A few more pics from Cambodia

A few pics from Cambodia

Phnom Penh

Back to Phnom Penh, to the maze of alleyways and dark passageways that comprise the old lakeside warren of cheap guesthouses and hotels, bars and cafes. It was thirty eight degrees again yesterday and the asphalt seemed to breath out fire in the evening. Last night I booked into a room with an air conditioner for once - paying a whole eight dollars!!! The air conditioner blew softly onto my face, cooling it, but not altering the temperature of the room by even one degree. But it was enough to lull me to sleep to the sound of pounding disco music, waking up in the night to the sound of pounding rain, like a thousand drummers beating out their rythms on the tin roof.

I dozed off again to wake late. Loud claps of thunder had been added to the pounding rain, and as I entered the lounge area/deck of the hotel, a couple of hippies that I had met the day before came up the stairs looking like drowned rats. "The water is ankle deep out there" they said "and you have to walk through it quite a way to get to a tuktuk". I decided not to go out to breakfast.

Lakeside was once a beautiful place, but developers have dumped a huge pile of earth in the middle of the lake, making it much smaller. They are going to build on the pile of earth. Then in one year they are going to knock down all the little hotels and cafes on this side of the lake and build multistory hotels. I'm glad I got here before that happened.

Flight out of Phnom Penh tonight. Not looking forward to it.
I will put some photos on the blog when I get back to England.

Banteay Srei Temple

This temple, whose name probably meant auspicious city, was built in honour of Shiva, with a lingum.

The walls are exquisitely carved. There are seven headed men waving their multiple arms around, Indra on a three headed elephant, leafy nagas with lion heads, monsters touching the breasts of women, men holding other men by their hair before killing them, beautiful scrolling leafy branches, dragons with leafy branches coming out of their mouths. The bas reliefs are clear, sharp, apparently untouched by the passage of time and weather. This may have been because they were so deeply carved, or it may have had something to do with the quality of the stone which, unlike the usual sandstone used for these temples, is pink.

We arrived at this temple in the middle of the day. Not one of those temples with trees in amongst the ruins, there was no shade. I could feel the sweat trickling down my back all the time that I stood admiring these beautiful carvings.

In the evening, I came upon a gay bar where a cabaret was in full swing. A group of Californian men welcomed me at their table and plied me with cocktails.

Next day I went in search of a place called Aqua. It took me a long time because I walked down the wrong road and ended up walking about five kilometres through a waterside village, where houses on tall stilts backed onto a little river, now reduced to a mere trickle. It might have been very pleasant, if they had not thrown so much rubbish out of the backs of their houses onto the river bank.

Eventually I found Aqua, a beautiful swimming pool owned by an English man called John. The pool is surrounded by lush tropical jungle, shady places, sunny places and a bar that juts right out into the pool. Someone has built bar stools in the pool and a ledge all round the bar, so you can sit with your legs in the water at the bar. A couple of Irish girls serve at the bar. "There's no point in my going back to Ireland" said one  "I have a degree in architecture but there's no work."

Aqua is frequented by a crowd of volunteers, all teaching English to village children around Siem Reap. They come here after work and stand around in the pool, with just their heads poking out of the water, like so many water buffaloes, chatting.

The Roluos Group of Khmer Temples

38 degrees in the shade. And there's no shade around most of these temples!

Preah Ko
Crumbling brick built temples with carved stone lintels and side panels in the morning sun. The carving is almast baroque in its intricacy, multiple nagas covered in leafy apparel, men riding horses emerging at intervals from the nagas backs, dragons spitting out curling leaves and dancing figures. The bricks are crumbling and the stone carvings peeling off.

Preah Ko was dedicated to Indravarman II, the founder of the Angkor empire, in 879 and thus began a tradition of temples dedicated to ancestors which subsequent Angkorian kings had to build, preferably before building a temple dedicated to their chosen religion.

Originally these temples were covered in white finely carved stucco.

Bakong
A collection of brick temples are completely surrounded by a moat with stone walls, at Bakong. The central one was built on top of a stepped stone pyramid. All apart from this one are in a terminal state of disrepair. But there's a nice new monastery here with its own new temple - abandon the old and build the new - twas ever thus in Cambodia. Vestiges of carved stone lintels remain here and there. These too would have been clothed in white stucco, intricately carved.

Only now that Cambodia (and the world) realises what a treasure house they possess do they begin, tentatively, with lots of help from other countries, to preserve what is left of their ancient temples.  Around the temples the trees have also been left in peace (in the rest of Cambodia they have been obliterated.) So visiting temples and walking through these magnificent trees, you can begin to imagine what a beautiful country Cambodia once was.

Lolei
Another crumbling brick temple, with a new temple right bang slap beside it.

Preah Khan

Jayavarman VII dedicated Preah Khan temple to Lokesvara, the saviour of Mahayana Buddhism, who represented his father, in 1191. Preah Khan was a city with a population divided according to function.

Banteay Kdei Temple

Jayavarman VII bult this Buddhist temple to house hundreds of Buddhist statues. After he died it was converted to a Shiva temple. Hundreds of Buddha statues, most of which were broken, were buried. Recent Japanese excavations brought these statues to light