Fun with tourists

Our days are hard. We must photograph many couples needing proof of their travels together and we must use yoga to amuse and train many more. While posing for yoga promo shots (how often will she have Angkor as a set) Anna-Marie is ogled by the curious. One guy who has never done yoga joins in, delighted that Anna-Marie is doing vrksasana (tree pose) in front of the twisted invasion of trang (ficus altissima) and spung (tetrameles nudiflora) trees. After, we head back to the city for excitement.

Our first day at Angkor we cut short so we could join in the festivities surrounding the water festival. While this is a celebration of the reversal of the direction of flow of the Tonle Sap River, and this river is no where near Siem Reap, the Tonle Sap lake is such a major source of food and resources for all of Cambodia, that the fun is spread about.

We biked the four kilometres back to Siem Reap, to the main park on the banks of its modest river. Dragon boat races are the main attraction, running between the Wat Bo bridge and the 25th Street bridge. On the west bank of the river is a large park, and the road along the river here was closed each afternoon (to cars, motos, and bikes), which always made getting back to our hotel a minor adventure.

North of the Wat Bo Bridge were make-shift bike and moto parking lots, charging inflated prices. We opted to lock our three bikes together on the bridge itself, alongside some other bikes and motos. The bridge was all but closed, with throngs of people taking advantage of the elevated view down the river.

The boat racing was a bit of a bust—a lot of waiting and very little racing—but the people watching was good, and there were odd food snacks to be had. Long before we saw any real racing Anna-Marie thought we should check on the bikes. They were gone. Stolen. Rental for the day is one dollar; replacement is $50 (US) each. 

We found a cop and a bilingual local and explained the situation, hoping the police may have removed our bikes. Several slow minutes pass, with much discussion in Khmer, very little translation into English, and a few radio calls to other police.

Finally, yes. The bikes had been removed (we think) and taken to a public building in the park on the opposite side of the river (we think).

The bikes and an unhappy, uncooperative cop are found. Over much apologizing for our ignorance of local laws we are led to the semi-mangled tangle of bikes. No fine, no lecture, no apology. Clearly, the bikes were picked up as one mass and tossed and kicked to their present location. Once locked, they are now interlocked. I have to bend and break spokes to remove a peddle; the kick-stand on one bike falls off; the front baskets are riddled with holes.

Later, sheepishly, after composing and rejecting various stories of woe for the rental company, we return the bikes. With spokes and kick-stand in hand, with a wave the clerk stops me after "we had some difficulties." No fines, no explanations needed.

On day two we rent from a different place.

As promised: trees!

You are looking at the most photographed tree in the galaxy.

On our third day we set off in search of a tree, a particular tree, one that lodged fuzzily in our collective minds. This was a tree from a yoga magazine we had all read back in Phnom Penh, with a yogini striking a pose in the foreground. We knew that some temples were deliberately left in a semi-overgrown state, a carefully manicured jungle amid ruinous stone. So off we set on our bikes to the first temple (of many that we would search) to find the tree.

Humans are funny. Ta Prohm is the temple featured in a Laura Croft movie. Angelina Jolie crawls around on a tree. This tree, now famous, is marked in all the guide books of the Angkor region. Here is a plan of Ta Prohm. Here is the tree indicated. Here are all the tourists, crammed around the tree, jostling to take pictures of it. And around the corner, here are a half dozen more spectacular trees with no tourists.

By the way, notice that the Khmer knew about the dinosaurs (stegasaurus in the middle).

Forgetting just what our yoga tree looked like we kept travelling to other temples, further afield in search of our tourist tree. We covered 40 km by bicycle that day. We visited Ta Prohm, Ta Nei, Ta Som, and Neak Pean. Ta Nei is a charm, a small temple off in the jungle accessible only by foot or bike. It took twenty minutes to wind our way along paths through the jungle. The reward is a temple all to ourselves; we were the only people there.

Angkor Thom - Baphuon and beyond

Baphuon lies just to the north of Bayon. It is a pyramid temple mount originally rising about 50 metres. With the central tower missing its current height is about 34 metres. In the 1960s a French restoration project dismantled most of the temple, which was in a bad state of collapse. Each stone block was coded and placed in the fields to the west of the mount; where they lay today. During the incursion of the American war in Vietnam and the period of the Khmer Rouge the restoration work was halted, and worse, the plans indicating where each stone went were lost.

Baphuon is now the world's largest 3D puzzle with a missing lid — no picture.

We wander aimlessly among the directionless stones, numbered and moss covered. This is a great opportunity for me. Anna-Marie is always teasing me about my passion for photographing rocks. Here I get to satisfy my passion in a "legitimate" way.

As with most structures in Angkor, Baphuon shows the religious transformation of the empire from Hindi to Buddhist; years after initial construction the back of the mount was rebuilt with a 70 metre long bas relief reclining buddha.

North of Baphuon is the gated remnants of the Royal compound, dominated by another, smaller pyramid temple mount, Phimeanakas. Most of the structures of the Royal compound are gone. The temple is very steep and very decayed, but offers great views of the "city".

The ancient city of Angkor now resides in a dense tropical forest. Other than Angkor Wat all of these structures were overgrown by the jungle and the fantastical trees that cradle, support, and destroy the stone. The photos of Phreah Pililay, the small fragmented stone tower show the removal of a tree (inside the wooden scaffolding) and the tall stumps of three trees. It can take more than a month to cut down a tree, sawing through the dense an dheavy wood in layers small enough to handle.

To the east of the Royal compound are the two terraces that overlook what most likely was a parade ground for the ancient city. To the north is the Terrace of the Leper King, to the south the Terrace of Elephants. From these terraces the king could watch or be watched, address his subjects or perform religious and military functions. 

Across from the terraces are a series of towers. The function of these is uncertain, but speculation is that tight ropes between the towers provided a narrow surface for performers who entertained the king. There is also a theory that disputants before the courts were locked in separate towers for the duration of the court proceedings. Perhaps to speed those proceedings along?