Banteay Kedi and Prasat Kravan

We gave Agkor complex three full days, the first day February 15, we road our bikes to Banteay Kedi, know for its cool shade and few tourists.  On the way we were hot and hungry (did I mention Cambodia is hot!) and stopped to buy pineapple and see the small temple of Prasat Kravan built to honor Shiva.

Banteay Kedi the 'citadel of monks', a Buddhist Temple built during the reign of Jayavarman VII in the 12th century.  He was a convert to Buddhism ruling a Hindu Kingdom...he is responsible for the majority of temple structures at Agkor.  This temple is a bit over run by trees which makes it good for sightseeing in the heat.

Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

At Poipet were we narrowly avoided being scammed into buying a Cambodian visa for twice the price but fortunately we had been warned and recognized it right away...others however were clueless...about 15 others.  I (Amanda) asked them if they were paying for any services or merely filling out forms and at that moment the owner of the establishment began to curse me saying I was ruining his business (all for a questions...) and threw me out of his office and told me to leave at once.  At this point I mentioned to the others that perhaps his reaction to me mentioning money was a sign that he knew, as well as I, that this was a scam.  All 15 others promptly got up and left to the sound of angry cursing and swearing as we headed for the boarder.  The actual visa office was easy and honest and we arrived in Siem Reap after a short delay of a flat tire on our bus at 7:30 on Valentine's Day (mind you we left Bangkok at 5am!)

Siem Reap is the most visited city in Cambodia because of its proximity to the temples of Angkor.  Angkor, and Angkor Wat (the most famous temple) is the pinnacle of national pride, being featured o the Cambodian flag.  The town therefore is everything Cambodia is not; clean, orderly, spacious, has ample garbage cans, lots of good food, and lots of tourists.

The temples of Agkor were built in homage to the gods and kings who built them, a culmination of kingly ambition and spirituality, each king out doing the last in temple and city building resulting in a complex covering almost 400 square km.  These temples mark the height of the Khmer empire, the major power in Southeast Asia for over 5 centuries (9th-15th century).

Cambodia

Unlike its neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia is a developing country in every sense. Public works projects are underway but dirt roads are the norm, garbage covers the roads and clogs the rivers, and the majority of Cambodians live in extreem poverty (except those who are friendly with the government or the tourism industry).  Farming and fishing is the main industry for most Cambodians, who live in shacks on stilts in the fields and in floating shacks on the rivers and lakes.  Despite the hardships that the Cambodians have faced in the last few decades, and the rampant corruption that is the halmark of their country, Cambodians are warm giving people full of smiles and genuine senserity.  The children are the best example of this, smiling freely, splashing and playing in the river, chasing after tuk tuks or boats and adamantly waving, blowing kisses, and yelling hello to anyone who will return the wave Cambodians and tourists a like...its contagious because everyone is smiling and waving!

Back to Bangkok

Back to Chaing Mai and then on to Bangkok to get our Viet Nam visas and a train ticket to Poipet Cambodia.  February 11-14th

This visit to Bangkok we visited Wat Po that houses the famous and allegedly the largest reclining Buddha in the world...gold leafed and his feet inlaid with mother of pearl... quite a site!

We also went to a traditional Thai puppet and dance show, with the Ramakian puppets that require three puppeteers.  This type of puppet show was originally reserved for royalty and the puppets are exquisite works of art.  The puppeteers move together, on stage in a choreographed manner, the outer puppeteer controls the right hand, the middle the puppets feet, and the far left holds the puppet and controls the head and left hand, very complicated I would imagine!  They preform ancient stories from the Ramayana as well as traditional dance routines, and comedy!

Puppet getting a tip

Puppet gifts from the King

February 8th

Day four, We had proven our map reading, jungle forging skills and were excited and happy to receive our next 'assignment'... a through cave to a rock shelter, teak coffins, and a neolithic burial site!  Nothing could stop us now!  The cave was called red rock, easily visible from the road. We hesitantly entered the cave...none of us having explored caves on our own before. We had to duck low to get in, fallowing a stream through the length of the cave.  It imediatley opened up into a large chamber filled with stalagtights sparkling from the light of our head lamps on the millions of water droplets clinging to the moss that covered them...it looked like gold!  And the eyes...eyes everywhere...little frogs adorned the walls next to the opening, and farther in the spiders eyes always catching the light of our headlamps...creepy and cool!
  We progressed slowly... I think we were all a bit apprehensive.  The cave was easy to follow 'user friendly' as he called it because all we had to do was follow the stream that ran the whole length of the cave.  We were forewarned that there would be one spot where we would have to get on all fours in the stream, and it would be tight...we thought we could handle it but little did we know it was 10-15 m long!  That's over 30ft of crawling through a very narrow tunnel with barley enough room to have our mouths out of the water without our heads hitting the ceiling!  Needless to say we didn't make it through, but what an adventure!  Latter that night he commiserated with us saying 'ya that's a scary bit, can barley make it through'...thanks for telling us that now!  We hadn't lost our credibility though cause he already had an 'assignment' for us for the morrow...however we had to leave because our visas were about to expire and we had to get across the border to Cambodia...
 We did catch the sunrise the next morning...

February 7th

Day three we had proven our ability to find two of the three caves...so he gave us a hard one to find, but just one (were we deemed more or less capable by our/our guides inability to find the cave?).  This cave was called Ban Rai, and it was more of a rock shelter than a cave, perched high on top of a limestone bluff above a river.  We bushwacked through the jungle looking for the path that was overgrown but visible and the 'blue sign' that would show us the way.  We eventually found the 'sign' which was a small piece of wood laying on a rock...and a very over grown trail going straight up the rock face.  We scrambled for an hour finally reaching the over hang.  We were sure that this would be a remote cave, few had visited but...there were interpretive signs, fences, and a picnic area!  Who climbs up here and builds this?!  The rock shelter had been excavated and the habitation area was carbon dated to 10000 years old.  One burial was found and was dated at 9000 yrs old.

There were also a few rock art panels and about 10 teak coffins (all the teak coffins in the area date to 2000-1000 years old).  One was 9 m long, and some still standing.  Amanda (I) found more pottery and a basalt uniface stone tool and some flakes...Very cool!

We also found a very peculiar spider on the way up.  Both Aaron and Ben took more photos of this spider than of the rockshelter...

February 6th

Ban Jori-teak coffin

Our second day we had our first go at the hand drawn maps...as if he were testing our ability to fallow them he gave us three caves...easy ones to find...if we had a local take us...We found the first no problem, the cave known as tum pi man 'spirit cave' or Ban Jori (name of the town) was up on a limestone face, reached by a network of bamboo ladders and stairs.  We found a local woman to show us the way, who promptly found another lady and a small child to come along, on the way we picked up one more woman and two more kids... seemed we had the whole village with us.  Our fearless leader, a small boy clad in large flip-flops was probably about 5.  The caves had four teak coffins, two of them still standing.  Amanda found a few pieces of pottery and at first the 'guides' looked upset at her handling them, however they soon joined in the fun of looking through the dirt for more fragments.  We shared some oranges and enjoyed the view before heading to the next cave.

Our Guides

This cave was in the next valley farther south.  We stopped in the local village and a teenager joined us to show us the way to the next 'tum pi man'.  He however, was not sure of the way and it soon became apparent to us that we were just walking through the jungle looking for limestone outcrops not the cave.  When we turned around we found another trail that he seemed more sure of...a little ways ahead he became even more confident in this new location however we continued to wander through fields and jungle around another large limestone out crop with no cave.  A farmer exchanged some words with him in Thai but we dont know if either of them knew where it was...we turned around and headded back to the village.

Coffin Cave

The third cave that day, known as coffin cave, was just off the road and easy to spot.  We arrived a litle before sunset and found five more teak coffins and a 200 year old tamarin tree growing in the cave opening