2 posts tagged “cambodia”
All-in-all I only spent 4.5 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia. But I loved it. I loved the compressed little city, the marketplace with rows and rows of stalls selling the same great t-shirts, silk scarves and brass or silver statues. The intense motorbike, car, bus and bicycle traffic. The masked women who swept dust from the streets.
There is extreme poverty. I am far from insensitive to this. But while a fact and heart-wrenchingly so, it doesn't come close to defining the coutry's experience.
TukTuks at rest which is like almost never. Attached to motorbikes, they are great way around town.
Internet cafes are everywhere. Homes are not wired to any great degree and bandwidth is expensive (I kept having to negotiate with my hotel for more access as I would suck up 100 Mbs in a session)
Typography and signage to die for!
Our final Ogilvy dinner was far outside of town at temple ruins. A full moon, dramatic lighting, and four elephants in complete elephant outfits (you know - noble, gold, tassley stuff, made it a pretty special event.
I attended some of the Ogilvy team's regional meeting today in Siem Reap. They have a theme of flying pigs called the Festival of Ideas borne on banners throughout the city. Clearly a nod to the Year of the Pig and the "until pigs fly" adage. Since I am only here till Sunday morning and am jammed into sessions for the next two days, dawn till dusk, I ducked out to visit Angkor Wat and the surrounding ruins.
Meet Say. He was my guide. Mr. T was our driver. Thank God (or more appropriately, thank Buddha or Vishnu), for these two guys. They shuttled me around and were ever so helpful. A series of kings from about 800-1400 built the various temples and cities around Angkor Wat. There are three kings in particular that stand out from the crowd. One of them - Jayavarman II - is responsible for building the best preserved ruin - Angkor Wat in just 37 years. I also visited Angkor Thom and The Bayon. These last two are the handiwork of #VII. At some point the kings moved from Hinduism to Buddhism which is evident in symbols through the ruins.
Anyhow, I always picture the ruins deep in the jungle. They are of course right beside the main roads here. Still, for me, they are a tremendous sight to behold. Say tricked me into walking up to the third level of AW. He didn't come. Let me tell you - it is steep and high and I am afraid of heights. I was like a granny clutching the flimsy handrail on the way down.
The precision of the engineering, the relentless bas-reliefs, and the scale are tremendous. So much to see in this world. Makes me feel like a part of the human race again.
Big heads.
