4.30am was a horrible time as usual. At least in this case I had gone to bed nice and early, so it wasn't the worst. After the short bus ride there, getting across the bridge over the most by the light of 2 torches was interesting to say the least. It was around 5am by the time we got to the optimal photo spot, just early enough to be on the front row.
Unfortunately 'sunrise' invokes a somewhat different image to the gradual brightening of the sky which we got. It didn't help that there wasn't a lot of colour in the sky either. It was worthwhile, but it could've been a lot nicer on a different day I think. At least it wasn't super cloudy.
Well, that was what I wrote, whilst standing around there. Our allotted time for leaving was 6.10am, but Kelly was dragging his heels, so I wrote some blog while we waited. I am very glad he waited (and that I waited around instead of walking back to the bus like some people), because at about 6.30 the sun came up between the towers, and it was brilliant!
Afterwards, we returned to the bus, and to the hotel for breakfast, and to meet up with those who were too lazy for the predawn trip. An hour or so later, we were off out to another temple (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) which was some way away from the Angkor region. The bus ride took an hour or so, but I was determinedly napping the entire time.
This temple was constructed of pink sandstone some time around 1000, by a guru of the 5th king of the Khmer empire. It has unique gate guardians, which are human in form save for having lion or monkey heads.
All of the reliefs here tell tales from Hindu mythology. Mony showed the whole group one, and told us the tale: there was a demon who was blessed in many ways: he couldn't be killed inside, or outside, he couldn't be killed at night or in the day, he couldn't be killed by a god, demon, human, or beast, and he couldn't be killed by any weapon. So how could he be killed, Mony asked us. I got the answer, and impressed everyone, and I will let you readers have a think about it yourself, and put the end of the story at the end of the post.
I suffered for my brilliance though. There were loads of fire ants around, and 3 or 4 jumped on me from out of the tree we were standing under! I attempted to deal with them peacefully, shaking them off, or blowing them off, but one spitefully decided to bite me for no reason (I hadn't even gotten round to try and remove it). I swore, interrupting Mony's story, and flicked the offender, who was big enough for me to see his mandibles biting me, and spent the rest of the day paranoid that ants were on me whenever I felt anything.
Now we could wander freely, but me and Bryce stuck with Mony, as we had been impressed by his knowledge of photo ops the previous day, and he was more than happy to tell us the stories behind the rest of the carvings, which I was interested in. I will relate them all, because firstly it will be nice not to forget them, and secondly because there isn't so much to write about today, so it will bulk the post out nicely. I am now quite disappointed I didn't get photos of all the carvings, but they didn't exactly tell the stories panel by panel anyway.
In one Shiva was trying to meditate atop a mountain, but a thousand armed demon tried to disturb him by shaking the mountain. If Shiva moved too much his efforts in meditation to this point would be wasted, but just by moving his big toe he was able to push the mountain down, driving the demon into the netherworld for 3000 years.
In another there was a woman that was so beautiful that it caused countless men to fall in love with her, and wage war upon each other. She prayed to Shiva (I think, it could also have been Vishnu) to rid her of the beauty which had become her curse, and Shiva danced for her, causing her to become incomparably ugly.
Finally, 2 brothers had discovered the resting place of a naga (a seven headed serpant, and water divine beast often used as gate guardians), and wanted to kill it (for some reason I didn't get, but they were definitely the bad guys). It was a divine beast, and they were just mortals, so they decided to burn the forest it was living in. Indra (God of, among other things, rain) saw what they were trying to do though, and caused a downpour every time they set a fire, so it couldn't spread. Then Rama came along (a reincarnation of Vishnu, and hero of many tales in this area of the world, such as the Ramayana, the Far East version of Romeo and Juliet, which I saw a ballet of in Indonesia), and the 2 men told him that the naga was evil and had killed their families, and that they couldn't do anything because of the rain. Rama didn't realise Indra was causing the rain, and shot thousands of arrows continuously from his bow, blocking the rain, and allowing the men to burn the forest. The naga had already escaped though, so the men were still thwarted.
We went back to the bus after this, past a huge, metallic gold spider, and a load of police men who tried to sell us their badges and hats. Unfortunately, despite being told numerous times what way we were going (even once by Geoff just before going the wrong way), Stephanie managed to go the wrong way and get lost. We had to hang around for half an hour, until she was finally found.
On the way back to Siam Reap, we stopped for lunch, and stopped at a wood and stone carving workshop, where we had their methods explained to us, and saw some of the craftsmen at work. I had decided I wanted a naga statue as a souvenir of Cambodia, but so far they had been too rare for me to find, which I thought was a bit strange, since they are on like every gate, temple, and monument. Luckily this had one, so it got it. I would've preferred wood (as it would probably have been cheaper), but all they had was soapstone, and I didn't know if I would see another.
After that it was back to the hotel, and I did more or less nothing the whole rest of the day. There were no optional activities, aside from visiting the markets etc, but I have already got all my gifts and souvenirs, so I just hung around and the hotel. Some people went back to pub street, but I decided I didn't need another hangover!
PS: the demon was killed by Vishnu (a god), who transformed himself into a Demi God (in this case, half God, half beast, and not fully any of the things which could not kill the demon), and killed the demon with his claws (so not a weapon) at sunset (so not day or night) in a doorway (so not inside or outside). Top marks to anyone who got it! Now do it whilst a fire ant is biting you.
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