Strangler vines

filming in the jungle of kbal spean

Today we went to the River of a thousand lingam in Kbal Spean, within the Angkor area of temples, but remotely located. As this area was used by Khmer Rouge soldiers for staging attacks, the whole area is mined with land mines. But the clear water stream was beautiful and inspiring with many views.

huge strangler vines abound

The trees were dominated by a weird assortment of powerful strangler vines that created a mad tangle of roots that grew down out of the trees and branches that snaked along the ground. I see these complicated vines as a metaphor for Cambodian history, a byzantine labyrinth of tangled connections impossible to unwind.

You can clearly see the struggle of trees and vines in this dense forest. This also reminds me of a verse from Bhagavad-gita that explains that The entanglement of this material world is compared here to a banyan tree. For one who is engaged in fruitive activities, there is no end to the banyan tree. He wanders from one branch to another, to another, to another. The tree of this material world has no end, and for one who is attached to this tree, there is no possibility of liberation.  

Angkor Thom

After a mixup over permission to shoot, we finally made it to Angkor Thom. We scouted the ruins... 

In front of 4-headed monument in Angkor Thom

We plan to get started tomorrow actually filming in the ruins. It's hard for me to post photos, the internet is slow.

No one's really sure if the carved heads represent the king who build Angkor Thom, or one of the Buddhas. But Angkor Thom is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Jayavarman VII was a Buddhist. The stone carvers were instructed to capture his face in a mood of contemlation. Still what an ego trip: carving your face in stone hundreds of times.

Swami Avadhut in ruins of Angkor

Angkor Thom is an amazing, spiritual place. Constructed around 10 centuries ago, it draws about 2 million tourists a year, just to see the sunset.

We'll go there tomorrow and shoot a few sequences discussing the origin of Angkor and the destruction of this great civilization.

bas relief on outer wall of Angkor

One of the greatest treasures at Angkor Thom is the continuous series of bas reliefs decorating the outside walls. They mostly depict daily life of the inhabitnts of the city, as for example fishing, or selling things in the market.

Separation

It was a woman who broke the record for the longest time in outer space. I forget her name and how long she was up in the international space station, but it was something like 527 days. I remember they asked her what she missed most about being on earth. She missed the feeling of sunshine on her skin.
I've been away from home for six weeks now. I miss the smell of corn tortillas and chiles rellenos. I miss my wife Aurora. It's been a long time since I felt the warmth of her hand. I hear the sound of her voice, but it's so faraway, like the cool reflection of sunlight on the inside of a space capsule. I miss the laughter of my Mexican students, the endlessly barking dog of Doña Pachita, and the insistent church bells calling everyone to mass.
I miss the easy afternoon under the Mexican moon in June, and the cool evening breeze under the tamarind trees where hummingbirds dive and whirl.
I miss the mariachi's tune, a bowl of beans and a wooden spoon, acapulco sea and sand, living the life of ease on the other side of the world. But I'm ten thousand miles away trying to be creative with a mysterious russian swami and his dedicated band of geniuses, camera experts sound men and IT nerds with a plan to film the great temple of angkor wat. Who knows if we'll be successful. Wish me luck.

tonle sap lake

I'm still having internet problems. It's so slow it takes about an hour to post a few photos. We took our documentary crew out on the Tonle Sap Lake close to Siem Reap, to film a few scenes about a legendary underwater city, created by the Naga people thousands of years ago and lost and sunken beneath the lake.

Tour boat on Tonle Sap Lake

On the Tonle Sap lake.

Floating village with boat carrying fruits and vegetables

snake girl

kissing crocodiles

house boats on tonle sap lake

house boat and floating restaurant on tonle sap

Vietnamese boat people

siem reap

It's difficult to post photos. There's 100,000 Chinese tourists in town for the Chines New Year sucking up bandwidth. It's impossible to connect with facebook youtube, and other popular sites because of the sheer weight of internet traffic. Here's a typical motorcycle rikshaw, called "tuk-tuk." 

We took a boat ride on the Tonle Sap, retracing the footsteps of 19th century French explorer Henri Mouhot.

Local Color

Here in Siem Reap, the internet connection is slow. It's difficult to upload photos. We began our movie shoot yesterday, doing local color and market scenes. We saw the typical Cambodian people buying and selling mangos and chilis, making rice paper, and squeezing sugar cane juice for cold drinks. We shot a bit of local color scenes just walking through the markets.

The human tide swept through the market mounted on motorcycles and scooters, and if you stood in one place long enough you were sure to be run over.

Siem Reap

Here I am in Siem Reap, People are friendly. Great atmosphere and climate. Simple people.

 We're staying at a palatial mansion in the epicenter of the hotel district of Siem Ream, about a 4 km. walk from the great temple of Angkor Wat.  I'll put up more news tomorrow.