Track of the day: Country Roads, John Denver
"Wow, do you see that," I ask Alecs pointing to a giant parade of people marching through the main-streets of Siem Reap with floats, banners and hundreds of colorful flowers. Alecs leans over me to look at the masses of people holding photo's of a monk high in the air. "What's going on?" we ask Rattana as he stops to watch the procession. "They're celebrating the life of the late king of the monks," he explains, "he was a great monk. He could speak many languages including the language of the birds and the dogs and the monkeys." Smiling I give Alecs a sly look - "that's my kind of monk." Hundreds of monks, nuns (female monks) and citizens chant
prayers as onlookers pay their respects and local newspaper journalists hurriedly jot notes and take photos. A lazy dog stretches her legs behind us, Rattana kick-starts his moto and with that we are off. Beng Mealea is 70 km from Siem Reap, which means almost two hours on a tuk-tuk. Villagers sweep the dirt from their houses, lead cattle into the fields and bathe naked children in the river below. A group of kids wave to us on their way to school, shouting 'hello' and smiling excitedly when we wave back. Alecs is wearing his Krama, a traditional scarf used by the Khmers in hundreds of different ways. A red Krama was part of the uniform Khmer rouge forced the people wear during the war, but the citizens of Cambodia have taken it back, making it a national symbol, now available in every colour. We point out all the different ways locals are wearing their Kramas to each other. "There's one," I say, pointing to an old man wearing a red one around his head as protection from the sun. Alecs nudges me a few moments later,
pointing at a baby swinging in a Krama in-front of the handle bars of it's father's bicycle. In the duration of the trip we see at least ten other ways to use the scarf. Enjoying the countryside and the people so much we are shocked to learn two hours has slipped by and we are now at Beng Mealea, one of the larger temples. Far marked from the path of tourism, but worthy of at least a few tuk-tuk's and a dozen tourists, Beng Mealea is a haven for the travellers soul. Almost entirely deserted, the temple built in the early 12th century was destroyed by the Vietnamese bombs and the Khmer Rouge, who had a strong-hold on it well after the war ended. A local man directs us off the wooden path, into the crumbling ruins of the massive structure. Unsure of where to go from here we climb to the top of the giant stones, wandering aimlessly until the
local comes to our aide as a guide. We follow him silently through the dark corridors until we reach an opening where he points out the library and stone carvings surrounding the wall. "The churning of the ocean milk," he says pointing out the demons and spirits fighting over the serpent. The man pulls down a tree root hanging above us and uses it to swing to the other side of some fallen stones and then he signals for us to follow suit. I look back at Alecs, grabbing hold of the root, feeling a little like tarzan and a lot terrified. "Here it goes," I say, closing my
eyes, pulling my feet up to my chest and flying to the other side landing safely and thanking god a little. Alecs fearlessly swings to my side, clearly smug with himself and wanting to make up for being upstaged I nearly run to the top of the temple leaving Alecs behind. "This is actually one of my favorite temples," Alecs says after we tip the local for guiding us, "just because we got to climb all over it without restriction and there were no other tourists." Sadly we must bid farewell to our last temple in Cambodia for this trip at least and we somberly join Rattana for the journey back to our favorite city.
Tomorrow is our last day here in Cambodia and it would be a lie to say we aren't on the verge of tears just thinking about it, but we must move on. We will be back, we must come back, this place is just too wonderful to visit only once.
Until next time,
Alecs and Meg in Siem Reap
Hopefuly we can upload photos and videos tomorrow, but the computer is running out of battery and we are using a restaurant WiFi and cannot plug it in. Please check back here after the next post is uploaded.
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