Siem Reap, Cambodia: Basic Itinerary

Hello everyone,
First of all, I would like to say I'm sorry I have not written in five days.

Airport

Hotel

I guess the excuse I have for that is logistical impracticality.  I departed for Siem Reap, Cambodia on New Year's Day at around five in the evening, with my mother, my grandmother, and my brother.

For a basic itinerary of our travel, we stayed the night in the hotel of Kuala Lampur International Airport, starting at three am. The next day, we arrived in Cambodia at about twelve, and freshened up.  We were staying at Angkor Sofitel Phokeetra.  It is interesting to see syncretism at work: though Sofitel is a chain, the Sofitel we stayed at in Siem Reap had an entirely different layout for the one in Morocco: it was more spread out and low lying.  That day, we went to local markets and saw a Cambodian Apsara dance performance at the hotel.  Our method of transportation was either a van we pre-ordered from the traveling company, or a vehicle called a tuk-tuk, which is a motorized rickshaw.  On Saturday and Sunday, we went sightseeing largely at Angkor Wat and other key locations of the Khmer people, including the life-changing sunrise above the temple on Sunday morning.

Apsara Dance

Tuk-tuk

Sunrise

Pool in Angkor Wat

Bayon Brahma

The history of the Khmer people can be divided into three eras: the Pre-Angkor, Angkor, and Post-Angkor (commonly said to start in the year 1431).  The Art of the Khmer is commonly categorized in this fashion.  For those of you who did not know, Angkor Wat was the largest religious complex in the world.  It was built by Suryavarman II in the first half of the 1100's, dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu.  After Angkor Wat was raided by the Cham people in 1177, a Khmer ruler named Jayavarman VII built a new state temple called the Bayon (which translates to 'magic') and established the capital city of Angkor Thom.  Angkor Wat was initially a Hindu Temple, before gradually becoming Buddhist in the late 1200's.  Even today, there are shrines scattered throughout.  Cambodia achieved independence from France in 1953, and has controlled Angkor Wat since then. In 1992, UNESCO listed Angkor as a world heritage site.  Since then, major conservation efforts have been underway, on account of dilapidation and physical pressures in the region, including political riots.  Angkor was a shooting site for the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie.  Currently, the region of Angkor receives about two million visitors per year.

Scene from Tomb Raider

On Saturday night, we went to go see a tremendous circus dealing with the presence of ghosts in human thought.  Ghosts are the fears and vices and passions not only of humanity as a whole, but also of individuals.  Not one human has ever completely won over his ghosts, and the only way to do it is to face your fears head on.  Even though I was disappointed that there were no elephants involved, I still thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and came out feeling euphoric.  If you do not believe me alone, the circus has a 5 star rating on trip-advisor based on 2142 reviews. I do not commonly recommend things, but I am going to recommend this circus, if you happen to be in Cambodia any time soon.  Go to: http://www.pharecambodiancircus.org/circus/ and tell your friends.

Us with the Circus

On Sunday evening, we went to the night markets.  It was sometimes hard to tell that we were in the exact same locations as we were in the daytime markets.  Bargaining is a good representation of culture and general mindset of people. In some countries such as Cambodia, vendors are less pushy than in others.  Sure, I know there are a lot of other factors which come into play, but I do not think that deep cultural personalities entirely go away.  For more depth on this phenomena and its implications, read the chapter on culture of honor in Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.

Siem Reap Night Market

On Monday morning, I went with my mom and my brother to The Angkor National Museum, and learned some more of the history I told you about a couple paragraphs ago.

Diorama of Angkor Wat

Finally, we departed at eleven am.  On the plane from Kuala Lampur back into Dhaka, I had a profound philosophical and scientific discussion with my brother over only five pages of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.  I cannot begin to tell you what all happened on that plane in seats 25 E and F, but that won't stop me from trying. It started with him asking me, "how do you teach a monkey English?"  This was because he had trouble understanding the book, and he was concerned that he would not be able to move past the science of it.  It was a good question.  I thought about it for a while, while he went to the restroom and filled out his custom forms. Soon, I pointed to the book, and said, you'd agree these are pretty universal ideas in here, right? Well, what you need to do is appreciate these ideas for what they are."
Soon, we were talking about all kinds of things.  The discussion literally changed my brother's life and his outlook forever.  Here is a general short list of things we talked about in about an hour:

• conceptualization and universalization
• going beyond scientific jargon and details
• how everything can be turned into an argument
• how we're all phonies
• the ups and downs of religion
• insecurity in morals
• why people disagree in this world
• tangibility
• the behavior of light
• coordinate planes and reference frames to define position of an event
• 2-D surface
• 3-D space
• 4-D space-time
• the speed of light, Alpha Centauri, the Sun, and the earth
• representations on graphs
• past and future light cones stemming from events
• a stick figure's assassination
• how every little thing in the past matters
• deeper understanding
• annoyance, disrelation and interruption from others
• fate

We created a huge black hole of ideas in our conversation, and I can't keep it to myself.  Finally, I felt the jolt on my back side and heard the thud of the wheels on the runway.  We were pulling in to Dhaka.  We got home at around nine-thirty. This morning, I asked my brother whether I should write it here, and he enthusiastically said "Oh, definitely, yes! Please!" So, here we are.  

Today, I have a little off day, and I'm using it in the ways I usually do.  Even though it's hard, getting up early is really rewarding: you get a lot done.  I'm also going to visit some schools as a sort of orientation for my project.  Tomorrow, the fun starts, and I don't mean that sarcastically.

On that note, I think I'll close today's blog entry.  It's good to be back, and as always, thank you for reading.

With Love,

  Ahsem Kabir

Pictures From:

Our Phones

http://www.angkornightmarket.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168