51 -- How to Not-Suck at Writing

Get an editor!
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51 -- Writer's Day Block

Yesterday was the SCBWI-LA's Writer's Day and the combined creative talent seated in that one room was enough to give little me writer's block...(Read more here.)

50 -- Scene in Cambodia (6) Tomb Raiders

Served up by Netflix — Tomb Raider!

Yes, I did actually put this movie into my queue…for a reason.(Click here to read the rest of this post.)

49 -- Scene in Cambodia (5) Mystical Mountains

Well, February has snuck up on me. It’s that sort of month. (Click here to read more.)

48 -- Scene in Cambodia (4) Dietary Restrictions

So. I’m on a diet. Invariably, the holiday season has its tradeoffs. A time of reckoning (Click here to read more...)

47 -- Scene in Cambodia (3) Water World

It has rained here in southern California for five days in a row.
The lawn is a pond creeping across the patio and lapping at our back door.(Click here to read the rest of this post)

46 -- Wonderland in my Backyard

Sunny and seventy-four, Sunday in early January. The desert calls. (Read more...)

rillas rants have become rillas rambles

Our blog has a NEW HOME!

Click Here to visit where rilla and Rilla will hang out from now on. Welcome to the houswarming party!

45 -- Scene in Cambodia (2) -- Roaming the Ruins

Note: this is an ongoing series about our trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia in December, 2009. Part I of this account can be found here.

Big plans for our first full day in Siem Reap. My trusty guidebook* offered the following advice - Angkor temples generally have four entrances, one facing each cardinal point. The eastern entrance is the main one most of the time as it faces the rising sun, symbolizing birth and beginnings.

Not so Angkor Vat. Its main entrance faces West, the end of the path, death.

What does this mean to archeologists and historians? Controversy! What did it mean for us? It's better to visit Angkor Vat in the afternoon when the light is best for photography.

So, first thing in the morning, we engaged a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to Angkor Thom, instead.




First stop, the government ticket counter to acquire the necessary temple pass.




"Angkor" means "city" and "Thom" means "great" or "large." This was indeed the largest city of the Angkor period holding possibly up to a million inhabitants at its height.




As with most of the Angkor structures, it is surrounded by a vast moat. Crossing over the moat on elaborate causeways symbolizes the departure from the earthly and entrance into the heavenly. And these causeways sure make you believe it--they are that impressive.

At Ankgor Thom, the bridge is edged on one side by a line of devas (gods)




holding the body of a massive many-headed snake or naga.




The right is adorned with a similar row of asuras or demons.




The significance of these carvings is to be found in the tale of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, a popular one around Angkor, and taken from Indian Hindu mythology.

The story goes that after fighting for a thousand years with the demons,




the gods




turned to Vishnu, the Preserver, for advice. He suggested that they cooperate with the demons instead of fighting them and work together to churn the ocean of milk for the pot of amrit or the nectar of immortality that lay within its depths.

This the gods did, using the enormous serpent, Vasuki, as the rope and Mount Mandara as the churning pole. However, when the mountain began to sink into the ocean, Vishnu, reincarnated as a tortoise, supported it on his back. Many treasures came out of the churning other than the nectar of immortality. Among the most popular in the Khmer culture are the Apsaras or celestial dancing nymphs.

You see these beautiful prancing women carved into stone everywhere,







and they are the inspiration for the current day "Apsara dancers."




At the Bayon, the temple smack dab at the center of Angkor Thom, we were introduced to the Khmer art of bas-relief which found its epitome at Angkor Vat. But that will remain a tale for another day.

Although scenes of war are the predominant theme for the most impressive carving at the Bayon,




I most enjoyed the depictions of city life.
Here, spectators gamble on the outcome of a cockfight.




And, here, they gamble on the outcome of a wild boar fight.




OK, enough gambling, this is my favorite carving of all --
a sanyasi (holy man) runs for his life from a tiger...up a tree!




The Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, built something like a hundred years after Angkor Vat, is one of the few Buddhist rather than Hindu Angkor temples. And, one of the most alluring aspects of the temple, is the depiction of smiling faces in the massive towers or "gopuras."




Angkor Thom encompasses an area of about three hundred and sixty acres. Walking and tuk tuks aren't the only way to get around.




And while some enjoy a leisurely stroll around the massive complex, others recline in style.




The sheer size of the place is emphasized by what remains of the royal palace--its entrance and base. These take the form of two terraces, with steps leading to the long gone wooden palace that was once adorned with masses of gold. These are The Terrace of the Elephants,




and the The Terrace of the Leper King.




Who was the leper king?




Again controversy abounds. Some think that King Jayavarman VII, builder of Angkor Thom, himself was a leper, one reason given for his interest in building hospitals. He built over a hundred hospitals around the country! Unfortunately, this theory is not historically supported.

At the base of this terrace, an older carved wall was unearthed. When the builders created the new grander terrace, they left the original in place behind it. Thank goodness they did! Now, a winding corridor between the two walls reveals its former glory.







Well, even though this was winter in Cambodia and the locals insisted it was the "cold" season, the sun was hot. These residents of Angkor Thom seemed to have boundless energy,




but we did not. It was time to call it a morning, return to the hotel for lunch and an early afternoon siesta before embarking on the journey to see what it was we had traveled all this way for -- Angkor Vat.

* Angkor Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples by Dawn Rooney

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44 -- Scene in Cambodia--Fulfilling a Dream

I gaze out the airplane window at flat green land with irregular rectangles for fields and an enormous lake in the distance where trees stand knee-deep in water. The plane touches down and stops a short distance from a low elegant building with a tiled-roof that looks more like a Buddhist monastery than an airport. The doors open, we step out into warm-moist air and down onto the tarmac at Siem Reap, Cambodia.




The flight from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was full and now excited tourists, speaking a multitude of languages, spill down the steps and toward the airport taking pictures and chattering with excitement. I wish my camera weren't packed away deep inside my luggage. Promising myself I'll have it out on our return, I enter the picturesque building.

Immediately, we're swept into a chaotic "line" to buy a visa to enter the country. Luckily, we have photos and $20 a pop ready, but I watch with dread as my passport gets whisked away by an official in an impressive semi-circular line of bureaucrats and I'm told to proceed to the other end of the room.

"Never lose sight of your passport!"--the ominous warning flashes through my mind, because yes, I am that paranoid. I try to trace the path of the all-important bluebook that determines my identity as it changes hand after hand but I soon lose track of it among the host of other passports making the same journey.

While I'm still trying to pinpoint its location, my name is called and I sigh with relief. My passport is handed back to me, visa for a single entry to the Kingdom of Cambodia in place, no questions asked.




Now to locate luggage and the hotel pick-up and before long we're whizzing by rice fields and small canals where waterlilies raise magenta heads between water buffaloes, and fishermen dip nets for the day's meagre catch.













And the driver of the hotel car is chatting up a storm about tourists and bad Cambodian roads and his family...and I think about why we're here.

Two words -- Angkor Vat.




I'd always dreamed of seeing Angkor Vat, the largest religious monument in the world, ever since I studied this amazing temple in history classes in school, many moons ago. It never ocurred to me then that someday I might get the chance. But a few months ago, things started to happen -- fast. My husband's nephew was getting married in Mumbai. We obviously had to attend. The cheapest ticket to Mumbai was offered by Cathay Pacific flying through Hong Kong and layovers were free.

But, most importantly, the latest National Geographic arrived and featured on its cover was -- Angkor Vat.

Now, anyone who's ever leafed through a National Geographic magazine knows just exactly how seductive NG photography is. Pieces of a puzzle I didn't even know existed started to fall into place. Before I knew it, we'd booked a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, doorway to Angkor Vat, on our way home from Mumbai via Hong Kong.

Angkor Vat had grabbed hold of my imagination so many years ago and apparently had never let go and now it was calling...and who was I to resist.

(NOTE: Angkor Vat or Angkor Wat--can be spelled either way. For more information read the Wikipedia entry or the APSARA information on the temple.)


NEXT TIME:
Who is this unhappy dude and what is he holding?

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