Anchor What?

As our Irish friends were only with us for a few days we decided to take a visit to Angkor Wat one evening. Its free for the Khmer people (Cambodians) and free for everyone else after 5.30pm. 

The rest of the time it costs around $20 for a 3 day pass, which is good value really, however I believe S.Korea have bought the temples and as such little money goes back locally.

We waited a short while and bang on 5.30pm the guards let us enter with one of our colleagues as a guide. 

This are the sites that greeted us and captured our attention for the next couple of hours....

The lake by the temples acted as the Kings personal swimming pool.

"This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can't see how deep it is." - Dennis Rodman

Classic view.

The temple complex is around 25km squared and the temple pictured here is Angkor Wat. Ta Prohm (the Tomb Raider temple with all the tree roots) and Bayon (the big faces) are in the same complex, but not the same place - which I did not know.

Edible lotus stems, being sold on the bridge by Angkor Wat -we opted for the pineapple instead!

Down the bridge and we were in! 

So many temples and door ways to explore.

"Every doorway, every intersection has a story." - Katherine Dunn

"The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind." - E. B. White

Here was a part of the temple still in use where people were leaving offerings and burning incense.

I love these long archways leading the full length of the buildings.

Everything is so ornate. Its amazing the the temples were built circa 113-5BC and all these stones were moved here, carved exquisitely and made into such big, ornate structures that still remain to this day.

"If our people can build Angkor Wat they can do anything." - Pol Pot Real Name Saloth Sar

[Thankfully that also means starting to rebuild their country and lives after his regime]

There were big temples, and little temples...

"The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers." - Matsuo Basho

...and long walkways (with not so many tourists at this time of year).

Views like this make me imagine what it must have been like to be here all that time ago!

The detail is amazing!

I love seeing the monks in their orange, saffron, rust and russet robes all over Siem Reap, but especially at the temples.

"I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less." - Dalai Lama

Off scampered the monk!

You can see how nature does take it back - but even after all these years it stands strong!

"But in Japan, there's nothing like that, since the temple is made of wood. The divine spirit inside the building is eternal, so the enclosure doesn't have to be." - Tadao Ando

The sun was starting to set...

...so time for a few last shadowy and eerily lit photos.

So tall!

More carvings.

Looking right up into a castle in the sky!

Every piece of stone was covered.

This area above almost looked like two swimming pools. 

At some point - likely when I have visitors - I plan to take a full day tour of the temples and understand the history and significance more fully.

"Life is like a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness" - Yann Martel

More monks.

Last views as we were ushered out.

Ornate work on the bridge - copied all over Siem Reap.

It was sunset and time to go!

I look forward to going back!

"Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man's essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life." - Arnold Joseph Toynbee

New house, new bike and more nights out

After my first full week of work I had a relaxed weekend, I was feeling a bit under the weather, so took my time to sleep and recover from the journey and all the new things I was getting used to.

"I like to challenge myself. I like to learn - so I like to try new things and try to keep growing." - David Schwimmer

"I spend several days at a time without enough sleep. At first, normal activities become annoying. When you are too tired to eat, you really need some sleep. A few days later, things become strange. Loud noises become louder and more startling, familiar sounds become unfamiliar, and life reinvents itself as a surrealist dream." - Henry Rollins

I arranged with the guesthouse to stay there for one month at a reduced rate whilst I found my house, which all happened quite quickly once I started looking. At the end of the month I moved from near work - which was a bit out of town - to a more lively area half way between town and work.

"Location, location, location" - Harold Samuel

 I first looked at a five bedroom house overlooking a field, but decided that despite a good price I really didn't need five rooms! I then found my little place and live above my landlord in one of the beautiful wooden Khmer houses. It has tinted windows to stop the strength of the sun coming into the house, but this gives you the feeling of living in an old fashioned sepia film. The roof is tin and when it rains it sounds like Africa.

"The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling." - Lucretius

The house is in a safe area, with a gate and security cameras and the owners are friendly and helpful - although they love to see how you live and what's going on in your place at any given opportunity, which is sometimes frustrating.

"The hardest part about business is minding your own" - unknown

After finding it on facebook and booking a viewing, the landlord cancelled the viewing stating it had already gone. Then someone else mentioned the place to me and it turned out it had not gone. I went to see it that day, then my manager came to see it and bargained the landlord down a little, then my colleague came to give it the once over and finally I said yes.

At the end of July I moved into the new place...

Outside.

The roof from above - from the appartment block in our complex.

Views over the city from the roof.

Green from above, but lots of buildings down below.

Inside...

My room

Living room

Spare room.

Kitchen.

'Dining Room'

To outside.

My stoep.

My gas cooker - very different from what I am used to.

It is so nice to finally have my own space and a place to call home. My space I can invite whomever I chose into or shut the world out of.

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

I was also in need of a bicycle, so myself and a colleague went shopping up the main road - R6. After much negotiation and testing of second hand bikes I found one that suited, the young man even gave me his own saddle as it was the most comfortable in the shop.

Similar to these bikes.

"Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving, for example." - Dan Buettner

I rode a bike a little in Namibia, but out in the veldt, not on the busy roads. I don't think I have ridden a bike on a busy road since the summer a few of us used to ride or walk over to the Blue Lagoon, making me around age 13. So here we were cycling on Cambodia's equivalent of the M1 - totally crazy! My colleague got clipped on her back wheel by some fool on his moto and mobile at the same time - which you see loads of here! We made it to dinner alive and a couple of beers settled my nerves for the ride home!

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on." - Lance Armstrong

I now had transport, a house and a regular tuktuk driver sorted. I had been let lose on the office and my role alone and things were going well. Work wise it was an interesting time of year as we were putting together our activity plans and budgets for the coming year. This was great as it gave me a good understanding across the organisation, however I also needed to plan my departments activities and costs based on my predecessors concepts, but also trying to weave in some of my ideas. Quite tricky in your first few weeks. We had lots of meetings over the first month to solidify the coming year and once these were out of the way the hard work began.

The Irish contingent were around for the first three weeks of my work too and we did some great exploring together, along with some great, late nights out which involved many frozen margaritas, beers and the general craic. Before they headed off we had a trip to Angkor Wat (see next blog post) and a great night out at Phare - the Cambodian circus and a charity that gives young people a craft in entertainment. I have no photos from that night as its dark and you cannot use flash, but here are some from their website - its a great show and the performers are amazing athletes

www.cnn.com

www.tourismcambodia.com

beyonduniqueescapes.com

We had a final lunch of Banh hoi - noodles, leaves, pork, lime, peanuts and taro spring role, thanked our Irish chap and chapess for their collaboration and before you knew it they were sadly gone boo!, apart from the one we get to keep for 9 months, yay!

I carried that frame back to the office on the back of a moto and finally started to feel Cambodian - they carry all sorts on the back of these things!

The time of year I arrived seemed to have a lots of ex staff visiting, so it was lovely to get some perspectives from people who have been involved way longer than I. Also some lovely dinners and lots of support from old faces to siem reap, but new faces to me.

It was a couple of colleagues birthdays in this week, so we headed to a vegetarian noodle bar where we sat on cushions at a long table, shared tea and celebrated. It was here we discovered a colleagues phobia of cats which will be an ongoing theme for our time here, as cats, kittens and the monster huge cat from one of the cafes here tend to seek him out.

Looks a bit like this!

"Time spent with cats is never wasted." - Sigmund Freud