Pre Rup\u2019s crumbling walls set the stage for the days touring.<\/p>\n
The Japanese were here in force, up to their old tricks. Lent the morning a nice, festive beginning.<\/p>\n On the way out, a coupla vendors, having spectacularly failed in their attempt to get me to purchase their wares, decided instead to chat me up a bit.<\/p>\n One of them said he was from San Francisco. I somehow let slip that I\u2019d lived in Hawaii for a year; and the other one claimed that he, too, had lived in Hawaii. I was thrilled to hear it. It\u2019d been a long time ago, he added; and his colleague chirped in, \u201cYeah\u2026like 300 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n We all had a good laugh. But I’m still not certain whether they were just bullshitting about having lived in the States, or what?<\/p>\n On to Eastern Mebon, which has the Park\u2019s finest elephant statues (at least that I\u2019ve seen to-date). There\u2019re eight<\/em> of them guarding the corners of the first and second levels.<\/p>\n Mebon, like Pre Rup, is spectacularly and fascinatingly crumbling to ground.<\/p>\n There are renovations underway at this site, however.<\/p>\n I lingered a while to watch the workmen. Looked to be a maddeningly painstaking way to fill up eight hours of one\u2019s day \u2013 especially given in a few short years\u2019 time it\u2019ll have proven to all\u2019ve been for naught. Nature always wins, but humans never learn. (Or will we?)<\/p>\n A tip: if one would care to get hold of William Catton\u2019s remarkable Overshoot: The Ecological Basis Of Revolutionary Change<\/em>; Chapter 7, \u201cSuccession And Restoration\u201d,\u00a0 will be particularly apropos to this discussion (though, of course<\/em>, I recommend reading the book in its entirety).<\/p>\n Anyway, enough with the preachifyin\u2019, and back to the itinerary. I was working the \u201cBig Circuit\u201d, but decided to veer off-course to take in Banteay Samre. About five kilometres, each way, out of the way; but it proved a treat.<\/p>\n The temple is actually in amongst a fairly bustling village, which\u2019s even got its own school, and whatnot. So the locals were out in force; catering, owing to the temple\u2019s off-the-beaten-path destiny, to a smaller crowd of tourists than do the sellers in the centralised sites.<\/p>\n I\u2019d purchased some bananas from one of the villagers (much<\/em> more reasonably priced than at the mega-temples\u2019 shops), and sat down near the entranceway to have some lunch. A gaggle of schoolgirls (and one schoolboy), were kind enough to only ask me once each to buy some crap from them.<\/p>\n When I\u2019d refused them all in turn, they sat down to shoot the shit. Astonishingly<\/em> competent English spoken by these kids. I asked whether they\u2019d learned their skillz in school, or in pestering tourists. It\u2019s both, they insisted.<\/p>\n When some tourists did walk by, they were quick to abandon me and go try to rope in some cash money; but then returned to entertain me some more.<\/p>\n The temple itself isn\u2019t terribly large, but it\u2019s a beautiful little jewel of a place.<\/p>\n The carving work here is to die for.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the bricks\u2019 marvelous red hue ensures a most pleasant viewing experience all the way \u2018round.<\/p>\n On the way out, I said goodbye to the kids, and re-joined the Big Circuit.<\/p>\n At Ta Som, one is greeted by an appropriate (for the day\u2019s theme) scene.<\/p>\n And not to worry: there\u2019s plenty o\u2019 rubble throughout.<\/p>\n Also,\u00a0 the most R-rated carvings I\u2019ve yet seen.<\/p>\n Krol Ko is just a little hole-in-the-wall not even really part of the circuit \u2013 though it\u2019s along the route. Not without its charms, however.<\/p>\n Moving right along, I gather that Neak Pean is considered one of the Park\u2019s can\u2019t-miss attractions. Certainly, its informational sign is not only the Park\u2019s most evocative; but also treats us to maybe the loveliest English prose in all of Asia:<\/p>\n The ponds in question number four. They were fed by a complex system of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic fountains.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gotta love it! Alas, when one arrives, after a long stroll atop a boardwalk to the island, one finds that it\u2019s closed off to the public. Renovations, dammit all. Didn\u2019t they know that to-day\u2019s the day for letting nature have its way?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s as close as can be seen.<\/p>\n Drat.<\/p>\n Now, with only one temple yet to explore, and its being still pretty early in the afternoon, I got to wondering what I should do after visiting Preah Khan? Come to find out, Preah Khan is a fucking wonderland <\/em>which will fill up with incredulity so many hours of one’s day!<\/p>\n A monument to impermanence, and a testament to the folly of civilisations\u2019 endless putting up of massive architectural structures which will only, in the end, be laid low by Mother Nature\u2019s never-ceasing criterion of change and adaptation.<\/p>\n It was<\/em> huge, too: once held 100,000 people within its sway. Approaching from the east, one passes through the outermost wall, after which it\u2019s a fine ten-minute nature walk before one even comes to the moat. A wonderful sight it is, know ye this.<\/p>\n After another fine woodland walk of some minutes\u2019 duration, the next wall is reached. Here, the war between the trees and the pavements explodes onto Centre Stage, neatly cleaving the tourist’s unsuspecting gourd into shocked and awed halves.<\/p>\n Oh my!<\/p>\n A walk around the entire perimeter of this wall takes forty-five minutes or so. Every second of which is to thrill in the sights and the colours, while the birds and cicadas make sure your ears may be entertained as well.<\/p>\n Whoever got the idea that god made man \u201cin his own image\u201d was just an utter dipshit. What \u2013 I ask you \u2013 what could be more obvious than that if there is<\/em> an all-knowing creator taking a recognisably terrestrial form, this all-knowing creator exists in the form of a tree? Nothing<\/em> could be more obvious, that\u2019s what!<\/p>\n Once inside the temple complex, one is treated to a labyrinthine zig-zag amongst the strewn rubbles altering one\u2019s path at many a turn. But also, the place was<\/em> once an impressive structure.<\/p>\n Finally, though, one\u2019s attention is drawn over and yet over again to the central storyline of the trees\u2019 staging of their Sherman\u2019s March over and through the temple’s grounds. (Lest one may\u2019ve thought they\u2019d been satisfied with the mere ravaging of the outer walls\u2026)<\/p>\n The glory of Preah Khan lies not only in the fact of its state of decay; but also in the rainbow of colours marking the event. The greens, reds, browns, and grays leave the visitor wanting more, and then still more again.<\/p>\n The oddest sight, though, is that, for all its long-lost splendour, the complex appears to have been designed for use by little kids. See how low the ceiling! The doorways are the same, as well.<\/p>\n If all the spectacular sights and sounds weren\u2019t enough for one\u2019s soul; it may be noted that the temple is somehow strangely devoid of tourists. The guidebooks mark it off as one of the Park\u2019s highlights, and it\u2019s right there on the Big Circuit, but\u2026where are all the people? Okay, it was getting on in the afternoon; and the place is so cavernous as to make it perhaps easy to not notice others in your midst. Whatever the case, it certainly contributes to the incredible ambience.<\/p>\n At one point, having long since lost track of the time in the infinite joy of aimlessly wandering the halls and courtyards, I slipped under this balustrade to see if I could get a better gander at another hotspot in the trees\u2019\/stones\u2019 epic battle for these acres of real estate.<\/p>\n Before I even knowed what was going on, I\u2019d clambered up this pile of rubble here\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026and crowned myself \u201cKing Of The Ruins!\u201d.<\/p>\n The view from up here; nay, the aura<\/em> from up here was indescribably electrifying. And, yes, a viable photographic angle was obtained. (Perhaps a little too<\/em> viable: I suppose I snapped a good forty thousand million shots of this place. I’m pretty terrifically happy with ’em, though. I guess you know where to find<\/a> them.)<\/p>\n![\"prerup\"](\"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/prerup.jpg\" "\\"prerup\\"")
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