Tales of an artsfish traveler
My other half works for an airline so I have often taken advantage of the low cost standby flights in order to feed my wanderlust. Below are a few thoughts from my wanderings……….
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Ancient Ming village, Anhui Province China
The sun is hot in Anhui Province, China. Wandering through the winding passages of the Ming village, I glance at the cobbled path beneath my feet. Red-papered good fortune calligraphy graces the doors, a fragile reminder of the February new year. Now, in August, faded to pink, they are a testament to the attentive summer sun. The uneven stones on the path below trick my feet as I wander, distracted by the magical quality of a village frozen in time some hundred years back. Entering glorious wooden carved courtyards, the illusion is occasionally and charmingly broken by a small appliance plugged into an innocuous outlet.
Gazing upward to countless but hopefully endless courtyards, I see intricate carvings of a complex and undeniably beautiful culture. I am an aesthetic voyeur, an intruder, but smiles welcome me wherever I turn.
Unexplainable to me, all or most of the tiny carved faces are literally defaced, removed from the finely worked wood. The spiced fragrance of the wood permeates the village, an incense of time trapped in limbo. Why, why are the faces gone, erased, removed by human hands? I see hundreds this way before I find someone who is able to tell me in my language; The villagers, ordered by Mao to destroy the beauty, could not. To save themselves, and their extraordinary carved panels - they took away only the faces and left the rest, telling the messengers to Mao that they had in fact, been good revolutionaries, destroying the old, welcoming the new. Thank you Anhui.
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Angkor Wat, Siem Reap Cambodia
Now that I’m a Mom of a little one and another on the way (not what you may think, these kids are sans the stretch marks) I have time to reminisce about recent past travels. One of my favorite solo travel experiences was to Siem Reap Cambodia to see the incredible Angkor Wat complex. For a pop culture reference think Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider.
Angkor Wat is impossible to describe in a post. Angkor Wat itself is the main temple and just THIS temple is the largest religious site in the world as well as a World Heritage Site. Unbelievably, the main temple is just a tiny portion of the complex which covers hundreds of square miles.
Solo travel is truly a hedonistic experience. I love traveling with friends and family too, but for truly special locations like Angkor, I want it all to myself. In my mind there is nothing like the chance to focus all of your attention on your surroundings and all your interaction with a culture so totally different from your own. I felt completely welcomed and safe in Cambodia. I would recommend it to anyone who is independent and self sufficient (or wants to be!). People often respond in amazement when they learn of the places I go by myself. I think that people are generally capable of more than they think they are and sometimes need to just go!
When I landed at the small unpretentious Siem Reap airport, I had my first introduction to the primary local mode of transport. A kind faced young man met me with a placard listing the name of the small hotel where I had reserved a room. “Is moto ok?” he asked. I was rather clueless as to what transport he might be referring to , but since I am not fussy (and tend towards reckless) of course I said yes. He led me to a small motorcycle, we jammed my large duffle in the front and pack on my back and we were off. I was in heaven. Wahoo!
Over the next several days I went everywhere I didn’t walk by “moto”. Don’t expect a helmet, no one wears one. Going through an intersection in Siem Reap is truly an experience; dozens of motorcycles (some of them piled with whole families), no traffic lights and generally no stopping. it’s almost music! Oh and occasionally you need to look out for monkeys.
You can travel by Tuk Tuk if you really don’t want to moto (open, 3 wheels, slow, bad fumes, makes a tremendous and unending”tuk,tuk,tuk” noise, hence the name) but that’s not my first choice! Forget about cars, they are few and far between.
My hotel arranged for a local named Na to serve as a combo guide and driver during my adventure around Angkor and Siem Reap. Na was fabulous and was happy to humor me even when I veered far from the beaten Angkor path. The fee? An embarrassing $5 a day USD. I felt so bad that I way, way overtipped him every day. He was worth so much more than $5! Of course with the favorable US exchange rate, my hotel room was also only $10/night.
Angkor is magical and overawing. I took hundreds of pictures. Even the parts that are rapidly being overrun by tourists are stupendous. But my favorite memories will always be standing in some of the more remote and completely abandoned temple ruins - just me, Na, and a moto.
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more tales to come……………..
