Chapter 8
Tonle Sap Lake – The big fresh water lake
The day that I went to see the far temples was very thrilling. After that long and tiring trip I rested for some time in the pub street. There I also went to a travel agency and I booked a trip to the Tonle Sap lake. In fact, this trip is quite popular and I didn't want to miss it. I was really curious to see the populations living on the floating villages, and I wished to compare them to the “sea gipsies” that I've seen in Thailand. After this commission, I went back to my hotel. The sky was already cloudy and the only colour that I could see was a really deep grey. I went out again when it was already dark and it was dinner time. I dressed quite well and I went straight to the Pub street. This street was quite near to my hotel, and I only needed 10-15 minutes to reach there. Like many of my evenings there I had some good Khmer food and then I went to a pub to watch sport while having still some more drinks before going to sleep. While I was at the pub, it started to rain. First it started pouring, and soon later it became a real storm. Thunder was drawing electric shapes in the black sky and the street turned into a river. I went back to my hotel, hoping that this storm would become even stronger during the night, in a way to stop before morning. I reached my room and I was totally drenched so I had time to take one more shower and hang my stuff to dry. I went to bed that it was late, and I hoped to hear every now and then, the rain slowing down, but it didn't before I fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of the storm. Heavy rain was falling and the view from my window, covering the Siem Reap river, a small square and some houses beyond the river, was more grey than in the previous days. I went for my breakfast in a room with open windows. I had my breakfast and I watched, curious, how a group of Japanese tourists were behaving. They first assaulted in group the buffet tables, and after savaging them, they came back to their tables and started to eat and to talk looking outside. I think that they were supposed to go to see the temples, but with that rain it would be a real mess. After breakfast I went back to my room to get ready for my trip to the lake. Although in my previous days I wore boots and my long trousers, this time I decided to wear my bathing suit, some shorts and sandals. I also took out my waterproof and I put it on before going out. I also packed my camera in a plastic bag to prevent it getting wet. I expected the arrival of a car, so I went outside of the door of the hotel, where was standing a guard. Soon came a short man, quite old, wearing a grey shirt and holding a paper in hand. He came to me and said something that sounded like “Th-Th Ley!”. I was tempted to answer “No, I don't want to buy it”, but I replied “What?” and he replied louder “Th-Th Ley!”. For a moment he reminded me of the policeman that I'd met at the Preah Neak Pean temple. So, after a little reasoning about what this man had just said I understood that he was saying “To the lake?”, and I answered “Yes, I go to the lake!”. We went to his car and he showed me the paper that he had in his hand asking me “You Meesew Beenwentootey?”, and I answered “Yes, I'm Mr. Benvenuti”. After this check about my identity, he started the engine and we went to the lake. The street to the lake isn't very long, but as the weather was terrible, it took about 20-30 minutes to reach the pier. First we crossed some nice spots of the city, and when we reached the areas on the lake, I could see many houses built on poles that were coming out from the ground. These houses were built like this, to prevent that they'll be flooded in the high-tide season of the lake. Then the houses became always more rare and we reached the pier. The pier isn't a real pier, it's just a flat cape of soft sandy soil which, on the right side, the less steep bank, were parked many longtail boats waiting for customers. My driver told me “You... Hehw”, meaning that I had to stay inside the car, while he went out in the storm looking for my sailor. Of course, I didn't do what he said that I got out of the car. As soon as I got out of the car, my sandals sank into the soft soil. I followed the driver and he introduced me to my sailor and lead me to our boat. The sailor was a boy of about 15-16, and the boat was very long and with a flat belly. The boat was a long-tail one, with a truck engine mounted above and the old transmission used to sink the propeller helix just under the surface of the water. The boy helped me to jump on his boat, and I took a place among the many empty seats sheltered only by a thin nylon cover. Some guys helped my sailor to release the boat from the banks and the boy started the huge engine. On the beginning it sounded like a tired cough, but as the boy pulled the thruster, it started to roar. In spite of the huge roar, the boat was going forward very slowly.
First we left the pier. Then, we headed toward the centre of the lake. The Tonle Sap lake is the biggest one in South East Asia. Its name means in Khmer language “The big lake of fresh water”. This lake is so big that it touches many provinces of Kampuchea. As soon as we left the pier, the boy started to point things out to me, screaming over the roar of the engine, but I couldn't hear him. The heavy rain was already drenching him as he was unsheltered, so I decided to join him and to sit on a chair next to him. I didn't care about the rain, as I was more interested to hear what he was saying. Moreover, I was wearing my waterproof jacket and the same rain was quite warm for me. The thing that worried me the most was that I didn't want to destroy my camera in that rain. Anyway, the boy was a really good guide and he spoke very good English, perhaps, the best that I'd heard among the Khmer guides. All the time we headed toward the centre of the lake, the rain became even stronger and it turned into a grey wall around us. The boy kept on saying things like “You see, there! There is that province!” and then pointing in another direction “and there is the other province”, and I was only seeing the wall of rain. Then he turned and followed the coast. So, we reached a floating village. The boy started to show me the Buddhist temple, the Church, the shop, the fishermen houses and anything that we passed by. The village is absolutely impressive. In fact, it's all made on houseboats. In that place all the houses, the gardens, the shops, the school (you cans see it in the fifth picture of this group) and the basketball court are floating. The boy was eager to show me everything. And the I replied “These guys are lucky! I wish that I had a chance to drag my apartment far from my neighbours!”, but I'm not sure that he understood what I meant. We proceeded slowly between the two lines of the houses, and there I had a chance to see how the fishermen and normal people were living. It's hard to believe how these people can live their life floating on water. I was really impressed by these people. The same greengrocers (you can see one in the second picture of this group) were going through the houses with their boats, and were stopping when somebody was calling them from an houseboat.
After some time going through the city, we stopped at a coffee shop. Some people had arrived there before me, and I found it very crowded. I'm sure that it's a place were all these sailors bring the tourists for a break. That shop was absolutely a tourist trap. I sat on a chair for some minutes, but as nobody was coming to ask me if I wanted a coffee, I left that table and I wandered around. On the next boat there was some kind of a “Tonle Sap Museum”. I went around there, looking at the pictures of some fish and maps. Then, a kid called me, she had a snake in her hand. I think that she wanted to sell it to me. So, I went close there. She gave me that snake in my hand. I'm sure that she expected that I'd jump away like most of the average smart tourists would do, but I took that snake in my hand and I started to play with it. The girl was laughing watching me playing with it. The snake wasn't so big as it looked on the beginning. It was dark on the back and almost yellow on the belly. The skin was so soft that felt like velvet. Its eyes looked like emeralds. It was really pretty. After some time I gave it back to her and I went back to the coffee shop. As soon as I gone away, she called some other tourists and a westerner girl, that looked like American almost screamed. I went back to the coffee shop. I spent some time on a porch and I looked at the people around me. I wouldn't usually take pictures of the people like these, but, seeing that they live the “being pictured” business, I still took some of them. You can see them in this group of pictures.
Later I went back to my sailor. We went back to our boat and we started our way back to the pier. Soon after we restarted our ride, the rain got even stronger. The boy now started to shiver. He told me that he felt very cold, and he asked me if I minded driving his boat while he was went to shelter himself just behind. So, I accepted. I sat on the driver’s seat, and with him showing me the way from a sheltered spot, I drove the longtail boat back to the pier. Even from the sheltered place, he kept on talking to me a lot and pointing things out, telling me many things. For example, that the biggest patrons of the community were some Christian monks and the Vietnamese government. I had fun sailing the boat, and he only took the command back when we had to land. When I got down from the boat, I gave him a tip to go and take something hot, and I went back to my driver. I went back to Siem Reap with the car. I couldn't stop thinking about the sailing on the Tonle Sap lake. Now I felt like this trip was a bit more “only mine”. It's hard to explain. Then I noticed one thing. I still felt a bit like being on that boat. It wasn't just a fantasy, but there was water everywhere. Siem Reap was flooded. By good fortune my hotel was in a dry place, as the water that flooded the centre was flowing away into the Siem Reap river just a hundred metres before my hotel. I was left by the car just outside the doors of the hotel, but, as it had stopped raining, I decided to go around the centre of the city. In the beginning it was interesting to go around and to see what was going on. But later, when I found myself walking in the water high up to my knees with my sandals, I started to feel uncomfortable. In fact, the water was really dirty. The oil from the cars stuck to my legs along with much more dirt. I went a long way as I needed to check out some shops because it was time to buy some stuff for my friends.
The city of Siem Reap is surrounded by water channels and also the Tonle Sap lake is very close, so it's very exposed to the floods. This is also shown by the people that in spite of that flood, they were just keeping on doing their stuff like it was the everyday life. Later I went back to my hotel as I needed to get rid from all that dirt that was stuck on me.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of the storm. Heavy rain was falling and the view from my window, covering the Siem Reap river, a small square and some houses beyond the river, was more grey than in the previous days. I went for my breakfast in a room with open windows. I had my breakfast and I watched, curious, how a group of Japanese tourists were behaving. They first assaulted in group the buffet tables, and after savaging them, they came back to their tables and started to eat and to talk looking outside. I think that they were supposed to go to see the temples, but with that rain it would be a real mess. After breakfast I went back to my room to get ready for my trip to the lake. Although in my previous days I wore boots and my long trousers, this time I decided to wear my bathing suit, some shorts and sandals. I also took out my waterproof and I put it on before going out. I also packed my camera in a plastic bag to prevent it getting wet. I expected the arrival of a car, so I went outside of the door of the hotel, where was standing a guard. Soon came a short man, quite old, wearing a grey shirt and holding a paper in hand. He came to me and said something that sounded like “Th-Th Ley!”. I was tempted to answer “No, I don't want to buy it”, but I replied “What?” and he replied louder “Th-Th Ley!”. For a moment he reminded me of the policeman that I'd met at the Preah Neak Pean temple. So, after a little reasoning about what this man had just said I understood that he was saying “To the lake?”, and I answered “Yes, I go to the lake!”. We went to his car and he showed me the paper that he had in his hand asking me “You Meesew Beenwentootey?”, and I answered “Yes, I'm Mr. Benvenuti”. After this check about my identity, he started the engine and we went to the lake. The street to the lake isn't very long, but as the weather was terrible, it took about 20-30 minutes to reach the pier. First we crossed some nice spots of the city, and when we reached the areas on the lake, I could see many houses built on poles that were coming out from the ground. These houses were built like this, to prevent that they'll be flooded in the high-tide season of the lake. Then the houses became always more rare and we reached the pier. The pier isn't a real pier, it's just a flat cape of soft sandy soil which, on the right side, the less steep bank, were parked many longtail boats waiting for customers. My driver told me “You... Hehw”, meaning that I had to stay inside the car, while he went out in the storm looking for my sailor. Of course, I didn't do what he said that I got out of the car. As soon as I got out of the car, my sandals sank into the soft soil. I followed the driver and he introduced me to my sailor and lead me to our boat. The sailor was a boy of about 15-16, and the boat was very long and with a flat belly. The boat was a long-tail one, with a truck engine mounted above and the old transmission used to sink the propeller helix just under the surface of the water. The boy helped me to jump on his boat, and I took a place among the many empty seats sheltered only by a thin nylon cover. Some guys helped my sailor to release the boat from the banks and the boy started the huge engine. On the beginning it sounded like a tired cough, but as the boy pulled the thruster, it started to roar. In spite of the huge roar, the boat was going forward very slowly.
First we left the pier. Then, we headed toward the centre of the lake. The Tonle Sap lake is the biggest one in South East Asia. Its name means in Khmer language “The big lake of fresh water”. This lake is so big that it touches many provinces of Kampuchea. As soon as we left the pier, the boy started to point things out to me, screaming over the roar of the engine, but I couldn't hear him. The heavy rain was already drenching him as he was unsheltered, so I decided to join him and to sit on a chair next to him. I didn't care about the rain, as I was more interested to hear what he was saying. Moreover, I was wearing my waterproof jacket and the same rain was quite warm for me. The thing that worried me the most was that I didn't want to destroy my camera in that rain. Anyway, the boy was a really good guide and he spoke very good English, perhaps, the best that I'd heard among the Khmer guides. All the time we headed toward the centre of the lake, the rain became even stronger and it turned into a grey wall around us. The boy kept on saying things like “You see, there! There is that province!” and then pointing in another direction “and there is the other province”, and I was only seeing the wall of rain. Then he turned and followed the coast. So, we reached a floating village. The boy started to show me the Buddhist temple, the Church, the shop, the fishermen houses and anything that we passed by. The village is absolutely impressive. In fact, it's all made on houseboats. In that place all the houses, the gardens, the shops, the school (you cans see it in the fifth picture of this group) and the basketball court are floating. The boy was eager to show me everything. And the I replied “These guys are lucky! I wish that I had a chance to drag my apartment far from my neighbours!”, but I'm not sure that he understood what I meant. We proceeded slowly between the two lines of the houses, and there I had a chance to see how the fishermen and normal people were living. It's hard to believe how these people can live their life floating on water. I was really impressed by these people. The same greengrocers (you can see one in the second picture of this group) were going through the houses with their boats, and were stopping when somebody was calling them from an houseboat.
After some time going through the city, we stopped at a coffee shop. Some people had arrived there before me, and I found it very crowded. I'm sure that it's a place were all these sailors bring the tourists for a break. That shop was absolutely a tourist trap. I sat on a chair for some minutes, but as nobody was coming to ask me if I wanted a coffee, I left that table and I wandered around. On the next boat there was some kind of a “Tonle Sap Museum”. I went around there, looking at the pictures of some fish and maps. Then, a kid called me, she had a snake in her hand. I think that she wanted to sell it to me. So, I went close there. She gave me that snake in my hand. I'm sure that she expected that I'd jump away like most of the average smart tourists would do, but I took that snake in my hand and I started to play with it. The girl was laughing watching me playing with it. The snake wasn't so big as it looked on the beginning. It was dark on the back and almost yellow on the belly. The skin was so soft that felt like velvet. Its eyes looked like emeralds. It was really pretty. After some time I gave it back to her and I went back to the coffee shop. As soon as I gone away, she called some other tourists and a westerner girl, that looked like American almost screamed. I went back to the coffee shop. I spent some time on a porch and I looked at the people around me. I wouldn't usually take pictures of the people like these, but, seeing that they live the “being pictured” business, I still took some of them. You can see them in this group of pictures.
Later I went back to my sailor. We went back to our boat and we started our way back to the pier. Soon after we restarted our ride, the rain got even stronger. The boy now started to shiver. He told me that he felt very cold, and he asked me if I minded driving his boat while he was went to shelter himself just behind. So, I accepted. I sat on the driver’s seat, and with him showing me the way from a sheltered spot, I drove the longtail boat back to the pier. Even from the sheltered place, he kept on talking to me a lot and pointing things out, telling me many things. For example, that the biggest patrons of the community were some Christian monks and the Vietnamese government. I had fun sailing the boat, and he only took the command back when we had to land. When I got down from the boat, I gave him a tip to go and take something hot, and I went back to my driver. I went back to Siem Reap with the car. I couldn't stop thinking about the sailing on the Tonle Sap lake. Now I felt like this trip was a bit more “only mine”. It's hard to explain. Then I noticed one thing. I still felt a bit like being on that boat. It wasn't just a fantasy, but there was water everywhere. Siem Reap was flooded. By good fortune my hotel was in a dry place, as the water that flooded the centre was flowing away into the Siem Reap river just a hundred metres before my hotel. I was left by the car just outside the doors of the hotel, but, as it had stopped raining, I decided to go around the centre of the city. In the beginning it was interesting to go around and to see what was going on. But later, when I found myself walking in the water high up to my knees with my sandals, I started to feel uncomfortable. In fact, the water was really dirty. The oil from the cars stuck to my legs along with much more dirt. I went a long way as I needed to check out some shops because it was time to buy some stuff for my friends.
The city of Siem Reap is surrounded by water channels and also the Tonle Sap lake is very close, so it's very exposed to the floods. This is also shown by the people that in spite of that flood, they were just keeping on doing their stuff like it was the everyday life. Later I went back to my hotel as I needed to get rid from all that dirt that was stuck on me.
Siem Reap – Preparing for the next trip
The day of my trip to the Tonle Sap lake, was also my last full day in Kampuchea. After visiting the flooded city, I had to go back to my hotel, both to get a good shower and also to start to pack again my backpacks. Later I went again outside as I wished to have again dinner in the Pub Street. Although the previous evenings I was always dressed well, this time I dressed again with shorts and sandals as I was afraid that the centre of Siem Reap would still be flooded. I took my backpack with me, as I wanted to still buy something, and the I went out. I first went to the “Old Market” and then I went to the “Night Market”. The Night Market is quite near to the Pub Street and some things are also cheaper than the Old Market. You can see the Night Market in the second picture. The heavy plastic curtains were placed to shelter it from the rain of those days. The most interesting thing of the Night Market is a shop called “Doctor Fish”. In this shop you can have some “Fish Massage”. You can see it in the third picture that I took some evenings before. This fish massage is nothing else than that you put your feet into a pool full of skin-eating fishes. As soon as you'll put your feet inside, they'll be assaulted by these voracious fishes that will eat all the dead skin away. At the beginning it's a really very funny feeling, and after half hour of fish treatment you'll feel your feet really nice and smooth.
Apsara Dance
After the visit to the night market I went back to the Pub Street. In this street I can suggest some places. One is the Temple Club, that you can see in the fourth picture. This is a restaurant-club that is made to look like a temple. The good thing is that, as you eat on the upper floor, you can have a free Apsara dancing show, you can see a scene of it in the sixth picture.
Apsara Dance
While trvalling in Kampucha, most of the tourist will be asked to visit an Apsara dance performance. In our days it’s quite difficult to find a real Apsara dance, but most of those performances are useful to have some samples of the traditional Khmer dancing.
The main warning that I wish to write is that some times in touristic palces is offerend Apsara dance like a substitute of “lap dance” with bare-chested dancers. That isn’t the real Apsara dance, but just a scam. The Apsara dance is polite and has to follow a complex technique.
Origins
Apsara Dance is one of two major forms of Khmer dance and incorporates parts of the other, much older, traditional or popular dance, which has its roots in animism and primitive magic, with Hindu forms introduced during the time of Indian influence beginning in the 1st century; the dance in turn drew its inspiration from the mythological court of the gods and from its celestial dancers, the Apsaras. The dances are full of meaning, with each gesture symbolizing something, from great concepts such as love and peace to small. A finger to the sky means "today" arms crossed over the chest "very happy," and the left arm stretched out behind the dancer’s right hand held up before the chest with three fingers up and index finger touching the thumb depict the Naga, the great many-headed snake that symbolizes the spirit of the Cambodian people. It was not until 1995, a full sixteen years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, that Cambodians once again witnessed a public performance of apsara dance, at Angkor Wat. During the mid-20th century, it was introduce to the public where it now remains an celebrated icon of Khmer culture often being performed during public events, holidays and for tourists in Cambodia.
A number of specialized schools continue to teach the dance to young people, in order to maintain the storied cultural heritage.
Movements and gesture: Kbach
Khmer classical dancers use stylized movements and gestures to tell a story much like a mime, but in a more vague way as most audiences will probably never understand more than a couple of gestures. Dancers do not speak or sing; they dance with a slight smile and are never supposed to open their mouths. Gestures in Khmer classical dance are called kbach (style). These kbach are split into several categories depending on which body parts are involved. Hand gestures that involve fingers are called “cheep” which means to pinch. These hand gestures can represent various things from nature such as fruit, flowers, and leaves. When put together in combination they can have different meanings.
Costume
Crown (Mekot)
The Cambodian Apsara crown is more sophisticated than that of many other dances, designed to simulate ancient bas-relief depictions of Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples. The leading Apsara crown commonly has five points or tips, with two rows of spherical decorations like the apsara pictured at Angkor Wat. Crowns worn by the subordinate dancers commonly have three points and only one row of sphere decoration. These crowns often include garlands of artificial hair with ornate adornments. The five-points crowns are frequently absent in modern dance routines.
Over time, the lengthy, beautiful hair of the apsara dancer came customarily to be replaced by artificial hair, in order for it to be very long and beautiful. The first crown featuring artificial hair was worn by Norodom Bopha Devi.
The Apsara tradition in Surin province, Thailand, features crowns of three golden garlands of artificial hair with ornate adornments.
Blouse, skirt, belt
The Apsara costume maintains the influence of the traditional garment, although, like the crown, some dress is also different. The shirt adorn in the Apsara dance differs from that of other dances, being form-fitting, the cloth is usually a white or skin colored without any beads, jewelry or distracting features. This shirt is worn by each type of Apsara dancer (there are two types of dancers: Leading and Subordinate). The white shirt suggests nakedness, as would be the case with an actual woodland spirit.
The silk skirt worn by the performing Apsara dancers is called a “charabob”, traditionally, white is reserved for the leading dancer, while the remaining subordinate dancers conventionally wear red, light green and blue skirts. Charabob's are of silk and/or cotton blended material, which display elaborate geometric patterns and designs. Often, these skirts are worn in a front pleated fashion, a pleated fringe in the front and occasionally the left of the skirt is also pleated.
The Charabob emulates glistening gold with refined diamond-like patterns that compliment a skillfully woven backdrop. Used traditionally as a skirt-like garment worn around the waist and fastened behind, this material is also commonly tailored for other customary occasions.
In Northeast Thailand, the apsara all wear dress with different kind of colour. The apsara mostly wears the only piece of skill covers their chest and show up their stomach.
The striking red-cloth belt is comparable to the collar (the Sarong Kor). While similarly decorated with warped spear-like tips draped on a red cloth, the straight cloth differs as it is a flat red cloth while contrarily the Sarong Kor is patched on a round cloth. The arm pads are gold flat jeweled ornaments. The central part is thicker than the edges which are worn on both forearms.
Decorative flowers
Located on the right of the crown is a beautiful white flower with an inclined stem and a cluster of petals located at the its end. These decorative papaya flowers (called Lbak Pka Somyong) have ten centimeters of cotton thread sewn into them to create the effect of a falling stem. These flowers are male papaya flowers, which should have buds. If the male papaya flower is not available, the “reak” flower can be substituted.
Frangipani flowers that are already open are worn on the dancer's ear, to complement and enhance the beauty of each dancer's face.
Collar (Sarong Kor)
This gorgeous round decorative collar (red colored) is highly visible, found just below the neck the collar is embellished with detailed gold colored copper ornaments and beaded designs. The elaborate decorations is usually found gracefully decorated on two separate rows. Additional copper ornaments are found hanging below these rows, in the shape of difficult-to-describe warped spear tips. The largest of which is centralized.
Jewelry
Dangling earrings, which are bound in bunches, traditionally stretch almost to the shoulder. These dangling earrings are mainly duplicated from the design of the “Krorsang” flower (a large spiny tree with sour fruit) and are preferred to the “Mete” (Chili) flowers, which are held to be less beautiful.
There are a total of four types of wrist jewelry:
Two types of gold ankle jewelry are usually worn by the Apsara dancer, the first being KORNG TORNG CHHUK the second KORNG GNOR/KRAVEL. Notice KORNG GNOR is also one of the mentioned Wrist Jewels.
Sangva is a loosely decorated band of beads worn crosswise. The golden flower is considered a body-decorating element, either worn on the waist or carried during the performance. It too is gold in color, and made of thin flexible copper.
Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara_Dance
Apsara Dance
While trvalling in Kampucha, most of the tourist will be asked to visit an Apsara dance performance. In our days it’s quite difficult to find a real Apsara dance, but most of those performances are useful to have some samples of the traditional Khmer dancing.
The main warning that I wish to write is that some times in touristic palces is offerend Apsara dance like a substitute of “lap dance” with bare-chested dancers. That isn’t the real Apsara dance, but just a scam. The Apsara dance is polite and has to follow a complex technique.
Origins
Apsara Dance is one of two major forms of Khmer dance and incorporates parts of the other, much older, traditional or popular dance, which has its roots in animism and primitive magic, with Hindu forms introduced during the time of Indian influence beginning in the 1st century; the dance in turn drew its inspiration from the mythological court of the gods and from its celestial dancers, the Apsaras. The dances are full of meaning, with each gesture symbolizing something, from great concepts such as love and peace to small. A finger to the sky means "today" arms crossed over the chest "very happy," and the left arm stretched out behind the dancer’s right hand held up before the chest with three fingers up and index finger touching the thumb depict the Naga, the great many-headed snake that symbolizes the spirit of the Cambodian people. It was not until 1995, a full sixteen years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, that Cambodians once again witnessed a public performance of apsara dance, at Angkor Wat. During the mid-20th century, it was introduce to the public where it now remains an celebrated icon of Khmer culture often being performed during public events, holidays and for tourists in Cambodia.
A number of specialized schools continue to teach the dance to young people, in order to maintain the storied cultural heritage.
Movements and gesture: Kbach
Khmer classical dancers use stylized movements and gestures to tell a story much like a mime, but in a more vague way as most audiences will probably never understand more than a couple of gestures. Dancers do not speak or sing; they dance with a slight smile and are never supposed to open their mouths. Gestures in Khmer classical dance are called kbach (style). These kbach are split into several categories depending on which body parts are involved. Hand gestures that involve fingers are called “cheep” which means to pinch. These hand gestures can represent various things from nature such as fruit, flowers, and leaves. When put together in combination they can have different meanings.
Costume
Crown (Mekot)
The Cambodian Apsara crown is more sophisticated than that of many other dances, designed to simulate ancient bas-relief depictions of Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples. The leading Apsara crown commonly has five points or tips, with two rows of spherical decorations like the apsara pictured at Angkor Wat. Crowns worn by the subordinate dancers commonly have three points and only one row of sphere decoration. These crowns often include garlands of artificial hair with ornate adornments. The five-points crowns are frequently absent in modern dance routines.
Over time, the lengthy, beautiful hair of the apsara dancer came customarily to be replaced by artificial hair, in order for it to be very long and beautiful. The first crown featuring artificial hair was worn by Norodom Bopha Devi.
The Apsara tradition in Surin province, Thailand, features crowns of three golden garlands of artificial hair with ornate adornments.
Blouse, skirt, belt
The Apsara costume maintains the influence of the traditional garment, although, like the crown, some dress is also different. The shirt adorn in the Apsara dance differs from that of other dances, being form-fitting, the cloth is usually a white or skin colored without any beads, jewelry or distracting features. This shirt is worn by each type of Apsara dancer (there are two types of dancers: Leading and Subordinate). The white shirt suggests nakedness, as would be the case with an actual woodland spirit.
The silk skirt worn by the performing Apsara dancers is called a “charabob”, traditionally, white is reserved for the leading dancer, while the remaining subordinate dancers conventionally wear red, light green and blue skirts. Charabob's are of silk and/or cotton blended material, which display elaborate geometric patterns and designs. Often, these skirts are worn in a front pleated fashion, a pleated fringe in the front and occasionally the left of the skirt is also pleated.
The Charabob emulates glistening gold with refined diamond-like patterns that compliment a skillfully woven backdrop. Used traditionally as a skirt-like garment worn around the waist and fastened behind, this material is also commonly tailored for other customary occasions.
In Northeast Thailand, the apsara all wear dress with different kind of colour. The apsara mostly wears the only piece of skill covers their chest and show up their stomach.
The striking red-cloth belt is comparable to the collar (the Sarong Kor). While similarly decorated with warped spear-like tips draped on a red cloth, the straight cloth differs as it is a flat red cloth while contrarily the Sarong Kor is patched on a round cloth. The arm pads are gold flat jeweled ornaments. The central part is thicker than the edges which are worn on both forearms.
Decorative flowers
Located on the right of the crown is a beautiful white flower with an inclined stem and a cluster of petals located at the its end. These decorative papaya flowers (called Lbak Pka Somyong) have ten centimeters of cotton thread sewn into them to create the effect of a falling stem. These flowers are male papaya flowers, which should have buds. If the male papaya flower is not available, the “reak” flower can be substituted.
Frangipani flowers that are already open are worn on the dancer's ear, to complement and enhance the beauty of each dancer's face.
Collar (Sarong Kor)
This gorgeous round decorative collar (red colored) is highly visible, found just below the neck the collar is embellished with detailed gold colored copper ornaments and beaded designs. The elaborate decorations is usually found gracefully decorated on two separate rows. Additional copper ornaments are found hanging below these rows, in the shape of difficult-to-describe warped spear tips. The largest of which is centralized.
Jewelry
Dangling earrings, which are bound in bunches, traditionally stretch almost to the shoulder. These dangling earrings are mainly duplicated from the design of the “Krorsang” flower (a large spiny tree with sour fruit) and are preferred to the “Mete” (Chili) flowers, which are held to be less beautiful.
There are a total of four types of wrist jewelry:
- Korng Rak – Is a beautiful diamond-like studded bracelet a fine and elegantly wrist jewel decorated in a tree branch-like fashion;
- Kantrom – Is a spring-like coiled gold colored thick copper while the third type of bracelet (two sets are worn) are small round beaded orb/sphere bunches delicately connected to one another;
- Korng Gnor – It’s a thick handcuff-like gold bracelet;
- Sanlek – It’s an intricate and well decorated thickly rounded bracelet.
Two types of gold ankle jewelry are usually worn by the Apsara dancer, the first being KORNG TORNG CHHUK the second KORNG GNOR/KRAVEL. Notice KORNG GNOR is also one of the mentioned Wrist Jewels.
Sangva is a loosely decorated band of beads worn crosswise. The golden flower is considered a body-decorating element, either worn on the waist or carried during the performance. It too is gold in color, and made of thin flexible copper.
Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara_Dance
Siem Reap by night before leaving for Thailand
Next to the Temple Club there is also an only-Khmer food restaurant. It also is very good, but the waiters are a bit too much pushy and they keep on asking if they can introduce you some guide for the visit to the temples or some tuk-tuk driver. So, I went there only once and then I went to some places where I could eat in peace. The next restaurant, my favourite one, is the “Easy Speaking” restaurant. This place, in past was a really famous tea-house where reporters and writers gathered. Now it's just one of the many restaurants, but the food is excellent and also the waiters are really good. There I've met Miss Pua that gave some good advice about the place without trying to profit from it. The best pub of all, where to have very good drinks is the “Angkor What?” pub. The name is a joke about the name of the most temple “Angkor Wat”. This club is really good. They have an happy hour when the drinks are discounted and the music is very good. The place is run by a Aussie couple with some Khmer boys too. The most characteristic thing of the place, is that it's fully covered by the signatures of the customers. If you go there, you can find mine on the counter just in front of the entrance door. The only places that can't be signed are where are drawn some very beautiful paintings. You can see one of them in the seventh picture, where you can see a DJ shaped like a Hindu many-handed Goddess. In this place I also found some good Absinthe. This alcohol is under strict regulation in Europe as it contains some psychotropic active principle. It was really common among the European writers of the late 1700 and 1800, as it was called also with the name “Green Fairy” for its colour. They used it to have better “inspiration” for their writings. Ok, I know much about it as I learn it in my studies, and, seeing that in Europe we can only find a “not real” Absinthe, I decided to try it at least once. I liked it. The taste is similar to the Arabian Raki or the Anise. The first drink made me shiver, but the second was like having a sledgehammer hitting straight into my head. I felt confused but at the same time “good”. I wonder how I could have written this Travel Diary if I had a notebook with me that night. After it I went back to my hotel, trying to avoid the transsexual-packed street as they were used to bothering single men. When I got back to my hotel, I finished packing my bags and then I had one more shower before going to sleep. The next morning I woke up early. After breakfast I went to the hall of the hotel. I finished the check-out procedure and I called for a taxi. With a motorbike-taxi I went back to the airport where I took a plane back to my beloved Thailand, where I continued a more relaxing trip.