Dawn at Angkor Wat
Sunset at Mechery floating village
Guide at ACCB wildlife conserve
Banteay Srei Temple
Lunch with coconut milk!
Waterbuffalo have fun!
They are eating morning glory which we eat for lunch!
Sunrise to Sunset in Cambodia
I wake at 5 am so excited to get to the Angkor Wat temple at sunrise, but have to try to go back to sleep because our group meets Vantha at 6 am. Luckily I arrange a wake up call ahead of time. I am the first one in the lobby at 6! Our purple bus takes us through the check point where the park official comes on board to check our temple passes.
Walking up the steps and along the stone causeway over the moat in darkness with hundreds of other people feels like a night of trick or treating. We are dressed in long sleeves and long pants decorated with bug repellent ambling in the dark hoping to get a treat. The door we are knocking on is the door to the day – the sun! Will it be a good sunrise with lots of color or a cloudy one?
Quietly we sit and wait. Like days of old we meditate at the temple. From the steps of one of the “library temples” looking to the east, three tower silhouettes emerge slowly from the blackness. I see three large pinecones pointing upward, how did they think of this North American design? As the sky leisurely takes on hues of pink, purple, orange, impatient fingers itch to photograph our sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Vhanta asks us to move to the corner of the small lake to see all five towers, 5 pinecones. Like a peacock opening a colorful tail, the sky opens a dazzling display of early morning pastel silks streaked with streams of white cotton clouds. We wait and watch in great anticipation for something that happens every day. Here is Cambodia celebrating the sun in a 1000 year old temple, we are mystified. A white horse is tied to a nearby tree. Finally, like the grand finale at a fireworks display, the golden sun peeks its circumference on our stage, lifting, then splashing brilliance into our world near and far. Once the golden orb dominates, the colors disappear opening the curtain for a blue sky day!
We follow streams of people back across the causeway to find our purple bus, Breakfast is waiting at Casa Angkor. I crave a nice cup of coffee, but this hotel cannot deliver that. The vegetarian menu at breakfast is not that good either. Corn flakes and white toast with tea is okay. The fresh pineapple and papaya are delicious.
Casa Angkor is an old two star hotel. While being in a great location near the downtown of Siem Reap, I miss having free wifi and good coffee ( I think I already said that). I appreciate them here more than the swimming pool or massage spa. I write all this, but visiting the floating village of Mechrey later in the afternoon I understand my happiness does not depend on these 21rst century details. Life is deeper and wider. Life is an adventure!
Our "magic" bus takes us on an hour long ride through farm country. We see rice fields with water buffalo, fields with cows, and villages offering firewood to people from city. In one area, the villagers hoist effigies in front of their homes with scary faces and weapons. Vhanta, our guide, explains that these people believe scarecrows will protect them and their families from evil spirits. Evil spirits are thought to be causing ‘yankee fever’ in northern Cambodia. They do not want sickness invading their lives. They keep themselves safe by praying and warding off the spirits with the protective cloth statues.
We visit the Wildlife Conservation and Environmental Education Center a the ACCB – Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity. Here we see many types of eagle: crested serpent eagle, grey headed fish eagle, Indian spotted eagle. We see Branery Kytes, green peacocks, storks, heron, egrets and leopard cats, monkeys, sloths. Turtles amaze us though we never see them – hiding under the water! Same story for panglins.
We understand that visiting the temples of Angkor is the spiritual heart of Cambodia, but protecting wildlife and the natural heritage is just as interesting and important.
Vantha asks us if we want to eat before we tour the next temple. “Eat!” I voice my vote. My group agrees. We wander under the grass roofed restaurant to find our seats at a long table covered with green and gold elephant designed table cloths. Coconut milk is served to me. I sip with a straw. Stir fry morning glory is my lunch with steamed white rice. No brown rice is available in Cambodia because the machinery to clean the rice only strips it down to the white kernel. The choice for the more nutritious brown rice is not offered any more to these people since the industrial changes. Vantha explains that in the old days, the farmers cleaned the chaff off the rice by hand with mortar and pestle then shaking it in a large flat circular basket. With modernization their food is becoming less nutritious and I long for more flavorful brown rice Jim makes at home.
TO BE CONTINUED…gotta go now…
Stay connected to read about Banteay Srei Temple, and a tour of Mechery floating village.
I wake at 5 am so excited to get to the Angkor Wat temple at sunrise, but have to try to go back to sleep because our group meets Vantha at 6 am. Luckily I arrange a wake up call ahead of time. I am the first one in the lobby at 6! Our purple bus takes us through the check point where the park official comes on board to check our temple passes.
Walking up the steps and along the stone causeway over the moat in darkness with hundreds of other people feels like a night of trick or treating. We are dressed in long sleeves and long pants decorated with bug repellent ambling in the dark hoping to get a treat. The door we are knocking on is the door to the day – the sun! Will it be a good sunrise with lots of color or a cloudy one?
Quietly we sit and wait. Like days of old we meditate at the temple. From the steps of one of the “library temples” looking to the east, three tower silhouettes emerge slowly from the blackness. I see three large pinecones pointing upward, how did they think of this North American design? As the sky leisurely takes on hues of pink, purple, orange, impatient fingers itch to photograph our sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Vhanta asks us to move to the corner of the small lake to see all five towers, 5 pinecones. Like a peacock opening a colorful tail, the sky opens a dazzling display of early morning pastel silks streaked with streams of white cotton clouds. We wait and watch in great anticipation for something that happens every day. Here is Cambodia celebrating the sun in a 1000 year old temple, we are mystified. A white horse is tied to a nearby tree. Finally, like the grand finale at a fireworks display, the golden sun peeks its circumference on our stage, lifting, then splashing brilliance into our world near and far. Once the golden orb dominates, the colors disappear opening the curtain for a blue sky day!
We follow streams of people back across the causeway to find our purple bus, Breakfast is waiting at Casa Angkor. I crave a nice cup of coffee, but this hotel cannot deliver that. The vegetarian menu at breakfast is not that good either. Corn flakes and white toast with tea is okay. The fresh pineapple and papaya are delicious.
Casa Angkor is an old two star hotel. While being in a great location near the downtown of Siem Reap, I miss having free wifi and good coffee ( I think I already said that). I appreciate them here more than the swimming pool or massage spa. I write all this, but visiting the floating village of Mechrey later in the afternoon I understand my happiness does not depend on these 21rst century details. Life is deeper and wider. Life is an adventure!
Our "magic" bus takes us on an hour long ride through farm country. We see rice fields with water buffalo, fields with cows, and villages offering firewood to people from city. In one area, the villagers hoist effigies in front of their homes with scary faces and weapons. Vhanta, our guide, explains that these people believe scarecrows will protect them and their families from evil spirits. Evil spirits are thought to be causing ‘yankee fever’ in northern Cambodia. They do not want sickness invading their lives. They keep themselves safe by praying and warding off the spirits with the protective cloth statues.
We visit the Wildlife Conservation and Environmental Education Center a the ACCB – Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity. Here we see many types of eagle: crested serpent eagle, grey headed fish eagle, Indian spotted eagle. We see Branery Kytes, green peacocks, storks, heron, egrets and leopard cats, monkeys, sloths. Turtles amaze us though we never see them – hiding under the water! Same story for panglins.
We understand that visiting the temples of Angkor is the spiritual heart of Cambodia, but protecting wildlife and the natural heritage is just as interesting and important.
Vantha asks us if we want to eat before we tour the next temple. “Eat!” I voice my vote. My group agrees. We wander under the grass roofed restaurant to find our seats at a long table covered with green and gold elephant designed table cloths. Coconut milk is served to me. I sip with a straw. Stir fry morning glory is my lunch with steamed white rice. No brown rice is available in Cambodia because the machinery to clean the rice only strips it down to the white kernel. The choice for the more nutritious brown rice is not offered any more to these people since the industrial changes. Vantha explains that in the old days, the farmers cleaned the chaff off the rice by hand with mortar and pestle then shaking it in a large flat circular basket. With modernization their food is becoming less nutritious and I long for more flavorful brown rice Jim makes at home.
TO BE CONTINUED…gotta go now…
Stay connected to read about Banteay Srei Temple, and a tour of Mechery floating village.
