After they’ve seen Angkor Wat, how’re you gonna keep ‘em on the farm?
After we left the temple complex, sopping wet with sweat and tired in every bone, we had one more stop to make before lunch, at Theam’s House in Siem Reap.
This is a home and gallery of a local artisan who commissions and trains young artists in traditional Cambodian handicrafts and art. It’s an attempt to sustain local culture that was badly decimated during the Khmer Rouge period, and also to give opportunities for disadvantaged but talented Cambodian youth to develop their skills.
Our last souvenir shopping completed, and the local economy duly supported, we moved on to an invigorating and delicious Cambodian lunch at Palate Restaurant. Pomelo salad with shrimp, sour fish soup, grilled marinated beef skewer, tamarind chicken, baby bok chow with oyster sauce, and a selection of Khmer custards, accompanied by Angkor beer. A can of beer: $2.58. Change back from a $5 bill was $2 in US bills and two 1,000 riel notes! (Current exchange rate is about 4,080 riel to the dollar.)
I’ve never been in a country where the US$ is not the official currency but is implicitly treated like it is. Government employees are paid in riels, everyone else gets paid in US$ if they can arrange it. All the billboards and shops post prices in dollars. Even the ATMs give you the choice of dollars or riels for dispensing cash.
Muy gave folks the option of being dropped off at the hotel after lunch or continuing on to two more temples. After the tiring and hot morning, half the bus opted for the hotel. The rest of us went on to the “Roluos Group” of temples.
These ruins are east of Siem Reap (the opposite direction from the Angkor group). These temples are among the earliest permanent structures of the Khmer empire, built in the 9th century AD. In contrast to the stone construction of the later temples, the Roluos temples are made of brick and plaster.
Our first stop was Preah Ko, the “Sacred Bull” temple. There are several bull statues in front of the temple. Shiva was said to ride on a bull, and this temple was dedicated to Shiva.
The photo above showed an interesting interplay of colors and textures between the deteriorated plaster, the old brick, and some newer brick added by restorers to shore up the structure around this false door.
Images of Shiva adorn the lintels of the doorways.
And another carving. It was amazing to see how good these looked considering that they were more than 1,100 years old!
The temple was built by King Indravarman I. The towers commemorate the founder of the the Khmer empire (Indravarman’s uncle), his father, grandfather, and their wives. When Preah Ko was completed, Indravarman then built a much larger temple complex dedicated to himself!
This was the nearby temple of Bakong. It’s on a much grander scale, and set the stage for subsequent temples in the Angkor group. It is in the shape of a step pyramid surmounted by a lotus-shaped representation of Mount Meru, the mountain at the center of the Earth that is the home of the Hindu gods.
It’s “guarded” by bulls at the corners at ground level, with elephants posted at the corners and lions at the stairways as you ascend the pyramid levels.
There were no wooden stairs to help you climb the pyramid at this temple. The stone steps were steep and very tall, about as high as I could step without having to use my hands to pull myself up from step to step.
I did make it to the top!
It wasn’t nearly as tall as Angkor Wat, but I was certainly feeling the climb this late in the day.
Above is the view to the west of the temple. Below is the view to the east, showing the bridge over the moat near upper center.
That was the last official exploration of this journey. Mr. Muy took a photo of me in front of the temple.
All that remained was to go back to the hotel, rest, shower, and then have one final group dinner. We were told it was going to be “traditional Cambodian food served family style, with four people sharing each dish.” That conjured up the image of us all sitting around someone’s table in a large house. What we got, though, was a French-Cambodian fusion meal at a very trendy restaurant, Sokkhak River. It was by far the best meal we’d had yet in Cambodia, and a very pleasant surprise. Our guides toasted us and we had a great time comparing experiences and talking about our pending re-immersion into Real Life.
I’m sure I’ll be writing more about the trip as my brain attempts to process all that’s happened over the past 43 days. In the meantime, I am sad that we had to say goodbye to Mr. Muy, who had been such a wonderful guide for us in an adventure-packed final 3-1/2 days of this voyage of exploration.
Tomorrow is Travel Day. We leave Bangkok at 8:10 a.m. local time and arrive in Greensboro just before midnight. Factoring in the time changes, that’s about 27 hours for the return trip, if I’m calculating correctly, and assuming that all goes smoothly!