R is for the Roluos Temples

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Before the ninth century, what we know today as Cambodia was just a collection of city states, each contained within its own fortress, and each fighting with all the other city states. It took a king named Jayavarman II to unite them all into the Khmer kingdom.

Jayavarman II had his capital at Hariharalaya on the shores of Lake Tonle Sap. Three Hariharalaya temples still survive, and today we know them as the Roluos group of temples. 

Preah Ko

Built in 880 AD by Indravarman I, Preah Ko is a set of six shrines on an elevated sandstone platform. The shrines are in two rows of three, with the ones at the front dedicated to the protecting deities of three Khmer kings and the ones at the back dedicated to those of their queens. The platform is surrounded by two enclosures, both now broken down. The forest, which must have claimed the temple over the centuries, has been beaten back to form another green enclosure.

Three of the six shrines

Bakong Temple

My favourite Ruolos temple for its sheer majesty, the Bakong temple is in the form of a large five-tiered pyramid topped by a central shrine. Built by Indravarman I in 881 AD as his State Temple, Bakong's grounds are littered with the remains of shrines and libraries, and its enclosures are surrounded by a moat. It was originally built of laterite, but was later clad in sandstone. Bakong is considered the first of the temple-mountains - a form that would later attain its zenith in Angkor Wat.

The Bakong temple-mountain

Lolei Temple

Built a decade after Preah Ko and Bakong, Lolei is a tiny temple - just four shrines clustered together in a square. Apparently, there were supposed to be two more, but they were never built. Today, a more modern monastery functions to the side of the temple. Though Lolei was originally built on an island in the middle of a reservoir, mango trees and papaya trees now thrive on its grounds.

Wooden steps lead up to the Lolei temple

Q is for Quite a Small Temple

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

The smallest temple we visited in Siem Reap was Prasat Kravan, which was our last stop on Day 1. Built of brick in the tenth century, this Vishnu temple was left incomplete. Its five shrines are arranged all in a row, facing east. It's unique because of the brick bas reliefs inside its central and northern shrines. The central shrine has images of Vishnu, while the northern shrine has images of his consort Lakshmi.

The afternoon sun lights up the shrines from the west

Lakshmi, with worshipers at her feet

P is for Preah Khan

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Preah Khan

It's funny how the time you visit a temple can have such an effect on how much you like it.

It was past four when we got to Preah Khan. This large temple is the last stop on the Grand Tour, also known as the Outer Round. Because we had taken our time at the other temples, we got there much later than other tourists. And that served us well, because we got the temple almost to ourselves. The last of them seemed to be leaving as we were going inside.

The three gopuras at the northern enclosure

The main road runs to the north of the temple, and then turns left and passes the western entrance of the temple. Our tuk-tuk driver dropped us at the northern entrance, and told us that he would pick us up at the western entrance (though the main entrance of every temple is, of course, to the east and the rising sun). 

Built in the twelfth century, Preah Khan was actually much more than a temple. It was a Buddhist university, and so it's huge - almost a square kilometer in area. The outer-most enclosure is a high stone wall with majestic Garuda statues placed every fifty meters. It's surrounded by a wide moat. The causeway that leads across the moat to the three-towered gopura has, for railings, two nagas, each held by a line of devas and asuras (we had seen the same thing the previous day at the gates of Angkor Thom).

One of the Garuda statues in the outermost enclosure. Also note the head of one of the naga-holding devas (in darker stone to the right)

Inside the outer-most enclosure is a forest - this is where the university buildings stood eight hundred years ago. A wide path leads across the forest to the third enclosure.

Inside, Preah Khan is almost like a maze. The original plan was probably a simple one, but so many shrines have been added later on that it's difficult to figure out where one shrine begins and the other ends. Many are in such a state of disrepair that fallen masonry adds to the confusion. Massive silk cotton trees grow on some parts of the temple and add to the general air of neglect. The smell of pigeon shit is also much more obvious here than at other temples.

A silk cotton tree growing on the eastern wall

The central shrine of Preah Khan contains a massive shivalinga. Around the central shrine are a Shiva temple (to the north), a Vishnu temple (to the west) and a temple dedicated to old kings (to the south). An interesting feature is that, standing at the eastern entrance of the temple, it's possible to see all the way across the temple to the western entrance (and vice versa, of course).

The Shiva linga at the central shrine

Preah Khan is so large that, if you want to, you can spend a lot of time here - you can walk all around the outer enclosures, explore all the shrines and libraries, figure out how many small shrines there are. On the other hand, if you've visited other temples such as Ta Prohm, much of it will seem familiar. Since we were tired, we explored only the eastern and northern parts. 

When we left by the western gate, the late afternoon sun was lending a golden glow to the entire temple. We spent some time dawdling near the causeway, enjoying the coolness of the moat and the warmth of the stone statues. There was nobody around except an old couple, and we felt at peace with the world.

Thus ended our second day in Cambodia.

The moat

Goodbye, Preah Khan!

O is for the Old Market

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Whew. We've had quite a week already, haven't we? We've visited a lake, a museum and a temple. So let's go shopping today! 

Siem Reap, despite being a small town, has three markets aimed at gullible tourists such as us - the Central Market, the Night Market and the Old Market. All three are within walking distance of each other, and very little distinguishes them in terms of products available or even prices. 

The Central Market gets its name from the fact that it's the closest to the city center. The Night Market, of course, opens only after 6 PM. The Old Market, presumably, is the oldest of these markets. It occupies an entire block off Pub Street.

We were told that the Old Market is where the locals shop. That's a little hard to believe, because we didn't see any locals there. And no wonder - the place is full of shops that sell souvenirs of different kinds; there's very little that the local would be interested in. As for us tourists, there are plenty of things on offer, as long as you're willing to bargain - wooden carvings of the famous Angkor face, silk stoles, cheap cotton t-shirts, beautiful dresses, cushion covers, jewellery, women's wear, dried fruits. 

Since we had just shopped at Chatuchak market in Bangkok, the Old Market seemed a bit small to us. But then how big can such a market be in a town the size of Siem Reap? There are at least a dozen stores that all sell the same thing. Which actually makes it easy for the buyer - you can ask around in a few shops before finally deciding where to buy from.

The only part of the market where the locals probably do shop is the food market in the center. You can tell that you're getting near the food market by the stink - the smell of different types of seafood. I refused to go near the place, but my husband (who loves seafood) ventured in. The place looks colourful, but I wouldn't even begin to know what all these things in the baskets are!

The different types of seafood inside the market

N is for Neak Pean

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

The Jayatadaka today

Neak Pean was the strangest and creepiest of the temples we visited during our time in Siem Reap. Situated in  the middle of the Jayatadaka (the reservoir that served the then capital city), the temple was on an island once upon a time. Today, a wooden walkway leads from the main road to the temple across the long-dead reservoir.

The walkway

Neak Pean has a strange layout - the central shrine is in the middle of a pond, and has four shrines around it. Its base has two entwined nagas, which give the temple its modern name (Neak Pean literally means 'entwined snakes'). Each of the subsidiary shrines also has its own pond. A miniature horse rises up from the water near the eastern door of the central shrine.

Today, a fence bars access to the central pond and shrine. But I had no wish to go closer. I found the entire place silent and creepy - the silent forest, the green and still water, the inaccessible central shrine.

The central shrine, in the middle of its pond

M is for the Museum of Mines and Missiles

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

In all the fuss about Angkor Wat and the other temples, we often forget that Cambodia is a country which has lived through some terrible times recently. The atrocities committed by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge are within living memory for Cambodians above the age of thirty. We outsiders may associate Khmer Rouge with the 1970s, but the movement only truly died down after Pol Pot died in 1998.

Old missiles line the entryway into the Museum

During the decades that the Khmer Rouge fought the Vietnamese Army (who invaded Cambodia because they were sick of Khmer Rouge raids into their territory), both sides laid hundreds of thousands of landmines in the fields and villages of Cambodia. These landmines are still there - and still cause death and disability to dozens of Cambodians each year. In addition to the landmines, there are unexploded missiles from the carpet-bombing that the US Army conducted to eliminate the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was the supply chain of the Vietnamese guerrillas.

We didn't know all this, of course. We landed up in Cambodia purely to see the Angkor temples, quite forgetting to associate Cambodia with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It was only on Day 2, when we were on our way to Banteay Srei, that we spotted the Landmine Museum. The museum gave us a whole new perspective on life in Cambodia.

The Landmine Museum was started by a Cambodian man with the Japanese name of Aki Ra. Aki Ra spent many years as a soldier - first for the Khmer Rouge and later on for the Vietnamese Army. After the UN Accord brought peace of a sort to Cambodia in the early nineties, he started his life's true mission - removing landmines from the villages of Cambodia. Whenever farmers found a suspicious object in their fields, they would call him and he would go 'deal with it' for them. 

Just one of many displays of mines and missiles

The museum contains all the mines and missiles that Aki Ra has removed. A collection of old and rusted mines and missiles might sound boring, but it's not. For one, the sheer number and type of landmines is astounding, as is the number of countries who supplied them. At one point, there were four different groups laying mines in the ground in Cambodia - the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese Army, the Thai Army (to protect their borders) and the Cambodian army itself. 

Secondly, Aki Ra is also running a school / orphanage for children who have suffered because of landmine explosions. The museum has their stories - tales of hope that bring a tear to the eye. 

The children created this display of all the different armies who laid mines in their country

Thirdly, the museum has free tour guides who make the experience much more visceral. Our tour guide was an American who, after years of contributing on and off to the work of landmine removal, had come and settled here five years ago to help Aki Ra out. He was absolutely brilliant - his passion for the cause and sheer dedication made the problem so real. 

A poster - the Khmer Rouge used child soldiers

And make no mistake - the problem is real. Three thousand people are currently working in Cambodia, removing landmines. Even with that many people, it's doubtful if all of Cambodia can be cleared of landmines in the next THOUSAND years. Almost every Cambodian knows somebody who has lost their limbs in a landmine explosion - the number used to be in the thousands earlier, but has now come down to less than hundred a year. Cambodian children receive lessons on how to deal with strange metallic-looking things on the ground. 

The tour had some embarrassing moments for us as Indians. Imagine being told that your country is one of a handful that haven't signed the Landmine Ban Treaty. Or that your country is one of the three that still produce landmines (the others are Pakistan and Myanmar). India claims that it can't sign the treaty because we use landmines on the border with Pakistan.

If you're ever in Siem Reap, make it a point to visit this museum. It's a bit away from Siem Reap, but if you're visiting Banteay Srei, then you have no excuse for not dropping in here.

L is for Lake Tonle Sap

This post is part of the AtoZChallenge, which I'm doing on my recent trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

The first part of this post is here.

The brown canal

After we left the Floating Village behind, we were suddenly surrounded by mangroves on both sides. Despite the noise of the boat's engines, the world suddenly became peaceful - just the brown water, the green trees, the grey-blue sky, and us.

The mangrove

After a little while of this, we started noticing that the water was changing colour - it was becoming bluer. Soon, the mangroves thinned. The mud banks became more sandy. The horizons opened out and - we emerged from the canal onto a large body of water.

The border between the canal and the lake

I suddenly realized what this water body must be - this was Lake Tonle Sap! I'd spent many days dreaming of Cambodia and poring over Siem Reap on Google Maps, and I had seen this gigantic lake to the south of Siem Reap. (The lake is so large that it covers 1.5% of the surface area of CAMBODIA!) I'd wished then that we could visit it, but it had looked too far away from Siem Reap. But here we were! For some reason, I suddenly remembered the moment in Journey to the Center of the Earth where the accidental explorer stumbles on an underground ocean.

The lake was dotted here and there with floating structures - houses, restaurants, even storage platforms full of oil drums. Our rusty blue boat plodded heavily across the grey water towards one of the floating 'buildings'. The bright red awning told us it was a restaurant.

One of the restaurants

Ah, we realized, the usual tourist trap - the boat boy would take a cut of the money the restaurant owner earned from us. Which made us promptly decide not to eat there. For the sake of form, we got off and sat there for a few minutes before getting back on the boat - enough time for the boat boy to get a can of free soft drink.

On our way back, we stopped at a boat jetty we had seen on the way to the lake - a set of stairs led up from the jetty to a restaurant and to an attractive red walkway, which looked like it went quite a distance into the forest.

A board outside the restaurant

The walkway did, indeed, lead into the mangrove. It was a surreal sort of structure, a strange thing to find after the squalor of the village. Why had somebody decided to build this beautiful red thing in the middle of the forest? It looked like either their money or their interest had run out after a while. A few dozen meters from the restaurant, the walkway lost its railings, and then even the posts for the railings. That made us turn back, scared that the next thing to go would be the sticks supporting the walkway.

The walkway - the initial nice phase

And that was the end of our Kompong Pluk tour. We got back into the boat, which took us back past the mangrove, past the floating village, past all the boats and houses and people, to the muddy bank we had started from. Our tuk-tuk driver, smiling as always, collected us from the boat, and drove us back past the paddy fields, past the skinny cows, past the multiple entry gates, past the houses of rural Cambodia, back to our hotel.

It was our last day in Cambodia.