A little bit of life in Cambodia, and the Landmine Muesum

How many Cambodians can you fit into a pick up truck?  Apparently my driver said there were 39.   Somehow I don't think there are enough seat belts for each passenger. 

Bathroom edict 

Filling up with gas.  They sell it by the bottle; a liquor bottle.  See below

Gas for sale.

Anything goes here!  I even see others on the back of motorcycles with their infant in their arms.  No baby seat regulations.

Typical house in Siem Reap area

Lower income style of housing

During the day people hang out under the house for shade and to catch a little breeze... if there is one.

You can often see offerings set beside religious statues.  Here someone has offered Buddha a diet coke, and a couple of shots of rum.  I thought that was funny.

A hand made impromptu prosthetic leg.

Wooden leg with a shoe sole for the forefoot, ingenious idea... allows for a smoother forefoot rocker when going into toe off, rather than a wooden forefoot.

Gotta love the english signs.  

Artisans workshop and Silk making.

I started my day with a trip to the Les Chantiers Ecoles, Artisans of Angkor in Siem Reap.  It is a school that teaches traditional Khmer artisanship, including lacquer-making, silk painting, tin smithing, wood and stone carving, to impoverished young adults. I took a tour of the school while it was in session, where I was able to observe the people working on their different projects.  I saw buddha being made from start to finish... including his blueprints (see pictures).  It was neat to see all the different processes and the tools being used.  After I was done with investigating the workshops I sat and waited for my second tour to begin, at 9:30 am.  One of the students sat down and talked to me about his training and how he learned English and taught himself Spanish from the internet (impressive).  He talked a little bit about the training, and the school.  He explained they train not only crafts like wood carving, but other technical disciplines, like electrians, plumbers, etc.

Silk painting

Silver workshop, where they make handmade silver plated boxes and decorations

Sanding a wood carving of Buhhda

Buddha blueprints... hee hee

Chiseling out a stone sculpture of Buddha

After I was done touring the Artisans workshops, I hopped on a courtesy bus and went to learn about silk making at another site 16 km outside of Siem Reap. This was my favorite part of the tour... and most interesting.  The young tour guide explained and showed me how silk is made from the worm to the final product.  It starts with harvesting the larva of the silk worm.  The larva is left to mature into silk worms and eventually nature takes its course and the worm produces a cocoon. This process takes on average 34 days.  A select few are left to mature into moths, so they can reproduce.  After the larva has been laid the moth dies.  Then the cycle of the silk worm continues.  The precious cocoons are what the silk is actually spun from. The cocoons are boiled in hot water.  This loosens the fine threads of the cocoon.  A tiny thread of silk is gently pulled off the outer layer of the cocoon and it begins to unravel the thread.  The initial or top layer of the cocoon is what raw silk is made from. It produces 100 m of silk.  There are 3 more inner layers to the cocoon, from which fine silk is spun.  300 meters of fine silk is produced from one cocoon.
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A timeline of how to create silk from a silk worm's cocoon

silk worm cocoons

Boiling down the cocoons, from which they peel the layers and literally spin the cocoon into thread

The outer layer of the cocoon makes an average of 100m of raw silk thread, and 3 inner layers of the cocoon make the  300 meters of fine silk.

After the silk thread has been washed and dyed it is wound 

The thread is then wound onto smaller bobbins for the shuttles (an automated machine is doing this)

Dyed raw silk thread

Women setting up a looms warp.  A tedious process considering how fine the threads are.  This can take up to one week depending on the pattern.  These girls worked at a remarkable pace; one separating the fine threads, other other pulling it through the teeth of the warp.

Further setting up of the warp pattern

Winding the thread onto bobbins.  I thought this was interesting, because they are using the rim of a bicycle wheel,  a bicycle chain, and the crank of the bicycle's foot pedal.  Ingenious design... and very smooth running

There are 15 buildings with weavers, 30 looms in each building.  All that could be heard while walking the weavery was the clatter of the shuttles passing back and forth at lightening speed.  One scarf can take up to 1 week to produce, or as short as 1/2 a day, depending on the pattern and number of colors used.

The beautiful colours of the silk 

I thought this was funny; the bottom of the dress is made of the silk cocoons, progresses into silk thread and finishes up top with a silk bodice.  

Angkor Wat... day two

Today's exploration began at sunrise (5:30 am) at Angkor Wat.  It is the single largest religious monument in the world. Its name literally means "the city which is a temple".  This spectacular hindu complex was built during the 12th century,  and was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, the Protector of Creation.  Its grounds are laid out based on the sacred design of the Hindu cosmos.  A five towered temple shaped like a lotus bud and representing Montu Meru, the mythical abode of the gods, and the center of the universe (stands in the middle). The outer walls represent the edge of the world, and the moat is the cosmic ocean.  The carvings which dress the walls are very intricate and making the grandness of the building even more spectacular. There are over 200 engravings of apsaras or celestial dancing girls (said to be the more alluring of the female carvings found within the grounds of Angkor Wat and its other temples) with smiles on their faces.  Unusual to hindu Khmer temples, this building faces west and toward the setting sun, which is a symbol of death. 

The wide pathway leading to the temple's main entrance on the west side provides a spectacular view of  Angkor Wat's grand exterior. 

After enjoying some breakfast on the sprawling grounds of Angkor Wat (banana pancakes), I hopped on the back of my driver's motorcycle and went to Angkor Thom. This temple was very remarkable in its size and architecture.  The ancient city of Angkor Thom, which means "Great City" in Khmer, was build in the late 12th century.  It was the largest city in the Khmer Empire at its peak. It was the last great capital of the Khmer empire, set over 10 square km.  It is protected by a wall about 12 km long, and surrounded by a wide moat.  There are five gates to the city, all with four giant stone faces (see in my pictures from yesterday). Within the city are several ruins.  The Bayon, which is a atmospheric temple a the center of the complex is the most enchanting and peaceful of all the temples next to Ta Prohm (in my opinion).

The bridge over the moat leading to Angkor Thom is lined on either side with these statues playing tug-of-war with a snake; one side of the bridge the gods are holding the serpent on the other are the devils.  This is symbolic of the struggle between good and evil (above are the devil statues, below are the gods)

God statues lining the moat bridge. In the background you can see the stone gate that has the four smiling faces found on its peak.

The Bayons of Ankor Thom.  These are located at the heart of Angkor Thom.

The Bayon of Angkor Thom is mesmerizing.  It epitomizes the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia's legendary king. Its 54 towers are famously decorated with 216 smiling faces that legend says bears a resemblance to the king himself:  representing the all-seeing and all-knowing king. I would like to think they represent Buddha. These huge faces glare down from every angle over the grounds below. The Bayon is decorated with more than 11 000 figures. The Bayon of Angkor Thom was one of my most memorable experiences.  All the mysterious smiling faces gazing out onto the grounds of Angkor Thom creates a soothing feeling.  It was incredibly peaceful to walk amongst these enormous sculptures (despite the hoards of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese tourists... ignorant to others taking pictures... agh).   I cannot describe the feeling of walking amongst these statues: a simply indescribable sensation.  I was stunned by calm feeling my surroundings evoked and awe inspired by the ability of what man can create. I felt so tiny compared to the enormity of the structures/faces. 

The devada or dancers engraved on the walls of Bayon and Angkor Thom.  Literally hundreds of these ladies could be found carved into the walls.

One of my favorite pictures of the day.  

Standing in front of Phimeanakas, a pyramid shaped building on the grounds of Angkor Thom

Loads of tuk tuks seen driving tourists around Angkor Wat

Carvings adorning the walls of a sandstone maze found inside the Terrace of the Leper king. Another amazing location, simply indescribable.  The artistry and the amount of work that went into carving these 7 meter high walls covered in 5 tears of celestial nymphs and mythical serpent-beings is mind boggling.  Since the carvings are protected from the harsh elements from being within the maze, they look fresh and unweathered.