Cambodia Day 9 Part 1: Beyond the Temples

After two days of exploring temples, we were ready to see what else Siem Reap had to offer. Adventure Girl was really excited about the possibility of seeing her first real-life elephant. We did some research and felt good about the work that the Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary does. So the families split up and the three of us hit the road to meet Gigi, Boom Boom, and Hommie.

The sanctuary is home to three female elephants, all of whom used to be owned by Cambodian families. Many people are finding it too expensive to keep elephants because of how much food they eat, or their younger generations are moving to the city and use conveniences like motor vehicles instead of elephants. So the elephants come to live at the sanctuary instead. They often have trauma from their past like Boom Boom who had children taunt and abuse her. We learned the stories of the three elephants at CES and all about their own personalities. 

Once we've been briefed on safety around the elephants, we proceeded down to the outdoor elephant kitchen where we each prepared an elephant snack. We mashed by hand bananas, cooked rice, and rice bran and rolled the dough into balls. They taught us how to feed the elephants; the balls are too mushy to give to their trunks so we put them right on to their tongues! Then we also gave them fruit, like pieces of watermelon, bananas in the peel, and pineapple rinds, via their trunks.

When all the snacks were done, we followed the ladies as they sauntered over to their piles of banana plants. They each basically had an entire banana tree to eat. We got to pose with them while they snacked.

From there, the elephants moved to a mud bath area where they enjoyed splashing mud on themselves and even drinking water right from the hose! It was so neat to see their intelligence, differences in play, and personalities. When they were ready, they moved from the mud bath down to the river to bathe. 

We finished off by having a snack of our own back up in the briefing area. Hommie, and later Gigi, decided to come over and join us to see if she could charm any pieces out of us!

We loved our time with these gentle giants and appreciate the care the staff give them. Ultimately, it would be great to see them living in a natural setting without human interaction, where they could just roam freely. The facilitator admitted that they tried this but humans won't provide enough donations to sustain them that way. Experiences like this rake in the dough that's needed to feed them. Something for us all to think about.  

Cambodia Day 8: The 8th Wonder

Over the following days we visited various sites around the former metropolis of Angkor. As most buildings and palaces were built of wood, only the stone temples remain of what was once the largest city on Earth in the 13th century, possibly having more than a million residents at its peak. 

Craig was happy to have watched a few documentaries as they proved equally informative, if not more so, than our friendly guide, who at times hurried us along. (We had a guide for one of our four visits to Angkor).

We followed our sunset visit with a sunrise visit to one of the reservoirs. Surprisingly, these pools weren't just built for tourists to get reflections of temples in. They were the secret to Angkor's success and size by managing the areas seasonal extremes in rainfall. By building the largest hand dug reservoirs (a record it still holds to this day) as well as extensive canals, the area was able to get more rice harvests, provide transportation through the jungle, make the soft soil capable of supporting massive stone structures, and create access to drinking water to support the large population.

Six or seven hundred years ago the temples would have been covered in white plaster and gold leaf. While significant restoration and maintenance is ongoing, at this point no efforts have been made to recreate the original style of the temples.

The remaining stone temples themselves were nonetheless stunningly beautiful with their architecture combining Hindu and Buddhist styles and the artistry of the detailed carvings on the sandstone walls. The carvings detail life at the time in the Khmer kingdom, with hundred of figures each with unique faces thought to be based on the actual dancers that worked at the temple at the time of construction. Others provide propaganda detailing the achievements of the particular king who commissioned a given temple. Many of the "achievements" detailed in Angkor Wat are contradicted by the historical record of neighboring kingdoms.

 

Our favourite areas were those where the forest which grew over the ruins of the temples in the intervening centuries had become integral to holding them together. As such, massive trees can be seen growing out of roofs, and long, thick tendrils of roots stretch out over the ruins. 

Outside of Boyan, Angkor Wat, and Phnom Bakheng, we were largely able to avoid the crowds and find pockets of the ruins to quietly enjoy on our own. The tranquility was only disturbed by the calls of cicadas, hornbills, and the children in our group complaining about the heat.

Visiting Pre Rub at sunrise was a full sensory experience. The west side of the temple was bathed in early morning light, while the smell of offered incense filled the air. In the distance, there were two wedding days commencing, and their music competed for our attention. We learned that wedding celebrations start at 5 am with the bride and groom waking for sunrise to honour the sun. 

Despite the early hour, it was already hot and humid. The many steps of each temple tested the patience of the children, but we all persevered through visiting Pre Rub, Ta Prohn, and Boyan, none of which disappointed. Ta Prohn, with its overgrown trees was a definite family favourite! We hope you enjoy the small selection of photos from the near thousand that we collectively took!

As we left our third temple, hot and tired, our guide kindly flagged down a woman riding past on a motorbike. She had a traditional Cambodian snack: Kralan. It's sweet sticky rice with bean paste cooked inside a bamboo shoot. We were also thrilled to find coconut milk popsicles featuring the flavours coconut, taro, passionfruit, and the famous durian!

To cap off the day, we went back out for sunset. We did the short hike up Phnom Bakheng to see Angkor Wat temple from above, bathed in evening light. It was very crowded but we enjoyed the view and the chance to snap a few photos.