Our weekends always start on Friday evening when the 4 ladies not working happily wave goodbye to Judy and myself who are working hard in the classroom. We then have to track them down at 9pm when we knock off, the good thing about that is that as we live right in the middle of the night markets, we do not have to go far to find them as the first bar is about 20 paces from our front gate and the second one is about 25 paces from the gate. Drinks are really cheap here, a cocktail costs about $1.50 and a beer can be bought for $1. I have my normal problem that I have everywhere, they do not stock tomato juice, only that here they will happily mash up tomatoes to make juice (not the best taste but the intent is great). You can buy a bottle of gin for $8 and Bourbon for $10. You could wake up with a good handover for about $20, not that I would do that!!
Last Friday saw the ladies quite happy when I caught up with them but I had the last laugh when I woke them up at 7am the next morning to go out to see some of the temples. We purchased a 1 month pass when we got here and that entitled us to 7 day visits during the month and once we passed the check point we could see as many temples as we were able to manage in a day. We found that it was much to hot to stay walking around after about 11am.
Saturday saw us going to three of the smaller temples but there were a lot older than some we had see earlier. The first buildings was Prasat Kravan which was built for Hindu worship in 921. The largest, central tower has images of Vishnu, showing him as an eight armed deity.
Like most of the other ruins around Siem Reap, there has been attempts to rebuild but I think most have run out of funds, it is interesting to note that the restoration is being done by other countries, Cambodia I think really doesn't care all that much although it certainly like the tourist $.
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| Vishnu |
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| Central tower |
North of Prasat Kravan is Banteay Kdei which is a massive Buddist monastery from the latter part of the 12th century. It is a much quieter place to go as it is not frequented by the tourists therefore we were not met by the horde of young people trying to sell us everything from Lonely Planet books for $, Khmer silk scarves and much more. Ryllis and I have got it down to a fine art now, we say no thank you in Khmer and just walk through. Sandra always stops and looks or if she manages not to stop, she invariably gets into conversation with them and next thing you know she is buying yet another T shirt or something she really doesn't need. It is a good thing that she has a number of grandchildren, I think they will be right for gifts for a number of years yet to come. It is hard to imagine how big these building would have been as you wander from room to room and notice that the rooms continue on much further than you can walk as they are not safe. The workmanship just if incredible, they managed to haul up huge stones and work them into a circular roofline. The carvings are still visible although they have been exposed to the elements for over 1900 years. Almost every inch of the acres of buildings has a carving on it. Throughout all of the ruins, no matter where we have been, a statue of the Buddha can be seen and you are able to buy incense and receive a blessing. I think between us we have purchased 50 or more years of wonderful life.
After we had finished walking around Banteay Kdei and speaking to a number of the locals, we wandered across the road to look at Sra Srang (Pool of Ablutions)measuring 800m x 400m. It was reserved for the king and his wives, it is not much to look at now but it would have been a sight watching everyone bathing in this huge pool.
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| Pool of Ablutions |
We all piled back into the Tuk Tuk and went just a bit further on to Bat Chum which was really just a pile of stones and a front entrance. This must have really been off the beaten track as there was only one family selling goods, the baby would have been about 2 years at the most and he was trying to sell a cane mobile but was able to say 'one dollar'. They all sound like Yanks with their dollaaar. Unfortunately, my camera decided that it had had enough for the day and the battery went flat. I will have to ask Sandra for some pictures.
We had to be back at the school by noon at the latest as we were going to go to the Village school that Liz teaches in. The village is quite a big one and Mel has had a room built on the back of a one room cottage for a classroom and had work done for a bedroom/kitchen/bathroom at the back. I think Liz is amazing as I am sure that I could and would not do what she is doing. She is teaching for 4 straight hours, starting at 4pm and going through until 8pm. The area is open and she spends most of the evening picking out bugs from her hair and trying to teach at the same time. She tells us that she doesn't need tea as she has eaten a pile of bugs over the time. The area she is teaching 20 students at a time is very small and she is unable to walk between the students.
Liz has no running water and her bath consists of standing on a cement floor and pouring water over herself from a small container, using rainwater from a tank. She eats her meals with the family and most of the time has no idea what she is eating but she tells us that she likes living there. Mel is going to find another person to live in with Liz and run an earlier class. I can assure you that the other person would not be me. Only a fan for cooling and absolutely no privacy as everyone just wanders in to say 'hello'.
We walk down from the school to the silk weaving factory, where a large number of women and one man were weaving the beautiful silks that are so available here. They all seemed quite happy and one lady had a young child sleeping quite soundly, swung between two looms.
After wandering around for awhile, we all piled back into Mel's landrover and went a bit further down the road to Mate's (one of the Khmer students) village and met his parents, walked around the village and then we took turns in having a bullock ride through the water canals. It was great although, I was right up the front and managed to get covered in bullock manure and stinky water. I loved it!!Saturday evening saw us all at our favourite local 'Molly Malones' which is an Irish pub run by an French, South American born owner who always insists on buying us 'one for the road' just as we are about to leave. The meals are great and a nice change from the food supplied by the school. I must admit that I do not eat much of the school food as there almost no meat and always heaps of vegetables. Everyone knows how much I love vegetables.
Sunday morning has now been allocated to lesson planning, we say every Sunday that we will spend only one hour but 3 hours later we are all still there. As you can imagine, I find this very difficult as I like to have things done and dusted and sitting around for the fun of it is not my thing. Oh well!!
Our month Temple visit pass ran out on Sunday so we decided that we would go and watch the sunset over Ankor Wat but just as we were leaving the young Tuk Tuk driver who is one of Sandra's students said that we should watch the sun set the summit of the Phnom Bakheng. Sandra, Ryllis and I said that it was a fantastic idea and we would certainly love to do it. The summit was about a 30 minute walk up a steep hill which was designed to make your heat rate increase as you went further up the hill and of course we were constantly have to make room the the fit young buggers who were running past us on their way to the top. When we thought that we had reached the top, we were then confronted with a tower that we had to climb up to get the 'best' view. The steps to most of these buildings are only wide enough to put you foot in sideways and the steps are really far apart and of course there are no hand rails. I have this strange picture of the earlier Cambodians, they must have had size 2 shoes and legs longer than Elle McPherson. I must admit once we were perched on top of the temple and my heartbeat returned to normal the trip to the top was worth it. Minea our young student had walked up with us and he then told us about the area and pointed out some of the local attractions. It was a very pleasant time and all too soon it was time to go back down those stairs. I must admit the I slid down on my bottom for some of them. It may not look the best but at least I came down in one piece. Rhyllis did a great job especially as she is not a great one with stairs or heights. The trip back to the bottom of the hill was certainly interesting as it became quite dark almost immediately, so the last 10 minutes was done in the pitch black. Not sure what happened to the Scouts being prepared motto then, guess we were not expecting to end up at the top of a hill. Never mind it was a great couple of hours and the ride home was very enjoyable. We stopped off and had a pizza for tea on the way back. Gosh life is hard.
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| The normal welcome party. |
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| The last of the sun |
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| Sandra and Minea |
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| Great photo opportunities |
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