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Day 15 - Thursday, Nov 6, 2003
Siem Reap
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| Breakfast at hotel, then Mr. Paul drove Dodo, Dan and Claire to Banteay Srei, about 18 miles northeast of Siem Reap. Mr. Paul said his family is large, so there was no need for him to stay home and help with his uncle's funeral. |
| In the car on the way to Banteay Srei, we passed Srah Srang (the royal bathing pool) and Pre Rup (which means "turning the body," part of a cremation ritual). Pre Rup is Shivaist, 962 AD, now overgrown with weeds and scaffolding (being renovated). We also passed white bulls, lithe brown cows, gray/black buffalo, deforested fields planted with tiny palms, pretty villages shaded by tall palms, wet rice fields, and several Cambodian People's Party and FUNCINPEC party buildings. |
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| Banteay Srei - Gorgeous, small temple of rosy sandstone surrounded by lily pads in moat. Gateway, side arch with Vishnu's incarnation(?); Sita swooning, being abducted. Other side galleries are mostly stripped, gone. Scenes from the Ramayana are all over. Miniature temples on the corners of the main temple are houses for local temple gods. (Dan: "Fractally!") Carvings include scenes of Krishna and Balarama in the forest. Pavarti wins Krsna's hand in marriage after Kama shoots him with an arrow. (Dan said he'd noticed "cupids" on the corners.) |
| The Khmer Rouge were holding Banteay Srei hostage as recently as 1993, and since then close to 50 landmines have been excavated there. |
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| Then we drove along 15 km of bad road - unpaved, rutted, red dust coating the trees alongside the road - to Kbal Spean, where Mr. Paul hiked with us (to keep us on the trail and away from landmine territory) up a scenic jungly trail to a small waterfall and some Krishna carvings along (and in) the river bed (including "1000 linga"). Dodo took off her boots to wade, then walked barefoot up the trail and stubbed her toe on a jutting piece of wood beside a little 1-plank bridge. The ring toe on her left foot turned very purple, but still walkable. Claire and Dodo both napped on the drive back. |
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| We got to the hotel after 2, had lunch there, and Mr. Paul met us again at 3:30 to go to back to Angkor Wat with Ruth. Ruth has decided she will leave tomorrow for the Sihanoukville beaches (skipping Phnom Penh) to rest her ankle. She will e-mail Claire with her hotel info so we can meet her next Monday evening. |
| Ruth was still hobbling and her ankle was still swollen. She and Claire did come inside Angkor Wat and looked at some of the relief carvings, then they went out to sit and watch the sunset from the grounds. Dan and Dodo climbed all around the top level and had a lovely perch for watching the big red fireball sink behind the trees. And it was quieter (in places) and very pretty right after sunset. A wedding party (all in white except bride in bright teal) were posing for pix, and 2 little kids were playing with a live, big beetle on a string (Claire said it was a stag beetle but Dan didn't think they fly). |
| We gave Mr. Paul $45 for the day, got showered and tuk-tuked ($2) to the Red Piano bar - didn't stay there but we couldn't find Khmer Kitchen (ragged children huffing chemicals from plastic bags; no restaurant down the alley) and went to the big elegant Soup Dragon. A new waitress didn't know "gin and tonic" - she brought Dan a whole can of tonic with cut-up limes and glass, but no gin. Excellent fresh spring rolls; "watermelon breakfast drink" delicious, watermelon-lime with fresh mint leaves; bland latke-style "veg-burgers." (Dodo shoulda stuck with Vietnamese dishes; Dan said his chicken curry was excellent.) Then a couple drinks at a couple not-very-compelling pubs, Angkor What? and the Golden Temple Room - then tuk-tuk back. Ruth had gone on ahead so it was only $1.50 for the 3 of us. |