APAD 208: The Western Baray
A beautiful sunny weather. Skies covered with thin clouds. Plus the boy who tagged along on a short cruise of the Western Baray.
The Western Baray, or West Baray, is an old, old, old water reservoir and the largest found inside the Angkor Wat complex. Its waters are contained by tall earthen dikes. In the center of the baray is the West Mebon, a Hindu temple built on an artificial island.
Early French experts believed the West Baray to have functioned as a vast holding tank for water that fed irrigation canals in dry times, allowing multiple crops of rice each year. Many later studies, however, theorize that the baray had mainly symbolic functions, serving as a vast earthly depiction of the Hindu Sea of Creation, with the West Mebon temple at its center. (Source)
Up to now, the reservoir is still full of water and has become an attraction drawing mostly local crowd (and sometimes, foreign tourists, too) for swimming and boat rides.
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APAD 205: The War Museum in Siem Reap
My younger brother, who just came back from Siem Reap, gave me permission to use the photos he took there and have edited for my use (thank you, you’re an angel!). I am telling you this because I do not have time these days o take pictures myself as I’m quite occupied with a small consultancy gig.
This one’s taken at the War Museum in Siem Reap:
The place doesn’t really look much as a museum; it is basically a run-down field with overgrown shrubs and trees* that serve as graveyard of old tanks, guns, all sorts of heavy and light weapons. I was told that the place had been spruced up so it’s not as run-down as before. I’ve been there once, years ago, and I didn’t like it. It was crushing to see landmine victims greet you and take you around the place. The stories were horrific and to see with your own eyes the ugly reminders of war and atrocities that happened in this country was depressing, the same kind of feeling I had after visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.
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APAD 204: Send in the clown!
For some reason, I don’t like clowns. I am afraid of them, I kid you not, especially in the “OMG, this crazy clown is going to kill me” kind of sense.I don’t even know how or when this started. Maybe this is due to the many popular horror movies I watched when I was younger – much more these days – where clowns are portrayed as scary, evil characters.
However, this one looked friendly enough and least scary, unlike those clowns I see in movies with ghastly make ups and exaggerated features that usually terrify me:
I met him during one of the Fun Fairs organised by a non-government NGO based in Phnom Penh. I don’t know his name but he was on stilts. Although he was smiling and trying to be pleasant, small kids were terrified of him…
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APAD 196: Island-people
These are just some of the sights I saw while on a boat that went around the Chroy Changva Peninsula in Phnom Penh. Chroy Changva is the small island across the Royal Palace (riverside). I pray that the floodwaters didn’t do much damage to these people and their properties.
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APAD 193: This I want to witness again
An absolutely stunning sunset!
Missing the beautiful sunset of Kep.
Will see you soon. Promise.
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APAD 189: Cambodian silk bags
Aren’t they pretty? They’re made from 100% Cambodian silk. These bags are priced based on how much silk was used.
Here, haggling is an art. One of these bags here can be had for less than $5, if you only know how to deal with the sellers.
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