My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ week 2

The Bayon in Angkor Thom

Week 2 in Cambodia:

Just fyi, my weeks start from Sunday so the weekend usually gets split up....a little confusing but easier since I usually type these things up on Sunday.

We've got two new additions to the center and we're not quite sure where they came from. Their arrival was heralded by lots of loud meowing since they were scared of Robert and took the offense. Robert, the great big lazy oaf, doesn't seem to mind them so much and now they've gotten used to him so they just cavot around as kittens are wont to do. That and curling up on our laps whenever they get a chance :)

Anyway, Chenda, our head workman, invited us to his sister-in-law's wedding dinner so we had the pleasure of attending a Khmer wedding feast and it was definitely different from what I'm used to. That said, it was a lot of fun. Basically, the ceremonies are conducted the entire day (with the start of the day being before sunrise!) and according to someone who's been a bridesmaid at one of these things, it's not a duty you really fight over due to the long days, intensive planning and the numerous costume changes (about 7 or 8 I think?).

Clockwise, L-R: Khmer wedding - dancing around the table; I found the local gas pumps fascinating; Walking back along our road; more dancing at the wedding; trying to learn how to move like the Khmers; our two new additions, yet unnamed; more dancing at the wedding. 

The wedding feast is usually held at night at an open air restaurant. A general start time is given but people just arrive whenever they want. There's a receiving line where a small door-gift is given and then you proceed to a table. The food is served per table so a table has to fill up before the food will come out (so sometimes people end up sitting at tables where they don't know anyone). Then it's basically food (5-7 courses with rice being served at the very end....i dunno what's up with that..) and drinks the whole night. You have to toss your cans on the floor (along with everything else you don't want) or they won't keep bringing drinks out. it's an interesting system. The floors are apparently trashed (literally) by the end of the night. There's music (ours was live the entire night and very nightclub style) and when the eating is done with and most people are drunk enough, there's dancing. I do have to say it's hard for me to get the Khmer groove on because the movements are so slow and graceful despite whatever music they play and everyone (and I mean everyone) knows all the different moves for the different songs.The last bit of wedding business for the guests once they've been fed and watered is to give them envelopes for them to write their names on and put money in (i guess like our angpows) which is then put into a big collection box by the guests as they leave.

I didn't stay too long after the dancing started since I was recovering from being sick the week before but from all accounts, the dancing was rowdier and more entertaining as the night went on. Also, apparently Khmer men are more affectionate with each other when drunk. Not really a gay thing but more of a bromance thing. lol. i don't think that is limited to Khmer men alone. lol.

We also went to Angkor Thom for a bit on Sunday afternoon to check it out. Saw a little bit of the Bayon, the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King. It definitely needs more than an hour or two to explore. I'm so glad we have the passes that allow us to explore at our own leisure.

 Clockwise, L-R: The guys straightening the walls while I screen; action shot; Narin, posing before screening; Jenna, Mai and Liep trying to agree on wall profiles; do you see the pot in the corner?; another action shot of unit 4; my unit - like the umbrella set up for shading screeners?

 Clockwise, L-R: Coring in the unit; the guys hanging out; oops, repeat; stopped coring to pose. lol; screening sandstone chips with Angkor Wat in the background; loading up the tuk tuk; Ngek hanging out by the units.

Monday through Friday was back to work again. Had a few curious tourists come up to my unit who were great and a few that were not so great. There was a group of Singaporeans on a charity mission in some remote village come by and their guide (he wasn't even official!) was a little bit of an ass. I made the mistake of saying ASPARA instead of APSARA and he sharply corrected me (look man, I have problems with acronyms okay? I say FASFA instead of FAFSA but I don't see the financial aid people getting on my case) and then he insisted that a Canadian man was in charge of our project. That may well be true (and I guess it was since one of the profs from USyd is actually Canadian) but there weren't any Canadians on our crew so it baffled me that he was so insistent. Whatever. The Singaporeans were nice. lol. i think the worst tourists we had were a couple of old Vietnamese men who broke off from their tour group to come up and nose around. That's fine. What wasn't fine was opening our cooler and taking our water and drinking it then saluting me with it when we all looked at him. No please, thank you or sorry. WTF. You can't come and peek into the unit for like 3 mins then steal our water from what was obviously a personal cooler. Asshole. We got that for our workmen who were working hard not some fat, old fart with no manners. Harumph. Embarrassingly enough, the Asian tourists are usually the worst.

Clockwise, L-R: More Angkor Wat: part of the west gopura; part of the causeway; measuring the boat; Charlotte posing with a smile but feeling horrified inside; the boat and the steps to the moat; so many VIPs swarming the boat.

I think the main (anticipated) highlight of the week was the fact that they were gonna bring up a boat (they had found it in a pond somewhere rural and transported to the Angkor moat for preservation) so that some famous guy could take measurement and wood samples. It was quite anti-climatic. lol. When they said boat in a moat, I assumed it must be some great wreck or something. Instead, it was this dugout sampan that was not very well preserved but was interesting enough I suppose.....if you liked boats. Our resident Maritime archaeologist, Charlotte, got super excited about it but when she saw how they were handling it and all that, her expressions of horror were.....hilarious (at least to me). Oh, you gotta love the French for being so entertaining. 

The pics below are from our short trip to Angkor Thom on the Sunday afternoon before the wedding dinner.

Clockwise, L-R: 3 headed elephant at the base of the North gate of Angkor Thom; the sun dappled North Gate of Angkor Thom with Charlotte, Noel and Nick talking to Liep; more North gate; the statues lining the road into Angkor Thom. I forget which ones are demons and angels.

The lower parts of the Bayon at Angkor Thom

Mostly from the North Library, which is a real climb. Great views though. Pic on the far L is the stairway up to the third floor of the Bayon.

Awesome carvings from the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King. I especially like the five headed horse.

On Saturday, we stuck closer to home and did the rest of Angkor Thom with the RUFA students. We went back to the Bayon, saw the Baphuon, the Royal Enclosure and Phimeanakas and the Kleangs before it started raining.

More Bayon pics from our Saturday outing with the RUFA students.

On the third level of the Bayon. 

It kinda looks like a pile of rubble from a distance but close up and in the right light, they Bayon is incredibly detailed and stunning.

There are elephant rides in the Bayon too! and 1.2km of these great bas-reliefs like the one here depicting cock fighting and the one in the collage below with pig fighting. lol.

Last of the Bayon pics, I promise.

After the Bayon, we moved on to the Baphuon.

Unfortunately for us, Baphuon was closed for the weekend. They're only open 7am to 3pm Mon to Fri which makes sense since they're still working on restoring it and I wouldn't necessarily want to leave tourists with the opportunity to make mischief with all the heavy machinery lying around.

In the Royal Enclosure and Phimeanakas. Narin with a random Khmer puppet tied to a tree.

Phimeanakas where I got cornered into donating for a joss stick without a Buddha statue to pray to. Otherwise, it's a nifty little place; a little too crowded tho. It makes me sad that the tourist are making it crumble even more. 

The North Kleangs and Prasat Suor Prat that practically no one goes to see.

Saturday night, we went out with the workmen and the students to the local watering area. Lots of beer (Angkor, of course) and beer snacks for a few hours then off to the next place for more of the same with the addition of traditional Khmer music and a stage where some of the guys went up on to showcase their singing talents :) I went back after that (because despite Denmark, I do not have the stamina to spend 8 hours straight partying and drinking with these guys. Seriously, Khmers can drink like fish and take pleasure in getting you to do the same too)  but most of the rest went on to the disco where more drinking and some real dancing went on. lol.

Man, that was a lot of alcohol.

As if the alcohol at the first place wasn't enough, they got us 5 beer dispensers. There was also dancing and karaoke on stage courtesy of our group and our group alone. LOL. The Khmer really know how to host a group of archaeologists!

All in all, another good week :)