Phnom Penh Street Scenes

These are a few street scenes from my trip to Phnom Penh earlier in the year. Above is the old Post Office building, from which our architectural tour of the city departed. The tour was more like a history of the city and country as witnessed through the building practices. The Post Office is a decent example of the French colonialist style.
This café front shows more French influence. Notice the bricked-over window above the entrance; many buildings were "reclaimed" by residents after the Khmer Rouge years. Property records were scarce or destroyed and due to the years of emptied cities and forced labor, many people just took what space they could.

Here above is a newly built night club building.
In the picture above, the conflicting roof angles and balconies come as a result of people making residential space out of a former Chinese temple.
This is the main library, with plaques in French and Cambodian which is currently being restored. During the Khmer Rouge Years I believe it functioned as a kitchen for the Khmer Rouge...

Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor Thom is part of the Angkor Wat complex of temples situated in and around Siem Reap in Cambodia. While most of the temples remain just singular temples, at Angkor Thom I got more of a sense of these structures once being part of one of the largest population centers on Earth (at the time). At it's largest, somewhere around 1000 AD, the area is estimated to have been home to almost one million inhabitants. This was at a time when London had a population of 55,000. Most of what remains is only temples and royal or religious buildings, mainly because these were the only buildings allowed to be made out of stone. In this tropical and incredibly wet climate, it's easy to understand why not many wooden structures remain.
After passing the Bayon temple (see the previous blog entry) the following structure is the Terrace of Elephants. This is both an outer wall encircling a temple, and a "review stand" where royals or government officials could observe what ever was passing.
Here above is the long view of the Terrace of Elephants.
This above is the view while standing on the Terrace of Elephants.

This is a gate to one of the temples behind the Terrace of Elephants.

The temple behind the Terrace of Elephants.


Here is one of several reflecting pools.

And finally, another gate complex towards the end of the Terrace of Elephants.

Bayon, Angkor Thom, Siem Reap Cambodia

These pictures are part of a series from my visit to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The name Angkor Wat is known amongst South East Asian history enthusiasts, but Angkor Wat is only one, albeit the largest of the temple complexes in and around Siem Reap. Angkor Thom is the name that refers to the ancient city that sits just a bit further down the road from Angkor Wat itself. The entrance to Angkor Thom is the gate you see above.
Past the gate, the structure you come across is the Bayon. This one is noted for its gigantic Buddha heads incorporated into the towers.


Interior hallway above, and skylight view below.



This picture above is of the central tower of this temple

Small Buddhist shrines pop up regularly in these temple complexes. They are usually adorned with incense sticks, jasmine flowers, and candles.

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

While I was in Cambodia to play some concerts and visit my friend S, I had the opportunity to visit the complex of temples known as Angkor Wat which is located in and around the town of Siem Reap in north-western Cambodia. The temples in this area were built between 900 and 1100 at a time when they were surrounded by a metropolis of almost one million inhabitants. This would make it one of the largest metropolitan areas of the planet at the time. To roughly compare, this was at a time when London had approximately 55,000 inhabitants.
The photo above is a (small) portion of the outer wall of the Angkor Wat complex.

Inside the surrounding wall are two large fields bisected by a path that leads up to the main temple. During the rainy season, ponds form from collected water. The photo above is just the beginning of one.
The photo above is of more of the surrounding buildings leading up to the main temple complex.

This is the first of several galleries of carvings and etchings depicting various creation myths. These temples began as Hindu endeavors but were later converted to Buddhism as the population changed.
One of the more ornate carvings.
This is the central building of the complex.

This is an interior courtyard at the top of the main building. A guide explained that when the building was still functional as a royal and holy place, this courtyard would have actually had a pool in the center.




This last photo is of some of the Buddhist shrines that have appeared and that are maintained by local people.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this spring, to play some piano concerts at the gracious invitation of my friend S. I always considered Cambodia an exotic destination if I considered it at all, and was really excited to explore this part of the world. The country has had a turbulent couple of decades in terms of civil war, wars with neighboring countries, and tragic genocides. Cambodia now seems to be growing again but signs of its recent past are everywhere. What is new there is very new. And then in striking contrast are the older parts and places.

The first image you see above is of the Royal Gardens which contain the Royal Palace and some temples as well. No where else in Cambodia did I see such a well maintained area. I was also struck by the mix of tourists and local people. It must be a regular destination for local Cambodians as well, as part of school or family trips.

This building above is the National Museum. Visually, the building itself was stunning. The collection was interesting, containing objects from many periods of Cambodia's past. Cambodia is home to the complex of temples known as Angkor Wat. This complex was actually a large city in it's day (ranging from 900 AD - 1100 AD ±) that at its height is estimated to have had almost one million inhabitants, this at a time when London had 55,000. Angkor Wat will be the subject of a later blog entry, but it's mentioned here because I found it strange to see so much at Angkor Wat, and then see examples of the same thing in cases on display in the National Museum!

Another example of some of the renovations taking place is the Central Market, seen above. It is originally from 1937. See the interior below. It struck me as really well designed in order to avoid or manage the heat and humidity.



Above is a street scene, on the same square as the post office building, but this image struck me as more colorful.

Here above you see the contrast between old and new, the old colonial building in a semi-ruined state, and the new bridge which covers a now filled in canal.


Above is another street scene with the electrical wiring and open-air- designed houses which are found everywhere in the city.


This is a picture of the room I slept in at my friend S.'s house. Such hospitality! The trip was amazing and Phnom Penh was just the beginning of it.

Hoorn

This past weekend I had a small gig playing keyboard and accordion in a musical in the North Holland city of Hoorn. I had never been there prior to this project, and in general don't have that much experience with North Holland except for Amsterdam. Hoorn sits on the IJsselmeer, the inland body of water which used to be known as the Zuiderzee before being separated from the North Sea by the construction of the Afsluitdijk in 1932. During Holland's better sea-faring years, Hoorn did well as a port, especially as a stopping point for ships of the Dutch East India Company.

During one of the breaks inbetween rehearsals and performances I had a chance to briefly check out a bit of the old town center. This first photo is of De Waag (or the weigh), which I believe is a café now.
This one above is the West-Fries Museum (part of North Holland is or was formerly known as West Friesland).

Besides these, I also found some of the lanes and streets interesting just for their winding-ness and strange angles.I don't know what building below this is, but I liked the facade.



Scenic as Hoorn might be, most of my time was spent in the Park Theater, which sits on the Westerdijk. It's one of these settings that I think you cannot find anywhere else in the world, because about 10 feet below the theater on one side of the dike is the IJsselmeer, and about 20 feet below the dike on the other side is a residential area of Hoorn! The contrast in heights is really striking. You see quite clearly how far below water level the residences are.



Here are just a few interior shots in the theater. The first is of the orchestra pit, complete with musicians, and the second is looking up into the theater itself.