Monkeys, Wats, and Trees

Friday, March 4.

We took a walk and wound up on Pub Street, the alternative name for Street 8. It is packed with pubs. It is right next to the day market, where we were able to buy Joanna a saffron umbrella, the monk’s color. She’s been looking for one since we landed in Thailand.

Actually, we did find one in Bangkok, at the Cabbages and Condoms gift shop. It was the perfect color, but back at the hotel, when she opened it, the umbrella had a huge Cabbages and Condoms logo. Joanna's no sure she wants to walk around Montclair with that one.

Lunch was so-so at a Japanese restaurant on Pub Street. Joanna ordered teriyaki chicken, which came nearly raw. We had to send it back to finish cooking. The sauce was too sweet.

I enjoyed a seaweed soup. I think I needed the iron.

We saw signs all over the neighborhood on walls and poles pointing, often in contradictory directions, to the Ten Bells. I’ve gone a few times to the pub of the same name in East London. Aside from their profession, the only connection among the victims of Jack the Ripper is that they all drank at some time in the Ten Bells Pub. We couldn’t find the Ten Bells in Siem Reap.

As usual, we retreated to the hotel to cool off for a while.

Using our newfound knowledge of local geography, we went back to the pub area around dusk to find a place for dinner. It must have been grand opening night for the Ten Bells.

It isn’t on one of the main streets, but on a narrow alley lined with restaurants and shops of various kinds. People were spilling out of the place and standing at tables in the alley. A photographer was snapping pictures. I was dressed for dinner in a jacket, so he may have mistaken me for a swell, too.

Down the alley, we found Champey, a Cambodian place with tablecloths that matched not only the upholstery, but also a waitress’s skirt. We shared a serving of duck in fermented white bean sauce. Very savory. One of the best meals we’ve had in Cambodia.

We walked around the block to let the duck settle. Pub Street is not quite as wild as Soi Cowboy in Bangkok, but it is bright and busy. Much of it is blocked to traffic in the evening. The rest of it may as well be, because only motorbikes, which seem to go everywhere, and tuk-tuks could get through the crowd. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, think (if you can) of Bourbon Street minus the strippers. That’s Pub Street. Several places run live music shows at high decibel levels. Kind of like dueling music venues.

When we got back to the Ten Bells, it was too crowded to struggle for a beer. You could see the bar, so it wasn’t as bad as the Ginger Man at rush hour, but close enough that I bypassed it.

We stopped at the Gelato Lab for some very rich and flavorful Italian ice cream. Joanna sampled two and chose coconut. I decided to take two scoops to avoid making a decision, a very tasty vanilla and a dark chocolate with hazelnuts.

We had an early morning on Saturday, up at 6:30 to leave at 8 for Angkor Wat. So we packed it in early.

Saturday, March 5.

Very good day today. I crossed not one, but two wanna-sees off my list. I saw a wild monkey by the side of the road and saw a temple covered in tree roots.

The temple is what I came to Cambodia to see.

The monkey? Well, I’ve been looking for him for some time.

We had gone to the front desk on Saturday to ask about visiting Angkor. What’s the best way to get there? Can we do it without signing up for a tour? That sort of thing.

That’s when we met Kwak, a driver who volunteered to take us to the main temples. We decided not to try to see them all in one day. We’d go to Angkor Wat, and then to two others that are smaller and less well known. We’d do the big one, Angkor Thom, on another day.

He asked what time we wanted to start. We were sure that noon, which would have been most convenient, would be too late to be practical. We said 8 o’clock. That meant waking up at 6:30 to give us time to shower and have a light breakfast.

I was pretty sure we could manage that. We accomplished something like it in Chiang Mai when we left for Phnom Penh.

We set out only a few minutes late. We bought our tickets at the checkpoint. Yeah, they call it that. One of the bills I gave them had a slight tear. They asked for another one.

They snap a picture and it appears on your ticket. I tilted my head back and smiled, trying to look pleasant. I look like a wise guy, but that’s appropriate enough.

Kwak suggested we put off Angkor Wat until lunch time, when it is less crowded, and go to Wat Ta Prohm first. We did that.

On the way, the road is shaded by the forest. El Nino has brought drought to this whole region so the growth wasn’t as green as it might be with normal rain. Like the New Jersey Pine Barrens, there is little undergrowth, probably because the canopy is very dense, even in the current drought.

I had my sunglasses on so I couldn’t see distant things as distinctly as usual. Something about a small tree stump caught my attention. As we came closer, I found it wasn’t a stump at all. There, on the roadside, a few feet from my elbow, was a small gray monkey nibbling on something. Maybe a twig for breakfast.

I’ve been looking for monkeys ever since we climbed the forest path in Singapore. I finally found one.

The rich moss that appears in photographs had mostly dried up, but even so, Ta Prohm is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is one of the smaller temples. It is not exensively restored, although there is a project under way, partly funded by the government of India.

Much of the temple consists of piles of fallen stones. Some teetering sections are shored up by scaffolding. Centuries-old trees have wrapped their roots over and through the structure.

The caretakers have built platforms that are crawling with tourists posing for photos against the fantastic backgrounds of carvings and equally graceful growth. Even with that going on, it is still gorgeous. 

The first “Tomb Raider” movie included shots of Ta Prohm. The photo of the day is Joanna doing an Angelina Jolie impersonation. 

There were several tour groups there at the same time. We took an alternative route that no one seemed to be using.

We met a park ranger who led us on a short tour, which included more views of spectacular trees, including one that had all but obscured a smiling Buddha. You can just make out the face, grinning at you. He told us that Ta Prohm originally had 39 towers. So it isn’t so small, after all, but it is dwarfed by Angkor Wat.

When we left Ta Prohm, it wasn’t 11 o’clock and already there were two wonderful events in one day. I didn’t see a temple full of monkeys, which is something I’m curious about. But I did see the monkey and a fantastic temple in the same day. That alone makes the trip to Cambodia worthwhile.

The second temple we visited, Banteay Kdei, has four monumental faces carved above the entrance gate. There is something about them that reminds my untrained eye of faces carved into the monuments of Mesoamerica. Joanna read that these were one of the kings’ favorite faces.

Pillars are adorned with figures of dancers. They are posed on one foot and are making a gesture with their hands.

A local man and his wife were taking photos of them. He started chatting with us. He had once wanted to be a dancer. We asked about the hand position—tips of the thumb and index finger touching, the other three fingers tilted backwards. He showed us how it is done. My hands don’t bend in that direction.

When we came out, Kwak took us to a restaurant near Angkor Wat. Joanna and I split a grilled fish with mixed vegetables, another tasty meal in Cambodia.

Most of what I recall about Angkor Wat is steps. You walk across the moat and then across a vast stretch—somewhere between half a kilometer and a hundred miles—in the blazing sun to climb steps.

When you go in, if you turn right, you will find something curious. It is an eight-armed statue of Vishnu that has been repurposed as the Buddha. Not unlike that bronze in the National Museum—a representation of the Hindu god Vishnu calling itself the Buddha in a dream.

Anyhow, the figure is draped in a yellow sash and there are boxes asking for donations to the Buddha. People are said to leave locks of hair there for good fortune and thanksgiving. We may have seen one, stuck in candle wax.

In addition to its status as an archaeological museum, Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples are active religious sites.

We ran into a group of monks, for instance.

The galleries are many and imposing, and you climb steps to go from one to another. There is a large gallery, partly open to the sky, with an elaborate altar to Buddha at one side. That may be part of the Gallery of the Thousand Buddhas. At one time it was packed with Buddha images, but most have been moved elsewhere or stolen.

We looked at the frescoes on the outer walls of the temple. Two showed battles from Hindu mythology and reminded me of “Where’s Waldo?”

One is kind of interesting, the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk.” Two groups are in a competition. One holds a giant serpent by the head; the other team has the tail. The serpent is wrapped around a mountain, and the give and take of the tug of war cause it to spin, churning the waters of the cosmic ocean to release the elixir of immortality. The monkey god, a frequent figure in Buddhist mythology, is helping one side, who are probably the good guys.

Vishnu is on the mountain, and the fish are disturbed in the sea. We later saw the same motif of the tug of war forming fences in front of wats on the way back.

On the way to the hotel, we passed Le Malraux, which is where we went later for some beef and red wine. It is named for Andre Malraux, the French writer and hero of the Resistance.

I wondered why the place was named for him, so I looked him up. Oddly enough, Malraux’s connection to Cambodia dates from a less-than-heroic episode in his early life. In 1923, when he was 22, he was arrested by the French colonial authorities for stealing bas reliefs from one of the wats at Angkor, which at that time was lost in the jungle. He was trying to smuggle them out of the country and sell them through an art dealer.

We split a 10-ounce portion of Australian beef—a little tough, because it’s grass fed, but very tasty, because it’s grass fed.

I had a glass of a Languedoc pinot noir followed by a Bordeaux. Both were served chilled, because room temperature here is just too damned hot for wine. Joanna helped me with the Languedoc, but found the flavor of the Bordeaux too strong. It was a bit on the sharp side, and it also lacked the woody, smoky flavor that I associate with Bordeaux.

We walked back to the Ten Bells, where they had a few taps of the usual stuff—Tiger, Anchor, and Carlsberg. One of the draws is a disc jockey. I think you need to go to Herb’s Happy Pizza to make electronic dance music listenable.

So we cleared out of there to get some gelato and then went back to the hotel.

My best day in Cambodia.

Good night, everyone.

Harry