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...
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