Disappointment at Ta Prohm – Cambodia blog entry #18

 

After wandering around the magnificent Angkor Wat temple and grounds for over three and a half hours, we hopped into our tuk tuk for the short drive to Ta Prohm temple. 

Also called the Jungle Temple, it is a sprawling monastic-like complex where much of the jungle overgrowth has been left in place. 

It was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries without mortar, by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and center of learning dedicated to his mother. After it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. 

The trees eerily growing out of the ruins and the jungle have made it a popular temple with visitors to the area. Unfortunately, I feel, it is also popular for being the site of scenes from the Angeline Jolie movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. 

You can have your picture taken at the classic giant tree where Angeline Jolie stood in the movie. And I found the commercialization disappointing.   

How can a film made in 2001 compare to at temple built over eight hundred years ago? And then call it the Tomb Raider Temple? 

Ok, it was still ridicously cool. And I can only imagine how beautiful it had been in its day.  

The Words God Has Given Me – Cambodia blog entry #17

         See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1, English Standard Version)

As you do know, if you have been following this blog, I finally got to visit Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, back in September. I wondered if it had taken me so long to get there because God really didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be obsessed with this Buddhist temple. I spent a lot of time talking to Him about it and said that if there was a chance to witness for my almighty Triune God, that I would try my best if He would help me out.

It was a Sunday morning when I crossed the moat and the Angor temple materialized out of the cloudy sunrise. 

A guide led us throughout the grounds and the buildings, telling us more than we could ever remember about the place and its history. 

At one point, we came to a long steep staircase. At the top of it, visitors had amazing views of the beautiful surrounding area. I studied those steps and decided that, nope, I wasn’t going to chance it. My back and hip pain was under control, so I did not need to push myself. 

My friend and the two others in our little group plunged up the flight of stairs, while I stayed behind with our tour guide. 

I started talking to this guide, and somewhere in the conversation he told me what he believes – what Buddhists believe – about heaven and hell. That hell is more like jail, where if you haven’t been a horrible person in life, you only go to hell for a couple of years. If you are a mass murderer, you go there forever. If and when you go the other direction, there are seven levels of heaven and you have to be a good enough person and work towards enlightenment to progress to each higher level.

I was like, what? So, I told him something like, “That is too much to think about. I’m a Christian and it’s all pretty simple. I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As long as you believe that God the Son – Jesus – died for your sins and you ask for forgiveness, you will go to heaven forever. Otherwise, you go to hell. And that’s all there is to it.”

He looked lost in thought for a minute and then went, “hmm.”

It was a while before either of us spoke and then I think it was about these women working so hard to sweep the water into the drain. 

In my head, though, I was apologizing to God. “I’m so sorry I screwed this up. I should have said more or said it differently, sounded more committed to my faith. Please forgive me for letting You down.”

To which God answered me, “You did just fine, My precious child. You told him exactly what you were meant to.”

I blinked back the tears and turned my attention to the others from our group slowly descending the stairs.

         And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9, New Living Translation)

Welcome to Siem Reap - Cambodia blog entry #16

I’m going to back up today and tell you about the city of Siem Reap before I get back to writing about all the other temples we saw. 

The population of Siem Reap is 175,000 (or 139,000 or 245,000 depending on which website I checked); regardless, it doesn’t feel like a big city. It is filled with French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter and around the Old Market.

Siem Reap was little more than a village when French explorers "re-discovered" Angkor in the 19th century. It soon became the gateway to the expansive area of temples. 

It’s situated about 200 miles north of Phnom Penh and a six-hour bus ride. When our bus dropped us off, an adorable tuk tuk and its sweet driver, Sam-uel, were waiting to whisk us off to our accommodation for the next four nights. 

We drove past gorgeous hotels, flowered parks filled with statues, and the festively decked out Siem Reap River.   

We went down Pub Street which I’m sure is rowdy at night. 

But at that time of day, the streets were all clean and well kept. Then we turned down a potholed road with rundown buildings. Great, I thought.

Then we stopped in front of the delightful Darling Pub Hostel. It had a clean welcoming lobby, where a woman gave us each a cup of warm ginger tea. There was a restaurant off to the right, with an outdoor pool just passed that. (How's it possible that I took over two thousand pictures and not a one of the lobby or pool at this hotel?) (It's also hard to get decent shots when you're tuking around in the tuk tuk.)

Our room was very nice, super clean and had a small balcony. Smaller than our other rooms, but comfortable enough for D and I. A home away from home away from home.

Will I Make It? – Cambodia blog entry #15

 After that miserable afternoon and evening on Friday, September 21, I woke up at two a.m. and stretched. The left hip that was causing me so much pain when I went to bed wasn’t too bad. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

A few hours later I woke up again and once again stretched. I slowly rolled my way over to sit up on the edge of the bed, then tentatively stood up. My hip was fine. All those tears of pain and frustration that I had been holding back the night before, thinking I would not make today’s six-hour bus ride and totally miss seeing the temples at Angkor Wat. Those tears almost spilled out again, but this time because of thanks and joy.

God is good, so, so good to me!

The long bus ride to Siem Reap went well; the coach bus we rode on was huge and modern. We got to pick our lunch from a menu of several entrees, then after a stop for a potty break and to buy snacks, they served us our meal as the bus continued rolling into Siem Reap.

It was easy to fall in love with the town as soon as we got there. But I’ll write more about that later. For today’s blog post, I need to write about the next day.

We got up at three a.m. and were picked up by our tuk tuk at 4:30, arriving at our destination well before sunrise. The sunrise we never saw because of the heavy cloud cover.

But as day broke over Angkor Wat, the huge and iconic temple complex rose out of the dim light.

I made it! Don’t ever, ever, EVER let anyone tell you to give up on your dreams. And don’t ever doubt that God listens to your prayers!

Angkor Wat was built by the Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. The temple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and original religious motifs were derived from Hinduism. The temple was dedicated to Buddhism by the wife of the next king, who encouraged him to convert. After the transformation from a Hindu place of worship to Buddhism towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat continues to be a Buddhist center to this day.

Angkor Wat is always packed with people when it first opens before dawn. But because it is so big, the crowds disperse enough after a while that it’s not so bad. The perimeter around its outer wall is over two miles, while the moat surrounding it is over three miles around. Basically, it is really huge.

But enough of my chatter – here are just a few more pictures, in no particular order.

I’m Going to be Okay - Cambodia blog entry #14

Give your worries to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will never let good people down. (Psalm 55:22, New Century Version)

  After we got off of Bokor Mountain, with its miserable weather, K took us to a mangrove forest. 

It was a totally unexpected side trip, so we didn’t know what to expect. But it was a fun boat ride out to the forest on the edge of the ocean and fascinating to walk among the mangroves. 

The next morning, Friday, September 20, we took the van back to Phnom Penh where we could relax for the afternoon and get ready for the long bus ride the next day to Seim Reap. From there, on Sunday, we were scheduled to see the temples of Angkor Wat.  

My left hip was starting to hurt and was really bad by the time we got back to the volunteer house. The pain was bad enough that I was limping and wished I had a cane. I wondered if I'd make it to the bus the next day or if my dream of Angkor Wat was over and I would be stuck at the volunteer house all week, while the others had adventures in Siem Reap.

For the past year, when one of my hips gets all bound up and achy, the pain usually lasts two days. Then I wake up the third day and pain is in the other hip for two more days. I tried not to panic, but I knew how these things went.

D and I walked the two blocks to 7-11 for a snack. Walking usually helps. Sure, it loosened up while walking but tightened right back up when I stopped. And we had a six-hour bus ride scheduled for the next day.

I popped a Vicodin, hooked up my TENS unit, and then laid down while D packed for the trip. When she was done and turned her half-filled suitcase over to me, I slowly started setting my clothes and other necessities in it, feeling this was a waste of my already limited energy.

I gimped downstairs for supper and then back up. Brushed my teeth and crawled in bed with a pain patch on, topping off my meal with a half of a pain pill, a muscle relaxant, and a prednisone. None of these efforts had ever cured the pain on other occasions, but I had to try it all.

I said my prayers, thanked God for letting me have the trip thus far. I wanted to beg and bargain, tell Him that as long as I was already in Cambodia, why can’t He let me be pain-free and make it to the temple I’d been dreaming about for fifty years.

Instead, I released a long sigh and turned my heart over to Jesus, shared my thoughts and feelings, not just about this trip, but about my life over the past eighteen months, all the pain I’d been living with and how just when I thought I was coming out on the other side and was going to live pain-free, some miserable ache would pop up. And I told Jesus that I just didn’t understand it and I really did not understand God’s will for my life. I apologized for having had this fascination with a Buddhist temple complex for so long. I told Him that I was willing to accept His will, would always be His child and would never have any hard feelings.

Even though I had finally made it to Cambodia, maybe my dream of seeing Angkor Wat really wasn’t meant to be. And I was going to be okay with that.

Not Quite the Weather I Had Expected – Cambodia blog entry #13

 That foggy, rainy, windy morning on Bokor Mountain in Cambodia, our next stop was the Le Bokor Palace. At one time, it had been an extravagant resort, a place for the wealthy French living in Cambodia to retreat from the heat.  

It looked totally abandoned that day, but reviews on line say it's been renovated and rooms are available for the night. K however said it is only available for outdoor events, and the back patios did look like they could accommodate a party. 

But not today!

Not sure I'd want to rent the grounds for a wedding and then have this kind of weather. Unless it was a themed wedding of “The Shining.” Yikes! 

And here’s the picture you may remember that I shared on Facebook back in September, so now you know the rest of the story. 

Well, you’ll know the entire rest of the story, if you click on this link for the history of this property. 

After we were turned into icicles from the rain, wind, and cold, we drove a short way to the abandoned catholic church. Soooo cool and eerie.

We were able to walk inside, wind blowing through the broken windows and rain dripping through the roof in places.

Just crazy and such a waste to be sitting decaying. The only furnishing was the altar, where people were still leaving flowers and such. 

Last miserable stop on the mountain was Wat Sampov Pram. 

The wind and rain and fog were now unrelenting. After climbing a flight of wet stairs, we checked out the two Buddhist temples. 

One thankfully had an overhang which gave Hippo a break. 

No break for my camera though. The moisture was starting to break its spirit just as the elements were doing to us. No matter how I tried to protect the lens and wipe it off when we sheltered in the car, the pictures it was taking started looking like nothing but the dense fog outside. Then the camera lens stopped closing altogether when I shut it off. I tried not to freak out. I had the camera on my phone and D was there taking all the same pictures anyway. 

I silently tucked the camera away, hoping for the best.

K offered to take us to Popokvil waterfall, but when he told us it was about a ten-minute walk from the car to the waterfall, it was immediately unanimous that we were happy just driving back to town. That is once we convinced our driver to turn off the AC.