My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ week 1

So you know how you spend like 3 hours trying to upload pictures on an entirely crappy connection then when that little bar is finally fully green it tells you that your upload failed? yeah. So the hundreds of pics I've taken are sitting on my computer until I get back to KL. On the upside, I downloaded picasa and put together a couple of collages because uploading everything one by one on blogger is killer.

Here's week one in Cambodia complete with PICTURES!!! Yay! It actually went through!!

Angkor Wat. Simply Amazing.

 More pics of Angkor Wat

Week 1 in Cambodia:

Got in a day before work started and got to take a peak at Siem Reap town center. It's really not much but had lunch there with Noel, a Singaporean archaeologist who just finished his Masters at University Sains Malaysia. He also runs the SEAArch website which is a newsblog about South East Asian Archaeology. Really nice guy. He waited for me at the airport for an HOUR since our planes were landing an hour apart on the same day. I really felt bad but it was nice to have someone who is equally as lost as I am and even better to share a tuk tuk with someone intending to get to the same place.

First row, L-R: The Robert Christie Research Center sign; my month long all access Angkor pass; Robert the cat

Second row, L-R: the back of the research center; the front of the center; the view of the center from the front gate.

We got to the Robert Christie Research Center, my home for the entire stay. Lemme just say it's one of the nicest places I've stayed at for an excavation. Seriously. Also, it has airconditioning!! The research center is a newly renovated place that GAP has rented for the next 10 years. There are rooms for researchers associated with the project to rent as well as cooks who make awesome Khmer food, laundry, storerooms for the artifacts/equipment, equipment provided by GAP and so on. They even have a manager who helps us with some logistics and all that. Of course, it's not as pretty or as large as the EFEO place down the road but then again, the French have been excavating in Cambodia for decades. Oh yeah, we even have a little mascot - Robert the cat. Was once part of a cat duo with the other one named Christie (creative, I know) but alas, Christie disappeared....rumor has it that Christie either got run over or became someone's dinner. Robert is possibly Garfield in real life - he's way fatter than most Cambodian cats, absolutely lazy (he doesn't run away when people pick him up, even little kids, and is content to be carried everywhere. If you put him down, he just sits there and looks put out) and likes to hunt....but more successfully than Garfield ever has. lol.

After we got in, we met some of the others we'd be working with. I met Dr. Stark and her family - her husband Jim (who is also a prof at UH) and their 7 year old daughter Mei Mei. Then there's Jenna who is a French girl who just got done with her BA, Mai from Seattle who is half Cambodian and in the same boat as Jenna, Shawn who is an arch PhD student at UH and Till, a German doing his PhD in USyd. The others who would join us later include Marie, an MA student at the Uni of the Philippines, Charlotte who is Belgian but is a maritime archaeologist in Vietnam and Nick who is a Malaysian guy from Sarawak who just finished his MA at Uni Sains Malaysia too. There were also 4 Khmer students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh who would join us on a rotating basis. My Khmer roomie for the week was Mita who has finished her BA and is hoping to apply for grad school once her English is better.

All in all, it's a pretty good crew with very little drama. I do have my issues with them but more or less, they are issues that arise from living in close quarters and seeing each other everyday. The little things, really....like having to inhale smoke from someone's after lunch/dinner cigarette while I'm still eating every time we go out to eat or having to listen to french accented english (big pet peeve. strong french or german accented english grates on my nerves. i don't know why but it does) every day :/ lol. I'm glad I only have to deal with it for another week. I do have to add how grateful I am to have gotten into UH this year seeing as pretty much everyone on the excavation and even some visiting guests we've had want to apply for UH or have applied and it didn't quite work out. It's a little scary to think about having to compete with some of these very accomplished people. yikes!

Clockwise from top L: the first unit (not ours) with the really nice wedding tent for shade; Rachna, our APSARA liaison explaining the sign and the project in Khmer; setting up the 2x3 m perimeter for unit 2; laden with equipment and walking into work via the West causeway on the first day (the guards thought we were gonna film a movie. lol); Rachna explaining the stratigraphy of unit 1; the crew intently listening to Rachna.

Anyway, day one was started with an intro to the site then those of us who hadn't been to Angkor before were set free to roam the ruins of Angkor Wat for about an hour or so while the others laid in the unit. Angkor is simply amazing but .....man, the tourist!!! It's low season but it's soooooooo crowded. I can even imagine how horrible it must be in the high season. I can totally believe that Angkor gets 2 million visitors a year. I can't believe that the Cambodians want to up that number to 20 million a year!! Conservation wise, that's a nightmare waiting to happen.

Clockwise from top left: Marie with her umbrella as unit 4 gets the hot afternoon sun; taking pictures of unit 4; archaeologist at work in unit 2; Srim screening stuff from my unit, Rachna looking into unit 3; some excavation equipment, unit 2's white tent and the West gopura. Yeah, we're really excavating in Angkor Wat!!

The first two days we spent working unit 2 which is by the West gopura, right behind Vishnu's venerable behind. They had previously done some ground penetrating radar survey and unit 2 is supposed to come down on a wall. What they got was even more complicated than just a wall and man, am I glad I don't have to do the paperwork for that. lol. That unit is under so much scrutiny from tourist (it's right by the causeway) and higher ups from both GAP, APSARA and whoever else is a big cheese in Cambodian archaeology. I mean, it's understandable and many people have pointed it out - how many people get to excavate at Angkor Wat?

Clockwise from L: Oops, looks like I repeated 2 pics. lol. Oh technological disabilities. Rachna looking in on unit 3; Shawn and Dr. S checking out my unit; Noel hard at work in the pit; waiting around to load equipment at the end of the day; archaeologist hard at work.....comparing their tans (this is a before pic....we'll see how dark they are at the end. lol); archaeologists all in a row.

We opened up a third unit in the Eastern section of the Angkor Wat enclosure on Wednesday and I got put in charge of it. Eeep. It's actually not that bad and I've had some interesting things turn up along the way but there was an incident of miscommunication or two as the digging commenced. Lol. I picked up basic Khmer fairly fast to help with the issue. Unfortunately for me, my Khmer is really only useful for daily greetings, drinking sessions, counting from 1 to 100 and excavations. Haha. I'm not really that good but the Khmer students and the workmen are great about me trying to speak with them. Good thing my roomie doesn't mind teaching me some Khmer :)

Also, did I mention we hire workmen? Seriously the best dig I've been on so far! These guys do most of the digging (I dig too okay! Sometimes.....when they let me....) and some screening (but it's usually the RUFA students or us) and I get stuck with all the paper work :/  Lucky them. It does come in handy when we have to dig through sandstone chips or laterite sand.  What's even better is that some of these guys are so experienced that they are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to Khmer archaeology - on the outset, we're in charge but really, we defer to them and their knowledge when trying to figure things out. They really are absolutely priceless! Like I said, this really is a dream dig as far as excavations go (at least for me since I'm not a big cheese :) )

Clockwise from L: the only bright splash of color on the highest level of Angkor Wat; the East gopura as viewed from the road by my unit; on the causeway to explore Angkor Wat's main structure; some statues and stairs; the South library by unit 2; the view from the third level of Angkor Wat; view of Angkor Wat from the road 10 meters from my unit.

When the weekend came about, we headed out to Kbal Spean, a waterfall with carvings carved straight into the bedrock in the river. It's about an hour or so out of Siem Reap and an easy 30 min walk up to the waterfall where there are carvings of gods and hundreds of linga (phallic symbols). It's not really all that big but it's cute and it's easy enough to take kids along. The only somewhat irritating thing (a problem at all the popular tourist spots) is that the people selling books, postcards, scarves and food are very persistent (both a good and bad thing). The prices are comparable to the tourist markets in Siem Reap and I'd rather buy stuff from them than at the markets but they just keep coming no matter how many times you say no, thank you. I didn't get too much of it but I guess one of the guys in our group looked like a sucker or something cos they pretty much all homed in on him. lol. But we were all really good about it (and I make it a special point not to get irritated or rude) since we know they're only trying to make a living. There are a ton of places to eat at the foot of Kbal Spean and the food's not bad. The toilet is also very nice as well.

Clockwise from top L: there are so many food stalls that they need to let you know they're moderately priced compared to the others, lol; walking up to Kbal Spean; the carvings in the waterfall, notice the linga?...not much water since the wet season is just starting; still climbing up, the surrounding vegetation and one of the markers placed every 100m; the large sign board at the entrance, just in case you don't have a guide.

Clockwise from top L: linga carved into the base of the river; waterfall; Nick and Noel securing the camera to the tree for a group shot; more linga and a tub carved into the riverbed; human evolution at the waterfall? lol. I guess they're all tying their shoes; waterfall; taking pics of the carvings.

Since Banteay Srei is close to Kbal Spean (about 18 km), we headed there next. Banteay Srei is one of the smallest temples but one of the prettiest ones due to the intricate carvings and the pinkish/reddish sandstone. There's a platform with a band comprised of landmine victims playing traditional instruments. They're good - one guy even started playing a leaf to accompany the instruments which was simply amazing. I've never heard a leaf make those sounds. They take donations and sell their (very nicely packaged) cd. As with Angkor Wat and Kbal Spean, the toilets here are superb and there are a ton of souvenir and food stalls. You do have to pay for parking tho... at least our van driver did.

Banteay Srei with it's pretty pink/red stone and intricate carvings. Really pretty. The guy in the middle is playing a leaf(!) to accompany his band members.

More Banteay Srei. I think the kids playing with cards under the tree at the back of Banteay Srei are cute. Mai, Jenna and Marie taking a break.

That's it for now. Hopefully this gets posted cos facebook is really not working for me right now.