Archives for May 2014

Cambodia: Siem Reap

May 8, 2014 by James Trumm 1 Comment

Siem Reap was a pleasant surprise. Since it’s the town closest to Angkor, I expected a ticky-tacky tourist town, just a place for people to stay en route to the ruins. It is a tourist town, but as the genre goes, it’s a nice one. It’s here:

The first thing I did upon getting to town was to get a haircut at the Fine Day Barber Shop. There is a certain frisson about not being able to communicate well with your barber.

And as he put the straight razor to my neck, I wondered if the tens of thousands of tons of bombs that America “secretly” dropped on his country 45 years ago killed many of his relatives.

I also found that the Angkor National Museum does a good job of showcasing and explaining Angkor civilization and putting the area’s ruins in historical context.

The town has a lovely and well-tended park that runs along the Siem Reap River, which cuts through the middle of the town.

For those whose tastes run more toward the vehicular, Cambodia’s climate does a good job of preserving the classics.

There are many shops, ranging from the tony to the homespun — and even the latter are neat and tidy.

After living in Yuxi for ten months, I found myself craving non-Chinese food. Especially enjoyed the beef stew at Molly Malone’s, an Irish pub run by a half-French half-Cameroonian man and his Irish wife. I swapped lies with him while holding down the Bullshit Corner at the bar.

On another night, as I wandered around town, I caught sight of Boston Red Sox posters hanging above the bar at Belmiro’s Pizza & Subs. Being a former Bostonian, I wandered in for the first pizza I’ve had since Christmas. It’s a great establishment, run by Belmiro Barros, a self-described “kid from Marion, Massachusetts” who got sick of a career in international finance and decided to open a restaurant in Siem Reap. Pizza and conversation were both very good.

There were posters up in the coffee shops and guesthouses advertising jazz concerts, dance recitals, a circus, and art gallery openings. After a few days there, I left thinking that even if Angkor was not just a tuk tuk ride away, Siem Reap would be a fine place to visit or to live.

Filed Under: Cambodia, Travel, Wheels Tagged With: Cambodia, Travel

Cambodia: By Motorcycle to Chau Srey Vibol, Part 2

May 7, 2014 by James Trumm 2 Comments

[Read Cambodia: By Motorcycle to Chau Srey Vibol, Part 1 here.]

There were no tourists at Chau Srey Vibol. None. No ticket booth, no tour guides, site maps or plaques either. It was just an ancient pile of stones about 75 meters behind a Buddhist temple at the end of a badly rutted dirt road. I had the place all to myself, save for a couple of saffron-robe clad shaved-headed monks from the temple who briefly came over to check me out.

When I was a kid, I used to build cities with Jonathan Poneman in his basement. We’d use cardboard boxes, Lego, Hot Wheels tracks, pieces of wood, erector sets, alphabet blocks, and anything else that struck our fancy. Our metropolises were very elaborate. Then, in a frenzy of joyful destruction, we would kick over all we had so carefully built, scattering blocks and boxes and buildings like angry and capricious gods.

That is what Chau Srey Vibol looked like. There were pediments scattered like Lincoln Logs, window frames strewn about like Lego pieces, enormous stone blocks tossed about as if they were 1,100 year old pieces of styrofoam.

After taking about 100 photos, I got back on my moto, feeling wonderful. I rode along singing Steeley Dan inside my helmet at the top of my lungs to no one but myself: “Bodhisattva, won’t you take me by the hand?” Children coming home from school, dressed in immaculate blue pants and white shirts waved at me in delight. And I waved back.

Filed Under: Cambodia, Motorcycles, Travel Tagged With: Cambodia, Motorcycle, Travel

Cambodia: By Motorcycle to Chau Srey Vibol, Part 1

May 7, 2014 by James Trumm 2 Comments

I went to the outskirts of Siem Reap to pick up my moto (which is what people here call anything with a motor and two wheels). I was handed the key to a battered Honda Dream, a Frankencycle of a scooter’s front end and a motorcycle’s back end.

At the garage, a greasy guy lurched toward me and offered me a Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle. A little early in the morning, I thought, but why not? I reached for the bottle, but the guy pushed by me, flipped up the Honda’s seat, and poured the contents of the bottle into the gas tank. This is how a Khmer-style gas station works.

Once I left Siem Reap, the pavement gave way to deep red dirt. I rode slow, given that the previous night’s rain had left muddy patches, but the Honda held to the track surprisingly well. About 10 km out of the city, I looked across rice fields to see the three towers of Angkor Wat way in the distance.

The Cambodian countryside was peaceful, lush, and compared to other rural areas of Asia I’ve seen, relatively prosperous.

I passed by many houses built up on stilts and painted dusky red with dusky blue trim. The ground floors are concrete pads that are used as garages, porches, and patios. There are stairs or thatched ramps leading up to the living areas.

I don’t romanticize poverty. But there are different ways of living poor. The Cambodians seem to do it artfully. Their houses are clean and tidy outside. Things are built and arranged with a strong aesthetic sense.

Around lunch time, I saw a sign for BBQ and stopped. I was led down a path through the jungle to a single guy who had a fire going. “Meat or no meat?” he asked. “Meat,” I said. I was led further down the path past several outdoor porches built on piers over a small lake to the very last one.

This was my private dining room. It had some hammocks, a bamboo floor, and straw mats. I snoozed for a bit until the cook brought me a plate of grilled chicken, pork, and sausage–delicious and far more than I could eat.

I ate while looking out over the lake.

Then I was on my way again. I stopped for gas here . . .

. . . and decided to go with the Johnnie Walker Red this time.

I passed various Buddhist schools, temples and monasteries. Several of them had similar murals painted on their walls that looked like something out of Hieronymus Bosch. A Buddhist conception of the torments of hell?

My destination was Chau Srey Vibol, an unrestored temple complex built in 900, i.e., 200 years before Angkor Wat. It was not easy to find and the roads were bad, but I made it — and it was a highlight of my trip.

Read about it in Cambodia: By Motorcycle to Chau Srey Vibol, Part 2.

Filed Under: Cambodia, Travel Tagged With: Cambodia, Motorcycle, Travel

Cambodia: Angkor Wat

May 6, 2014 by James Trumm 3 Comments

On my first full day in Siem Reap, I got up at five and was out the door by six, hoping to beat the tourist hordes. I hailed a passing tuk tuk and, after a twenty minute ride, hopped off at the end of the ancient stone causeway that crosses the square moat surrounding Angkor Wat. The temperature was already at least 85, but I got chills as I saw the 900 year old ruin looming ahead of me. I have wanted to come here for many years. I thought: finally.

Angkor Wat is as hard to photograph as it is to describe. It’s so monumentally large that a single photo can’t capture the grandeur of it all. Every stone surface is carved with intricate depictions of the Hindu mythos, with trees and flowers and chariots and warriors and wagon wheels and fantastical animals. And from every corner, mammose goddesses look on.

The complex is constructed as a series of squares within squares. There are long corridors faced with support columns or with windows made of closely-adjacent stone pillars designed to let light in but keep arrows out.

Once you’re within the outer walls, there are multiple entrances and stairways leading to the inner chambers.

Inside the temple itself are several shrines to the Buddha, which are still attended to by the faithful.

Around the temple are several smaller buildings which were used as libraries.

I spent almost five hours there, after which the heat, the exhaustion, the amazement, and the multitudes of tourists took their toll. I could have easily spent five days. I took another tuk tuk back to the guesthouse and slept for three hours.

That evening, there was a tropical rain storm. I sat on the covered rooftop deck of the Seven Candles Guesthouse and wrote up my notes as the power blinked on and off and little geckos scurried over the walls.

Filed Under: Cambodia, Travel Tagged With: Cambodia