My Way Is The Highway

Phnom Bakheng, Cambodia: Sunrise at a Sunset Point

Phnom Bakheng at 5:45 am

Phnom Bakheng is a popular sunset point. In the evening, a jostling crowd of 200-300 tourists makes it difficult to find a vantage point. And even if you do, it is impossible to get a second, third angle.  So I decide to go there early in the morning. Since it sits on top of a hill, I see no reason why a sunrise would be any inferior to the sunset.

It takes a 20-25 minute steep hike to get from the base of the hill to the base of the temple. Instead, I ride the bike up the winding path that is used by elephants (elephant ride is a popular activity here). I park the bike at the head of the path, and climb the huge ancient steps that take me to the uppermost level of the temple. Phnom Bakeng, state temple of the first capital of Angkor - built like the mountain temple at Bakong - is in ruins. Very little remains. Though what remains shows enough to imagine the glory it must have been a thousand years ago.

At 5:00 in the morning, there is not a soul around. The shuffle of my feet wakes a cuckoo somewhere who then promptly produces a suitable background score. Down below, Siem Reap is still asleep under a blanket of heat. Up here, the air is crisper and smells of an early morning.

I have planned to setup long exposures and use the powerful flashlights I have lugged up “to paint” the ruins of the inner sanctum.  It is not to be. The horizon is already bursting red and fuchsia and gold and orange. I need to improvise, It is one of those mornings. The ones I live for.

Phnom Bakheng at 5:15 am

Back in July 2009,  NatGeo published an article on Cambodia. Since I saw Robert Clark’s photos, I knew it was a matter of time before I would be here. One of these photos has been taken at Phnom Bakheng, and I would be lying if I say I was not trying to copy it. (The photo is part of a slide show and cannot be linked. It is the third photo in the second strip.)

I must confess, I got what I wanted…

Apsara Dance

May 6th, 2010 Siem Reap

Every evening we invariably end up on Pub Street.

The police do a good job of cordoning off the traffic so the street is only accessible to the walkers. Restaurants have bistro style tables on the sidewalk. As the sun sets and the heat becomes bearable, temple-tired-tourists slowly trickle in for a glass of cold beer.  Attractive Khmer waitresses in stylish cotton cocktail gowns snag tourists, wafts of appetizing aroma – Num cha gio pale (spring rolls), Saich Moan Ang (grilled chicken), fresh garlic bread – making their jobs easy.

I am on my second Angkorian draft at Banana Leaf when Nathan decides that I absolutely must see the Apsara Dance. The nearby Temple Club runs a daily no-admission-fee show that starts at 7:30. So we drain our glasses, climb up the stairs that take us from a floor with beer stained pool tables to a room that smells incense sticks.

Apsara Dance at Temple Club on Pub Street

We grab a seat with a view. I order a garlic fillet with Morning Glory – at $6 my costliest dinner in Cambodia – and settle down for a dinner and a show. A cold glass of the Angkorian appears near the elbow as the lights dim.  A pinpeat orchestra starts a heart beat. The music instruments are rudimentary. A drum. A stick on tin. A string. As the pace picks up, beautifully women in intricately designed silk tunics and large golden mekut  (headsets) gently take center stage.

The leading lady of the Apsara dance

The dancers move in slow motion. Every movement is deliberate, graceful and well articulated. Every expression is channeled through delicate, complex kbach - gestures of the hand. The intricate gesticulation acts like a hypnotist’s wand mesmerizing the crowd. The dancers maintain an expression somewhere between a poker face to a mild mysterious smile avoiding any eye contact with the people around.

By the time, the music stops, and the dancers retreat backstage, the food had disappeared from the table. Under the table, a couple of mosquitoes have equally enjoyed feasting on our shorts-shorn legs.

We realize the only way to stop the beer glass refilling automatically is to call for the check.

The Body Turner at Pre Rup in Siem Reap, Cambodia

We were not planning to stop at Pre Rup. As we crossed the East Baray, the red towers against tufts of cumulus would not let me continue without walking through the mid tenth century beauty.

A modern road mercilessly cuts through the outermost enclosure. Like every other temple in Siem reap, only the temple survives. In ancient times, the temple would be surrounded with other buildings of day to day use. Palaces, kitchens, schools. Not a trace of them can be found any more. The common theory is that they were built with an easily destructible material like wood and did not survive the parasite called time.

The temple is typical with a series of tall straight steps leading up the three layers as are the two prominently visible guardian lions.

The central Sanctuary of Pre Rup. The name is obviously different and rolls beautifully on the tongue. It is locally pronounced pray roop and was once spelt Preah Rup like most other temples.

The vertigo inducing view of the cistern surrounded courtyard from the top.

It was barely 10:30 and I had finished three major sites. The plan was to return to the hotel to beat the sun, order a cold beer, find an empty hammock and sort photographs. After all vacation is not about sightseeing.