ra began to uncover landmines, and made it his life’s work. He has diffused more than 50,000 landmines and bombs. He is now married to a gorgeous woman from Japan who came to Cambodia to meet the Japanese man who was diffusing landmines, only to meet the Khmer man with the Japanese name that was her destiny to marry. They have two boys of their own, but are also raising and educating scores of other children who have been disabled by landmines. His is a story of great humanity after the tragedies of war. We were glad to get to learn about such a national hero as Aki Ra.

Along the Grand Tour, we saw more great towering trees taking over the monuments at Ta Som. The Neak Pean Temple was exceptional—it is the day spa of the past: four tremendous pools surrounding a central temple, each with a central water spicket in animal or Hindu form. If we closed our eyes, we could see the scores of monks and other pilgrims who came to this place to enjoy the waters and sit upon the steps in quiet contemplation or heated debate. Now, we saw the tourists, clustering around the openings and getting their ankles mangled by the nettles in the basin of the former pools. They mean it when they say to wear pants!

Preah Khan was our last stop for the day, and it was a doozy! It had been drizzling all day, and the downpour had been in the wings of the clouds. Now, the wings opened and we were drenched, happy again to have our little 2 USD-each umbrellas from Bangkok to protect us from the worst of it. Martha’s Monsoon Hat has officially earned its title, we believe. Anyway, the Preah Khan complex is another Big ‘Un, with hallways and columns (but no archways as with Roman design). We walked the hallways, up and over the worn stones that blocked evil from passing the threshold (evil cannot get over steps, dontchaknow). We entered on the East and met up with Tong in the West as the rains got worse. Dani offered her blue emergency poncho, and left it with him for protection from the rains on his way home. As we left the park, he turned into an alleyway to pick up some food for himself. We didn’t mind. It had been a very nice day riding and climbing around, and expanding our minds.

For dinner, we followed Liz’s recommendation and headed to the 3 USD a person Cambodian BBQ buffet, Hansa, which is a little bit North across the Siem Reap River by Ivy 2. The display was impressive: many different kinds of meat and greens and seafood. We peaked at the other tables to figure out what we were supposed to do as we collected tasty morsels to put on the metal BBQ pit that was placed on our table, sizzling above a bed of coals. A hunk of lard sat on the very top; a pool of water at the base, and a basket of cabbage and lettuce along the side to boil in the waters below. The meat is placed on the hot BBQ tray to sizzle and cook: prawns, chicken, pork, and beef … your choice. Then, a bit of noodle goes into your bowl, perhaps a bit of a sour chili sauce for extra flavor and kick, and the veggies and meats go into the bowl with the now-savory waters of the cooking process. YUM YUM!

Our day ended quietly as we listened to the downpour continue through the night, but with our bellies too full from the treats of dinner, we did not sleep well.

Monday, August 6, Day 3, for our final day in Angkor, the heavy rains continued so we opted not to see the sunrise on Ankor Wat as we had intended, since there would be no sunrise to see! We slept in after the couple days of up and down and around and through, had breakfast of fruit shakes and coffee, brought along a huge orange the size of a grapefruit (but called an orange) for lunch, and procured Mr. Sophat for the day as he lounged just outside of the Ivy 2. Boy, those seats were cushy, and Dani once again found herself excited to have a chauffeur of her very own for 10 USD for the afternoon. Our plans: check out Lolei and the main temples of the Ruluos Group to the East, and then head back to Angkor Thom and sunset at Angkor Wat.

It is neat to get to see this town from many different directions; it is a lot bigger than one might expect, and had the makings of a high-rise city in the future with its water source nearby and urban sprawl already beginning to take shape. The streets are busy, overflowing with commerce from the few actual sidewalk areas to the edges of any puddle, past most curbs. To the East is no exception, but it did not take long to get to Lolei, which is nestled between a Buddhist temple and several large office-type buildings. Four pillars stand tall around a central well dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva, used in the past to irrigate the plains, or at least to call the gods to shower all four corners with the growing force of water.

Our driver took us to the far-point of the Bakong Temple next, one of the primary two temples of the Ruluos Group, where we climbed the stairs to the top of this representation of Mount Meru in Hindu culture. The five-level temple contains four levels to different mythical beings called naga, garudas, rakasas, and yakshas. The second primary temple, Preah Kor, was back along the road towards the central areas of Angkor, a complex of multiple mountain-like temple structures mostly under renovation. As the rains continued to come down, and just after Dani had wondered aloud how they took to renovating these structures while maintaining the ‘ruins’ feel of the place, a gentleman from the workforce stopped to chat with us a bit. He was among the 21 men who worked on restoring this complex, using natural putty to reseal the crevices between old bricks and to replace wearing bricks with new ones from the same mountain region as the original, this showing most of the original design of the structure without losing the old ways of building it. Many of the ornate details of the carvings here were horribly worn, and the team of workers used concrete to reshape the figure for generations more to behold. It was so kind of him to share his knowledge with us!

The ride back past Angkor Wat showed a busy collection of tourists entering the temple, working to get past the gaggle of small children who approached with their wares. One thing is for sure, though … once you enter the outskirts of the temples, it is less common to encounter the child salesforce; the Cambodians respect the visitors’ time while in their sacred places, which is lovely. We asked to go on to Angkor Thom, where we walked the grounds a second time to see areas that we had not explored with LengHeng the previous day.

Past Phimean Akas once again, we encountered a man who walked with us to show us the 70 meter tall Buddha, telling us the history of the Grand Palace complex as we went. At the end of our little walk, we handed him a dollar, and he asked for baht instead, eventually getting a second dollar out of us as he flashed his long, elegant nails—surely subconsciously we wanted to give him that extra buck just so that our minds didn’t have to imagine what those nails might feel like. He was kind enough, though, and told us properly the correct path to continue our walk. Just another guy out for a buck who took the time to study his English and his history to help the tourists get more out of their experience. Bangkok sincerely jaded us to plain ol’ helpful people, and we are trying to unburden our minds of these trust issues while among the nice folks of Siem Reap.

As we crossed the Terrace of Elephants a second time, we started our walk back to meet Mr. Sophat and head to Angkor Wat again for sunset time. A mass exodus of people were headed to Phnom Bakheng, the sunset mountain (which we opted not to see this trip since it didn't look like there would be a sunset to see on this overcast day). We were left to walk the grand outside halls of Angkor Wat where each side contained a different story in bas-relief: the 37 heavens and 32 hells; the Mahabharata, a story now virtually known in Cambodian culture; the warring ways of gods—Vishnu defeating the demons, Krishna overcoming Bana, and the great story of Rama and his steps to save his wife Sita from the clutches of the Demon King Ravana (and he won with the help of monkeys, of course … YAY MONKEYS!). Martha found that the Negative setting on her camera really helped to show the detail where the natural colors and shadow of the late hour failed in clarity. See for yourself, as the photos of these stories in blue are Negativism and the tan and red tones are natural!

The sun did not set over Angkor Wat, although the skies were a bit clearer than earlier in the day. We hung up our hats to head home after 6 PM, cutting across the West side of the main path to the internal complex … and finding the area where so many reflection photos of the Wat have been taken! A family was busy taking photos from this point-of-view, as well, and we stopped to snap a photo together, which we consider to be one of the big keepers of the trip.

We had more pizza for dinner, enjoying the thin crust, and allowing a first taste of Hawaiian pizza for Martha. (The pineapple here is so sweet, it was finally ‘the time’!) We had thought about buying pizzas in Bangkok, but the price seemed so much compared with the Thai food that we loved, so we always passed it up. The Khmer food is great, but we missed bread, even after the overload in Spain!! We fear gaining weight in this town if we stay too long!

After three days of exploring, we chilled once again with Liz in the Ivy 2 lounge, telling her about our experiences and listening to the trials of life in a small village—rampant with gossip and busybodies and troublemakers and pacifying forces as with any small-town. We are taking the dengue fever scare here seriously, however, and will begin to plan our exit starting tomorrow.

In love and light,

Martha and Dani