I’ve been feeling slightly guilty about painting so many pictures from Google Maps even tho I use non copyrighted Google Maps Street views. Mr A keeps asking why don’t I paint our own pictures. So I went back to our 2015 trip to Cambodia and Angkor Wat. Mr A enabled me to browse the photos drive from my tablet so I downloaded a bunch of great pix (if I do say so myself) to my art folder.
But actually, these pictures are 90pct Mr A’s, because just after we got back, my SD card crapped out during the upload to desktop and I lost ALL of my pictures. Except the ones I’d posted to social media during the trip. I was so devastated. To this day I blame Microsoft (which doesn’t deal well with large directories of 1000s of photos and GB of data). I mean, our Cambodian tour guide said he’d never seen people take as many pictures as we did. I now usually replace the SD card in my phone before a major trip.
Oh boy are those 2015 digital camera pictures bad, especially in low light.
So anyways, I ran across Mr A’s photo of the “Stegosaurus of Ta Prohm”.
Which of course could not possibly be a real Steggie, and if you need to be convinced, it is thoroughly debunked here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_of_Ta_Prohm and I think the panel is located somewhere near here:
I’ve been working my way thru the online World Art History Certificate at the Smithsonian and today’s session was part 3 of The Art of India: From the Indus Valley to Independence, covering thru 1000 AD. At this very time India’s influence in coastal southeast Asia was dominant and the spread of Hinduism had resulted in the great Angkor Wat temples being built. Today I saw slide after slide of exquisite Indian Hindu temples, that the artisans in Cambodia were trying to emulate. Same walled courtyards enclosing water ponds, same huge edificed gates, same tall domed monuments, same extremely detailed carvings in the sandstone that I had just seen in our Cambodia photos.
But of course the Cambodian temples exhibit a gorgeous southeast Asian artistic sense.
My favorite Cambodian temple is Bayon, unique in all the world as it contains hundreds of huge faces on the towers, reputedly all the same face, that of the narcissistic King who ordered Bayon to be built. The entitlement!! I know of no other state or religious building with such bold self-worship. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
But Cambodia the country was and is in a terrible state. In all of our Asia travels I’ve only encountered two unpaved countries – Cambodia 2015, and Guangzhou 1999. It is so shocking to see the shops and restaurants and houses sitting on muddy dirt. The major 2 lane roads were paved but that’s it. The village shopping stalls sitting on dirt lots, can you imagine during the rainy season when deluges sweep thru the market.
Pavement, and the ability to install and maintain it, is a major step in modernization, so basic, yet we take for granted like indoor plumbing.
We were then taken to a mostly dried up stream where the local girls wash their hair with shampoo that is bought in individual packets about the size of a Sweet N Low. The stream was not continuously flowing at that time of year so nothing was being carried downstream…
We stayed at the Shinta Mani hotel which was a dream – breakfasted in huge hanging swings, swam in the pool where they handed out free dragonfruit ice creams. But the staff were so unbelievably caring and nice. One staff member even pedaled us himself in a pedicab to our restaurant after recommending it to us!
It puts your problems in real perspective to compare your life to that of those with extremely limited opportunities. Our guide had a lot to say about the governments motives and shortcomings.
If you have any interest at all in Cambodia and Angkor Wat I encourage you to go. Experiencing the temples in person is so much more impactful than what you’ve seen in pictures. The people are just lovely. The food is fantastic too. And the country needs tourism. Recommend private guided touring, with your own minivan, in the shoulder season to avoid the heat. It was inexpensive.
Don’t miss: Angkor Wat at sunrise – Bayon & Southern gate (altho all 4 gates are superb) – Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider) – Banteay Srei – and Beng Melea.
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