Last Week in Cambodia!

Our last full week in Cambodia was a busy one! We still had to get to some temples, wrap up our classes and lessons, and buy souvenirs! For our last full weekend, we spent some time with the group of peace corps workers and enjoyed our nights out at the clubs and bars. On Saturday, we met Natasha early in the morning and biked over to the PEPY house. We took a ride out into the countryside and met up with some of the PEPY teachers and workers. We learned about the problems with the Cambodian school system, including how state curricula lack in many academic areas. We visited a local farm where a family grows rice and fruits, and we learned how to make rice whiskey. I didn't have my camera on me, which is a shame!

On Monday night, Tim and I went to see an Apsara dancing show. Apsara dancing is an ancient tradition in Cambodia, and it has roots even before the Khmer empire. There are many large banquet halls in Siem Reap that specialize in hosting the performances. The program paid for our tickets and Tim and I indulged in the incredible buffet! They had all sorts of foods including local Khmer specialties and foods from all over Asia. It was amazing! We got our food and sat down to watch the show (the manager even found special seats for us so we could see better).

           

 
After dinner, Tim and I went to the Night Market, our favorite night-time tourist trap! We even went to the fish spa, something that I wanted to do since arriving in SE Asia. We put our feet into big pools of water filled with minnows. They eat the dead skin from your feet and give you an instant pedicure -- it tickled my feet terribly! The feeling was uncomfortable at first, but eventually I didn't feel it. It was definitely a weird (but unique!) experience! Plus, it was only $2USD, a can of Angkor beer included. Not too shabby...
Of course, shopping followed the fish pedicure. Here's a picture of Tim doing what he does best -- shopping for clothes. I bought a cool purple shirt with the Cambodian flag on it.

Typical...

All in all, a good night (minus the constant heckling by cab drivers...) At least my Khmer is getting better and better!

Siem Reap Sunset

Let's pretend it was Wednesday, Dec 2! Today is Anna's last night in town. She decided to leave early because of mono, and so we went out to dinner with the whole group.

View from my balcony 

All of us at "Soup Dragon" Me, Professor Ishwar, Anna's dad, Anna, Natasha, and Tim!

We enjoyed a delicious Khmer meal at Soup Kitchen, an open air restaurant on Pub Street. We had a fantastic view of the city from the roof! Another wonderful night in town :)

Angkor Thom

Well, it's about three months since I got back, and I suppose it's about time to finish up this blog! Here's a re-cap of the last week in Cambodia!

We took a trip to Angkor Thom, a city built to the northwest of Angkor Wat. It is the last capital city of the great Angkor empire before it mysteriously collapsed; scientists still debate the reasons.  What's so interesting about this site is the temple called Bayon, which was designed with extremely large faces of a character. Archeologists debate whether it is Buddha's face, or if it's the Bodisattva ("enlightened one") king who built the temples. This temple is cool because it marks the transition between the Hindu and the Buddhist state -- Jaivarman II built the complex during the 12th century and it is believed that he was responsible for officially changing the state religion to Buddhism due to political pressures from other states. Angkor Thom really blends the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. We walked all around the park, which was nice and cool because of all the forest growth (finally -- a break from the heat. Now that I'm home and I've just made it through one more North Country winter, I'm wishing I was back in the heat!!)

Here are some pictures from our trip!

The North Gate into the city

Tim and I in front of Bayon (I never forget my kroma!)

  

 Here's Tim pretending to be the linga.... the whole temple has hundreds of these linga sites. Most of the vertical pieces have been stolen or looted over the centuries. Bayon was so fun to climb around because there are a bunch of different levels, tunnels, and staircases. Quite an adventure!

Faces in the stone to the left, and apsara dancers to the right. I was supposed to pay $1 for the picture but I snuck away before they caught me!

Here I am with the Bodhisattva!

The wall around the city, lined with elephants whose trunks support the wall

Elephants!

Extremely intricate carvings that line the wall for almost a kilometer! Absolutely stunning

It was a beautiful day as we walked through the forest. It was nice and quiet because there weren't too many tourists outside of Bayon. As usual, we were completely exhausted by noon! We spent the rest of the day hanging around town and in the markets. Another great day!

Angkor Wat!!

Angkor WHAT? Angkor WAT! We finally got to Angkor last Wednesday, and let me tell you -- it was incredible.

This temple is pretty freaking amazing, actually. It was built in the 11th century by Suryavarman II. He was a god-king and was responsible for bringing Hindu influence to Khmer life. The temple complex is HUGE, and there are many different levels and sections. The whole complex is surrounded by a moat, called a baray. It's supposed to signify the mythical cosmic ocean from which all is born -- most temples in this era have moats for this reason.

Angkor Wat is a temple built to celebrate the Hindu god Vishnu, and the whole complex is covered in images, murals, and statues that celebrate the gods and the Hindu myths. Literally every inch of stone is carved or decorated. I could bore you all with more about the history, but instead I will just tell you go check out the Wikipedia page (haha) and provide you with lots of pictures!!

Crossing the baray

Looking up inside the main gate

Looking out into the courtyard

Main courtyards, Angkor in the back!

Verandas all the way around the temple

Tim and the depiction of the Ramayana

Me! And Vishnu's turtle incarnation in the myth "Churning of the Great Ocean of Milk"

Climbing up into the temple towers!

Me and my kroma!

Beautiful carvings

Here we are at Angkor!

best friends.

First trip into Angkor Park -- Kulen Mtn and Bontaey Srei!

Last Saturday was a fantastic adventure in the great outdoors! We woke up very early and took a tuk-tuk into Angkor Park. The park spans hundreds of kilometers and there are many different sites and cities all over the place -- we drove about an hour and a half out into the wilderness! We arrived at the base of a small mountain called Mt. Kulen, which is famous for its pre-Angkor carvings in the river beds.

Tim on the way up Mt. Kulen!

Cool forest trees!

Over 1,000 years ago, the people in the valley believed in the sacred power of the waters, and so they carved thousands of linga designs and depictions of Hindu texts into the rocks along the river...quite a sight to behold!

Amazing!

Here I am on the way back down!

Butterflies!

 The best part of the whole hike was coming down -- at the bottom we were greeted by three adorable puppies! I am a total sucker for the dogs here, and I was very tempted to put one in my backpack :)

                   

                 Adorable.



Our next stop on this lovely day of adventuring was to a beautiful temple called Bontaey Srei ('Citadel for Women') which was built after Angkor Wat. It is famous for its use of pink/red sandstone, and it really is spectacular!

The gateway into the temple

Beautiful carvings

Thousands of intricate carvings dedicated to the gods

Tim and I

It was a beautiful day, hot, but gorgeous and we had a fantastic time visiting all of these ancient sites! I am always amazed when confronted with the massive engineering tasks that were possible a thousand years ago!

Next post: Behold ANGKOR WAT!

Thanksgiving, Cambodian Style!

Well, not quite Cambodian style -- but definitely in Cambodia!

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting that Thanksgiving would be so hard to miss. I felt a little bit sad to not be with all of my family and friends back home. But Tim, Anna and I had a wonderful family dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant! It made me realize that it doesn't matter where you are, it's who you're with. I've been able to have my own little family of close friends and mentors since I've been over here, and I am very thankful for that!

We went around the table and told each other what we were thankful for -- the spirit of Thanksgiving lives even from 15,000 miles away!

Happy Family!

Peace and love and good food!

Told ya, Mom, I'd be eating rice on Turkey Day!

Only a 'Real Indian Chef'

Here we are with full bellies in front of our hotel!

Thursday also happened to be the Memorial Day for the Water Festival tragedy that had taken place three days previously, so we had even more reason to be thankful and reflective. We all wore white in honor of those who were killed. It was a very special night -- good friends and good food are pretty much universal!

Sambor Prei Kuk -- 11/24

Siem Reap is close to all the major temple sites of the ancient Khmer empire -- the economy up here is completely tourist-driven, but it gives us great opportunities to see some amazing places!

Angkor Wat is the main attraction, but before we went gallivanting around there, our professor thought we should get our feet wet by seeing pre-Angkor monuments. It's been really fun because we get to go through all the temples in chronological order. 

Our first stop was Sambor Prei Kuk on the first capital of ancient Chenla, pre-Khmer empire. It was quite a journey getting there! We rented a car and a driver and drove about 2 hours east of Siem Reap. The city's access road brought us deep into a forest, and it was a bumpy ride! For 45 minutes we were tossed and bumped about in the back seat, rolling over potholes a meter wide and half a meter deep. It was like riding on a roller coaster!

The whole city of Sambor Prei Kuk spans many miles of forest and rolling hills, and there are 280 temples within the complex! Only half of them are still (or almost) standing today, and they are divided up into four groups (North - South - East - West) and each temple is built for a different Hindu deity. This city marks the beginning of a movement in the building of cities that focuses on Hindu worship. Here are some pictures from the visit!

Damage from bombs that the United States dropped at this site during the Vietnam War

Prasat Nam Chii, built 7th century. The tree is over 300 years old!

Restoration projects and archeological digs

Here we are in front of Prasat Tao ('Lion Temple')

Tim's a little hungry!

An old man we met -- he was gathering medicinal herbs for his village

ME! In front of South Temple 1 (some of them don't have names anymore!)

It was a wonderful visit because we could stroll along the paths leisurely. It was pleasantly cool as we were covered by trees -- a nice break from the heat! (It's still around 90 degrees here). I'm starting to get excited for snow and cold weather, I'm tired of sweating!

More very soon :)