The Ocean of Milk

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Life can get pretty distracting in Cambodia.

That's right, Cambodia. We decided to take a quick vacation there over the weekend. We explored extensively while we were there, so I will be splitting up our experience into two posts, but if I had to summarize Cambodia, it would go something like this: temples, temples, and more temples. I'll let the pictures and captions explain it from here.

First Location: Angkor Wat

We arrived early on our first day to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, meaning it was dark when we got there. The sunrise was pretty but anticlimactic because of its overly spectacular reputation.

An unusually intact statue of the serpent Nagaa.

It is thought that Angkor Wat was built around 1113- 1150.

Carvings such as these told the stories of the fighting monkey brothers,  the churning of the ocean of milk, and more. I'm not kidding about the stories. See the bottom of the page for my interpretation.

According to our tour guide, there were two prominent religions in ancient times: Buddhism (although I believe it is not technically a religion) and Hindu. At one point, a new king came into power and got rid of all the Buddhists carvings, making Hindu the favored religion. This is why you will often see Buddhist statues with their arms, legs, and head lopped off. Later, when the previous king died, a new king started his rule and did away with all the Hindu carvings, bringing back Buddhism and making it the primary religion. This is why you will often see Hindu statues with their arms, legs, and head lopped off.

The carvings were incredibly ornate. This one depicts the churning of the sea of milk, mentioned above. Here, demons are shown having a tug-of-war with gods, using a poor serpent as the rope.

Me sitting on some rubble that fell off of the building. Soooo not my fault. Sort of.

These are the steps up the palace that the king got to use...

… And these, at 70-75 degrees are what everyone else had to climb.

A vast lake? No, just the huge moat around the Wat. It was once filled with alligators, but they have since been eaten.

Back at the hotel, we had the best elevator ever, complete with fancy wire mesh on the thin double doors.

Even our water bottles got their own gentlemanly suits.

Stop Two: Angkor Thom Entrance

A row of godly statues (mirrored on the other side by demons) posted outside the city entrance. Like many carvings, this depicts the churning of the ocean of milk.

The city gate from inside the city.

Two interesting things about this picture: one, you can see an elephant in the background. At Angkor Thom, one can pay a fee to have an elephant carry them up a rather steep hill and skip walking. The second thing is that we are emblematically holding water bottles. We must have gone through at least ten or twelve water bottles while we were there. Due to the heat, we kept about half a bottle inside ourselves.

Nature is strong. Give it fifty years or so, and stone is not a problem. Perhaps for this very reason, trees were considered sacred, and chopping one down would get you in big trouble. This is why the city of Angkor Thom is covered in trees.

Angkor Thom Stop Two: The Bayon

This ancient place is part of Angkor Thom.

Towers had faces on all four sides, facing North, South, East, and West. This symbolized the city's god watching over it and protecting it.

These steps are… not flat. Some things don't change, even given thousands of years.

A tree growing on top of a pile of bricks. The bricks used to be part of the old town wall.

Location Three: Ta Prohm

Trees here in Ta Prohm are even wilder than in Angkor Thom.

Tell me that's not impressive.

This site may seem familiar to you. This area, that tree in particular, was featured in "Tomb Raider".

Cambodia Fun Facts!

Welcome to an adapted Hong Kong Fun Facts! Here's your fact of the day:

King Suryavarman built Angkor Wat, but every other place we visited was built by King Jayavarman. We call them "the lazy king" and "the productive king", respectively.

Dad Sez!

 Dad's profound insights on: millipedes!

"EEEEEEEWWWWWWW!"

                          -Dad

Also on Dad Sez…

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is another one of Dad's famous artsy photos.

Bonus!

This bonus features my interpretation of some of the myths on the walls of the temples.

Story One

First of all, I noticed three rows on the wall that our guide said represented heaven, the "normal" world and the underworld. All but the underworld suddenly blinked out of existence. This probably got the gods fired up, explaining their aggression later on.

You see, the gods and demons had a lot of milk. The gods wanted to churn this ocean of milk, but the demons did not. They then settled whether or not they should churn the milk with a tug-of-war. Because the gods were still all fired up and adrenaline-filled, they made the rather hasty and cruel decision to use a poor serpent as the rope. The outcome of the war is still unclear.

Story Two

This one was also hard two understand, but this is how I heard it: two brothers (monkeys, of course) were angry at each other. One was the king and the other was not. The king monkey pretended to die, prompting the non-king monkey to seek advice as to what to do about the situation. The monkey oddly decides to visit a lunatic. Despite the non-king monkey's protests that his brother may still be alive, the lunatic was convinced that the king was dead, and killed him anyway just to be sure. The non-king monkey was then crowned king, thanks to the lunatic.


Thanks for reading!

Next up: Cambodia Kitten!