Payer Tolai Sorse

"You are calling it a bridge,and you are saying that it is living,you must be joking!" my bemused wife retorted back as I told her that the next point of interest is the Living Root Bridge of Riwai,after we had a pathetic meal at the "cleanest" village of India,Mawylilong. Apart from the tree house,the village reeked as a  tourist trap. Riwai was a welcome change,  a small village with a few houses and shops. We were walking down a unpaved path through a green jungle in the month of April. The climb down is a bit steep,but won't take more than 10mins. And then the living root Bridge came into view. A natural bridge made with interwined roots of two fig trees across a shallow stream,which had dried up in the summer,the bridge being reflected in the shallow puddles of water. It was afternoon,the sun shining through the thick foliage of the forest,making interesting patterns here and there. It felt like we are in a set of the movie Avtaar. A place where humans ha...

A quick recap- I had been snoring on a Tuktuk on the way to Baentey Srei. A detailed recap- Read the first part(and doze off like me.... especially for those who suffer from insomnia) 11:00 AM: Woke from my slumber by the simultaneous announcement of the Tuktuk driver and a hard prod on my protruding belly by my wife.Walking briefly through a forest path,was welcomed by a rather small temple complex surrounded by a moat. Doubts have already started playing in my mind if the extra $5 and 1hour loss was worth it to come here. A small temple complex surrounded by a moat.....rather uninspiring from a distance. But Baentey Srei , is the chupa rustom of Angkor. What it lacks in size,it compensates by the intricately carved murals,so delicate that it is called the Citadel of Women (Baentey Srei,for only a women could have built it!) What makes this even more special,is that this Shiva temple was not built by any king,but by an ordinary Brahmin ( the Tutor of Jayavarman V)...

APSARA DANCE-Meant for the Gods,now enjoyed by mere mortals( that too with a complemetary buffet dinner @usd 15 only) How can men,born in flesh and destroyed in fire,be immortal like the Gods? What would you do to make yourself immortal if you were born a king! Pharaoh Khufu built the Great pyramid of Giza, Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty built the great Wall of China, Sahajahan of Moghuls built the Taj, but the Khemr kings made themselves immortal in the annals of human history by the Angkor temples, “ with the epic proportions of the Great Wall of China, the detail and intricacy of the Taj Mahal and the symbolism and symmetry of the pyramids, all rolled into one" Before beginning our Tomb Raider Lara Craft experience in the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, let us rush a bit through the boring history books!(I will try to make it interesting) Kampuchia or Kambojdesh Jayavarman II declared himself the Rajchakrabarti Debraja of Kambuj in 802AD....