Seam Reap

There are three very interesting places that I had the luxury to visit in my first two weeks in Cambodia.

For purpose of conciseness, the first was the small city of Seam Reap, where I visited Angkor Wat,the ancient Cambodian ruins that date roughly 900 years old from 1113.

The Second visit was a motorcycle ride of one hour to the Killing fields, 30 km from Phenom Penh ,my current residence.

The third, and by far the saddest, was the prison, situated in the city itself. That visit coincided on the same day with the killing fields visit. The latter two were experiences in seeing the human capability for evil. Thank God ,I had my two Cambodian friends with me to share my shock, sadness and disbelief.

Well, let me start with Seam Reap . It’s the hometown of my colleague Rashna and is situated 400 km north of where we live. That translates to a six hour comfortable bus ride. Thank God the bus had a toilet.

The trip was uneventful,the country side was beautiful, and the chairs restful. I slept two hours. The houses were all on stilts to prevent monsoonal flooding. Most had rice fields behind them. Livestock was everywhere to be seen. As I mentioned before, I even saw a woman bathing cow in a river

Most people here are Buddhist,so it wasn’t a shock, just a passing amusement. Fruit trees were equally prevalent.

We borrowed a car from Rashna’s friend, and got around very comfortably. SeamReap is a small city by Cambodian standards,and a small town by western standards. We settled in a very comfortable hotel . I was shocked to find the cost was $15 a night. we were very comfortable and wanted nothing.

We visited Rashna’s, communal home. It was supplied by a well with a pump, Helen Keller style. The water was cool and refreshing. The hospitality was amazing. He had built the house with his brother. It was simple , small and comfortable. I met his wife and kids. That made me miss my own even more. Sweet people they were

At Angkor Wat,the first ting I noticed was snake statues.They were clearly cobra like with the typical flaps at the neck. In Cambodian language they are called Naga.

They represent strength and as such, protect the domain of the royalty. The Cambodian people believe that they are descendants of the snake,not so foreign perhaps when you consider the story of Adam and Eve and the temptation by the serpent.
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They also believe that their first queen was descendant of the Naga king
There were two or three bridges. These represented a bridge from the underworld to our world,as well as a bridge from our world to heaven. All were built from huge stones. These stones averaged 5 tonnes in weight and were carried by elephants in ancient times.`

The temples were dedicated to the Hindu belief in Vishnu,one of the incarnations of their deity. It showed the epic battles he took place in through beautiful engravings on the walls.

There were 5 different ruins. We visited three I abstained from the last. My colleague Jeremy and his sister Ting went up. They took up that challenge alone, and climbed to dizzying heights.

We climbed to the top. I am notoriously bad at balance,and the steps were very small for my big feet. As such,I had Jeremy holding one arm and Rasna the other. The top most level must have been 100 steps above ground level. Thanks to my 2 companions, no injuries or falling occurred.

The last ruins that jeremy visited had very narrow steps. One look at them and I said no. Too high,. Too steep, an attempt could easily have been catastrophic. I know my limits.

We also went for a cow barbecue at the night. It was an entire cow on a huge spit . The ribs were already exposed as it was half eaten. It was pitch black night. The butchers were muslim and the meat permissible. They cut pieces off and cooked them for us.

Well after all the excitement and climbing, we decided to take the night bus back. I slept the whole way,and arrived in the morning refreshed.