December 18, 2003
Now, picture yourself sitting on more than 3 whole cow chopped up into huge chunks of meat slowly decomposing, and therefore giving out a slightly suffocating stinky odour which is constantly getting srtonger and stronger, as you advance your way on the very bumpy dirt road from the Thai border to Siem Reap in about ten hours. Well, I guess at least we had all the bridges nowadays and the mines have been cleared up around the area! ;D
My first impression of Siem Riep's Cambodian people was unfortunatelly not on the favourable side. Everything costs so much (including the ticket to Angkor, which is actually money going to a private petrol company!!) and even though the town people became very wealthy as a consequance of tourism thay are not content with what they have, so they are constantly raising their prices. Especially the moto drivers can be very annoyingly stupid and faceless at the same time. I am sorry to say this but it seems that all they want is rip you off in a very dishonest way. You see at least 10 huge new hotels being constracted in Siem Reap, (the existing Grand Hotel charges 1900 dollars per night!) while all the four other major ruins of Ankor era in the country are left to sad delapidation. (Yes, there are much more cities like the ones we can visit now near SR!)
The temples and palaces themselves are awsome, magnificent and breathtaking. You could spend weeks to enjoy all the little details of the meticulously carved fine bas reliefs (depicting everyday life and legends of the Ramayana tales) and sculptures. Unlike the solitude, which does not seem to exist in this time of the year in high tourist season (Nov, Dec and Jan) and the sunset, which is virtually non-existent due to the many clouds of the sky.
Now a very brief history of ancient SEA times a la Kinga: The Khmers of Cambodia adopted the Hinduistic believes of the Champas, who first started to built a kind of ever-falling-apart kingdom of the region near Vietnam, and took over the city of Angkor. There they maintened a marvellous hydropolis with an excellent irrigation system that allowed rice harvests three times a year for centuries, until the Siam from today's Thailand took them over entering on the very royal roads built by the Khmers conecting their cities of their kingdom as far as Sukhothai on the western side. (Of course, history never ends and at one point the Siam forces were overthrone by the Burmese of Bagan in Ayutthaya, Thailand.)
Before the very fragile irrigation system of the Khmers were destroyed and the great hydropolis emptied out, there exist a flourishing court of the kings, with thousnads of Brahmin priests, hundreds of dancing girls (Apsaras) and an equally large number of slaves and servants. Today there is no trace of the palace, which was constracted of wood with golden roofs and window frames and many chambers decorated with huge mirrors hosting embassadors visiting from far away countries. Lay pepole wear a single piece of clothing that left the brest exposed for woman and man alike. The many different unique hair styles are beautifully preserved for eternity on the walls of the Angkor Wat's Apsaras. Trading was done by woman only and the most charming girls were given to the court for the entartainment of the king, who was supposed to be the god Vhisnu at the same time. (The decline of the Angkor kingdom lies in the fact that Hinduism and Mahajana Buddhism faded with the new arrival of strict Theravada Buddhism where the king had no important role to play any more.)
The most memorable and grandiouse temples are the Angkor Wat, the Bantay Srei, the Preah Khan, the Bayon and the Tha Prom. The latter is the place where Angelina Jolie goes into the ruin overgrown by a huge banyan tree and the Bayon is where you see those many earie faces of Avalokiteshvara around you in the high temple. Angkor Wat with its 5 towers was originally a burial place of a king, later converted into a famous Buddhist shrine. In Preah Khan you can find one of the many hospitals and resting places that were built by the king along with the stunning image of the king's voluptously beautiful wife. (This sculpture originally had the so often used ruby decorations of the time. Also, other gemstones and gold layers were populalrly used throughout the temples.) Finally, Bantay Srei library is a beautiful piece of jewel with such a condensed amount of amazing carving made of warm pink sandstone you can never stop wondering about!
In spite of all this beauty I had a mixed experience of the place for the reasons I elaboreted on earlier. I met the closest to the famous Cambodian hospitality when I stopped on the long way to Bantay Srei at one of the very tourist orientated villages where not only I had the chance to follow the process of palm sugar candy made but also I got some still in the liquid form to eat. (This palm sugar is the same everywhere in SEA and if you remember I got the first sample of it in Myanmaa from the nuns.) Naturally, the first 12 year old girl I bumped into spoke excellent English and wanted to sell me the local goods after showing her school where she studies Cambodian, English and Japanese. (I am really impressed with the amount of guides in here and Burma who speak excellent American, French, German, Japanese and Spanish! Not Hungarian yet, tho!:) I took some pictures of children showing off their jumping abilities off palm trees and an extremely cute little girl who was playing with flowers and not yet spoke her mother tongue.
The element of fun in Cambodia, Myanmaa and Thailand seems to be very important in the most menial works as well as everyday life. You often hear people laughing, teasing each other (esp girls and boys but older people, too) and playing around. This is recorded in their dances quite well, I realized after having watched the different dances of these contries. All seem to contain common elements wether it is depicting the phesant's lives or performed for royal audiences. In fact, the Cambodian royal Khmer dance developed from the same route as the Thai or Siam court dance, only the former seems to be a slower version of the latter. Very graceful and impressive!
Surprisingly, the road back to Bangkok was less than 20 hours this time. The fresh greens of the rice fields scattered with palm trees on the sides of the red dirt road formed a nice background to the working locals and the water buffalos carrying white storklike birds on their backs. As I watched this peaceful scene I slowly forgot the myriads of warstruck, often limbless beggars and the likes of Siem Reap and started quietly sing one of my favourite celestial song, Agnus Dei (originally sang by the boys choir at Oxford). I felt lucky to have been able to see all these mystical and grand places...
Soon, I will write my christmas presi to you all. Until then I wish you all the happiness you need and that one day may all of you get the chance to see these wonderful places!
Love:
TiglisKingu