Kingdom of wonders – part 3

I said even at 5am there will still be people. He tried to deny it.

Lucky & Map were on time. It was rather dark on the Saturday. We were well too ready for Angkoring & temple-ing. Packed with the hotel breakfast and our own food, a torch, Lucky our tour guide and Map with his tuk tuk, a scarf as it was windy that early. Off we went.

It was in deed very windy on the way. It was dark and the thought of going to such a holy place in this hour gave me the chill. Shadows of tree and we could not see a thing. We arrived and a lot of people also did. Yeah Dan I told ya…people WILL wake up to see this Wonder…even if they have to wake up at 5am on a Saturday.

We tried to keep going on a straight line or fall off to the man-made ponds on both sides on the entrance way to Angkor Wat, our first step. Lucky took us to sit on the pavement high up on the left hand side. Patiently we waited Then around 5:30am, flocks of tourist poured in, noisy…yet all came and waited for that magical sunrise. Of course a fool would leave his camera home and yes many come in deed, in a very very serious mood and no one would miss this photo taking opportunity. Even the Jap old woman sitting next to us….showing off’ her son victory ‘ see my son can take the picture….see you can too’. Well good for you mother.

I guess the sunrise and the anticipation were too  much to grasp I didnot know how to take the pictures and here is what I did.

And as Lucky suggested…we moved to yet more man made ponds to get the reflection…as usual it was a popular crowded spot…so I was again confused in front of this magnificent beauty until Big C told me to flip the pic up side down…during the development process

As the humble sun rose from afar and gave us the energy for the day…..we continued our journey. First stop Lucky  made us listened to his story about the fight for a wonderful beauty between some old god legend and started to explain the drawings on the wall. We were all curious and admired the detailing of such skilled craft and efforts of the ancient world ….. lost in the wonder. We also visited the 1000 Buddha area where there is now none left as they were all stolen. Then we walked around the area in the freshest air of the day…we finished the Wat by 8am with the ‘Churning of the Milk’ re-build piece.

My overall observations for the infamous Wat were that it is extremely breath-taking to have such a huge yet attention to detailed ‘tomb’/temple built by what was once a powerful and mighty empire. The architect is very logical and practical. Back in the days, the place would have been packed with loyalties and common people come to pray, celebrate and experience the power of religion and beliefs yet its design allows a natural and effective ventilated wave of air blow in through big square windows all along. Also the ’squarie’ boxy design, in my interpretation, makes it easy to control the crowd and yet like a maze it lures people in – a feeling of mysterious and respect. Although the king’s deceased body and tomb are no where to be seen, the Wat was also a place of worship and they do like to dance, a lot.  I recalled what was written in the Lonely Planet about the entire place being covered by nature once. Now it’s spacious but without any signs of major landscape being invested inside such a holy place.

Lucky tried to tell us many tales and stories, quite frankly I dont remember much of it what I do realise is it’s not the Chunk of the Milk but rather Mud…colour looks like milk so they briefly translated it like that and of course you must have Buddha/God and the Devil….on both side hen the art of balance.

For once I soon realized that I could not take many pic with the lens I have, a wide angle would have been great. So I found the comfort in taking pics of my friends – having fun in the  Wa.

We tried to stay away from the crowd as much as we could, so we decided to head for Ta Prohm instead. Yes the ‘Tomb Raider’ one, one of the most infamous temple complexes. It was once called I believe ‘jungle temple’ where all the massive, giant long and tall and BEND trees like to lean on the temples and become part of it. Lots of conservations and re-construction work being held on this site with the technique of something begin with ana and ends with losis, in shorter terms they use the old materials from these sand stones and mix with new artificial materials. A lot of the temples in this area are well… collapsing and falling apart. Green, a lot of moldy green grown onto the surface now. I did not know the entire area was used to be painted with red. Unlike the mighty Wat, hallways are lower around here, narrow walkways which demand your respect and careful to watch your head. I suspect there was more bows here than back at Angkor Wat.

The area is small, I think those who work on it trying to establish stable walkways for tourists to view the site….enough to see loads of stone are stumbling on each other, out of shape, almost one cant make much of it…what is left and what used to be. So the place was busy. I guess with only 10% of the tourist money inject into the ’saving’ effort, they wont need to make things more or less comfortable. Everyone tried to pose and snap around the area, rather a lot. I asked Lucky why trees in this area tend to grow ’round’ they bend as they reach the top height. He just replied simply…just those in this area…the trees are naturally like that…it has nothing to do with the soil. All of the moments, I found this snapshot where I truly love….Uyen’s impression of the stone….perplexed or purely annoyed by the sun or perhaps she was trying to ‘figure’ the wonder out or she hated it since I always asked her to stand underneath the glaring sun.

(with a bit dreamy treatment)

Next step: Ta Keo – the unfinished temple no carvings,  left,  alone after the king saw lighting striked and believed it to be doomed. We did a lot of climbing here, very steep steps yet once we reached the top, a breath of fresh and cool air greeted us. Although I must say climbing up can be very nerve cracking here, there’s nothing to lean on and the steps are as skinny as  Korean chopsticks.

Here is a climber

As this point, normally people would head back to town for lunch but we tried to stretch just a bit more. We conquered Preah Khan, the scared sword legend. It was a bit of a walk, much like Ta Prohm, there’s a long entrance way lead to the temple, tourists might find some ‘musicians’ those of victims from mines entertaining along the way. I however, particularly enjoyed the drive through these wondered gates…

As we made our way out for a noon break…I asked my models to yet pose again under the sun. They did of course have sunscreen on.

the ‘green’ way out gate