There are times in my life when I have had really intense experiences. I have this sort of epiphany about halfway through the experience and know without doubt that I will never forget this. Going to the Kulen Mountains was just such an occasion. It started very early in the morning in Siem Reap, anxious for a quick getaway and avoiding the rush hour, my diver and I made our way out toward Bantey Srei in airconditioned luxury.
The Kulen Mountains have a special draw for me. In my studies of Khmer history, I had read about a city that Jayavarman II had built on this plateau on the Kulen Plateau. The city was built in about the 9th century and was to all intents quite spectacular. It was called Mayahadrapura or something like that. The thing is that that was about 12 centuries ago ! Since then the jungle has swallowed everything up. The plateau is not flat but is riven by valleys and ridges. There are also large area of sandstone rock platforms with exposed surfaces, rilled and folded in what looks like the bottom of a very old river. Everything else is thick dense jungle.
As I mentioned before, we left Siem Reap by car. This was to get to the top of the plateau. They have a strange arrangement with the road up the mountain. There is only one road and it is very narrow, full of hairpins and up the steep sides of a plateau. So you can only go up in the morning. In the afternoon you can only go down. Once you arrive at the top you have to hire a man with a motorbike to take you across the plateau and into a maze of very small one man tracks through the jungle. My driver was so small and light I could have picked him up with one hand Mr Atlas style. As a trials motorcycle rider he could have beaten the best! His skills of balance and determination were prodigeous. He steered me across acres of rock platform through gullies, over ridges and up small cliffs. He rode along jungle tracks just wide enough to just fit the width of the bike (needless to say I had to brush branches and greenery off me all the time. At least I was so much taller than he that I could see clearly ahead at what was coming). Only twice did I have to get off and walk, once when the track was too steep for 2 and once when the track was submerged in a muddy reedy creek. Long stretches of deep sand were no obstacle, he just paddled through with feet out reaching like ski sticks. This was all done on a step - through with me on the back!
The sites to see were another part of what was such an amazing journey. Our first stop, after about 30mins bumping up and down on the saddle like a demented ballon was a huge stone Elephant , life size carved from the rock and standing sentenel - like on it's own. Beside it across a short gap were a frog not much smaller than a very small car and two very large Lions. They all sit in the middle of nowhere like some ancient Easter Island head as if waiting to be transported to thier final resting point. There is no percievable reason for them in the near vicinity. Thay are not part of a bigger complex, there are no laterite walls surrounding, just a flattened bowl with a small spring. The statues are beautifully carved and give off an imposing aura.
The next stop was what my driver called a "Prasat". In Khmer this means temple and sure it was. There were 3 towers, the middle one pretty much still standing but only just. The two on either side have just about fully collapsed the towers are made of brick. You cannot see mortar between the courses as they did not use mortar to hold them together. Apparently they use a form of glue made from the sap of a tree and sugar and some other stuff. You could not slip the proverbial cigarette paper between the bricks. We are talking here about a tower about 35 feet high with each course slightly "corbelled" upon the other so that the roof finally is formed as the walls lean into each other. The Engineering skills are amazing when you remember this was done in the 9th century, about 200 years before the Normans started building huge castles in England.
The next stop was just a big, big mound which resolved itself into a large Laterite platforn with an inset of a Linga platform in the middle. Looking about I could see the outline of the wall that surrounded the original temple at a distance of about 30 -40 meters. Lying about were piles of stones that would have formed the temple and of course the unbiquitous bricks.
The next stop was another Prasat. It was a single tower made of brick sitting on a laterite platform surrounded by a low wall of laterite blocks. It was spectacular in the sense that there it stood alone with the encroaching jungle held back by some obdurate slashing on the part of unseen people. You look at ths wall of vegitation and can see the mammoth battle it would take to keep it cowed. The effect on me was to think about these towers in the context of the city that they were part of. It must have been amazing.
For the next stop my driver asked me if I would like to see Laksmi and Vishnu and Shiva carved in rock. I of course said "YES!" . We went to this area of rocks and following a path between large rocks we came to a grove with large rocks buried in the ground which were covered in carvings of the afformentioned gods and what not. Though ancient and worn with weathering you could still make out the exquisite carving and some of the detail it was incredible. The way the roacks were slowly sinking into the surface soil was quite artistic. Again I was assailed with the questions ; why here? What was going on here that people would create this sculptural graffitti all around the rock surfaces? The carvings did not appear to have come from a building they are just covering the surrounding rocks apparently randomly. In times like this I need an expert.
Our last stop was on the return to the "town" was at an unremarkable break in the forest with the merest suggestion of structure. It was the site of another Prasat but it had long since melted back into the compost of the jungle floor. Just pile to indicate the central tower and the surrounding wall. For me it was interesting. I would love to have had a trowel and a brush and gone fossicking.
Our return to the town after some 3 hours riding was physically rewarding. My little man took me to the temple of the reclining bhudda. A big visit spot for the locals. To see the bhudda you have to climb up about 30 feet on concrete stairs suspended in mid air! The Bhudda, reclining, is carved into the top of a huge rock. He is about 10 meters long and has a big smile. He is surrounded by locals praying for thier, and others lives. Joss sticks smouldering between two hands in prayer shape they entone thier prayers humbly before the man.
My man took me back to the car I came in and my other driver. He took me to the river with the lingams carved in its bed and then to the waterfalls that attract so many local Khmer tourists. By the time I had finished this I was a virtual cripple. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other I was so tired stiff and sore. The hours trip back to Siem Reap and the trip down the mountain went very quickly assisted by me falling asleep in the car!
It was an amazing journey, I hope the photos below do it some justice. They are in a roughly chronological order so you should be able to follow the story in them. If not please tell me and I will try to do better. The next blog will be about Preah Vihear and the trip into Laos. Cheers chaps.
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