The Temple That I Will Never Forget...
When we were driving through the area of Seim Reap, we passed many temples, or Wats.
The driver was a younger kid, and we were amusing each other by trying to learn different words in both Cambodian and English. So we pass this one section of jungle,
and he points and says " You go back theh, you see something you nevah gonna foget."
Later, I kept trying unsuccessfully to get back there. Turned out S hadn't heard the driver say those words, missed the whole thing.When I mentioned it, he quickly got us there.
What we saw took my breath away. It was down a trail, deep into the jungle. The temperature suddenly dropped about 10, 20 degrees. It was glorious for that alone. And if Ley lines exist, surely this place is a magic place, along Ley lines. Everything glowed green. It was a temple, a huge temple complex, only older and ...untouched, undiscovered until very recently. It was all as it had been for hundreds, a thousand years. Only it was as if an earthquake had toppled everything. A head sat a few feet away from a statue body. There was moss growing over all of it. Oddly, it reminded me of a scene from Logan's run.
There were giant, ropy, entwined trees everywhere that were merging with the temples,
the ruins.
I honestly didn't cry as much as it sounds like I did. I cried a couple of times. The killing Fields, and this place. This place made me cry with happiness. A feeling of joy and an awareness that I was truly glad to be alive. And I feel so inadequate with my words when trying to describe all of this.
Other thing: The sweet faces and bodies of some of the Asparas,
the dancing girls that adorn so many of the temples. They were all so different,I believe they were real women at one time. They had to be. Surely the artists that carved them had to have loved them. The detail and ability to capture the personalities in the faces! An Aspara that looked like she must've loved to laugh, an Aspara that might have been beautiful but wicked. Maybe that was just my imagination.
But I don't think so. The art was that amazing.
We kept having camera problems. :( It was so odd, we would fix the problems, and then a new camera problem would arise. I didn't get many pics as I'd wanted.
One pic
The driver was a younger kid, and we were amusing each other by trying to learn different words in both Cambodian and English. So we pass this one section of jungle,
and he points and says " You go back theh, you see something you nevah gonna foget."
Later, I kept trying unsuccessfully to get back there. Turned out S hadn't heard the driver say those words, missed the whole thing.When I mentioned it, he quickly got us there.
What we saw took my breath away. It was down a trail, deep into the jungle. The temperature suddenly dropped about 10, 20 degrees. It was glorious for that alone. And if Ley lines exist, surely this place is a magic place, along Ley lines. Everything glowed green. It was a temple, a huge temple complex, only older and ...untouched, undiscovered until very recently. It was all as it had been for hundreds, a thousand years. Only it was as if an earthquake had toppled everything. A head sat a few feet away from a statue body. There was moss growing over all of it. Oddly, it reminded me of a scene from Logan's run.
There were giant, ropy, entwined trees everywhere that were merging with the temples,
the ruins.
I honestly didn't cry as much as it sounds like I did. I cried a couple of times. The killing Fields, and this place. This place made me cry with happiness. A feeling of joy and an awareness that I was truly glad to be alive. And I feel so inadequate with my words when trying to describe all of this.
Other thing: The sweet faces and bodies of some of the Asparas,
the dancing girls that adorn so many of the temples. They were all so different,I believe they were real women at one time. They had to be. Surely the artists that carved them had to have loved them. The detail and ability to capture the personalities in the faces! An Aspara that looked like she must've loved to laugh, an Aspara that might have been beautiful but wicked. Maybe that was just my imagination.
But I don't think so. The art was that amazing.
We kept having camera problems. :( It was so odd, we would fix the problems, and then a new camera problem would arise. I didn't get many pics as I'd wanted.
One pic
posted by Nabonidus at 3:24 PM
4 Comments:
Lisa,
It's wonderful to read such happiness from you. Despite the brutal things you witnessed on this trip, it's clear there was also such majestic beauty, and such joy. You seem to have gone through a wonderful transformation from being there, it just shines through the page (well, the screen.)
Welcome home. I'll bet you've already got the next trip floating in your head as a possibility.
What wonderful things to say! And you are so wise all the time, AM! Once again, you are right about everything.
You and Maria, I swear. U2 are sharper than tacks. :)
This must have been an amazing feeling, unreal even, suddenly finding yourself in a completely different world.
Maria
It really was amazing, unreal.
It was so funny you guys, I'd been wondering why S wasn't taking me to where this particular temple was. Half the day went by, saw many things, finally I said in frustration "So are we going to see that one temple or not?"
And he said something like "What are you talking about?"
And that was when I found out that he'd missed that whole conversation with the driver, or else just plain didn't understand the accented English. Like I said, we rushed there as soon as it became clear.
And I later thanked Tang the driver profusely, said "You were right! I will NEVER forget that place as long as I live!"
Because this was a Wat that not many people even seemed to know about! Hardly anyone was there! Some actual archeologists, workers, some kind of excavation was going on. So it felt like he'd given us a special gift or something, and we tipped him well at the end of the day. :)
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