My birthday and the holidays have come and gone, and even though I am in a Buddhist country where they do not celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, nor, Kwanzaa, and their New Year’s is in April, I still have found myself busy.
I have finally been able to leave Phnom Penh for something other than work. John, I, and two of our friends got the chance to visit Ankgor Wat. For those of you, who do not know what Angkor Wat is, I have included a Wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat . The quick and dirty version is, Angkor Wat Temple Complex is the largest freestanding religious structure in the world and is a sacred place for many people, but particularly for those who practice Buddhism and Hinduism. Some of temples were affected by years of wars with forced dismantling of sacred sites by the Khmer Rouge, some by landmines, some by US bombardment, and others by looters. It was dedicated World Heritage Site status in 1992, and is a breathtaking structure, a place that needs to be seen during one’s lifetime.
Bayon Temple
Beheaded Buddha Statues
Angkor Wat at Sunrise
After visiting Angkor Wat, we decided to take a boat to the city of Battambang. The boat ride between Siem Reap (city closest to Angkor Wat) and Battambang deserves its own blog post, but I’ll just say that it was the most amazing and scariest boat ride I have ever taken. The boat was barely river-worthy with a barely functioning motor and extremely top-heavy. If someone on the boat even considered moving, the boat would tip to one side. Often, the one and only crew member would have to tell some foreigner to move to the other side of the boat to balance it out.
The boat did not have toilet facilities or water, or life jackets, and as we weaved our way through mangroves without any land in sight, I actually looked up at the sun to see what direction we were heading so I would know which way to swim, if I had to. Of course, I would have to survive the water which had some unfriendly fish and snake types living in it. Oh, and I forgot to mention our guesthouse said it would take about 4 hours, but somehow we eventually arrived in Battambang 8 hours later. Did I mention no toilet?
The beauty of the boat ride far outweighed my fear though as we traveled through biodiversity hotspots, floating villages, and fishing communities. The area is known for its diversity of birds with some rare birds passing through during their seasonal migrations. I could hear them as we chugged along, and could see them flying overhead, skimming the water, and through the trees.
The floating communities were amazing. They included floating schools, temples, markets, and houses complete with TV antennas and the occasional cellphone tower. People maneuvered boat caravans shipping stuff to floating markets and to the mainland, and children yelled, “hello”, and waved with all their might as our boat passed by.
Boat caravan
traffic jam in the mangroves
fishing nets
The cranes hanging out
floating through a fishing village
We arrived in Battambang around 4pm. The sun would be going down in about 2 hours so we rushed to our guesthouse to lay our bags down and enjoy the city at sunset. I was excited since I had heard it is a quiet city that still maintains some of its French colonial architecture though in ill-repair from years of war. It is located not that far from the Thai border.
As we laid our bags down, I remembered my office was having a party for the opening of their newest branch office. We headed over to the CREDIT-MFI party for a bit and enjoyed the fine food. After that, we walked around Battambang and enjoyed its charm. The people were in the park along the riverfront dancing to music, a form of exercise in most Cambodian towns. It is similar to going to an aerobics class in the states, except this is outside and with all your cohorts as each age group has its own music, dance steps, and group leader. I got a chance to join in the dancing for a song or two to the locals amusement.
CREDIT-MfI party in Battambang
After dancing, we walked along the promenade and bought some roadside goodies. We bought some steamed corn, grilled banana, and fried crickets. They had tarantulas, but I didn’t feel like I was ready for them yet. We slowly weaved our way back to our guesthouse and ran into some fellow boat travels from Spain and German, shared a beer, and called it an early evening.
The next morning John and I woke-up extra early to catch the sunrise. We wanted to see the city in dawn light. We rushed to get dressed and headed outside. We walked up to the central market where life is usually bustling at 6am, and around the city as it slowly woke-up. We meandered through the streets, and eventually ended-up back at the market for breakfast. We each ate noodles and pork, and drank an iced coffee with sweet milk. Yum!
After breakfast we walked around a bit more, and came upon an interesting temple that seemed a mix between Buddhism and Hinduism. Also, the monks had their laundry out drying in its array of saffron colored materials mixed with western style t-shirts and pants. I was shy about taking pictures so I only took one that does not do it justice.
French Colonial Architecture along the riverfront
laying out monk laundry
We slowly walked back to our guesthouse, packed our bags and we were back on the road. We had to catch the bus to Phnom Penh at 10:30am. We had to work the next day, and honestly we were itching to get back to our Kiva Fellow lives.
1 Comment
January 13, 2009 at 3:17 pm
T, these photographs are phenomenal!