Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 11

Cooking in Cambodia - Cambodia blog entry #20

Aftera full – and I mean FULL – day of touring three ancient temples, we rode ourtuk tuk back to Siem Reap. It blew my mind that there were still other templeruins just along the sides of the road. 

Orin the middle of the road. 

Wehad a quick rest at our hotel, and I took my second shower of the day. Then itwas off to Alley West, above the restaurant Crep’Italy, for our Khmer cuisinecooking class. 

Afterwe met with our chef for the evening, Narong, we picked out what we wanted tomake from the menu. While her assistant started putting together the food weneeded for our recipes, Narong took us to the local food market to educate uson Cambodian produce and seasonings.

Someof the vegetables looked very familiar and some not so much. I wish I couldremember it all.

Afterwe got back to the restaurant, I started to work on my appetizer of springrolls, main course of beef lok lak, and finally sticky rice for dessert. 

Denise had to make the bananas flambe, just to make this happen.  

Itwas a lot of fun but very hot and tiring. And after cooking it all for twohours, none of us were hungry. 

Weall tried a bite of each of our dishes, and it was all very good. But I was tooexhausted by then to think of eating more than that. We gave our leftovers toour tuk tuk driver, Sam, and he was very appreciative. Then we took a quicklook around the Night Market; I think I bought a coin purse and a skirt there.

Thenback to the hotel, where I took my third shower of the day!

Beautiful Bayon Temple - Cambodia blog entry #19

Afterlunch that Sunday of touring temples, we visited Bayon Temple. In my journal Inoted that it was my favorite so far, but after reviewing all the pictures fromthe three temples we saw that day, it really is an impossible call. They wereeach beautiful in their own way.

Bayonwas huge! One massive building that went on and on and was in decent condition,for its age. 

It’sknown for its 54 towers and four faces on each one, totaling 216 serene andsmiling stone faces. Bayon is understandably known as the Temple of Faces. 

Builtduring the reign of King Jayavarman VII, it’s thought that the faces aredepictions of him.  

Theouter walls are covered in remarkable bas reliefs portraying the life of thelocal people from warfare to everyday life. 

Thedetail of these sculptures is extraordinary. 

Maybe I liked this temple the best because of these, each one telling a detailed story.  

Disappointment at Ta Prohm – Cambodia blog entry #18

 

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

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

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

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

Youcan have your picture taken at the classic giant tree where Angeline Jolie stood in the movie. And Ifound the commercialization disappointing.   

Howcan 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 givento us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason whythe world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1, EnglishStandard Version)

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

Itwas a Sunday morning when I crossed the moat and the Angor temple materializedout of the cloudy sunrise. 

Aguide led us throughout the grounds and the buildings, telling us more than wecould ever remember about the place and its history. 

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

Myfriend and the two others in our little group plunged up the flight of stairs, whileI stayed behind with our tour guide. 

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

Iwas like, what? So, I told him something like, “That is too much to thinkabout. 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 heavenforever. Otherwise, you go to hell. And that’s all there is to it.”

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

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

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

Towhich God answered me, “You did just fine, My precious child. You told himexactly what you were meant to.”

Iblinked back the tears and turned my attention to the others from our groupslowly descending the stairs.

         

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

Welcome to Siem Reap - Cambodia blog entry #16

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

Thepopulation of Siem Reap is 175,000 (or 139,000 or 245,000 depending on whichwebsite I checked); regardless, it doesn’t feel like a big city. It is filledwith French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarterand around the Old Market.

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

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

Wedrove past gorgeous hotels, flowered parks filled with statues, and the festivelydecked out Siem Reap River.   

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

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

Then we stopped in front of the delightful Darling Pub Hostel. It had a cleanwelcoming lobby, where a woman gave us each a cup of warm ginger tea. There wasa 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.)

Ourroom was very nice, super clean and had a small balcony. Smaller than our otherrooms, but comfortable enough for D and I. A home away from home away fromhome.

Will I Make It? – Cambodia blog entry #15

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

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

Godis good, so, so good to me!

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

Itwas easy to fall in love with the town as soon as we got there. But I’ll writemore about that later. For today’s blog post, I need to write about the nextday.

Wegot up at three a.m. and were picked up by our tuk tuk at 4:30, arriving at ourdestination well before sunrise. The sunrise we never saw because of the heavycloud cover.

Butas day broke over Angkor Wat, the huge and iconic temple complex rose out ofthe dim light.

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

AngkorWat was built by the Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. Thetemple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and original religious motifs werederived from Hinduism. The temple was dedicated to Buddhism by the wife of thenext king, who encouraged him to convert. After the transformation from a Hinduplace of worship to Buddhism towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Watcontinues to be a Buddhist center to this day.

AngkorWat is always packed with people when it first opens before dawn. But because it isso 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 moatsurrounding it is over three miles around. Basically,it is really huge.

Butenough 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 willtake care of you. He will never let good people down. (Psalm 55:22, New CenturyVersion)

  Afterwe got off of Bokor Mountain, with its miserable weather, K took us to amangrove forest. 

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

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

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

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

Dand 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 wehad a six-hour bus ride scheduled for the next day.

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

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

Isaid my prayers, thanked God for letting me have the trip thus far. I wanted tobeg and bargain, tell Him that as long as I was already in Cambodia, why can’tHe let me be pain-free and make it to the temple I’d been dreaming about forfifty years.

Instead,I released a long sigh and turned my heart over to Jesus, shared my thoughtsand feelings, not just about this trip, but about my life over the pasteighteen months, all the pain I’d been living with and how just when I thoughtI was coming out on the other side and was going to live pain-free, somemiserable ache would pop up. And I told Jesus that I just didn’t understand itand I really did not understand God’s will for my life. I apologized for havinghad this fascination with a Buddhist temple complex for so long. I told Himthat I was willing to accept His will, would always be His child and wouldnever have any hard feelings.

Eventhough I had finally made it to Cambodia, maybe my dream of seeing Angkor Watreally 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

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

Itlooked totally abandoned that day, but reviews on line say it's been renovatedand rooms are available for the night. K however said it is only available foroutdoor events, and the back patios did look like they could accommodate aparty. 

Butnot today!

Notsure I'd want to rent the grounds for a wedding and then have this kind ofweather. Unless it was a themed wedding of “The Shining.” Yikes! 

Andhere’s the picture you may remember that I shared on Facebook back inSeptember, 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 thehistory of this property. 

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

Wewere able to walk inside, wind blowing through the broken windows and rain drippingthrough 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 andsuch. 

Lastmiserable stop on the mountain was Wat Sampov Pram. 

Thewind and rain and fog were now unrelenting. After climbing a flight of wetstairs, we checked out the two Buddhist temples. 

Onethankfully had an overhang which gave Hippo a break. 

No break for my camerathough. The moisture was starting to break its spirit just as the elements weredoing to us. No matter how I tried to protect the lens and wipe it off when wesheltered in the car, the pictures it was taking started looking like nothingbut the dense fog outside. Then the camera lens stopped closing altogether whenI shut it off. I tried not to freak out. I had the camera on my phone and D wasthere taking all the same pictures anyway. 

Isilently tucked the camera away, hoping for the best.

Koffered to take us to Popokvil waterfall, but when he told us it was about aten-minute walk from the car to the waterfall, it was immediately unanimousthat we were happy just driving back to town. That is once we convinced ourdriver to turn off the AC.

Into the Fog – Cambodia blog entry #12

Aswe neared the top of Bokor Mountain, a large sculpture pierced the fog. Ourdriver pulled the car over and we disembarked. My inclination was to climb thestairs in front of me and see what that statue was, but K motioned us to go theother way and cross the road. 

Herewe found the ruin of the Old Royal Residence, also called Damnak Sla Khmao orBlack Palace. It was built of brick and black wood in 1936 as King Sihanouk’ssummer residence, where he and other royals could escape from the summer heat. 

Walkingaround it and inside of it, I thought it was mighty small for a “palace” – onelarge sitting or gathering room with a bedroom off to each side. 

Atiled bathroom was attached to each bedroom.   

Outside,I could imagine the views on a sunny day, but all I got that day was a wetface.

It looked like there was a kitchen of sorts just on the outside as well.In its day, there may have been more to the building, but time and the elementswere not its friend. Also, from research on the internet, I’m sure there weremore buildings nearby, creating a true king’s compound. 

Aswe walked back up the path, a serious rain shower pelted us and the windattacked our umbrellas. Hippo remained strong and faithful. Best six bucks everspent and no one would ever mistake me for someone else. 

Weshuffled across the road and up the steps to the stature. Yeay Mao or Lok YeayMao is an ancient mythical heroine and a divinity in the local popular form ofBuddhism in Cambodia. She is recognized mainly as the guardian of coastalprovinces of the country. 

Theconstruction of the Lok Yeay Mao statue started in February 2010 and wascompleted in May 2012. The statue was built of cement, 95 feet tall and 26 feetwide, and sits on the high ground near a cliff on Bokor Mountain. Because ofthe seasonal rains and winds, she needs to be repaired every two to three yearsto maintain her shape and color. 

Thewind was really picking up by then and the temperature was dropping. Wecouldn’t wait to get back into our waiting car and continue driving further upthe road as the fog enveloped everything. Thicker than pea soup, thicker thanmy lumpy Thanksgiving gravy.

Wecame up to a fork in the road, and K announced that there was a fancy resort onthat corner. We saw nothing but clouds and gave him a hard time, accusing himof making stuff up.

So,he responded by telling us there was an elephant! And we countered with, nothere was a dinosaur. It looked like a scene from Jurassic Park, the continuingrolling fog – anything could be lurking out there. All we needed was dramaticmusic in the background.

Mypictures just didn’t capture the mood. At our next stop, however, I think my camera caught the ambience admirably. 

So Much for an Inspirational Sunday Post - Cambodia blog post #11

 

Ihate doing this; I always try to post an inspirational blog on Sundays. But Ijust counted, and I possibly have another 24 stories to tell you about our tripto Cambodia. Posting on just Wednesdays and Fridays, that would take me intothe new year, and none of us wants that!

Sohere I am, Sunday morning, inspiring you with the beautiful riverfront walk inKampot.  

Theriver’s name is Preaek Tuek Chhu. Further downstream, according to Google Maps,its name is Prek Kampong Kandal. I thought maybe Kandal translated to river,but it really means Central in English. Tonle is river, and we’ll get to thatanother time (around post #23!). 

Alongthe riverwalk, a seahorse sculpture stands tall, spraying water from its mouth.It’s said to be a symbol of Kampot’s spirit – its relaxed atmosphere,fascinating history, and beautiful natural surroundings. 

Lessthan 2,000 feet away, where the Praek Tuek Chhu River meets up with anotherone, a large modern clock tower is located on Traeuy Kaoh Island. It was onlyjust unveiled on August 22nd of this year and is Cambodia’s tallest and largestclock tower, standing at 115 feet high, with a clock face nearly 33 feet indiameter. 

Thesun was out and the reflection on the river was beautiful. 

Acrossthe river, we could see our elevated destination for the morning. Bokor Mountainrose majestically into the clear blue sky. It would be a great day andunusually sunny up there, even though K said it was always foggy and rainy thistime of year. But we assured him that, because we were making the drive up themountain with him, the weather would be stellar.   

AToyota highlander with a driver arrived. We piled in and started our trek upBokor Mountain. As we slowly climbed, navigating one switchback after another,clouds started moving in. Followed by the fog, followed by an oppressive fogand drizzle.

Westopped at a waterfall alongside the road.

Anda few times for monkey photo ops. Little beggars just like – I almost wrote 'home' – but I mean Kenya.

Aswe continued to ascend the mountain, the fog and rain worsened and the windpicked up. Oh, we prayed, “it’s going to be clear on top of the mountain”.

Somuch for this being an inspirational post . . . Check back on Wednesday to see how this turned out for us.