Wat Critters

I love all critters - all those found on the surface and under the sea. In Cambodia I was happy to see many dogs - but no cats were in sight Cambodia - perhaps because of its Buddist/Hindu underpinnings, provided several critter interaction opportunities for me. I paid a tuk-tuk to take me around late this afternoon to say good bye to all the critter friends I had made.

One of the many small horses I would meet/greet around the temples. They are used primarily to pull carts. Most were stallions and not very friendly. The one in this pic was also a stallion but I was able to befriend him and others with a soft voice and scratching in the right places. Note small temples in background.

A few of the Rhesus Macaque monkeys (fairly large monkeys) that I fed banana's to most mornings. We became pretty close and well known to one another.






this is the alpha male of the macaque troop. Very nice fellow and calm in my presence - he didn't snatch and run - but like most of them gentlly broke off pieces of banana and consumed them while calmy sitting beside me. Sitting on the ground at their level helps belay their fears.




this is a mother and youngster. I believe the mother was the alpha male's favorite bc he always allowed her to eat after he was full. That's pretty thick jungle in background.





mom and baby chilling with me.







this is another mum with a really young baby. She was kinda skiddish about approaching me - probably bc the baby was so young. But with a soft coaxing voice at her eye level she eventually came around.



my absolute favorite creature in the world - the Asian elephant - and this is my best bub Thom (remember "large" as in Angkor Tom). I met her on my first day out to the temples. They have about a dozen or so elephants that carry tourists from parking areas to the temple entrances. I brought Thom pineapples (4-8/day) at least once a day for 4 days. The mahuts appreciate you feeding their elephants and, as long as your doing so, will allow you to "pet them and take pics. Note the black skin color which is common to Indochinese asian elephants.

Thom loved to have the area around her left eye massaged - and I obliged as long as she wanted me to do so. I truely believe that she eventually began to recognize me and appeared to cheer up when I appeared! Btw - that's a pineapple that I gave her that she's grasping in her trunk.

Thom grabbing a pineapple from me - which she always did from behind with her trunk kinda hanging over my shoulder.





she also liked to have the foremost upper portion of her mouth scratched. I had reservations about doing this when the mahut told me to try it but, in the end both Thom and I thoroughly enjoyed it.





when I scratched a certain spot behind her ear or another spot under her chin - she would vigorously flap her ear ...







Fanning and caressing my head with her ear - not only cooling me but keeping the flys away too. A very nice symbiotic relationship - that I could do for hours.

the pineapples always assured my bond with Thom!

Thom liked getting almost eyeball to eyeball with me - literally only a few inches separating us. I can't remember if elephants are near- or far-sighted, but for some reason she was eager for and made every attempt to gain that physically close eye contact. Her eyes appeared to be remarkably small for her body mass(iveness)! Her eyes were beautiful and, when eyeball-to-eyeball with her, I sensed that we were seeing into one another's soul. Thankfully, her soul was telling me that she was happy - especially for the pineapples I brought to her daily. A really moving experience.

again - the symbiotic ear flapping and chin scratching. A truely wonderful coexistence - at least for me anyway. I will miss her.

Ta Prohm (of Lara Croft Fame)

Have returned from temple climbing to hotel to cool off and eat! So I thought that I would start sending these!

Angelinia Jolie's character Lara Croft made Ta Prohm temple famous - and for the life of me I cannot remember the movie's title - it was the first one in the Lara Croft series! Parts of the movie were actually filmed on location here! This is the reason it is hit by almost all tourists - many on short trips here visit only Wat and Ta Prohm. It's small compared to the massiness of Wat - so tends to get really crowded really fast with just a few people present! That's why my driver, guide and I hit it before 6:00AM! There were people there even then - but very few.

Ta Prohm was built in 1186 by a king who dedicated it to his mother. In its prime it was "a holy trunk of great treasures". According to ancient Sanskrit inscriptions on the walls, the temple was filled with tens of thousands of pearls, precious stones and gold dishes weighing more than 500 kilograms! This legend probably was why the movie was based on it.
The temple is a labrinth of dark galleries and pillars with walls decorated with carvings of senuous celestial nymphs with roots crawling across them like an infectuous fungi rash!
The temple is famous for the incredible gigantic tree root systems that not only give the sense that you are in a newly discovered jungle temple but is also responsible for holding the temple together. It is for this reason that the trees are left untouched - the tree (fig and several other types) roots really are the infrastructure holding the buildings together. Because there are so many trees, there is a thick canopy covering the entire temple - being perpetually shaded makes its interior rooms and passages spooky dark. It's an incredibly fascinating and weirdly eery place.
But pictures are worth thousands of words - so enjoy this series of email attachments - the pic titles tell it all.


Gorgeously eerie


Really and literally - the stuff of Lara Croft!


More of the same? No - every inch of the place is totally unique and awsome!


Lighting throughout temple is weird making pics difficult given combination of very bright sunlight and dark shadows. I hope these are clear enough to give you the sense of majesty that I felt.


The natural wonders are as impressive as the man-made ones!


What can I say - everything/sight was just awsome!

Wats What and Trivia

Size - all of the Angkors together cover 453 sq kilometers.

Forgot to mention that most of the temples have bullet and shrapnel damage from the Khmer Rougue days.

Entrance cost is $20 for a 1 and $40 for a 3-day pass AND they do NOT give you any brochures!?

Small holes in walls? Think the wailing wall in Isreal where notes are stuck into the masonary cracks. Anglor worshippers would chistle the holes and put gold, pearls, precious stones into them, cover the holes with plaster/stucco and repaint them. Grave robbers would look for them and dig out contents. The holes stayed.

Anything completely restored to show what they looked like "new"? No nothing that I know of other than embellished postcards.

That's about it - I'm off to find Angelina Jolie!

Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom

Saw amazing stuff today - absolutely mind-boggling in terms of both its history and physical presence in terms of its size and incredible ancient architecture - totally unbelievable to the human eye! But just magnificent to behold, Angkor Wat = Holy City (Angkor) Buddist Monestary (Wat).

It was originally a hindu shrine to Vishnu - built by distant cousins of the Champa that built My Son - but the king that built Angkor Wat defeated the Champa in Cambodia and Thailand. It was built between 1130 and 1153 to serve as as a holy capital city and eventually as the king's funerary temple. It is surrounded my a moat and enclosed by a laterate wall.. Its centerpiece are 5 incredible towers representing the heavenly peaks of Mt Meru - the tallest of which was the home of Vishnu. During its heyday as many as 450K people lived in and around it.

Angkor Wat, like all temples in the area flip-flopped between Hinduism and Buddism depending on the beliefs of the Khmer rulers. It was converted to a Buddist temple some time in the 16th century. Currently, none of the temples in the area are officially used as religious centers - they exist only for the tourists.

I got a driver and guide to start out at 6AM to avoid crowds and heat. Great that there were few tourists around! Just look at and enjoy my pictures. In real life - they are hundreds fold more magnificent!







Some of the interior bas-reliefs found throughout the complex. These are the Apsara - heavenly nymphs or angelic dancers.- which I kinda like the sound of!


More incredible stuff - you can get idea of scale - that's little ole me in the center!





I really liked both this shot - captured the mystic of the place.

Angkor Tom or Grand Angkor (Angkor = Holy City + Tom or Thom = large) was built by a Khmer king as his royal palace around 1200. It is a walled compound surrounded by a 100 meter wide moat. Inside are some of Angkors most famous monuments; Bayon, the Terrace of Elephants, and the Terrace of the Leper (supposedl) King. I got really confused going through this labyrinth - so can't give much detail re pics.

the famous bridge leading to the south (main) gate to Angkor Tom (also spelled Thom - but Cambodians do Tom).. Note balustrades of giants handling nagas a mystical multiheaded serpant. The gate archway depicts elephants plodding towards you topped by the Budda of Compassion.


Angkor Tom's bridge leading south



The Bayon was the King's temple and lies at the center of Angkor Tom. It is comprised of 54 towers and 216 smiling faces - all different but all are said to resemble the king's facial features. Complementing the faces are intricate bas-reliefs depicting daily life of the king and bloody battles with the Chams.



More of the Bayon kings temple's smiling faces!



I'm not exactly sure which temple this is - but the were beautiful!


the Baphuon, built around 1050, is a 3-tiered temple pyramid with incredible bas-relief.


The Terrace of the Elephabts is 350 meters long elevated up to 20 ft above a huge paved field where up to 40+K subjects would gather. The King would sit on a platform in the center of the terrace. The king would use it as a reception platform and his armies of warriors mounted on elephants and horses on either side of the terrace with him in an elevated area in the center would welcome dignitaries.and hold court over his subjects.
The attached pics are of the bas-reliefs at the base of the terrace facing the "audiences".



built to honor a king who supposedly died of leprocy.


the Baphuon was built about 1050AD. It is a 3-tiered temple noted for its bas-reliefs - of which these are an example.

Building Facts - The core of many of these temples are made out of lava-type stone and the exteriors out of sandstone. These materials were mined some 200+ kilometers away. In the wet season the materials were broght to construction sites on bamboo rafts down the Siem River. During the dry season thousands of elephants brought the stone to the construction sites. It's interesting to note that they were constructed of rough-quaried stone and the carving done after the main structures were built - leaving no room for any errors/mistakes! .Kings conscripted thousands for years to build them. Most of the structures were painted - inside and outside. Red was a favorite interior color and is still present/preserved in the interiors of some structure.. Gold, evidently paint not leaf, was a favorite exterior color - I saw no preserved exterior colors. Many of the buildings in the complexes were used for storage - food as well as the kings' paraphanalia like huge parasals (sp?), elephant regalia, weapons and, in some cases, they were used as huge treasure warehouses!

I hiked about 12 mi today in 94+ degrees and humidity. I came back to the hotel room at noon to shower and change - then went back out again <- that's why 2 different t-shirts! Also - a $100 travelers check literally disolved in my pocket bc of perspiration - going to be tough getting that made up!

Tomorrow it's the famous "Lara Croft Temples" - so stay tuned!

Cambodia - Siem Reap

Well - I made it to Siem Reap safely. I was picked up at the airport by hotel chaufeur who gave me a 45 minute driving tour of the "sites" then to the hotel which is across the street from Raffles and incredibly nice for a third. Of the price of Raffles!


That's me on my private yacht with the floating village in the background.

The terrain here is flat and jungle with a huge lake nearby called Tonte Sap - 150 kilometers (almost 90 miles) across! It was because of this lake that the temples and palaces were built here. Temp and humidy = mid-ninties - it is the end of their wet/monsoon season.
After settling into my room, it was too late to do any of the temples. So a "guide" asked me if I wanted to go see the "floating village"? I had no idea what this was - but it sounded interesting - so I decided why not. After a bumpy 45 minute motorbike ride, and paying a $15 park entrance fee, onto my own privately captained boat for a 25 min boat ride into what appeared to be mangrove - but this was fresh water!?


This gives you an idea of the many forms of floating residences there are - small, large, some with boat hulls some on pontoon like things. What cracked me up was how many TV antenna were present - at least 1 in 3 had one - look closely and you can see them in this pic.
So - kinda weird that after traveling a great distance from Vietnam into another country, the first "tour" I take in Siem Reap was to a Vietnamese village!? Guess that strange things happen during one's journies!

Turns out this floating village is a myriad of types and forms of boat houses on the lake forming a village called Chong Khneas AND its entire population is Vietnamese "lake squatters" which has been around for well over a century! They say that the VN never come ashore. They fish and farm fish, grow greens on floating gardens, and will grow some rice during the dry season on the edge of the lake. Evidently the Cambodian gov't gave up trying to deport them years ago! Btw - the inhabitants speak no Cambodian - and the village has 3 floating schools!

Tomorrow I hit the real thing very early in the AM. So, good night from Campuchia!