Our two days in Siem Reap were, as we expected, not nearly sufficient in terms if time. But we made use of the time we had well, peppering it with a good mix of temple-touring, nightlife, and some relaxation in the guesthouse we absolutely loved (thank you, Carly!).
Thanks to another coworker, we secured ourselves quite possibly the best tour guide in the area. His name is Cha Cha and proved not only to be informative, but also quite entertaining. His English is very good (complete with a nice Kiwi accent) and on many occasions we enjoyed exchanging a variety of slang phrases and comparisons between US and Cambodian cultures.
Cha Cha arrived at 9am on Sunday and not surprisingly Megan and I were running just a tad late. But we gathered up our day's necessities and headed out. Our first stop was the largest temple, Angkor Wat. And large it was. My descriptions of these temples will not do them justice and so I am hesitant to even attempt to describe them for you; instead I think a better option will be to post photos for a better view on picasa and scribble here the hopefully somewhat entertaining inner thoughts of yours truly. At the end of this post you will find a quickly compiled picasa album of the photos from iSara.
We spent about two and a half hours at Angkor Wat and I was fascinated. Cha Cha explained the history, graciously repeating it once or twice (ok, maybe three times in some cases) so that his slightly ADD guidees could grasp it between the FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE photos that one of them would take and the periodic wandering off of the other one.
Upon our arrival to the top level of the the temple, Cha Cha explained difference between heaven and nirvana. And we took this opportunity to explain the Nirvana that we know: Mr. Kurt Cobain and his still living compadres. Cha Cha asked what kind of music Nirvana played. Hmmm... How exactly will "grunge rock" translate? We settled for "kinda angry" at which Cha Cha laughed loudly and said "irony". Yes, you're exactly right, Cha Cha, angry music played by a band call Nirvana: very ironic. Suddenly I couldn't help but question my own intelligence as it dawned on me that never once throughout my tenure love affair with the band had I made that ironic connection.
Because as Kurt Cobain's name usually does, this revelation led to a discussion on suicide, in which Cha Cha asked the simple question: "Why?" We tried to explain that Kurt was depressed. Simple question #2: "What is this 'depressed'?" Hmmm... Megan and I looked at one another trying to think of a good way to explain that Kurt was probably conflicted and extremely sad about his life both personally and professionally... his life, that is, which no doubt from a poverty-stricken culture could only look outrageously privileged. And so, I think one of us said stress. And with this Cha Cha moved onto question #3: "What is this 'stress'? A symptom if depression?" Usually the other way around. But stress can be caused by many, many things. And all stress doesn't result in depression, and all depression doesn't result in suicide (sigh of relief inaudibly exhales from my lungs). "Hmmm, I don't really understand" Cha Cha says with a smile. And so with that we continued our climb to the top level of the temple, representing nirvana.
At the top a short little rest in the shade of 4 perfectly carved apsara dancers was necessary. While we were downing the bottled water as fast as Cha Cha's driver could hand it to us, Megan and I were not entirely convinced we wouldn't have a heat stroke by the day's end. Let's just say there were a few "Cha Cha, we just gotta sit down for a second" moments. After explaining that we come from a home where it's currently 12 degrees celsius and here it's 35 degrees, he laughed amusingly and said he understood. And our rest was a perfect time for a little quiz. "One of these dancers are married, can you tell which one?" Hmmm...they all looked the same to us. No special head dresses, no special clothing, and most certainly no special ring on the left hand. "You see here?" Cha Cha asked as he pointed to the right-most dancer's belly. "This one is married, she has stretch marks signifying that she has had a baby." Ohhhhh! Of course... Stretch marks equal child birth. What were we thinking? I mean, why else would a woman have stretch marks, right?
In total, we saw 4 temples that day, the fourth and final being Ta Prohm, home of the sight we both had been looking forward to: the highly photographed banyan tree. It had rained just before we got there so the air was cooler and the bright blue sky was painted perfectly with white fluffy clouds.
As we walked through the grounds, it was quiet, despite the other tours in process. Cha Cha's route was perfect, seeming to always miss the next group flawlessly, and he paced it with exactly enough time for his camera happy guidee to get in some good shots.
On our way out, Cha Cha asked us if we believed in luck. Uh, yeah...! And I need all of it I can get. He led us into a chamber where we leaned up against the wall and pounded our chest with our fist. The echo was that of a bass drum (Mark, I'm sure you would have been able to analyze the hell out of it) and Cha Cha nodded that we now had good luck. Yessssssss!
A handful of Angkor Wat photos via iSara: https://picasaweb.google.com/saracwatson/AngkorWat2011
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