We had arranged an 8 am Tuk Tuk ride for our last full day in Siem Reap…to travel street level, open air to our favourite temple, Angkor Thomb. It is not as grand as Angkor Wat, but it has all those wonderful faces beaming down on you, and the carvings and storytelling on the walls is beyond amazing.
Our driver, Paul, ( at least that’s what we heard…sorry Paul)….picked us up a couple minutes to….and off we went. Down the Main Street, divided into 3….two outsides lanes for Tuk Tuks and scooters, and two centre lanes for cars and trucks… but it’s kind of like the Pirates code….those are just guidelines, as pretty much anything goes.
We turn off the main drag and onto narrow local roads, dug up, or maybe never paved….with bare bum little kids playing street side as their siblings head off on bikes to school.
After 20 minutes or so, we arrive…
And who says those artisans of a thousand years ago didn’t have a sense of humour…( don’t think anyone did….but trying to make a point)…check out this carving of a guy getting bit in the ass by a turtle…and he’s mad….
This last image also contains a sense of humour….perhaps as much our guide (Lin), as the original carvers. Lin said, “ there are 69 monkeys in this image….start counting from the top right, and move left….”
He started to count….”1, 2, 3…
…4, 5…69…”
We have found nothing but smiling, friendly people on this trip….so not surprising that since this was built, and through a thousand years of incredible, unimaginable ups and downs…Cambodians maintain that sense of wonder and humour…
I mean really, a turtle biting a guys ass…bringing smiles to monks and kings alike for over a millennium…it says it all.
…and don’t even get me started on the monkeys….
FROM FIVE WILLOWS TO FOUR CORNERS 