Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 25, 2008
Banteay Srei is anti-Angkor. It is everything that Angkor Wat is not.
First off, Banteay Srei is remote, even by Cambodian standards. It takes more than 30 minutes by tuktuk from Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. As such, making the trip costs an additional $20 to the tuktuk per-diem rental. But despite the distance and the added cost, the rewards of visiting Banteay Srei are manifold.
Banteay Srei: Lady Under The Lintel
Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 25, 2008
Angkor means city. In fact, Angkor is the largest ancient city with an urban sprawl of 3,000 square kilometers, almost half the size of New York City! Come to think of it, a thousand years ago, Angkor must have been the NYC of that era, what with its kingdom’s power and influence on Southeast Asia and its massive monuments and temple-mountains forming that uniquely jagged Khmer skyline.
A Passage to the Past: Angkor Archaeological Park
But as NYC is not just the Empire State and the Statue of Liberty – it has its streets and shops and people - so is Angkor Archaeological Park not just the iconic structures of Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Phnom Bakheng. There are other surprises awaiting your discovery aboard your $14/day tuktuk transport. As most major temples are spaced with considerable distances from one another, those between-temple rides are sightseeing sojourns in themselves. Here are some of those sights from the back of a trusty tuktuk.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 25, 2008
AJ was in Ta Prohm, a ruined ancient temple within Angkor Archaeological Park. I don’t just mean yours truly, but also the famous AJ: Angelina Jolie. The actress-humanitarian-mother shot some scenes for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in the Angkor complex, but most memorably in Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm: A Tyranny of Trees
The scene: AJ, as Lara Croft, saunters through a deserted temple overgrown with foliage. She hears a child’s laughter echoing through the ruins. She spots a young girl hiding behind the rubbles. The girl runs, laughing. She follows her. The girl leads her to a courtyard, and then disappears. The ground opens up under her feet and AJ falls into a cavernous chamber. Continue reading
Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 25, 2008
Sentry Solo: Angkor Thom
What does enlightenment look like?
Pop culture would have us believe that enlightenment looked like the gaunt, hammy seriousness of Keanu Reeves in Little Buddha. But for the ancient Khmer, it was the face of Jayavarman VII, still revered in Cambodia as the greatest Khmer king. Continue reading
Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 25, 2008
The Transcendental Tourist at Angkor Wat
A tinge of regret slightly smudges my Angkorian adventure, which was fraught with uninformed decisions and bad judgements.
First off, I had not considered its overwhelming size. Angkor Wat is just a part of the sprawling Angkor Archaeological Park, some 400 square kilometres in area. That is more than twice the size of the city I live in, Quezon City! In fact, Angkor Wat means “temple city”. The 50 or so major temples (and about a thousand minor ones) in this UNESCO World Heritage site reveal various architectural styles based on the different times they were built, the different materials used, and more importantly, the different religions they were dedicated to. Angkor is not just one temple, or a group of similar-looking temples that can be lumped together as more-of-the-same. Alas, one day is tragically not enough. (I bought a one-day pass for $20, but a three-day pass for $40 is recommended. There is also a seven-day pass for $60 for hardcore temple enthusiasts, like me.)
Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 24 – 26, 2008
Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat. Tourists and archaeology aficionados descend on the town before embarking on their Angkorian adventures. The daily influx of foreigners and their money has resuscitated this little backwater town into an oasis of modern (read: Western) trappings in the middle of the dust and poverty of Cambodia.
Apsara Dancers at the Temple Bar in Siem Reap
The town is wallowing in tourist dollars (USDs are accepted and preferred over the local currency), but it still seems the back of beyond. It can simply be a pit stop, but it can very well hold its own in terms of attractions. Siem Reap may be all these things simultaneously, but it still comes off as a charming little town seemingly unaware of its contradictions.
Cambodia
April 24, 2008
Even without the obligatory border check, you would know that you have entered Cambodia from Vietnam. Lush vegetation peters out to sparse shrubs in an arid landscape. Rolling terrain levels off to horizon-bordered flatlands. This was my first impression of Cambodia, a country I would soon fall in love with.
Dry, Dusty, Deserted: Cambodian Savanna
Any traveller can conveniently fly into Phomn Penh or Siem Reap, but a backpacker who counts every penny’s worth eschews comfort and convenience for experience and adventure. So it was that I took a bus from Saigon, Vietnam to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
April 22 – 24, 2008
Ho ho ho! Portrait of Ho Chi Minh at Saigon Central Post Office
I know it’s called Ho Chi Minh City now, but just like the locals, I still call it Saigon. It’s shorter and rolls off the mouth more easily. It helps that it’s one syllable less and without that extra consonant no one knows how to pronounce. Surely, the musical Miss Saigon, with its stereotyped scantily-clad singing showgirls, further cemented its recall quality. But in another sense, Uncle Ho does embody this culturally eclectic city. I recently found out that Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese statesman this city was named after, had lived around the world. And many of the places he lived in have left their imprint on Ho Chi Minh, the city.
My Tho, Vietnam
April 23, 2008
There are rivers and there are RIVERS! The puny Pasig in the Philippines belongs to the former, the massive Mekong to the all-caps latter.
As in any delta, the river splinters into many branches before it spills its contents to the sea. The Mekong River delta has 9 such branches, hence the area is called the Nine Dragon Delta in Vietnamese. The silt-laden waters are actually melted snow from the Tibetan Himalayas. The murk is composed of organic remnants of the countries the river cuts through: China (Tibet and Yunnan), Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and finally, Vietnam.
Mekong and Me
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
April 22-24, 2008
Hell's Angel, Siagon Style
Every tourist should get out of the insulated confines of their tourist buses and walk the streets. It is on street level that a foreigner can feel the hustle and bustle, the soul and pulse of a city, amidst the chaos and its attendant dangers. These are some of the images I have captured with my Leica lens on the streets of Saigon. Continue reading
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
April 22, 2008
It was my first trip overseas in five years. I had always loved to travel, but financial constraints kept me off the road. This time, I finally decided not to let my poverty get in the way of my dreams. I convinced some colleagues to pool our meager resources and planned for a DIY trip. I was like a (travel) virgin all over again, overwhelmed by that strange combination of anticipation, anxiety, and awkwardness. In other words, the trip felt like a milestone, a turning of a page in my life. Indochina was a no-brainer choice of destination because of its proximity to the Philippines and we could do three countries all in one go, but mostly because it is serviced by a local budget airline. Beggars can’t be choosers, but who said they can’t be travelers? And so I went over the borderline, if you will.
A journey begins by looking out of the window. Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica from Saigon Central Post Office.
Hello Reader!
I’m AJ, a teacher by profession and a traveler by passion. This blog is a valentine to those few-and-far-between trips I feel blessed to have taken.
Traveling is a heightened experience. It makes your life richer by transporting you to a different place and time, engaging your senses, mind, and spirit to discover yourself and the world. Thus, I commit my travel experiences and reflections in this blog before time mangles the morsels of my memory.
This travel blog may be short on practical travel information, but it is imbued with my reflections on history, culture, and art. As such, the entries are as much about the traveler as they are about places.
Another caveat: All photos in this blog are taken by myself (unless otherwise noted) using my handy Lumix point-and-shoot. Do not expect pro DSLR quality. This traveler cannot be bothered to lug around big and expensive camera equipment.
A trip need not be perfect, just personal – such is my travel philosophy. I hope you enjoy reading my reflections on the road.
The Transcendental Tourist
The Transcendental Tourist,
AJ Poliquit
