Travel, Relationships, and The New Twenty

We spend the better part of three days staying in Siem Reap, from where we visited the temples at Angkor Wat, the spiritual and physical seat of power of the Khmer Empire for hundreds of years (from approximately 800 - 1400 AD). Angkor, with its sprawling complex of ancient temples and cities, is recognized as the largest pre-industrial city in the world, many times the size of the next-largest, Tikal. Angkor Wat is located in modern-day Cambodia, a country still recovering from the terrible rein of the Khmer Rouge — but one that we would already really love to go back to.

 

Bayon, famous for the dozens of mysterious faces carved into its towers (look closely!), is the central temple in Angkor’s central walled city, Angkor Thom.

 

 

 

 

 

No one has come up with a satisfactory explanation for the meaning behind so many giant faces, which on each tower face in the four cardinal directions.

 

 

Bayon is also famous for its well-preserved bas reliefs.

 

 

The reliefs around Bayon tell several stories about the Khmer Empire; this one seems to celebrate an extremely prosperous period (see all the fish!).

 

We finally moved on from the enchanting, sometimes foreboding . . .

 

. . . and sometimes happy towers of Bayon.

 

Baphuon, whose main temple is currently under restoration, is another one of the gems of Angkor Thom.

 

The steps to all temples were steep, symbolizing that the way to heaven is never easy, and functioning as a way to ensure that people’s heads were bowed as they arrived at the temple.

 

To one side of a large public square in Angkor Thom, the “Terrace of the Leper King” is famous for well-preserved carvings.

 

The aptly named “Terrace of the Elephants,” along with its signature sculptures, was built at the right height for mounting and dismounting its namesake animals.

 

The function of these mysterious towers, across from the terraces, is still unknown, but one story is that acrobats walked on tightropes from tower to tower for the king’s amusement.

 

Giant railings like this one had gorgeous ends.

 

Elephant rides are popular at Angkor Thom’s south gate.

 

 

Many minor temples are mossy and crumbling.

 

While others are being taken over by jungle (more dramatic examples to come!).

 

Lacey and I rented bicycles one day and found this gem, Angkor Thom’s east gate, which wasn’t labelled on the map and had no (paved) road or tourists. We passed a herd of monkeys and a lot of jungle on the way!

 

Lacey gazes up at the east gate.

 

I climbed up for pictures of the north “face” of the east gate.

 

Including a close-up.

 

A gorgeous find!

 

Our bicycles helped us visit some of Angkor Wat’s lesser-known temples, which are also gorgeous. Banteay Kdei was especially photogenic.

 

 

 

 

Across from Banteay Kdei is a gorgeous man-made lake, although it is dwarfed by Angkor’s original lakes, now partly dried up.

 

Another temple, Ta Keo, was especially memorable for the climb to the top!

 

 

View out the top of a tower at Ta Keo.

 

Ta Keo’s towers had an especially surreal quality.

 

 

 

 

The entrance gate to Ta Phrom, a grand ruin being taken back by the jungle, and made famous by “Tomb Raider,” an action movie filmed here and featuring Angelina Jolie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the enormous and beautiful Angkor Wat, the jewel of the Angkor area and the largest religious structure in the world, even a minor gate in the outer wall is imposing.

 

Within the outer wall (but still outside the main temple) are several well-preserved outlying structures.

 

 

We knew our most gorgeous views of the temple facade would come near sunset, so first we circled the impressive colonnade . . .

 

. . . and looked at dramatic bas reliefs.

 

As the sun lowered we perched on an inner tower in the southwest corner of the temple and watched the light soften.

 

 

We weren’t alone.

 

Finally, we made our way back out to the inner western gate.

 

Moving back from the inner gate, all five of the main towers were visible.

 

But these were the kind of views we’d been waiting for!

 

 

 

 

Below, the last temple of our last day (spent entirely on bicycles) was Ta Som; not as grand as Angkor Wat, but a good way to end our visit.

 

 

 

Although we scheduled them more like punctuation marks to our other destinations, Hong Kong and Bangkok are fabulous international cities that we really enjoyed — especially Hong Kong. These were just a few of the lanterns hanging at a streetside market.

 

Having been held by the British well into the 1990s, Hong Kong felt in many ways vastly different than other Chinese cities. Differences pictured here include other Westerners and street names in English.

 

Aspects of traditional life here seemed to clash less with the modern culture of the rest of the city. It’s difficult to tell from this angle, but many of the incense coils in this temple were several feet in diameter!

 

 

 

 

Glitzy skyscrapers and colonial buildings are a reminder of China’s dilemma: Hong Kong is a “special administrative region” with greater freedom of the press (and perhaps political freedom) than any other part of the country. Of course, Tibet is also a “special administrative region,” so this is less a sign of progress than evidence that China doesn’t quite know how to handle wealthy, recently repossessed Hong Kong, which still has separate visa requirements and uses separate currency.

 

 

 

And although Hong Kong still had a profusion of signs that made us go “hmm?,” we enjoyed some much-needed western treats, like cooling off with a Grape Slurpee on a hot day.

 

Bangkok was another modern, up-and-coming city with an interesting history.

 

Wat Phra Keo (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and the Grand Palace were two of Bangkok’s must-see sights.

 

 

 

 

But during our brief stay, we enjoyed Bangkok’s river transit options, aging neighborhoods, and night markets even more than its temples.

 

 

 

 

In honor of a memorable 2008 Olympics, Lacey and I have invented a new Olympic event.  It’s called the Alternative Triathlon.  Here’s how it works:

1. At the end of each Olympics (perhaps during the closing ceremonies?) three randomly selected events for the following Olympics’ Alternative Triathlon are announced.  For instance, it might be announced that in four years, the Alternative Triathlon will feature ping-pong, weightlifting, and synchronized swimming.
2. Countries choose their athletes as quickly as possible, based on an unprecedented level of athletic versatility (this will event make decathletes look like Oompah-Loompahs in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory). We suggest a training schedule of one year for each sport or event, with the final year to be used for trials and further versatility training (i.e. “bringing it all together”).  In the example above, the weightlifting training should clearly come first, followed by synchronized swimming in the second year and ping-pong in the third.  Of course, maintenance training would make each subsequent year in the lead-up to the Olympics more intense for the Alternative Triathletes.
3. The Alternative Triathletes will occupy a special place in the opening ceremonies, perhaps with an interpretive dance around the newly lit flame or some other unique function.
4. As with the other “thons,” the events in the Alternative Triathlon (hereafter referred to as “AT”) will take place on consecutive days.  There will also be two further schedule-related requirements.  First, each event will be scheduled at least three days apart from the regular event in the same sport.  In our example, this would mean that AT weightlifting must be scheduled at least three days after the end of regular Olympic weightlifting, AT synchro at least three days after regular synchro, and so on.  This will ensure that Alternative Triathletes still look cool even though they may be just a shade worse at their events than the regular athletes in those events.  The second specification is that the Alternative Triathlon must always be scheduled for the last three days of the games.  Since it will clearly be the most popular event, this will provide a fitting and modern climax to an aging tradition.

And that’s about it.  Comments?  Suggestions?  Please feel free to give us your honest feedback using the poll below (concept courtesy Chinese government):

 

Poll Answers

Yesterday, exactly one year after leaving the United States, I returned to it.  My excitement was tempered, though, because a typhoon and solidly booked flights (presumably full of other folks returning from the Olympics) is keeping Lacey in Hong Kong, where she was supposed to have a short layover from Beijing! Fortunately, the latest word is that after almost two days of hassle she is installed in a 4-Star hotel and will meet me in San Francisco on Wednesday if she can’t get a flight earlier than that.  For my part, I miss having Lacey to celebrate with, but it does feel good to be back in the US, and the weather in San Francisco is gorgeous.  It’s been quite a year, and I will plan to publish at least one “retrospective” blog post in the fall for those who are interested.