Thinking in threes

Judging from the upload speeds available in any of the 25000 or so internet cafes in Siem Reap, they may well be sharing the same dial-up line to the outside world. So, I've given up on the idea of uploading too many photos for now! 

Well, it didn't stop raining until well into the night last night which sort of puts paid to the "just an hour or two" theory! Headed off at 7am with Wonaaah on the second day of temple visiting. My first thought was thank Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva for clouds because with an overcast sky things were a lot cooler. Dropped in on some more temples in the Angkor area before heading further out to Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean, the second of these being over 50 kms from Siem Reap. This was probably the highlight of the day for me - speeding along on the moto (almost reached 50 km/h today) through the Cambodian countryside with wooden houses and huts on stilts, buffalo, rice fields, excited children waving.

Kbal Spean is a collection of scenes carved out of stone riverbanks and riverbed - really quite amazing. Apparently hermit monks lived along the river and carved as an expression of their religious devotion. It really is the sense one is left with from this place: devotion. The people involved in all of this incredible work must have been filled with it.

Interestingly, Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva are the Hindu trimurti and are really just differing manifestations of the same Divine Being. Sound familiar? Seems to be an Indo-European trait, this obsession with the number 3. Ask the Celts, including St. Patrick and his 3-leafed shamrock! The Angkor temples are an interesting mix of Hindu and Buddhist religious expression - often it's difficult to pinpoint where one ends and the other begins. Buddhism is, strictly speaking, a non-theistic philosophy but it seems the common human urge to reach out to the Divine, the Numinous, the "Other" has found theistic expression for Buddhists just about everywhere too - Cambodia being no exception. There is also a Buddhist trinity - three different manifestations of the Buddha - which is used as inspiration for some of the intricate stone carvings here. The Hindu stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana seem to be the most common source of material though.

I was wrong about Wonaaah being a tonal name - Khmer isn't a tonal language, unlike many of the languages of its neighbouring countries. It's also not inflected but to make up for these simplicities, has 33 consonants and 24 vowels and diphthongs. Not included are the sounds "sh", "f" and "v" as I found out today when I had a shooting range pointed out to me. The language has been heavily influenced by Sanskrit and so has plenty of Indo-European traits, for example the word for God-King (there have been lots of them around here) Deveraja. Think Devine-Regent to see the link. Fascinating stuff! So far, I've learnt aahkuhn (thank you) and te aahkuhn (no thank you) - no prizes for guessing which one of these I've been using more often!

Anyway, after Kbal Spean, we headed back towards Siem Reap via another 5 temples - the best of which was Preah Khan, similar to Ta Phrom yesterday in that it is quite a tumble of stones but with fewer trees fighting back against human-made encroachment. Whilst I was there, the rains arrived, including some rather awe-inspiring thunder. Was an amazing experience, huddling inside the stone doorways of this vast temple with the heavens crashing in fury above. From here, we rode back into Siem Reap and it was at this point that I discovered that my very nice cycling jacket hadn't been tested in a Cambodian monsoon. Was thoroughly soaked by the time we got back but it was completely enjoyable after being scorched earlier. I also discovered that I am the only tourist riding around on the back of a moto - everyone else is wisely taking the tuktuk option, complete with rainproof enclosure when necessary! But the locals appreciate the effort - one tuktuk driver, squinting into the rain, grinned and cheered as we passed him.

I had a nice experience yesterday after looking around the main Angkor Wat temple. Upon returning to Wonaaah, I was approached by two teenage girls and a teenage lad selling drinks. They were very persistent when I said no and eventually suggested I should buy a drink for my driver. When this didn't work, one of the girls said I should buy a drink for the other girl because she was sooo thirsty, at which point she started acting like she was suffering from heat-stroke. The whole thing was just so funny and we all burst out laughing and I ended up buying 3 drinks, mostly to reward them all for their sterling performance. The lad said "you are very friendly man"! Another girl, selling scarves and tablecloths, had learnt "Oh my God!" from some previous tourist and was working it into her sales pitch. When I said no thanks for the tenth time, she retorted with "Oh my God! He no buy nothing! Oh my God!".