Sunday, Oct 9 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

More rain this morning.  Today we headed out of town for an hour drive into the mountains. Along the way we saw a few markets offering fast food".

Our destination is Kulen National Park.  Phnom Kulen is Cambodia’s most sacred mountain and the area is considered the birth place of the ancient Khmer Empire.  By the time we got there the rain had stopped so we were able to walk around the area to see the sites.  We stopped by a lovely river in which over 1000 carvings of Yoni and Linga are etched into the sandstone riverbed.  The water was pretty high but we were able to eventually see one of the carvings but the photos really didn't turn out.

As usual there were vendors ready to sell you a souvenir.

We then went to Kulen Falls area.  By now the rains had returned and it was beginning to come down pretty hard.  Mary slipped and took a fall on the slippery rocks but no harm was done other than getting wet and sandy.

Also on the drive we stopped to see a gigantic Reclining Buddha...

along with a "footprint" of Buddha.

We had a late lunch in another open air restaurant and then headed back to the Angkor Panorama Museum.  We say a very well done movie that showed how the rocks were hewn from the mountains, carved into blocks, “sanded/filed/scraped” down so they fit without mortar, and set into place to build the temples.  Elephants were used but there was also a lot of manual labor and some interesting crane and lever systems.

We then visited the amazing Panorama room that showed a 360 view of the timeline of the area.  The mural is 400 feet in diameter and 42 feet high with over 45,000 people in the painting.  The museum was funded by the North Koreans and took 63 North Korean painters (from NK's school of political artistry...yes, that's a real school) over 2 years to complete.

The painting depiction of Cambodia’s history: Jayavarman VII’s bloody and ultimately victorious battle against invading Champa forces in the 12th century, his construction of the Bayon temple in the aftermath, and prosperous village life in his Angkor empire.  The painting itself was amazing but what took it to an entirely different level was the three-dimensional trompe l’oeil foreground of trees, rocks, and human and animal figures.  The transition between the painting and the trompe l’oeil was nearly seamless and in many places was impossible to discern.

While in the museum the skies opened up and we hear massive amounts of thunder.  It’s the monsoons.  We are at the latter stages of the monsoons.  It is hot and humid, in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s temperature (F) and Humidity percentage.  It is humid even when it rains.  One could go in the dry season, but then it is hotter – 100’s F and apparently just as humid.

Next stop (after the skies calmed down) was an arts and crafts shop where we saw wood carving, stone carving, silver plating, silk painting and ceramic work.  Tara decided to try her hand at carving a Buddha.

The discussion was interesting and the objects in the shop were beautiful but no one bought anything. 

The rains came back and we decided to eat dinner in the hotel, pack and get to bed early.