Roots, Rock, Reggae

Angkor Archeological Site 3

Ta Prohm
Constructed by King Jayavarman VII in mid-12th century (from 1186) - it was one of his 1st temple construction projects and was dedicated to his mother.


"Ta Prohm's state of ruin is a state of beauty"

It is the most atmospheric ruin at Angkor- unlike other monuments at Angkor it has been swallowed by the jungle and has been largely left untouched by archaeologists. It looks very much the way most of the monuments at Angkor appeared when European explorers first stumbled upon them.

Only partially cleared of jungle overgrowth, it has been intentionally left partially unrestored- massive fig, banyan and kapok trees grow from the towers and corridors, twist and spread their roots over, under and in-between stones-

while bas-reliefs are covered with lichen, moss, and creeping plants

And as I was told 763 times during my visit to the site, scenes from the movie Tomb Raider were filmed here- apparently this doorway played an important part (but I wouldn't know as I have never seen the film)

"everywhere around you, you see Nature in its dual role of destroyer and consoler; no sooner splitting the carved stones asunder than she dresses their wounds with cool, velvety mosses and binds them with her most delicate tendrils; a conflict of moods so contradictory and feminine as to prove once more- if proof were needed- how well "Dame" Nature merits her feminine title" HW Ponder

Million Faces

Angkor Archeological Site- 2

Angkor Thom (= great angkor or great city)

Constructed in late 12th-early 13th century by King Jayavarman VII as his capital city after recapturing the Angkorian capital from Cham invaders in 1181. The 3km2 walled and moated city was the last capital of the Angkorian empire. He began construction with 2 structures, the Baphuon and Phimeanakas and built a grand enclosed city around them.
There are 5 gated entrances to the city (cardinal directions plus Victory gate)- each gate is crowned with 4 giant faces 20m in height of Avalkiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.


At the center of the city is the Bayon, the state-temple, which stands as a symbolic link between heaven and earth. The Bayon epitomizes the creative genius and inflated ego of Jayavarman VII. It is a collection of 54 towers decorated with 216 enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance to the king himself.
(from afar it doesn't have quite the stunning visual effect that Angkor Wat did, but up close the details were amazing)

The towering faces are intended to glare down from every angle exuding power and control with a hint of humanity.

The Bayon has 3 levels- the first 2 are filled with extraordinary bas-reliefs depicting vivid scenes of the battle with the Chams-

as well as everyday life in 12th century Cambodia-

Many of the original structures of Angkor Thom were made of wood and are no longer standing, but remaining is the Terrace of the Elephants, a 300m long 2.5m tall terrace that stood in front of the Baphuon, Phimeanakas, and Royal Palace and was used as a viewing stand for public ceremonies and the king's audience hall. It is adorned with tiers of carvings- elephants, garudas, warriors, asparas,

and a 5-headed horse!

Angkor Thom is a site that I knew/heard very little about before coming here and ended up being one of my favorites- the only one I went back to again because I felt I had overlooked a few important details on my first visit that I didn't want to miss- the faces of the Bayon, the bas-reliefs of fishermen, market place and even dog-fighting, and the carvings of the Terrace of the Elephants were all amazing masterpieces.

Next stop on our archeological tour of the Angkorian empire- Ta Prohm.

Temple

Angkor Archeological Site

The temple ruins of Angkor are the remnants of the Angkorian capitols and represent the pinnacle of the ancient Khmer architecture, art and civilization from the 9th to 12th centures AD. Angkor means "capitol city" or "holy city", the Khmer kings constructed grand temples, vast waterworks and built vast armies that held dominance over the areas of modern Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. There are hundreds of temples at Angkor, covering 200 square km (77 sq mi) as each king strove to better their ancestors in size, scale, and symmetry, culminating in the world's largest religious building Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat was built in the early-mid 12th century by King Suryavarman II with an estimated construction time of 30 years. It is the largest monument in the site and is an architectural masterpiece of composition, balance, proportions, symmetry, and artistry. The temple itself is 1km square and consists of 3 levels connected by interlinked galleries that enclose a square and the central tower. There are a total of 5 towers but the plan only allows for them to all be viewed from certain angles and viewpoints.


King Suryavarman II constructed the temple in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu and to also serve as his mausoleum.

It was eventually taken over by Buddhist monks and has served as a Buddhist temple since the 14th century (and it is because the monks have used it continually that it is so well preserved because it has never been abandoned to the elements.

The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings. Angkor Wat is also famous for the nearly 2000 distinctly rendered apsara (heavenly nymphs) carvings that adorn the walls throughout the temple.

The inside passageways are lined with statues, carvings and Buddhas. (I call this the headless hallway- poor Buddhas!)

The exterior walls of the lower level display extraordinary bas-reliefs depicting stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historical wars of Suryavarman II.

I was really lucky with how few people were at the temple when I visited. When my tuk-tuk driver Vannack picked me up at my B&B it was raining (12 noon) and suggested that he didn't think Angkor Wat would be too crowded then. He made such a great call- it was so quiet and I was able to wander the grounds and halls, take pictures unobstucted by tour groups, sit quietly and read my guidebook, and spend time looking at the bas-reliefs in hallways that I had entirely to myself.

As I rounded the corner between the last bas-relief corrider to the 1st one-wham- sea of people! Rain stopped, lunch was over, and the bus tours returned in force!

At that point I knew to go with whatever he suggested so when he mentioned another site that wouldn't be crowded in the afternoon that's where I went. So next stop- Angkor Thom.

The Killing Time

My visit to Phnom Penh held great beauty at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda but also great horror as I also went to sites where unspeakable atrocities took place under the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot regime.

On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in a civil war and embarked on a 3 year, 8 month, 20 day reign of terror. The entire populations of Phnom Penh and other cities were forceably relocated to the countryside to work as slaves for 12-15 hours/day in rice fields in the Khmer Rouge's efforts to restructure Cambodian society into a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. 100's of thousands of these forced laborers died of malnutrition or disease as a result of the horrific conditions, backbreaking labor, and little food they saw in labor camps.

100's of thousands more; former government officials and military, the educated elite, sympathizers to the former king and government, and eventually even members of the Khmer Rouge whose loyalty was questioned, were tortured and executed.

It is estimated that 1.7 million Cambodians (about 20% of the population) died under the Khmer Rouge.

Toul Sleng Museum is the sight of a former high school taken over by the Khmer Rouge and turned into a prison ("S-21") where prisoners were detained, interrogated, tortured and processed for execution. The building itself is unremarkable from the outside, it looks like it could be a Motel 6 in Daytona Beach except for the 14 graves outside for the last 14 victims who were murdered as the final act of the torturers before they abandoned the prison (to remove "witnesses") while the Vietnamese invaded and ended the Khmer Rouge reign of terror.

The prison was run by Kaing Guek Eav (nicknamed "Duch"). He was the chief torturer and ordered the execution of the prisoners- a joint Cambodian-UN war crime tribunal charging him with the deaths of 12,380 prisoners began in February 2009 (yes, just this year!). 4 other former Khmer Rouge officials are also on trial.


The Killing Fields of Choeng Ek
The men, women and children tortured at S-21 were brought to Choeng Ek for execution. Most were killed by being bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.

In 1980 the remains of 8985 people were exhumed from mass graves. There are a total of 129 mass graves at the site, 43 have remained untouched.

In 1988 a memorial stupa (Buddhist tradition) was erected. It holds the remains of those exhumed bodies. The first 8 levels contain the skulls (which are on display) and the upper 3 levels contain the remaining bones. Myself and most of the other visitors bought flowers and incense and laid them at the stupa to honor the victims. It is a beautiful, peaceful site- which is incongruous to the horrors that took place at the site.

Sorry for all the sadness and history lessons today- but I felt it was important to see and understand more about this tragic time which is still affecting Cambodia to this day. Next post will have pretty pictures (and a little bit of history). m

Holiday in Cambodia

I have arrived at my second destination- Cambodia, starting in the capitol, Phnom Penh. I only had a day there and toured some of the more famous landmarks, starting with the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. They were quite beautiful and interesting, as Cambodia was a French Proctorate for a long time there was a beautiful combination of architecture similar to what I've seen in Thailand with French details like ornamentation and formal gardens. The Silver Pagoda boasts a floor made of silver tiles (but honestly they looked like tin) and a jade Buddha that was stunning- but unfortunately no pictures allowed inside the temple.


Then I spent a day on a bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, gateway town to Angkor Wat. I arrived just in time to see the sun set from the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng. It wasn't the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen but it was pretty spectacular watching the sun set while hanging out on top of an 1100 year old temple!

Having Wings

Back to Kathmandu for a brief visit before departing Nepal. Visited a few more places while I was there.

First Patan Durber Square- not to be confused with Kathmandu Durber Square or Bhaktapur Durber Square- they used to be 3 separate kingdoms then were united in 1768- but their Durber Squares were all pretty similar-



Pashupatinath- a sacred Hindu funeral compound where I saw corpses being cremated (I'll spare you the pics here but warning they're on Picasa) on the Bagmati River (one that I'll never run)- and while this is not the Monkey Temple (see previous visit to Kathmandu) there were monkeys present which are always awesome-
And also went to Bodnath- a sacred Tibetan Buddhist Stupa-

On the flight out of Kathmandu this morning we had clear skies and excellent views of the Himalaya- including Everest! I don't know how safe it was for the captain to announce it since everyone on the right side of the plane jumped over to the left side to look at Everest but it was exciting (and incredibly lucky) to get to see it- unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy so no pics :-( But plenty of other pics from the Annapurna trek and new stuff from Kathmandu are up now-

http://picasaweb.google.com/michellef

I'm now spending the night in Bangkok and head to Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow!

Long Way Down

After my morning admiring the views of the Annapurna Sanctuary I headed back down to MBC, got my backpack and started the return trip, retracing my steps back to Chhomrong then choosing a different route back to Pokhara. The weather made a turn for the worse and created miserable conditions for the hike down. That afternoon it started raining and it didn't stop for the next 4 days. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be the best possible time for trekking in Nepal- monsoon season is (supposedly) over and it's not too cold. The trip down should have been easier since I was losing altitude and was stronger from all the trekking up, but ended up taking longer since the trails and stairs were treacherously slippery and occasionally required diversions around landslides. (I'd also like to give a big shout out to the Nepali guide who gave me his walking stick- which saved my life a few times!) And while the conditions were fairly miserable for my hike down, I was one of the lucky ones because at least I got to see what I went all that way for. People I met up with at the guesthouses had gotten all the way up to ABC only to not get any views because of the rain clouds, others didn't even make it up to ABC- they turned around half way because of the conditions, and a few people did eventually get the views that they went for- but only after waiting at ABC for 2 days until it cleared up.

Storm clouds rolled in-

Really limiting visibility-

I had originally considered taking an extra side trip for additional peak views, but the call of a hot shower and clean clothes was too great and I went directly back to Pokhara. The trek at times was part boot camp, part rehab, part vision quest but it was also exciting and fun, I met some great people along the way and saw some spectacular sights- definitely worth it!

Exploded View

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek Part 3: Day 7
Machhapuchhare Base Camp (3700m) to Annapurna Base Camp (A.B.C) (4130m)
430m ascended

The last part of "going up" is the hike from MBC to ABC to see the the full view of the peaks. The thing is there is only about an hour per day when it's clear enough to see them- and unfortunately this hour occurs from 6-7 AM! So I along with a number of other people at my guesthouse at MBC arose at the completely uncivilized hour of 4:30 am to do the 2 hour hike up to ABC.

We started in the dark guided by headlamps but as it got brighter we could start to see what we came all this way for-

Getting ligher!

Made it!

The lodges at ABC (you could stay there and get another hour or so of sleep to see the peaks- but that would have also meant doing the hike with my backpack (since I didn't have a porter) so I went with the earlier/lighter option)

Here is the 360 degree views from a ridge above ABC- just spectacular-

After enjoying the views then having breakfast at one of the lodges, we set off to head back down to MBC- and here you see that the visibility window has closed- the clouds rolled in right on schedule-

7:30 am- the view is gone!

Elevation

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek Part 2: Days 4-6
Chhomrong (2210m) -> Bamboo (2310m) -> Himalaya Hotel (2840m) -> Machhapuchhare Base Camp (M.B.C) (3700m)
2000m ascended, 510m descended

The second part of the trek actually got somewhat easier, despite the higher elevations, since there was more trail to hike on and fewer stairs. Now the big challenge was getting to the next stop early enough to get a room, since the towns in this part of the trek are used by people "going up" and "coming down" and there are only 4 guesthouses in each place.



Going up-

The rivers got steeper (and less runnable)-

The bridges got dodgier-

There was a great respite from all the ascending and descending to cross this valley-

Getting higher- heading into the clouds-

Hit a traffic jam- hundreds of sheep had escaped and blocked the trail-

Almost there- here at M.B.C.- so close!