Sunday, 7 March
Up at 05H30, shower and wash hair. Have sandwiches upstairs, make Nescafe downstairs, but because it's in the Stainless steel mug, it stays piping hot. My hands are again sticky from the coffee creamer. Dylan comes down to find out why I'm taking so long, he's super polite, knowing I'll throw a fit if he has anything to say about the coffee. We carry everything back upstairs, finally get into the tuk tuk at 07H30. We head off to Ta Prohm - the temple I have been most looking forward to seeing. Enormous kapok? trees grow from the terraces and walls, the massive roots clinging to the walls and prising apart giant stones. It was constructed by Jayavarman VII around 1186 and was a Buddhist monastry dedicated to Prajnapormita and would once have housed a statue of this deity in the image of the king's mother. As a working monastry it accommodated 12,000 people who lived and worked in th grounds and another 80,000 people wer employed to service and maintain the complex. The monastry supplied provisions and medicines to the 102 hospitals that Jayavarman built around the kingdom.
It is already getting hot when we get there at 08H00. Pon had said that there is only one room with a tree growing in it, so I'm apprehensive that I'll be disappointed, but I'm not! There ar loads of interesting trees growing through and on walls. Unfortunately lots of other tourists also start arriving and it becomes a situation of everyone waiting to pose with various trees, in addition to trying to find quiet and empty spots to photograph. We pretty much walk through all the doorways into the many different courtyards and take hundreds of photos. Then even more people start arriving and making a lot of noise, which didn't go down well with me. Dylan had gone off on his own. It was getting very hot at about 09H30, so I went back to the entrance, found Dylan and Colin said I wanted to go back in and try and capture the atmosphere of the place, but find it impossible, with the arrival of a large busload of Japanese tourists, all talking at the tops of their voices. I decide to leave and feel robbed that I didn't get the experience I wanted - will just have to relive it through the photographs. Left at 10H00, temperature is soaring.
Get to Ta Som at 10H15, very small Hindu temple, once a Khmer Rouge hideout, it was built by Jayavarman VII in the 12th century and dedicated to his father. It is quite ruined, which makes it seem like a mini Ta Prohm. We leave after half an hour and get to Neak Pean at about 11H30. Just beyond the entrance gate we see two Aussies taking photos of the sky, turns out they were photographing a large spider in a web, so we take some too. Dylan decides he wants his hand in th ephoto to illustrate th size of the spider. I was rather worried it would decide to jump onto is hand! Neak Pean ("entwined serpents") turns out to be a series of 5 pools, dug by hand, joined by walkways with a single tower in the centre of the biggest pool. The most popular theory is that Neak Pean was built to represent Anavatapa, a mythical Himalayan lake whose watrs had miraculous curative powers, it may also have been a spa with pilgrims coming to take the waters.
We are feeling tremendously hot at 12H00 and do our best to walk and sit in any shade there is. Dylan's getting good at telling the kids with the scarves that we're not interested - A-dtay means no. As usual the landmine victims are banging away on their drums, bells, etc, trying to collect money. We leave at 12H15 and get to Preah Khan 15 mins later. While photographing the entrance walkway, Colin shouts to me from 10 metres away that he needs my help now. He's got some red ants on him and they're biting. He had brushed against some leaves on a tree and they'd been on the leaves. We finally get them off and he's not much the worse for wear. Preah Khan was built by Jayavarman VII on the site of an earlier royal city, Jayasri and the king came to live there while he was restoring Angkor Thom after it was sacked by the Cham in 1177. The sacred sword is said to have been a weapon ceremonially passed by Jayavarman II to his heir and Cambodians still belive that whoever possesses this sword also holds the country's throne, a replica of the sword is still believed to be kept under lock and key at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. The site was used both as a monastry and university for a long time, employing over a thousand teachers and 97,840 ancillary staff. Inscriptions tell of a daily delivery of 10 tons of rice that would feed 10 to 15,000 people. It was consecrated as an interdenominational temple in 1191, catering to worshippers f Buddha, Shiva and Vishnu, plus a furthr 282 gods, the main deity being Lokesvra, made in the image of the king's father and placed in the central Buddhist sanctuary.
We wander around for about 3/4 hr and meet up afterwards at the exit, where we read some info boards. A small boy had collared Colin and Dylan inside and had rattled off a story in perfect English supposedly explaining the temple, which Dylan subsequently discovered was not true. We find Pon in the parking area and he says that's it for the day and he takes us to buy bus tickets to Kampong Thom from a bus company agent. We decide against the VIP tickets for $10. Regular bus tickets are $6, which get bargained down to $5. We say goodbye to Pon at Bun Nath and pay him his $15 for the day. He has to go to the police station tomorrow to report his missing tuk tuk licence, which we thought was a number on the tuk tuk, but then discovered it was his waistcoat with his name and phone number.
We discuss the travel schedule. I don't fee like a hot plate of food, just don't have an appetite in this heat. Colin and Dylan must have food, Dylan gets defensive when I tease him about enjoying the hot food in the hot weather. I have a King Cone for supper (bought previously at the supermarket) and Coke in the foyer while writing the journal. Dylan finishes downloading photos when they get back from lunch. At 20H00 go back out for supper. I'm really enjoying wearing the sarong and vest and slip slops after a hot day's sightseeing. It is just so comfortable. I don't feel like stirfry again, so we go to the restaurant where Colin and Dlan had had lunch, called Bar BBQ and I have a BLT and chips with a difference, the tomatoes being grass green. But it tasted good and th French Fries were soooo tasty. I felt like fruit juice and Colin convinced me to have a pineapple juice. I could taste straight away that it had water in it and ice, so I was worried about drinking it. The waiter said it was clean water, but I just couldn't enjoy it. I don't know whether it was mind over matter, but I started feeling queasy and said we must get outside. It could also be the Malanil malaria tablets I'm taking, together with the heat. Anyway, felt bettr on the walk back.
Wrote up more of the journal, catching up still. Dylan still downloading photos on Facebook downstairs. I finish packing at 22H30, have a shower and am washing clothes in the shower when the power goes off. Finish showering in pitch dark and then the power comes back on, go to sleep with ear plugs, determined to get a good night's sleep.
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