Angkor Wat : The colossal pride of Cambodia

It was always my dream to visit this splendor of architecture since few years. Finally, we managed to visit the unthinkable creation of old age human species.

Why Angkor Wat?

Ever since I finished reading the great tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan, I was deeply interested to research the old age south Indian kings and their achievements. Some how I encountered this place called Angkor Wat which has a lot of influence from Chola Kings both interms of Kingdom and the architecture. There are lots of research that says the kings of Khmer dynasty where once part of Cholas from South India who ruled many parts of South East Asia (including Vietnam, Malaysia (Kedah), Indonesia (Bali) etc.,) After knowing that Angkor Wat is the worlds largest Hindu temple complex, my curiosity only increased.

Travel Facts:

Gifted being in Singapore, got cheap tickets to reach Siem Reap in Cambodia. The ticket price is less than 200 SGD (to and fro). I got this package deal of around 700 SGD per head for 4 Days vacation that includes flight (from Singapore), accommodation in 3 star hotel, food, Sight Seeing with Guide and airport transfers. The price is cheap considering we went during Christmas week.

I found its weird and funny that the people in Cambodia drive on the right side of the road. I believe it’s the only country in South East Asia having this regulation. The reason is because they were once protected by France from the invasion of other countries and the Cambodians accepted the French regulation with open hands.

The currency is officialy Rials but US dollars are accepted every where (even in small petty shops) You need to be extremely careful with what ever services or products you buy, you have to bargain almost for anything where you have to spend.

From our experience, safety doesn’t seem to be a issue there. The locals say that the city Siem Reap is quiet safe. Since the country is full of Jungles, always have your mosquito repellants. Mosquitos are biggest threat there.

Food didn’t seem to be an issue. Since we are vegetarians, we made a pre arrangement for our Lunchs and Dinners at Indian restaurants around the city. A bowl of steam rice costs about 1 USD in a decent Indian Restaurant.

History:

Let me keep it short. The king Suryavarman (the name sounds like Indian right) build the first phase of Angkor Wat making it as Vishnu Temple (Contrary to the fact that the kings of that time are Shiva devotees) with enormous sculptures and carvings around the walls. The signature settings are those 5 towers at the cardinal points of the temple. You can see 3 towers from any side of the temple which is the picture embedded in Cambodian flags. Then the country went under lots of wars and internal problems. Later, king Jayavarman VII took the throne and resumed to build other temples around Angkor Wat. Since he was a Buddhist, he changed all the hindu gods in the temple to Buddha statues. Hence, the original Hindu temple called Angkor Wat changed to Budhha temple till date.

Wow Factors:

The enormous size of the complex which is 3.2 kms long on each sides.

The numerous tower like structures that has Brahma’s 4 faces (which is scary though) in Bayon Temple.

 The brilliance of Angkor Wat main temple architecture.The carvings along the walls that explains Mahabaratha, Ramayana and Churning of Milk (basically addressing the incarnations of Vishnu as Rama, Krishna and the Tortoise form).

The Top Prahm temple which is completely embedded with trees and its roots. Its nice to see both the trees and temple walls are strong enough to support each other.

The beautiful shiva temple at the top of Bakheng hill.

It took only 32 years, 30,000 elephants and 50,000 men to build the temple. The modern civil gurus still confused and not sure if they can achieve the same in this period with technically advanced world they got.

There were no Cambodian beggars we encountered in the whole Siem Reap. But, what let me down was when the airport immigration officials were asking for Tips : ( They are the first impression about the nation and this is a shame.

The look and feel of the city is not much different from Indian cities. Felt like I was in a well developed Indian Non-Metro city.

Planning:

We took the one day pass only to see 4-5 temples out of 52 temples in the Angkor Wat. This is a demanding activity as you have to walk a lot fighting the hot and humid climate in Cambodia. If you are serious about history and architecture, get a 3 day pass atleast and try to cover as much. You can even get 1 week pass if you want to know the details to point perfect.

Other Attractions of Siem Reap:

We took half a day to visit the Floating village in the Tonle Sap lake. This is the largest lake in South East Asia. This lake is full of Vietnamese immigrants. Though Cambodia doesn’t encourage the invasion of foreign immigrants, they are finding tough to control the flow of immigrants from Laos and Vietnam through the lake. The Vietnamese were primarily fisherman who lives on the boats along the banks of the lake. It is quiet devastating to see the tough life they are living. I felt a bit heavy looking at a girl who makes her living with a snake in her small bucket like boat paddling herself to attract tourists and get money. Apart from that it’s a different and nice experience boating around and get some good clicks.

The Night market is the best place for buying Souveniers and other handicrafts. I tested my best bargaining abilities there and partly succeeded. Fridge magnets, paintings, wall hangs, hats etc., Nice place to chill out. There is a pub street near by with full of pubs and night life.

There is this Cambodian cultural village where you can hang around and check out various performances from Camboidan arts group pretty much explaining their tradition. The Cambodians were once part of Thai Kingdom and you cant see much of more exclusive Cambodian tradition which is different from Thai. By the way, I felt their traditional dances a bit boring after watching complex steps that Barathanatiyams or Kuchipudis in India can make.

Verdict:

If you love history, if you like Indian achievements in the past, if you want to experience the heights of architectural wonders that old age people achieved, if you are passionate about travelling and exploring new cultures, THIS IS YOUR CUP OF TEA : )

P.S: If you visit Angkor Wat, please do take up the Balloon ride (120 USD for 1 hour) or Helicopter ride (90 USD for 15 Minutes) I regret that I haven’t added this to my itenary. The best way to enjoy the complete Angkor Wat view : )

*** Happy New Year ***

Project Aquarium

Having bought a new house, my wife and i always think of improvising it to get the interior look better. We always liked the factor called fish (not as food, as a pet) I tossed the idea of ‘why not’...án aquarium  : ) she immediately agreed and my son was equally enthusiastic. So, i researched about aquarium shops and through my colleague came to know about this huge n famous fishing farm thatz like 2-3 kms away from my home.

The place name is Qian Hu Fish Farm. They infact provide free shuttle from Choa Chu Kang bus interchange. You can find all details in this link. Two weeks ago, we made this decision to set up an aquarium and promptly reached the aquarium with little knowledge on aquarium fundamentals. The place is so huge and well maintained. The humungous collection of fishes just made my jaw drop. There is a separate huge place for just accessories where you can find all required ingredients to set up an aquarium.

The complete Tank

Now, lets move on to the fundamental things you need to set up an aquarium. The above picture might give a fair idea about the contents of an aquarium. Let me try and explain stuffs  you need to buy.

The Tank:

I wanted to buy reasonably huge tank but i preferred frameless rectangular, short and wide glass tank. The shop also sells readymade tank where you don’t need to set up anything, just plug n play.  So, we decided to assemble our own aquarium to suit our taste and comfort by hand picking items. I roughly believe my tank is 60 cms length, 30 cms breadth and 40 cms height. This can hold atleast 3 buckets of water. The tank cost is 60$. Good start

 

Gravel:

The next must have item is the gravel layer. There were lots of choices in all colours. I liked the assorted mix of few colours.  If you decide to plug in real plants, you need to buy those fertilizers, sand accordingly. I thought better stick to gravel first and plug artificial stuffs to begin with.

Fillers:

The next is the decorative fillers inside the tank. Normally, people go for artificial plants to place everywhere in tank. Since my tank is considerably huge, we decided to buy this real wood and place it inside.

Rock:

The friendly staffs from the shop advised that the wood i selected will actually float in the aquarium and i need to buy a rock in order to fix the wood firmly to aquarium base. Hence, i chose a strong rock as a wood-dragger-weight to my aquarium.

Over head light:

To me, this is very important for aquarium. The fishes don’t like heat but definitely likes light. Especially, when they have to eat. Also, a well illuminated tank is a beauty indeed.

Water Filter:

This is the most important element of your aquarium. No matter how perfectly you maintain an aquarium, you can never replicate the natural environment the fish lives in a river or pond or sea. All we do in aquarium is to bring the best we could to provide a good life to the tenants. The tap water we fill in aquarium is not ideal for fishes due to the pH level and the presence of chlorine. Hence, its required to fix the filter and get it running for a week or so before you add fishes in.  The filter basically sucks the water in filter it out using the chemical medium and sends the cleaned water back in aquarium. The fish in the aquarium eat a lot and apparently poops a lot too. They also release tons of ammonia from the body. The filter also cleans the water to an extent to filter out the ammonia and excretion. On top of using filter, its still required to change 20-30% of water every week from the aquarium to allow fresh clean water to accommodate. Remember, this ammonium rich water is the favorite food for PLANTS.

So far, we went through the basic items needed for aquarium set up. I also picked minor stuffs like Water guard liquid (to reduce chlorine content) , Artificial plants (for decoration)

The next step, get all the stuffs back home safely with out a crack. Then rinse all the items well in the tap water and soak the rock,  wood and gravel in a separate bucket for over night. The next day, fill the tank with layered gravel, wood and rock. Fill water, switch on filter and let it run for a week. This is to prepare the water for the tenants next week.

One week later, i went back to same farm this time to buy fishes. Its now matter of visiting each tank and pick your favourites. Once you are done with your choices, just confirm with the staff there to make sure if all your picks will be ok to live in a same enclosure. Don’t forget to buy the fish food (flakes) and net along.  To begin with, i just picked all those less expensive fishes to test out the set up.

Over all, its been close to 3 weeks and we (my wife, my son and i) never regret setting up the aquarium. We enjoy feeding them, regular cleaning of filters, checking out the fishes. Slowly create a bonding.  Last week, one of the fish’s layed dozens of eggs. There were few tinies popped out swimming everywhere. Sadly, all got eaten by the other big tenants before we take any action.