It was not until 2000 when deminers and archaeologists started to clear the area and as the villagers were hired, they had first glimpse of what remained of the Temple. Largely covered by vegetation, Beng Mealea still has many hidden secrets. More of this temple will be revealed to us in the future but, in the meantime, let's revel in the mystery.
For more on Beng Mealea, click here. The Himalayas in the Springtime when the rhododendrons are in full bloom, Japan with its cherry blossoms, the crystal clear lakes of Muskoka, the waters and reefs of the Maldives teeming with multicoloured underwater species, the geysers of New Zealand, the tulip fields of Holland, the desserts in bloom in Oman, the wadis of Jordan, the water falls of Victoria and a thousand more places that not only engage the eyes but the soul as well. Indeed, there are still so many places in the world now where nature manifests itself as it has always done: Just Be. But as adventure travel keeps bringing multitudes closer to many of these places as they add more and more comforts and amenities, somehow, nature is obliterated in its own display. Yes, nature’s beauty now has to compete with the tallest hotels and luxury resorts, golf clubs and shopping malls, go-carts and balloons, and a proliferation of plastic bags and plastic everything all over the place, be it at the top of the mountains or the middle of the desert or the depth of the ocean. One can no longer enjoy nature’s pristine manifestation. Such escalation needs to be curtailed and puny though one man’s effort may be, this is still worth a try. Some things you might try:
Over and beyond these, sharing the beauty of your own spirit will forever mark not only the people you meet in your trip but also your own self. Often, the memories you treasure the most in many of your travels are the wonderful people you met along the way who made you feel special.
A short walk from the ferry that brings you to Areiksart from Phnom Penh, is the Queen of Peace Church. It may not be in the same league as the great Cathedrals of Europe but it has a constant flow of visitors. Why? In this Church resides the statue of Mary, Our Lady of the Mekong River. What makes this unusual in this largely Buddhist country is the story of how it was found. On the 16th of April, 2008, a Muslim Khmer found an iron object trapped in the river bed of the Mekong. As he could not carry what he'd found, he called other fishermen to help. With 8 Vietnamese companions, he used a cable to haul the object to the boat. They found it was a statue of a woman. One of the villagers reported to a Catholic woman named Chenda, who after checking it out, recommended they talk to the Queen of Peace Pastoral Council. The Council agreed to give the fishermen 2,000,000 Riel (abut US$500) in exchange for the statue. The story did not end there. That night, between 8 and 9 in the evening, as the Vietnamese fishermen were asleep in the boat, one of them had a vision of a Lady looking like the one in the Statue flying over them several times. He panicked and told the other fishermen who thought it might be an omen of something bad happening to them and their families. So, the next morning, they went back to the Church, knelt in front of the Statue and asked for peace and happiness in their lives. They met with the Pastoral Council and returned the money. The Council, however, knowing how poor they are, decided to use the money to supply them regularly with food. Below is a close up of the statue which since then has been known as Our Lady of the Mekong River. This is the grotto that houses Our Lady of the Mekong River. Located on the right side of the Queen of Peace Church, people come from all over the country to go up and see the statue as well as pray for peace. Once again, the story did not end there. A second statue was found in the Mekong river bed and once again, the story is worth telling. During the night of the 18th of November, 2012, Phang Vaing Hou, a Vietnamese fisherman in Areiksart, had a dream. In his dream, he saw a big figure of a man asking him, "Please lift me out of the water because I am very cold. I have been here in the Mekong for so long. I am not far from where Our Lady was found before. Please help me". The next day, he went to a coffee shop close by and told the owner, who was Catholic, "today, I am going to take Jesus from the water". So, he brought his two sons and instructed them where to search for the statue. At 12:38 p.m., of the 19th of November, 2012, the men hauled the statue of Mary carrying the child Jesus, to the river bed. About 50 young men helped carry the statue to the Church. As this is the second time the people here have this experience, everyone rejoiced and gave homage. That day happened to be the 21st ASEAN Summit so a holiday was declared for security reasons which made the search easy for Mr. Phang and the others. For them, this is a sure sign that Jesus wants to be in their midst.
Mention the words Phnom Penh and History in the same sentence and you've opened a Pandora's box. At one level, you can look back a millenium and catch glimpses of great kings and temples. At a level up, you get the French and Indochine and the remnant buildings of Empire. As early as 1858, Vietnamese Catholics fleeing persecution by the Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc settled in Cambodia. Above this, you have the war in Vietnam and the boat people, some of whom went to America but many came by boat up the river to Cambodia. Today, a quick ferry ride from the dock at the back of the Himawari Hotel takes you to a living remnant of these Vietnamese. Although the influence of Vietnam can be found everywhere along the Mekong into the heart of Phnom Penh, the most important ghetto is around Arei Ksart. Below is the boat that goes back and forth to the island. Another vignette of history found in Areiksart are the two statues of Mary and the Child Jesus found buried in the riverbed by Vietnamese fishermen. These statues must have come from some of the Churches in Phnom Penh when they were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge reign. There used to be a huge Cathedral in Phnom Penh built in 1951. A Phnom Penh Post article details the story of this Cathedral. Others said that they may have come from the boats of the fleeing Vietnamese Catholics. More interesting is how they found the statues. You can read this on the board in Our Queen of Peace Church in Areiksart.
Here is one of the statues in the Queen of Peace Church. If you've ever shopped in Central Market in Phnom Penh, you will totally agree that this is one of the most valued addition in the area. At the corner of St. 126 and St. 61, just outside the market, MkKafe Mondulkiri is there to offer you a much needed rest from the frenzy trying of shoes in the hundreds of tiny stalls. Tiny though these stalls are, they each have a surprising selection of items all stored in huge plastic bags. But the sellers seem to know what's in those and would happily oblige your requests. So, of course, you end up trying a mountain of them amking you sweaty and exhausted. So, this Cafe, just in front of the exit from the shoe stalls in th Central Market will relieve you of your exhaustion. There used to be other places around the Central Market but not as inviting as this new MkKafe Mondulkiri and once you've tried their coffee and assorted juices, you'll go shopping in Central Market often just to have another sip. For women, there is another advantage to this Cafe. Your husband will happily lounge here, have his favourite latte and read a few of their magazines while you ransack another store inside the market. The last time I was there, I ordered passion fruit juice and look at how it was presented...indeed, a joy to the weary shopper. Yes, there's a washroom, a much welcome addition in this area. Service is excellent and you can buy some of their coffee, locally produced. One coffeee you may not have heard of yet is the Weasel Coffee...figure this out for yourself. Hand woven silk or cotton? Takeo in Cambodia is the place to go and see for yourself the weavers behind the beautiful scarves and cloth you see all over Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Many of the Takeo weavers learned the skill from their parents. They continue to share this with their own children and other family members. These days, however, when ready to wear garments are cheap and easily available, weaving is no longer selling well driving the younger generation to go for other employment. Many young women who used to weave have now gone to work in the factories close by. They earn more and earnings are steady. They still can do weaving on the side if there are orders. The weavers have not much idea about new design and the application of new weaving techniques. They have not moved much from the traditional design learned from their parents. A few, with the help of some buyers, try to create new design which hopefully will attract new customers. With better design, weaving can really revive itself and find attractive markets.
The other problem is marketing. Many of the weavers do not have ideas about marketing. They often just wait for customers or sell to store owners who go out to their villages. Cambodia celebrates Pchum Ben, the culmination of a 15-day traditional festivities honouring the dead. During these 15 days, Khmer visit the temple to pray and make offering for dead relatives. The Khmer believe that their dead relatives come and visit within this 15-day period in the Buddhist Calendar and, lo and behold, if they don't offer food and prayers for them, these dead relatives will leave curses. If they do, these dead relatives will leave them blessing.
You can see in these pictures the offering of food, money and prayers at the Temple. Where do the super rich hide out in yachts the size of aircraft carriers and parked negligently among tuna boats and dhonis. A dhoni is not a dessert. In the Maldives, it is the main form of transportation as roads among a few hundred atolls are not practical. The atolls themselves are the homes of the resorts that dreams are made of. In many cases, one resort has leased the entire island and other than the staff and the other guests, you are in a tiny paradise that is almost ethereal. It’s not cheap. The ultimate luxuries of wealth, time and space, are never cheap. The paparazzi simply can’t get to you. There are no neighbourhoods dogs. The scungy kids from next door are 10,000 kilometres away and they have to swim. The resorts are serviced by a small airforce of 80 twin otters sitting on floats and flying close enough to the surface that if you turn the motors off, they just plop down in the lagoons. Every resort has its own dhoni to pick you up in the airport and whisk you in no time to the resort. But the true paradise is under the ocean. With just a snorkel, you can poke around reefs and tumbled stones where the fish have not seen humans trawling them and have no idea how deeply offensive we are. These maybe the last wild creatures that neither attack nor run away, they just poke about the rainbow reefs getting on with life The Maldives are quiet. They're not everyone’s choice for vacations. If you are a Yucatan, Barbados, Sharmel Sheikh kind of person, you will hate the Maldives. If the notion of a quiet paradise of brilliant and jewel like resorts isolated in time and space really makes sense, welcome home.
Most of us never experience the ultimate joy of ocean-to plate fresh sea food. Every time a crab is handled or thrown in a sack or frozen or dropped in a restaurant floor, some of the seafood flavour trickles away. In Kep, you can stand on the shore, whistle and crab and shrimp and prawns and squid leap from the water with big smiles and land on your plate. Okay...okay...okay...it's not quite that...but almost.
The beach restaurants have the charcoal bright red and you're moments away from an epiphany. Situated on a slightly uphill climb in the midst of a cork grove near Guadalupe, a tiny village west of Evora, the Cromlech was the surprise in our exploration of Evora and its environs. Built around 7000 years ago, this Cromlech was discovered only in 1964. Mystery envelops you when visiting this Hill of the Stone Amphorae as it has often been referred to. Even older than Stonehenge, this Cromlech in Almendres is one of the largest grouping of structured menhirs in Europe. It contains around 92 menhirs (elliptical stones), some of them engraved. What is a Menhir? Wikipedia gives us the best definition: A menhir (French, from Middle Breton: maen, "stone" and hir, "long"), standing stone, orthostat, lith or masseba/matseva is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. More about Menhir, here's the Wikipedia link. It is believed by some that the Cromlech served as an astronomical observatory in the ancient times. 92 points to the number of the days in a quarter year according to this post. Others believe it has religious purposes which invite some religious groups to hold rituals there. Still others believe that these menhirs represent tutelary entities or to others, ancient lineages of power. So, if you are planning a visit to Portugal, go to Evora and from here, you can visit the Cromlech. There certainly is more to these stones. Let it reveal its mystery to you.
This 2016, the Khmer New Year Angel, the fourth daughter of Kabil Moha Prum, Mondeay Tevi. She is riding the donkey and will be arriving on the 13th of April at 8 p.m. at night. Her favourite food is fresh milk. Add this to your offering of food, fruits and flowers. Each New Year Angel represents each day of the week. They are:
Khmer usually invite the monks to give their homes, families and businesses blessing for the New Year. For more information on Khmer New Year, here's a very comprehensive post.
What's better than a party? Getting ready for it. Preparation, getting all your staff out, checking what survived the last family fling, buying some replacement, thinking of a new theme and building the sense of anticipation. Now, imagine doing that for a whole country. Well, that's what's happening in Cambodia right now. Families in the cities are packing up ready to escape to their home provinces. In villages, all across the country, uncles and aunts and grandmas and grandpas are polishing the farm, washing down the livestock and telling chuckle tales of the last new year. In Phnom Penh, a few will stay to see the great display in front of the Royal Palace and the host of events that will unveil the birth of another year. Walking in the city, you see the lights being hanged in the parks, the Happy new Year signs getting new bulbs and a lick of paint. The atmosphere seems lighter and brighter because New Year is a great party and old lady Phnom Penh is putting on a new dress. This display is in the park in front of the Royal Palace. The temples are also out with the symbols of new year as Khmer troop there on 13-15 of April, 2016, the dates for the celebration of "Chaul Chnam Thmey" or literally, "Enter Khmer New Year". Khmer gather in the temples during this celebration. They sing songs, play games and, of course, make offering and pray for another prosperous year. This picture on the left is the newly decorated Wat Lanka, one of the oldest temples in Phnom Penh. Buddhist flags are flying all around the temple and Khmer New Year symbols are out, cleaned and ready to receive the 2016 New Year Angel. The Khmer are all waiting for the announcement of the exact time the Angel is coming so they can gather together as families to welcome and make their offering for a blessed year. For the name and arrival of the Khmer New year Angel, here's the link. To better understand Khmer New Year, open this. Soapstones, antlers, the backbones of whales, Narwhale tusks are the palette of so much art of the Northern first nations. We've long celebrated the art of the Haida and their Western cousins and from totem poles to paintings, it is stunning. But it's really only in the last 50 years that Canadians and their Southern brothers have been able to see and begin to understand the beauty of the art of the Innu in the Arctic. The first real exhibit that any of us saw was in the Toronto Dominion Tower, off Bay Street in Toronto, and the brilliance of that collection carefully assembled over the course of 1965-1967 opened a window on the wonderful variety of carvings and drawings that reflected the soul of our North. Today, pieces of Inuit art from Cape Dorset and other northern stations are featured not only in Museum Collections but especially in First Nations displays in southwestern United States. The Toronto collection remains the most comprehensive and is beautifully displayed in a mezzanine gallery in the TD Centre. This Gallery is a co-operative project of the owners of the Cadillac Fairview Ltd. and TD Bank Group. Open for all to admire, without any fee. It is truly a hidden gem in Toronto.
Location: Toronto-Dominion Centre
79 Wellington Street West Toronto Tel: 416 982 8473 Gallery Hours Monday to Friday: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm The Shrine 30 Yonge Street For Canadians, there is only one game that counts. When our national team wins, our country is in triumph. When it loses, they're bereaved. Phil Esposito who captained our team in 1972 and led the defeat of the ignominious Russians is a hero celebrated more than any prime minister or military leader. The great names of hockey in the corner of Yonge and Front in downtown Toronto. On any given day, streams of people all dressed in the hockey shirts of their favourite teams wait in awed silence in anticipation of the epiphany of entrance. Inside, the pictures of heroes adorn the walls, sticks, pucks and uniforms of the great are niched as in a cathedral. On occasion, the holy tabernacle, the Stanley Cup, is displayed adorned with the names of the winning teams over the decades and all the players. Hockey is not just our national sport. It is the definition of our country and with missionary zeal, we take pride in its spread to Europe and our southern neighbour. We don't dye our beards green after a visit to the Hall of Fame but the memento purchased in the store next door is a lifelong treasure to be handed down to future generations. Paul Henderson leaping in triumph after scoring the winning goal to beat Russia and reclaim hockey as the game of our nation. "The Next Shift is Ours." The faces of anticipation cast in bronze in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The story of Coronado Island focuses on the monster hotel, its history and the endless traffic of celebrities, wannabes, and honeybees that traffic its wooden decks. But there's more to Coronado than just a Pacific Scott Fitzgerald fantasy and a hot dog wafted Down ton Abbey. The community is the retirement colony for the admirals and officer corp of the American Pacific fleet. Streets memorialize great battles. Roadside portraits celebrate yesterday's heroes. Fleeced admirals strut in coveys like demobilized quails while those of lesser rank gaze on. It is mandated that every house must be different from its neighbours so the impression is left that there's an endless search for the ideal design. With each pink Tudor or bright yellow Adobe, evidence of the continued failure of design sand imagination. But then, who cares? It's really all about the hotel. The bridge to Coronado Island creates a spectacular entrance. Going back to San Diego via the southern beach route is equally interesting as you get a peek at how the american navy lives when it's out of the ship. You don't have to stay in the hotel to enjoy much of what it offers. You can come for the day, enjoy the beach and have a decent if not great lunch in the hotel's restaurant. There are beautifully curated stores to engage you for hours before lunch of you're not a beach person. As you pay your lunch bill, have your parking validated so it's free and you have a day to talk about with friends. How's that for value?
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