by Nick | Feb 15, 2017 | Blog
A BeTreed Adventure
Waived away by the staff, who’ve sort of got used to my bizarre behavior. Legs aside my trusted steed. In this case a new 125cc Honda Dream. Gloves, scarf, helmet, a hat in the front basket and most importantly an incredibly complicated set of directions to get there, I set off for ……. Yes you’ve guessed it, Little Red Fox.
On my way to – Little Red Fox
‘Head North’, said Buntha. I did and avoided the ever-increasing traffic around Siem Reap and the death defying kamikaze pilots on NR6 to Phnom Penh. I bypassed the ticket checks around Angkor Park, passed by Phnom Bok heading North through the cassava fields towards the Phnom Kulen hills that run for 40km West to East. Turned right and came to Svay Leu 10km early.
The slightly absurd Tela petrol court in the middle of a logged landscape that featured as a milestone in my weighty tomb of directions, couldn’t be missed. I passed the rubber plantation with the fence to the right as instructed and drove on until the fork to the left.
A red earth road through the DDF
Stretches of enchanting open dry deciduous forest (DDF) interspersed with green jungle lifted my spirits, which fell with a clang when they gave way to felled clearings.
I had the local village to thank. They burnt the rubber company HQ and filled its wells then overturned the earth moving equipment. ‘They could have waited until the company had finished the road,’ commented Ben.
My trusty little Dream made light work of the red earth roads but didn’t like the sand on the last 10km of oxcart trail. Ben had been laying gravel, which relieved much of the sandy slip sliding.
A river crossing where the floods rise 3m above the bridge and the open forest merges into green jungle. Ahead a hill could be seen rising proud of the trees. Monkeys shrieked, peacocks honked, a ferret badger ran across the path and I was there.
Ben and Sharyn’s house
Ben welcomed me to his family’s home. A 3 legged soppy dog to see off the monkeys. A love-sick gibbon who periodically eloped with her boyfriend. The previously mentioned ferret badger and Sharyn, Ben’s wife, their 2 daughters and visiting Burmese Australian family.
We said grace and tucked into a delicious vegetarian dinner. ‘It’s so good, especially the homemade chutney,’ I beamed. ‘We bought it in Siem Reap,’ said Sharyn.
I’m writing this perched on a platform 10m up in the fork in a tree.
My bedroom
Precarious you might think except my platform has a double bed that lets me gaze at the shining sickle of a moon and the stars casting a spotlight on my tree house. I looked for a chair but its not needed as I can lean back against a tree trunk.
GQT on Radio 4 as the moon disappeared into the forest.
Trees are alive. Trees bring life. Trees are ……. God? I thought.
Streaks of orange in the East. A golden glow bathed the vally as the sun rose. Too much beauty to be clocked. Quickly masked by a cloud that turned the gold to gray or so it seemed at the time.
Breakfast was a jolly affair as different members of the family appeared and Koy, who was greeted by the Long-tailed Macaque who’d fallen in love with him after he rescued her from the village.
….. 10m up a tree
Koy was our guide for the hike up Phnom Tnout. Tall trees, no chain saws. A canopy too thick for the light to penetrate so the way was clear while we stayed under the evergreen forest. Thick bamboo grass hid our path when we emerged into the DDF. Deliberately lit fires have started to sweep across the landscape now the rainy season has finished but there have been no fires here for 4 years thanks to Ben.
Climbing up the side of Phnom Tnaut we heard the whooping calls of 3 gibbons or so said Koy who saw them.
In between the buttresses of a Silk Cotton tree with Koy
Tall trees with buttressed roots towered above us. Strangler figs that having strangled their host continued to grow finding strength in their self gratifying entwinement.
Our first stop a dried out pool deep in the forest but still soft enough to catch the prints of Banteng and wild boar that routed there. We ate Sharyn’s carrot and chilly muffins (an acquired taste) beside a trapaeng and a flurry of butterflies attracted by it’s remaining muddy water.
At the next pool we spied 3 Wooly-necked Storks but they took off out of range of my little lense.
Phum Barang was a pile of rocks on a ridge amidst the open forest (lit. French Village). It was where a French flag had flown, Ben told me.
More important were the views across a plain of trees to a blue hill in the distance that not even the evil plume of a forest fire beyond Ben’s boundaries could spoil
The forested Kingdom of Betreed
I spied blue irrigation pipes beside a stream. ‘Its where we get our water from,’ said Sven my hiking buddy.
Prasat Tnout
A fantastic walk but after 4 hours lunch and the lodge was becoming a more compelling prospect. Instead of following the pipes, counter-intuitively we went back up the hill to find another pile of stones. This time put together as Prasat Tnout (lit Tnout temple) in front of a reeking bat cave.
The family were home. Badger the ferret badger. Mikey the three legged dog and Little Mut (not his real name) his sad sidekick. The Green pea-Fowl honked, while the little punk macaques sporting their mohecan hair cuts chased each other after Ben’s bananas.
Molly the love sick Pileated Gibbon
Lunch over we were graced with a visit from Molly who swung arm by arm from the trees onto the balcony. She peeled the 12 bananas offered then inspected worktops and shelves for anything edible. We’d finished lunch but left the plates and glasses on the table, which got the once over as Molly inserted her long prehensile fingers into the containers, letting her fur soak up the liquid before sucking it. A close contest between the jug of milk and a glass of fruit juice, the fruit juice won. She let Ben scratch her feet then languidly swung off into the jungle teasing the macaques as she went.
Ben and I set off on the motorbikes looking for Banteng, He on a rusty collection of red pipes and mine my trusty Dream. Guests would pay for the ride, twisting and turning on a bumpy path through the tall grass, shaded by magical trees glowing as the late afternoon sun sank between their branches.
In search of Banteng
We didn’t see any of the 60 or so Banteng that roam round the mountain but Ben told me about his anti poaching patrols and how he came to be here. ‘Set up a community forest,’ the Forestry Administration told him so he did together with the local village.
A dappled sunlight lit the leaves around my tree house this morning as I lay for a while enjoying the cool and effervescence of green bursting with life around my platform.
Breakfast is a nice meal at BeTreed (they’re all pretty good), coffee, fruit, yoghurt and more coffee. An Oriental Hornbill flew across our view, while a Crested-serpent Eagle hungrily watched the peafowl.
Ben as in BeTreed (as opposed to Hur, he bares a striking resemblance to Charlton Heston) was waiting expectantly. ‘Zipline?’ ‘Ok lets go,’ I resigned. We retraced our steps of yesterday up the side of the valley to a wooden platform with a wire stretching to infinity. ‘Hmmm,’ I thought to myself as I stepped into what seemed like an insubstantial harness and hooked a worryingly small set of wheels over the wire. A piece of tire was supposed to be the break. I hurtled off into oblivion before I could think (as it turns out this is standard high spec equipment).
After a few seconds of abject terror and a tree that threatened to bring me to an abrupt halt, I started to enjoy the experience despite a vague concern about the ground, which was no where to be seen. Apparently my momentum wasn’t sufficient so I had to haul myself for the last few meters to the receiving platform then it was back again. Apart from my legs heading in a different direction from the rest of me, the view was stupendous, unbroken forest as far as I could see.
Ben dangling from his zipline
Sharyn and Ben, your hosts have been working in development in Cambodia since the 90’s but as they say on their website;
‘Seeing Cambodia losing its forests at an alarming rate (the worst in the world right now!) was disheartening and seeing (and attending!) all the workshops talking and talking about the problems but not actually doing anything was getting, annoying, frankly. They were often talking about forest that was no longer there. People just needed to do something… why not us?
Their mission is to preserve the Phnom Tnout community forest and protect its furry and feathered biodiversity while educating the local community as to its value. The Community’s involvement and employment shows villagers how they financially gain from the project.
Ben and Sharyn are doing something wonderful in this little and increasingly rare forested pocket of Cambodia. We can contribute by having an amazing experience in the jungle and directly contributing to its preservation.
Getting There!
Indochine Exploration is very pleased to promote and work with BeTreed. Its an exciting journey to get there which we can organize in a 4WD with the option of cycling the Oxcart Trail on a mountain bike.
Profits from this trip will be given to BeTreed.
300km later back where I started from, Little Red Fox
by Nick | Oct 31, 2016 | Blog
Prek Toal by Way of Phnom Kraum
All adventures start with The Little Red Fox Coffee Shop and the morning crew; Jady this time with temple water management people and Darryl the Angkorian historian.
Feathercraft on top of Dy’s electric blue Highlander. Our Solar kayaks, Lors, Bunthy, Visoth and me inside. Another latte then pick up Buntha on the way to the lake.
Our route decided last week as we had climbed out of REP Airport on our way to SIN. 5000 foot above Phnom Kraum we could see pockets of bush surrounded by a sea of water and not the usual other way round. Direct channels lay clear to the open lake and onto the floating village of Prek Toal.
We launched where the water lapped the hill. Bunthy together with Lors, Visoth and Buntha. Laden with dinner and drink. 2 bladders of wine and merlot in the cool box for me.
From left to right; Visoth & Buntha, me, Lors and Bunthy
I came with my Werner paddles so light I barely felt them kissing the water as I effortlessly slid across the lake. The 2 Solars exploded with muscle like a moon rocket launch then stalled as Bunthy paddled one way and Lors the other. Buntha and Visoth quickly found a rhythm. Fizzing with excitement we set off for Prek Toal.
The lake was not quite so high that we could paddle unimpeded. Lead by lines of vegetation and fishing lines caught in the Solar fins, we zigzagged across the floodplain.
Past midday and Bunthy running on empty. ‘When are we going to eat?’ He whimpered, while Buntha and Visoth the buffalo paddled on regardless of hunger, fishing lines and fences.
We entered the forest at the edge of the lake and moored to the branches beneath the canopy near the tops of the now submerged trees. We perched on the branches and ate lunch. Lors the gibbon swung from an outlying limb.
In the canopy forest at the edge of the lake
Swinging down from the trees we made ready for the lake crossing just as the wind died and left barely a ripple on the dull grey expanse of water. The calm made a mockery of my safety briefing. ‘Tie down the equipment, stick together and wear life jackets.’
Above and below, Phnom Kraum behind, Prek Toal ahead
Lors inevitably started the horseplay by sitting up on the cool box at the back of his and Bunthy’s
kayak nearly capsizing them both. They couldn’t get a rhythm going but his massive muscles powered through their lack of technique.
A huge cloud lay heavy over Prek Toal cumulating and shifting like an upset stomach. All the while darkening until the 3 telephone masts that marked out the village, punctured its nebulous vapour releasing a wind that held us stationary and blew off my Akubra hat.
Arriving at Buntha’s pool hall
Bunthy and Lors’s calls for 5 minute breaks were becoming more frequent and faint as Buntha and Visoth, apparently unfatigued paddled on while I just sort of glided.
The whiffs of decomposing fish from the prahoc platforms and the reverberating staccato of the 2 stroke longboat engines reached us before we got to the floating shacks at the edge of the village. We paddled between the more substantial houses buoyed up on clumps of bamboo lining the main channel.
Buntha’s pool hall, floating garden, crocodile cages and Mother in Law’s house lay opposite. ‘Do you want a shower Nick? Buntha asked me. ‘Not in your shit!’ The lake is high so well diluted but the crocodiles and Buntha are defecating on 1 side of the house while the family bathe on the other. I got back in the kayak and paddled away from the village with a bar of soap, managing to bathe standing on the branches of a submerged tree.
The boys played pool, I scribbled notes then the family emerged from Mother in Law’s house with our dinner. Bunthy had bought plastic skins of cheap vinegary red wine, I’d put a couple of bottles of Chilean merlot in the cool box, which rapidly disappeared when Buntha found out how much nicer they tasted. We finished dinner. The alcohol combined with the day’s exercise, rounded off by 5 mg of Valium left me contentedly numbed. I turned off the Mother in Law’s radio, lay down next to the crocodiles and fell asleep.
Saying goodbye to Buntha’s Family (excluding the Mother in Law)
A horrific fire had burned for day’s leaving half of the Core Bird Reserve reduced to charcoal. We paddled between the blackened branches saddened. The irrepressible Lors quickly diverted our attention and the presence of any wildlife with the continual noise he emitted.
The fire was an environmental disaster but still the floodplain is a wonderful and alien world of water and blissful quiet, excepting Lors.
Dy was waiting with his ice cold Highlander at Maichrey. It was past noon so rice was the priority. We diverted via the Baray now swollen with rain and a bamboo platform over the water for road kill chicken rice and tamarind paste. A look of total exhaustion on the boy’s faces. It had been fun!
Exhausted waiting for lunch at the West Baray
We are very pleased to take our guests on a day trip by motorboat to the floating village of Prek Toal with an early morning boat journey in the seasonally flooded forests of The Core Bird Reserve. On the return we explore the village by kayak with lunch on a floating platform then paddle to Buntha’s house and meet his family (and crocodiles).
If you have a bit more time an overnight stay means you start to get a glimpse of what life on the lake is really like. And we’d be delighted to paddle with you all the way if you’re up for the challenge!
by Nick | May 3, 2016 | Blog
THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE Our mission to boldly go where no kayak had ever been before.
As an avid reader of the Indochine Exploration Blogs you will be aware of my sexual fantasies around water management in Angkor. I am not alone and discovered over a latte at Little Red Fox another closet water fetishist Jady Smith.
Jady represents the New Zealand Government in their support for restoration of the infrastructure that allowed the world’s greatest empire of it’s time to flourish.
I had been lucky enough to explore and understand – a little, Damian Evan’s explanation of how the Angkorians built canals, reservoirs and diverted river systems to make Angkor inhabitable 12 months of the year a thousand years ago.
Siem Reap is no more hospitable now, well yes you can get a latte and a glass of wine but mid-March we’re 3 months into the dry season with no rain, temperatures over forty and if you’re lucky a dribble of water when you turn the tap on, the problem is even more prescient.
There’s also the implicit threat of what water mismanagement did to the Angkorian Empire – caused it’s downfall so the theory goes.
The site of the Angkorian Bridge where water is now diverted from the town to The North Baray (photo taken during dry season when water a lot lower)
In an attempt to mitigate all of that and return the Angkor Park to it’s original state and so raise the ground water level to support the temple foundations, a canal had been cut from the Siem Reap River North of the Park to the North Baray Reservoir and on to the Great West Baray.
A mission needs a plan and today’s master architect Jady Smith devised a wicked scheme, we’d launch the kayaks beside the dam on the Siem Reap River and paddle. ‘What next JD?’ I eagerly enquired. ‘We’ll see when we get there’, ?
The dam diverting the river had caused it to flood the surrounding countryside creating a maze of waterways, which we spent a happy half hour exploring. Not wanting to pour scorn on our plan but feeling slightly cheated if getting lost was the main aim, we decided to try again and retraced our route back to the dam where we’d started.
By following the current we found the channel we’d been looking for. An ugly scar across the landscape 12 months ago when it was dug now a naturally landscaped water feature of beauty.
The North West Channel
Delicate yellow saray flowers floated proud of the waterlily leaves. Kingfishers flitted from the overhanging boughs and cormorants and darters dried their wings on the skeleton branches of dead trees.
The current had caught us and carried the kayaks towards the West Baray, I thought but Jady’s plan had a different destination in store. We reached a cross roads in the channel; right towards to Angkor Crau Village and the West Baray and left where the current lead to the open sluice on the North Baray and hence to Neak Pean and Preah Khan Temples in the heart of the Park.
A welcoming committee of Apsara temple workers had assembled on the banks to greet us
And wanted a ride
Todays trip had been a very special adventure and I was humbled to have paddled through the middle of the ancient cities of Angkor, a common place boat ride for the inhabitants a thousand years ago but not oft repeated since.
by Nick | Apr 14, 2016 | Blog
In Search of a White Elephant (or a Smiling Albino)
Our quest for the day was Boeung P’Rieng, a lake in amidst flooded forests on the edge of The Great Tonle Sap that will be subsumed when the back flow begins and the water levels rise.
Previous attempts had started in much the same way though today was Wednesday so it was Sister Srei not Little Red Fox, where we congregated for the essential injection of caffein before setting off on our quest.
The first try with Jady was thwarted by 2 flat tyres and a serious compromise on the sense of direction front. I emerged from the forest beside the tourist boat channel at Chong Khneas, no where near Boeung P’Rieng or Chreav Village. The second with Taylor got closer. We reached the trips zenith in the corner of a big rice field where it met the channel leading to Boeung P’Rieng, so we were told in translation by the family who had a house there.
This morning’s adventure was a more serious affair; Buntha, Lors and I were joined by Bo, our ubiquitous boatman and Mr Ly, the managing director no less for the Chreav Village Information Centre. In his spare time he had taken on the role of promoting the lake as a possible source of employment for the Chreav villagers in who’s commune it is situated. We assumed this might mean he knew where it was.
Lors receiving the tour guide treatment from Ly
As part of the party political broadcast we were taken to a well managed market garden in a pretty part of Chreav village where basil and other herbs were grown. An oxcart was included in the agenda but our bicycles gave us the excuse to continue in our search for the elusive lake.
A water stop. Left to right; Buntha, Taylor, Ly, Lors & Bo.
Bo’s plans for differentiation in the tourism industry became evident as Taylor and I became his unwitting models as we cycled between paddy fields behind the plume of white dust thrown up by his motorbike.
Our cares started to slip away as the horizon stretched to the distance. We spotted sandpipers on the moist earth and a Pied Kingfisher over the irrigation ditch. Two pranticoles skulked amongst the rice stubble. The impenetrable bush revealed when the Tonle Sap recedes had been cleared to make a path to where we assumed the lake would be.
Buntha and Lors cycling through the seasonally flooded forest
Circling pelicans soaring high confirmed that third time lucky and after a patch of proper forest we met our welcoming committee and The Lake.
Loading our bikes on board
Five years ago Bo had tried to persuade us to send bird watchers to what was designated a fish conservation area, hence the birds but as with many a well intentioned project in Cambodia, the fishing rights to the fish protection area were sold.
And setting off to explore the lake
Mr Ly accord to him was now the lakes protector and the fishing traps hauled out of the water and piled high to be burnt suggested that this time it might be more than words.
Wallowing Water Buffalo in the shallow waters of Boeung P’Rieng
The community protected area covers 300 hectares and the lake itself twenty though that must change by the day. As we nosed our way through the sage green algae the scale was hard to fathom. Pools were funnelled through channels to broad expanses of muddy suspension where buffalo wallowed pecked clean of ticks by white egrets, a prefect focal for a photo that never happened as they flapped off before I could press the shutter.
A cool forest lunch-spot
Bo’s enthusiasm for the birds was infectious as we struggled to keep up with the calls of new species; Black-headed Ibis, Open-bills everywhere, Painted Storks, prehistoric pelicans sailing like galleons, cormorants and a Grey-headed Fishing Eagle lazily flew off as we entered a new lagoon. Above all were the great flocks of duck, Spot-billed and Whistling, much greater than we’d seen at Prek Toal and only compared with the reservoir at Ang Trapaeng Thmor.
Our destination proved to be a patch of cool forest cleared by the shade of the canopy. The perfect lunch spot after a mornings meandering by kayak.
Birds, bikes, boats and Nick
I remembered that we had been able to drive our motorbikes here but now the route was cut by the channel that offered our only way out. Our impressively muscled boatman manoeuvred us along the twists and turns of the waterway between the trees and pushed our path through the congregated water hyacinth.
Bo releasing a Water Cock
Something fluttered in a fish trap. A bird was caught in the cage. Bo’s good at this and confidently reached in and pulled out the distressed Water Cock, which calmed in his hands. In quasi moment of religious release he cast the creature into the sky to regain its freedom, whereupon it nosed dived into the next fishing trap. There was a happy ending as it swam off underwater.
Disembarking from the Water Hyacinth Channel
The Floodplain around Phnom Kraum now a buffalo haven
Somehow Bo’s motorbike was where we disembarked then I recognised the community member who’d said goodbye and figured it out!
We set off across the dry paddy, which even in these dry El Nino years will be a meter under the flood in 4 months time. Where there was water the buffalo wallowed. I racked my brains to recognise the path we cycled on. Surely I’d been here? We’d turned off too late, it dawned on me as we crossed a bridge over the Siem Reap River on its way to Phnom Kraum and Chong Khneas, the ugly tourist port.
Next was a promotional detour engineered by Bo, who sort of seemed to be taking over the day. A new homestay venture, complete with wi-fi and a bar. Surely that makes it a guesthouse? I thought but obviously Bo reckoned that business lay with a homestay and the activities there with as now modelled by Taylor and Nick.
Recharging after the morning’s exertions
More to the point and definitely on cue, Mr Doitch an Indochine Exploration driver had cooked us lunch, chicken and cabbage, chnang! (delicious).
Boeung P’Rieng is a birding spectacle on the scale of the world famous Prek Toal 15km as the adjutant flies to the South. And a testament to the work of My Ly and his community members in enforcing the protection of the fish conservation area that attracts the birds.
Indochine Exploration in partnership with Smiling Albino is pleased to support this project with an out of the world adventure combining combining bikes, boats, birds and a paddy field Jeep tour (pulling apart a chicken carcass is optional).
by Nick | Mar 9, 2016 | Blog
NEW KHMER ARCHITECTURE (NKA)
Architecture was part of a new exuberant and modernistic Khmer movement encouraged by King Sihanouk and expressed in music, dance, film and architecture, that was not seen in neighbouring parts of Indochina when they gained independence. The period started with Cambodia’s independence in 1953 and lasted until 1970 when Sihanouk was deposed in a coup by Lon Nol heralding the start of the civil war.
Vann Molyvann (VMV) was foremost among the city’s architects during this time, designing nearly 100 public and private projects. He’d studied in France and was inspired by Le Corbusier and his five principles of design, most of which can be seen in traditional Khmer wooden houses.
The five points being;
The building is raised from the ground
It has an open facade
The columns are not connected
There is a roof top garden
Concrete and wood are used in the construction
Together with a UN expert called Gerald Hanning he advised the King as to how the city should be developed.
The Institute of Languages
The last work of VMV before he left the country in 1971 and Sihanouk overthrown was the Institute of Languages, where he used all the devices he’d developed in adapting to the climate with his own unique style. Among these were;
The first floor is larger than the ground floor providing shade below in a style of passive protection, while the whole building is raised on columns from the ground as with traditional Khmer architecture.
A polygon roof separates the working space from the glare and heat of the sun and channels the breeze giving a natural cool. Vertical panels provide shade to the interior
The Institute of Languages showing the cooling polygon roof and shading vertical panels
The building is orientated to shade the stage and those inside can see out and those out in -connected by visualisation. The ground floor as with traditional Khmer wooden houses was open though now outside walls have been added on some of the buildings. The Ministry of Education doesn’t speak to the Ministry of Culture.
The main building in The Institute of Languages showing the larger 2nd & 3rd floors shading the ground floor and stage
Arial walkways over pools connect the different buildings offering a view over the 45 ha campus or shelter from the rain and sun underneath. And give an example of how VMV incorporated Angkorian design, where bridges cross temple moats. He even finished off the handrails with nagas or snakes.
The 4 Lecture Halls
The four lecture halls appear as jumping frogs creating a sense of dynamism, while the double walls faced by brick divert heat from the labouring students inside. And sculpture not painting is used to play with the shadows.
The library (not shown) is shaped like a Khmer straw hat, where outside columns support the building with no structure inside. The gutters act as fountains falling into a surrounding pool cooling the building without the need for air-conditioning (in case of the library aircon was used to control the humidity). A Le Corbusier inspired style called ‘brise soleil’ seen in Chandigargh India, where the walls are protected from the wind, rain and sun, which VMV used a lot.
The Conference Hall
The conference hall, not designed by VMV, is a parabolic shape supported from outside and traditionally open sided which killed the sound and allowed a breeze. Now the sides have been filled with glass, it has to be air-conditioned and there’s an echo to even the smallest sound.
Interior
There were air vents in the ceiling to further cool the space but they have been covered. There’s a mistake in the orientation of the hall as it faces South West catching the sun unlike the Institute of Languages.
The Hundred Houses
The next stop on our tour of NKA was The hundred houses, built between 1965 – 1967, providing social housing to National Bank of Cambodia employees who were entitled to the buildings after 20 years paying rent.
A Hundred House
The design is a cooperation between a Khmer wooden house and modern architecture. The houses appear to be randomly orientated but are actually carefully laid out to maximise the view and space.
The open space underneath is important providing an area for shelter and storage, as is the Angkorian style pool in every garden. There are 2 staircases, one into the living room and a back stair to the kitchen and the WC so guests would avoid the smell and traipsing through the house. Unlike most Khmer houses VMV designed big windows the size of doors for ventilation and light.
The main columns are made of concrete not wood as are the beams between them. The thickness of the beams has been increased so the span can be widened giving more space. The roof is like a policeman’s helmet raised above the walls and channeling any breeze from outside in.
In 1975 the estate became a military camp and every house got a number. After the civil war the Vietnamese airforce took them and in 1986 they were given back to the people. Today most are being demolished or altered as land becomes increasingly expensive.
The National Stadium
The most spectacular project was saved for last on our tour. The Olympic Stadium started in 1962 was planned for the Asian Games in 1963 but actually finished in 1964. In 1966 it was used for the Non-aligned Asian Games. The architect was VMV and the engineer a Ukranian named Vladimir Bondetsky.
The royal pavilion (top right) with a War of the Worlds timing box over the VIP seats
External staircase and tiered seating showing the ventilation holes
The building was Angkorian inspired and became known as the second Angkor Wat consuming the national budget in its construction. The materials excepting aluminium panels were all Cambodian. As with Angkor Wat the indoor stadium is surrounded by pools fed from gutters.
One of the pools surrounding the auditorium showing the guttering and reflecting the stairs
External stairs allow for a speedy and non claustrophobic evacuation. There are no walls as such just tiers of seating surround the auditorium, each seat has an open space underneath providing cooling ventilation to the entire space. The ceiling is supported by 4 columns 2 meters wide, 25 m high allowing a span of 32 m resembling a square mushroom. The ventilation allowed a breeze and light to get through during the day and the building to glow with light at night.
1 of the 4 columns supporting a square 32m span and the tiered seating illuminating the auditorium
As you leave the indoor stadium you pass under a low ceilinged corridor ,the contrast with the vast space of the 70,000 seat outdoor arena is stunning. As Frank Lloyd Write said detail is the key, which can be sen in all of VMV’s designs and the Olympic Stadium is no exception. Originally covering a 24 ha site the different aspects of the complex mirrored each other, while the 4 towers on the roof of the stadium gave orientation around the 4 cardinal points.
View across the pitch to central auditorium, Royal Box and VIP seating with towers at the 4 cardinal points
The elevation of the stadium is the same as Angkor Wat’s and allowed the seats facing East to towards the river to see the Royal Palace. It was built up using the soil from the pools surrounding it, saving money on concrete and speeding up the building process.
The National Stadium is now under threat and on the World Monument’s Fund watch list. Much of the original 24 ha has been sold for development, the original buildings demolished and construction has started on skyscrapers. There’s talk of a new Chinese funded national stadium on the outskirts of the city, which will increase the pressure to release the extremely valuable land.
Smiling Albino Cambodia / Indochine Exploration organises tours of Khmer Architecture as part of our Phnom Penh Experience
by Nick | Nov 10, 2015 | Blog
HYDROLOGY MADE SEXY
Angkor is an amazing place. You can not fail to be impressed even stunned by the grandeur, detail and scale of the monuments. The true wonder of the Angkorian Empire and what it had achieved had only started to dawn on me in the last few years. It was when the findings of the Lidar survey surfaced that I grasped the extent of what was one of the world’s greatest civilisations.
Lidar in layman’s terms emits an electromagnetic pulse – a lazer, that is strapped to a helicopter and fired as it passes over the ground to be surveyed. The reflected light is fed through software that strips away the vegetation to reveal the topography and previously unidentifiable structures.
The results are phenomenal! Phnom Kulen had a city on top. Angkor Thom was laid out in a grid of roads and canals framing wooden houses and their trapaeng or pools. There were thousands of temples not hundreds, and it was all made possible by the management of water in a climate where at the best of times 6 months of rain is followed by 6 months of drought.
I also began to realise that many of our cycle routes, hiking trails and even kayaking adventures followed these ancient waterways. I’d heard Roland Fletcher give fascinating talks at Amansara and on the banks of the West Baray. It wasn’t until Damian Evans (also from Sydney University) spoke to the guides I was working with that I knew he could tell us what we needed to put together the pieces of Angkor.
The Water Connection
Boeung Ta Neue, one of our kayaking destinations, was an Angkorian reservoir. The reservoir caught the rain run off from the Kulen Hills to the North and in turn fed the East Baray, a giant rectangular water storage 2km wide and 7km long.
Kayaking on Boeung Ta Neue Angkorian Reservoir
Opposite the North East corner of the baray is the 7 arched Spean Tor Bridge. Clearly visible by kayak from the water, we managed to reach it through the bush from the red earth road where Damian had parked.
We searched on the Baray side for an exit but with none to be seen, we couldn’t work if water flowed directly into the Baray or through Kral Romeas , a sluice built into the banks of the East Wall.
Spean Tor Bridge
Cycling and hiking through Phum Samre, the village that lines the walls I’d noticed large laterite blocks and dismissed them as scattered ruins. Closer inspection revealed 1 large thick wall and 30 metres away another running parallel. These formed the sides of the sluice, the raised ground in front of us was a laterite weir. Kral Romeas acted over time as an inlet and outlet to the reservoir and may have been connected by another laterite wall running parallel with the East Bank, to the reservoir via Spean Tor.
An outlet has also been discovered 7km away in the West Bank, which provided water for the wooden houses between Angkor Thom and The Baray, and fed into the Ta Prohm moat. The Baray seems to have been a huge body of water to supply what appeared as a compact area of habitation but it would also have been used for irrigation.
Damian put this into context by working out that the 50 million litre3 in the West Baray of similar size to the East Baray, could provide irrigation for 5000 ha of rice, perhaps 10,000 tonnes for each crop. To feed a population of hundreds of thousands of priests, aristocracy and merchants who lived in and around the ancient temple cities.
The West Baray (full)
It was also unlikely that the 3 great water reserves of the West, East and North Baray were in simultaneous use but acted as a stabilising backup for the climactic peak’s and troughs in rainfall.
The scale of these man made hydraulics are unparalleled in human history and mind-boggling. The 3 spatial dimensions have to be combined with a 4th chronological dimension as the kings and climate changed over time. History seems to have been determined by the weather as the peaks in the empire, 1st during the reign of Suryavarman II in the 12th century then under Jayavarman VII in the 13th century coincided with peaks in rainfall as we saw from the historical records on Damian’s computer screen.
The ultimate decline of Angkor was also linked to periods of extreme drought followed by flood years, which washed away the channels needed to supply water during the dry season. This is most clearly seen at Spean Thmor between Ta Keo and Angkor Thom where the old bridge lies high up the banks of the river which now runs meters below.
Prasat (temple) Tor lies between Beoung Ta Neue and the East Baray and at the corner of a mysterious 10 x 10 grid of a 100 mounds.
Similar grids have been found beside the River of a Thousand Linga’s at Kbal Spean and Sambor Prei Kup near Kampong Thom, both associated with major water systems.
Prasat Tor and it’s 3 laterite towers
To date excavation has not revealed any artifacts associated with or identified the purpose of these mounds. Walking through the site with Damian we spotted fragments of curved roof tiles in a papaya plantation that in an unintended act of vandalism, has been planted right over the mounds, which may help in solving the mystery.
Most of what is known about Prasat Tor comes from a 4 sided stele discovered by the French in the 1930’s and now stored in The Angkor Centre for Conservation. The Sanskrit engravings were translated and available on line, which Damian translated for us in his office that morning. The stele had been installed, and perhaps part of the temple built by a Brahmin priest during the 13th century referring to the Great King Jayavarman VII. The inscription mentions the Ganges River in association with water, which may have had something to do with the Kral Romeas sluice and was the same as an inscription found at Phnom Dai a temple to the North and also the site of another grid of mounds.
Prasat Tor itself appears to predate the stele and judging by the motifs on the intact lintel, Damian found out that they bore similarities with those in Angkor Wat built during the reign of Suryavarman II in the first half of the 12th century.
Randomly cast on the ground were the now eroded but once richly carved blocks that adorned the structure including a stone crown that sat atop the central tower. Interestingly it had a hole in the middle, where a bronze finial in the form of a trident could have been positioned. Possibly removed at certain auspicious times of the year to bathe Shiva in sunlight 15 meters below.
Now amongst brilliant green paddy fields in November, on the other side of Beoung Ta Neue is the 10th century Leak Neang Temple. Built at the same time as the spectacular brick temple of Preah Rup. A stele has recently been removed from that site and is also now in the Angkor Conservation but has yet to be translated.
Leak Neang with its single brick tower
The bricks themselves are another mystery as no kiln has ever been found. A theory speculates that the bricks were fired close to the temples then used in it’s construction. The apparent black scorching seen on the walls seemed to support this idea.
Not only was this masterly management of water used to supply The Angkorians and irrigate their crops, it also conveyed an enormous amount of stone used to build the city. Laterite is an iron rich clay that is soft and easy to dress into blocks when it comes out of the ground. On exposure to the sun it becomes very hard but relatively light making it ideal for the foundations as its pock-marked surface is not easily carved. The laterite quarries lay in the hills to the West. Dams collected water from streams, which was released into the Great North Channel that carried the stone blocks South to the North Baray.
At the Eastern end of the Kulen escarpment were quarries that supplied sandstone, which was carved into the marvelous facades of the temples.
A channel ran from Beng Melea past the Temples of Banteay Ampil and Chau Srey Vibol to Prasat Batchum inside Angkor. A path still connects these sites and makes for a great cycle ride with temple stops for sustenance on route (perhaps a champagne lunch inside The Tamarind Temple – Banteay Ampil).
View from the walls at the S.E corner of Angkor Thom
We were beginning to get a handle on the Eastern end of the water connection, now it was time to explore the Western end. The Siem Reap River flows South from the Kulen Hills to the the city and then onto the Tonle Sap Great Lake but during Angkor it was diverted into the North East corner of the Angkor Thom Moat. History is being repeated as subsequent to the floods of 2011 the channels have been reopened and another dug in parallel on the North side of the moat as the river is diverted into the West Baray with the aim of stopping the floods in Siem Reap. The fact that now the town of Puok to the West floods instead is not part of the discussion – tourists don’t go there.
Boeung Thom (big lake)
Angkor Thom was Jayavarman VII’s and his 2 wives city. The largest of all the Angkorian Cities its wall’s 3km long enclose 900 hectares or 9 km2, which is now mainly forest but once housed a thriving metropolis of wooden houses and their trapeang (pools), surrounded by a grid of canals and roads as the Lidar survey revealed. The data was detailed enough to show the individual houses, which can be extrapolated to give a guesstimated population of 70,000 based on an assumed family size. This would need a lot of water but during the rainy season if there was an excess it flowed out of the Boeung Thom reservoir in the South West of the city and through Runta Dev to the moat and thence on to a canal flowing South. Incredibly the city is a meter and a half higher in the North East compared to Runta Dev in the South West so water flowing in from the Siem Reap River drained through the city into Beoung Thom, which may have acted as a natural sewage disposal plant then out via Runta Dev into the moat. Another amazing example of how sophisticated the Angkorian engineers were.
Our cycle route runs along the 8m high walls of Angkor Thom to Prasat Chrung or corner temple. A great late afternoon spot for watching the sun set over the moat, paddy fields and palm trees beyond. We didn’t realise the engineering marvel of Runta Dev that lay 8m below us until Damian lead us down the inner banks to a stream that on closer inspection disappeared into a laterite tunnel under the walls and out to the glinting light of the moat 30m away.
Runta Dev
The West Baray 500 meters to the West is one more mystery. How was this vast body of water replenished and released during times of flood? The current outlet of the Angkor Thom moat is a canal running parallel with the road through the West Gate that flows into the Baray. Dug by the French in the 1930’s it may have destroyed any trace of what was there before. It is possible it was a replacement otherwise how did 50 million litres of water get into The Baray.
West Baray (empty)
What had we learnt that morning?
We understood that water running off the Kulen Hills to the North fed streams which flowed into the reservoir of Boeung Ta Neue in turn feeding the East Baray, which was a water supply for the population East of Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm itself.
Damian confirmed that our cycling path to Chau Srei Vibol and on to Banteay Ampil, lay along the route a canal had taken bringing sandstone from the quarries at the Eastern end of the Kulen escarpment via Beng Melea to Angkor.
He explained how the laterite used to build the foundations of the J VII temples was carried by water released into the Great North canal which flowed to the North Baray and Preah Khan.
And the Western hydrological connection was made by the Siem Reap River flowing into the Angkor Thom moat and maybe on into the West Baray.
And much else besides!
With great thanks to Damian Evans for a really fascinating morning and apologies for any misinterpretations.
Indochine Exploration with Smiling Albino Cambodia is pleased to take our guests on an introductory investigation of the main temples along the water courses described or an adventure to see at first hand how the water connection was made.
