Angkor Wat, take 2...

ahhh...thatäs more like it...pardon the random keys from another alphabet, but iäm pleased to be able to share a few photos from angkor wat with all of you...

and can i just say`?hooray for bicycles! to revert back one week to my journal from Cambodia.....here we go,

22 march 2008
I canät wrap my head around paying for things in dollars. I find myself converting from dollars to baht )and back to dollars again)..just because that is how i have been budgeting for the past month...a month! A single month...I do not know what prompted me to modify my usual 2-month minimum rule for this trip...oh well, I just unnecessarily spent 150 dollars - Gasp! - how does one do that in a place like Cambodia? easy, actually, i bought a plane ticket back to Bangkok...a single, one hour flight that will save me another endless day (or so i thought...) of dusty potholes and endearing qualities of young, money hungry transportation touts (see previous post for more lucious details on that endeavor)...

a side note on that lovely road,...if one would care to ask why the 150 kms of road from the Thai border to Siem Reap, a major thoroughfare by Cambodian standards, even called the National Highway, so why does this road take at least 5 hours to traverse, with only 5 kms of it paved and all but 2 of the bridges dismantled with bus-bottoming detours? The unofficial story relayed to me by a seasoned British expat is that a high-ranking political figure has financial ties to a certain airline that flies into Siem Reap, so why repair the road when keeping it in such dire conditions provides incentives for more tourists to fly...less money into road repairs equals more money into political pockets...sounds like a good plan to me, and itäs apparently working out well. To be fair, the road has improved, as up until 2 years ago, only pickups with 4wheel drive and high clearance could traverse this stretch (imagine 5-10 hours in the back of a pickup...hmmm, fun), and work IS being done..the 5 km of freshly laid pavement is 5 km more than there used to be...baby steps, baby steps...

On a brighter note, did I mention that I love my bicycle? well, all three, 1 for each day i pedaled in the predawn hours, ringing my bell at the tuk-tuks and tour buses passing me by...i felt like i should have a straw hat as i rode away in my flip-flops, basket full of water, batteries, and a camera full of potential amidst the Hindu and Buddhist carvings decorating the slabs of stone.

Hindu and Buddhist, dependant upon the religious persuasion of the powers that be at the time...the temples of Angkor Wat were constructed between the 8th and 15th centuries by a series of Kings who decided to be Gods as well. (who was going to argue with them?)...well, constructed by them is a long shot, but during their reign before the Thais sacked the Khmer Empire once and for all in 1431 A.D. Said to be the largest religious monument in the world, and the largest preindustrial city with an urban sprawl encompassing over 1,000 square miles...

Many of the temples have been restored and others left more ´as is´, with century-old Banyan trees spreading their roots through the cracks in the foundation...The largest single temple, Angkor Wat (the name given to the entire complex as well as the main temple site), devotes entire ½ mile long walls to recreating the cosmology of Vishnu, with thousands of carved Bas relief demons fighting the gods in a massive tug of war.

Most of the Angkor site remained overrun by jungle until its rediscovery by French archeologists in the late 19th century, and subsequent restoration through much of the 20th century continues until now.

More photos to come shortly, i assure you...and more words on that lovely flight that didnät quite save me all the time I had intended...just FYI, think CAREFULLY and patiently before flying Bangkok Airways...

Angkor Wat...or, if hell had temples on a bicycle tour

Just an inside note for all of you planning on heading to Angkor Wat for your next weekend getaway - when they tell you in the guidebooks that the journey by bus from Bangkok is a frustrating, all day affair (even though it's only 400 kms) and that the road from the Thai-Cambodian border to Siem Reap is bad, that would be bad by Southeast Asian standards...believe them, every single one.

Believe that you will have a nice, pleasant 4-hour journey in an air-conditioned bus on smooth, paved roads from Bangkok; believe that you will stop at a restaurant 3 kms from the border, be told to eat lunch and hand over your passport, please; believe that you will wait for an hour, a little bit anxious since your only valid identity has just driven off on the back of a motorbike, choking down fried rice in the open air; believe that you will then be herded like cattle through immigration (passport returned, thank you), and walk into a world of dusty streets and border-town trading, where since you left one country and haven't yet arrived in the next, do you even really exist for those minutes?;

believe that you will have your Cambodian visa stamped and be shuttled into bus to be driven 200 meters down the road to a room empty but for a few chairs set in rows, occupied by a few blank white faces who look like they have been waiting for a few minutes or several hours; this is where you will wait for your bus to Siem Reap, gateway to the majestic Khmer temples of Angkor Wat...and wait...and wait...until the bus drivers' friend who also rents taxis garnished enough business from frustrated travelers (who already paid for the bus, but the taxi leaves now...) and decided, yes, okay, we can finally leave;

believe that all the bridges will be out and, yes, that pothole we just drove around did swallow a car yesterday; believe that the air-conditioning will be broken and the windows won't open for the first three hours and the dust will pour in through every gap and the seats do make the steps on those temples you are about (someday?) to see feel like feather pillows...welcome to Cambodia, pleased to meet you that will be 5 dollars please...

yes, believe that prices will be in US dollars and it really doesn't get any cooler at night; believe that it will feel more like the chaos of Calcutta than the organized calm of Chiang Mai; believe that you will arrive late at night (if you are lucky and the bus only breaks down once), be accosted by beggars and wonder what was it you were coming to see in the first place?;

believe that the $150 flight back to Bangkok is sounding like a right fine idea and can you get a ticket for tonight, please?; believe that you will sleep soundly across from a river that resembles a green version of the Yamuna and wake up eager to bike 30 kilometers in 95 degree weather with 90 percent humidity...yes, believe that the Japanese tour groups are almost as annoying as the American tour groups, and believe that you will find a tiny corner in a deserted temple with stone carvings on every side and the sun hitting just right so the faces seem alive, 300 year old banyan trees spreading roots through 3000 year old rock temples built by hand and, yes, believe that despite the rash on your bum from sweating on a bike (which has a bell and a basket!), you are really glad to be here...

(and believe that really, i did take photos (about 1,000), and soon i will be somewhere where the internet connection rivals the cell phone reception and i will post some of them for you to see - unfortunately, the place where Thai cover bands sing Nirvana at 2 am doesn't seem to be that place...)

whereabouts...

my flea bits are fading, as are my memories of cold (er) nights requiring use of the sleeping bag and layers of clothing filling my pack. Yes, I appreciated them in the village, but now they simply take up space as I'm sweating in the dusty streets of Chiang Mai with nights just cool enough to sleep with the fan whirring on low...tomorrow I depart the north of Thailand for a 24-hour journey to the temples of Angkor Wat...I've learned from the hours spent wandering in search of cheap rooms and booked a bed ahead of time...wow, how organized is that! I admit, it's a first for me...so, just as I had thought, my birthday will be spent surrounded by centuries-old Buddhas overgrown by jungle...i'm off to the night market, camera in hand, to snap photos of the leftover tradition from Asia's great trade circuit...and possibly consume some decadent mango with sticky rice!

Lahu village life

We create the world that we live in, and live in the world that we create...

For the past two weeks, my world has been a slatted bamboo hut perched on stilts 4 feet above the steep hillside with plenty of room for pigs, dogs, roosters, and small children to dart, crow, and lounge in the dust underneath.

It's a Lahu hilltribe village with blue tin roofs and an hourly timekeeper in the form of fix-it monk in a small, white temple cramped inside with speakers and engine parts in various states of disrepair. The top of each hour from 5am until 10 at night announced with a 10 second blip of some commercial showtune or long-forgotten lullaby piped out across the hillside with enthusiastic volume.

The roosters were not content waiting until 5am to announce the coming arrival of the sun (which didn't rise until 7, thank you very much), competing for the earliest bird award at last count won before 2 am. Which of course wakes the dogs, who bark for the sake of barking, proud to let anyone or any dog know that, yes, they heard that too...

I just returned to Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon after a 12-day Thai Massage intensive in a village 2 hours away in the back of a pickup with 10 people + backpacks squashed into place. We piled out onto the crowded, polluted streets like clowns from a VW bug, dispersing into the maze of guesthouses, intenet cafes, used bookstores, and 7-11's, Certificates in hand, 90 hours of training under our belts, a couple dozen meals of sticky rice and heavily chilied vegetables churning in out guts.

Doobiyoo! Doobiyoo! (hello in Lahu, pronounced like the letter W, with a slight inflection)

Meditation and yoga every morning with at least 6 hours of giving and receiving every day...hmmm, a small break with a trek to a nearby waterfall for a swim in bikini tops and pants...pants?? hmmm...the unusual female village taboo of revealing the knees. Shoulders (the usual taboo in Thailand's wats) didn't garner a second look in the village, and breasts flashed frequently, but gasp! keep those bony patellas covered! The only story relayed to me by our teacher Fiona to explain this village phenom is that because of the public bathing areas and lack of privacy (bamboo huts are not known for their acoustics, or their soundproofing abilities), the only body part women kept sacred for their partners was their knees, revealed to their husband's adoring gaze during love-making...of course, this theory has limited validity, but I kind of like it.

The roadwork underneath our bamboo practice platform and occasional intestinal eruption not withstanding, the course went smoothly and I for one learned A LOT. So grateful to have that opportunity to study and practice...volunteers lining up as we speak, and hopefully by the time I return, will have sufficient skill and confidence to pass along this amazing work.

I'd post more pics but it takes a LONG, LONG time to upload any images...a few now for your perusal...

Peace and love...