Guns N' Lingas: An Early Morning beyond Siem Reap

During a trip to Southeast Asia in 2009 to visit with family both in Singapore and Burma (Myanmar), I did a solo 4-day excursion to Siem Reap, Cambodia to experience the wonders of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, in addition to doing some sightseeing in the surrounding area. Our daughter and son-in-law had made prior trips to Siem Reap and suggested that I use their guide, Thim Sothea (aka, 'Mr. Sunny'), as they were very pleased with the services that he had provided during their visits and also with the depth of his knowledge on Cambodian history and culture, not to mention his warm and engaging personality. Our daughter had also suggested that I visit Banteay Srei Temple, which is located about 30km northeast of Siem Reap. Sometimes referred to as the 'Pink Temple' given the pinkish hue of the stones used to build it, it is often said to exhibit some of the finest stone carving in the world. Browsing through our daughter's blog photos of the temple, I decided that Banteay Srei, together with the carved riverbeds of Kbal Spean (commonly referred to as the 'River of a Thousand Lingas') that was located in the same region, would be worthy additions to the tentative itinerary that I had begun to flesh out six months before our planned departure date. Through e-mail correspondence with 'Mr. Sunny', I was able to firm up my Cambodian itinerary well in advance of our trip. 

One of the line items on my desired itinerary would turn out to be a first-time client request for Mr. Sunny and require a bit of research on his part, that being a firing range session involving automatic weapons. During a two-day trek that I did while in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2003, a young couple that was part of the trekking group was recounting as we were on our way to an elephant camp how they were able to fire an AK-47 and even an RPG (USD $100 per round, with the option of using a live cow as a target for an additional USD $100) while recently in Cambodia. I promptly made a mental note of that at the time, as Angkor/Siem Reap ranked highly on my list of future places to visit in Asia, and some time on the firing line might be a good diversion after the temple fatigue that would invariably set in at some point. A YouTube search containing the words ‘Cambodia’ and ‘Shooting’ will result in an ever-growing list of videos uploaded by tourist who have paid a visit (not to mention a fair sum of cash) at a public range outside of Phnom Penh or Siem Reap to fire a full-auto AK, PPSh-41, or belt-fed PKM, if not go for the big bucks and send a V-40 RPG downrange; Anthony Bourdain had included such a visit in his ‘A Cook’s Tour’ television series episode on Cambodia, with the range serving food and alcohol in addition to guns and ammo, and apparently hand grenades, too.

Though I’ve never served in the military (but did register for the draft in the late 70’s) or worked in law enforcement, I did have experience with sub-machine guns prior to Cambodia. While living in Maryland, I used to make occasional trips to a gun store and indoor public firing range that had a number of sub-machine guns available for rent, with an MP5, Uzi, Sten, Thompson, Colt M635, Swedish Type-K and a Ruger 10/22 full-auto conversion on their rental list. Being an avid shooter, I always enjoyed the novelty of being able to test-fire examples of historic military firearms that I would never have legal access to in my home state of California. I also had similar firing sessions during a visit to Las Vegas, which included suppressed ('silenced') versions of the MAC-10 and the S&W M76. As for my anticipated Cambodian range trip, I was looking forward to firing the AK-47 and the M16 (I have fired the Colt M635 9mm SMG on several occasions, which is based on the M16/AR15 platform but is blowback-operated instead of direct gas impingement-operated, and is equipped with a 10.5” barrel.) I planned on having USD $200 on-hand for the visit in the event that RPG’s were on the menu. Undoubtedly some would question why anyone would want to go shooting in a country that had been ravaged by civil war and genocide, even if it does put money into the local economy, but in the end it’s a matter of personal choice.

My Three-Day Apsara Authority Pass

I would later receive an e-mail from Mr. Sunny with my finalized Siem Reap itinerary. My first two days in Cambodia would concentrate on visits to Angkor Wat and the various temples and monuments in and around Angkor Thom, including the famous Bayon Temple with its icon face towers, and the equally-famous Ta Prohm Temple that was featured prominently in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. My morning of sightseeing beyond Siem Reap, which would be the final use of my three-day Apsara Authority pass (USD $40) that is required to visit the temples and other archeological attractions of Angkor, would have an early beginning, as we would arrive at the west entrance of Angkor Wat compound before dawn, and as the sky begins to lighten we would walk to the reflecting pools to watch the sun rise above the temple.  We would then make the 32km drive northeast to visit Banteay Srei Temple, then proceed another 18km to Kbal Spean for a 2km uphill hike through the jungle to view the riverbed carvings and a small waterfall. On the drive back to Siem Reap, we would spend about 30 minutes at the Cambodia Land Mine Museum, and then continue on to the Cambodian Army's Fourth Troops Training Center where I would test-fire a variety of automatic weapons at an indoor public firing range on the grounds of the base.  Our final stop before returning to the hotel would be at Angkor's Pre Rup Temple.  

Waking up at around 4:30 that morning was tough. I had planned on calling it an early evening the night before, but as I was walking back to my hotel down 'The Alley', the street running parallel to 'Bar Street' that places a bit more emphasis on restaurants than watering holes which caters to visiting tourists, I saw a sign at the intersection of Sivatha Street advertising a club or bar called Sok San ('Happiness') Palace, which is located on a small side street off of Sivatha. As I had yet to check out any bars in town at that point, I figured I’d have a look inside and perhaps have a beer. I inquired about a cover charge with Cambodian guy standing at the door and, learning that there was none, entered the club. Just inside the door was a number of hostesses/bar girls dressed in short-skirted uniforms that were similar in appearance to those worn by the stewardesses on the Jetstar Airlines flights out of Singapore. The girl nearest to me, slender and quite attractive with long body-waved hair, stepped forward and motioned for me to follow her, where she led me to a seat at a the corner of a long L-shaped booth, with me facing the empty performing stage against and she sitting to my left facing the bar. The place was fairly quiet, with the handful of other customers being predominately Western tourists. I asked her name, having to lean in so as to be heard over the club’s sound system. And she said what sounded like Sunitha; when I repeated it to her to be sure that I was saying it right, she took out a small cell phone and angled the screen so that I could see as she typed ‘nitha’. I ordered two Angkor Beers (she had requested one too) and, as Sunitha’s command of English was quite good, made some small talk while waiting for our drinks.  

In chatting, I learned that she was a young-looking 27-years old, and also that I had arrived a bit early, as the entertainment would not start until a bit later in the evening. I figured that as I was already there, I might as well stick around to at least check some of the performance, despite having to get up early the next morning. The wait for the entertainment would end up requiring a second round of beers, and would end up being the typical bikini-ed go-go dancing to the sound of loud club dance/hip-hop tracks that one would see between the music sets of Filipino bands in the bars of Singapore’s Orchard Towers or the bars of Bangkok’s Patpong (as in, the downstairs bars that can be seen through the opened door from the street, and not the more explicit, full-frontal entertainment of the upstairs bars, mind you.) Things got a bit interesting not long after the second beers was delivered, as an older Cambodian woman that I took to be the manager approached our corner of the dark vinyl-upholstered section. With a stern, businesslike look in her eyes, she inquired if I was planning on going off to one of the back room with Sunitha for a massage (presumably a massage with a ‘sok san’ ending, of which the house would get their cut?) or if I was just going to sit and talk with the earth-bound ‘apsara’ (a supernatural celestial maiden, or female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, said to dance and entertain in the palaces of the gods, and sometimes seduce both gods and men; apsara images are an important motif in the stone bas-reliefs of the Angkorian temples in Cambodia.) When I said that my only intention was conversation, I was informed that I was required to pay USD $5 to the house as compensation. Figuring that I had been suckered, I handed Boss Lady a five-spot and, after finishing my beer, bid farewell to the lovely Sunitha and made my way back onto Sivatha Street and headed for my hotel.  

As I approached the intersection with Pokambor Avenue, beyond which lay the relatively quiet and somewhat shabby side street where my hotel was located, the bass-heavy sounds of club-mix dance music emanating from the open front of a bar set back some distance from the sidewalk caught my attention. There were a lot of people standing around in front of the place, with the vast majority being Western male tourists. I paused and gave some thought to maybe going in to briefly check the place out, but decided that with tomorrow’s early schedule it would be best to get straight back to the hotel. As I started to turn and leave, one of two girls that I had seen together mingling at the fringes of the assembled crowd in front of the bar approached me. She was slender, and dressed in tight-fitting demin shorts and a light T-shirt with a low neckline; her light skin and facial features suggested that she was possibly Vietnamese (there are a lot of Vietnamese living in Cambodia, with many residing in the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake, which lies to the south of Siem Reap.) She smiled at me sweetly and asked me if I wanted her to go back with me to my hotel for a massage; I politely declined her offer and continued on my way, thinking that perhaps this stretch of Sivatha Street was part of Siem Reap’s red light district. In keeping with what seemed to be the theme of the later part of my evening, when I went to the front desk of my hotel to get my room key, one of the two Cambodian guys behind the counter (the girl that I had normally seen there likely had the night off) leaned forward with a knowing smile and asked me if I would like a girl to be sent up to my room; I similarly declined the offer, of course.

I met Mr. Sunny down in the hotel lobby a bit before 5 AM and we made the roughly 8km to Angkor Wat’s main entrance. We walked eastward by flashlight through the darkness along the sandstone causeway that crosses a 190m-wide moat to the passage through the outer wall, which takes the form of an enclosed 235m-wide sandstone porch decorated with carvings and sculptures. In the porch, we paused to peer down the hallway that runs the length of the structure to the extent that the output of Mr. Sunny’s flashlight allowed. Having taken in the same view the previous day under the reflected light of the hazy afternoon sun, the visual impression and mood of the hall was entirely different when seen in installments beneath the wavering footprint of illumination cast by the flashlight’s beam; as it slowly advanced around the interior of the structure, it creates an eerie play of shadows off the porch’s columns and archways. Once inside the outer wall, we left the sandstone causeway that leads to Angkor Wat’s temple, and stood at the base of the steps to give the pre-dawn sky a chance to lighten before continuing to the reflecting pool. The sky on the east horizon was dark gray in color, but was still clear and black directly overhead, and filled with myriad stars, and the coolness of the air seemed awaken the senses and, perhaps due to a heightened acuity of the other sense to compensate for the darkness, lend particular clarity the soundscape of the temple grounds; the chirping of crickets mixed with the distant melodic morning chants of Buddhist monks drifting over from a monastery near the northwest corner of the temple; the muted scuff and patter of rubbers soles treading across sandstone blocks behind us heralds the arrival of more fellow tourists accompanied by their local guides en route to the reflecting pools across from the temple. As the temple’s iconic profile slowly began to materialize like a dark apparition against the fading sky in the east, we climbed the steps back on to the causeway and continued our 475m-long eastward walk. Ahead in the distance, dancing shafts of flashlight beams and sporadic camera flashes penetrated the darkness below the horizon.

Angkor Wat Temple in the Distance Before Sunrise

One of the Two Library Buildings, with Angkor Wat Temple in the Background

As we walked, the dull gray of the dawn sky slowly evolved into an array of colors: low morning fog and haze on the horizon and streaks of clouds hovering above the temple rendered in shades of violet and blue-gray; the upper reaches of the temple’s prang-styled ‘mountain peak’ central tower, the lower flanking corner towers, and the silhouettes of flanking palm trees in the foreground dramatically back-lit in swaths of pale salmon and mauve tones; farther above the horizon, the sky transitioned from light periwinkle to blue-gray, with the bottoms of the dawn sky’s higher clouds gilded in pale pink in advance of the approaching morning sun. With the brightening of the dawn sky, the visual details of the surrounds slowly materialized out of the gloom and soon becoming discernible without the aid of the guides’ flashlights, which were shortly switched off in quick succession as if on cue. Ahead of us, the strobe-like flashes of cameras momentarily blotted out the ambient light of early morning as tourist began snapping their pre-sunrise shots of Angkor Wat with increasing frequency as its majestic silhouette loomed ever-larger on the horizon; the whitish glows of their back-lit LCD screens were sporadically visible as they held their cameras out before them to frame the temple. When stairways presented themselves at opportune locations along the causeway, I used them to get some ground-level perspective of the temple and its surroundings. As we approached the library building, the chirping of crickets was replaced by the croaking of frogs and the morning calls of birds.

Angkor Wat Temple as Viewed from the North Reflecting Pool

The Sky's Colors Change as Sunrise Approaches

The Sun Rises Over Angkor Wat Temple

 

We headed off to the left of the causeway and positioned ourselves near the northwest corner of the reflecting pool. I searched out a break in the line of people standing along the bank so as to take some unobstructed pre-sunrise shots of the Angkor Wat temple with its image mirrored among the clumped patches of floating lotuses. Given the number of tourist present, the west end of the pool was thrumming with myriad murmured conversations as people occupied their time while waiting in anxious anticipation of the coming sunrise. As the assembled crowd gazed with rapt attention across the pool at the temple, the colors of the sky that surrounded it were in a state of continual transformation in hue and brightness, with the subtle changing in lighting of the clouds creating a greater sense of depth and texture. In the moments leading up to sunrise, the morning sky was set ablaze in a display of colors sufficient to dramatically lower the level and density of background conversations, as visitors from all over the world collectively paused to savor the sight. From our vantage point, the rising sun cleared the Angkor Wat temple structure just to the left of the northeast corner prang tower, with a hushed silence briefly falling over the crowd at that very moment as the raspy click of mechanical camera shutters, a chorus electronic beeps and chirps, and a multitude of other creative mp3 ‘picture taken’ notification tones filled the air.

Views of Angkor Wat Temple in the Early-Morning Sunlight

One of the Library Buildings in the Angkor Wat Compound

After a while, the crowd of tourists assembled along the western end of the reflecting pool began to disperse, with most of them returning to the causeway to head back to the main entrance; some of the other walk over to the monastery and its contemporary temple, which are located near the reflecting pool just beyond a row of food vendor stalls that caters both to the needs of the visiting tourists and the scavenging monkeys that hung around during the day. Mr. Sunny said that we would continue walking eastward and stroll along the northern flank of the temple so that we could enjoy a view of Angkor Wat in the early morning sunlight. As we made our way over to the temple, I was surprised that we did not encountering more tourists along the path. Given the thin scattered clouds and the haze in the morning sky, the sun’s rays bathed the temple in warm hues that made the iconic structure seem so much more vivid, and the low angle of the illumination lending an added sense of depth and prospective, giving the temple a different character than it had under the direct overhead sunlight of the previous afternoon. We walked along the northern side of Angkor Wat and followed its perimeter to the midpoint of its eastern side, then retrace our steps back onto the sandstone causeway for the walk back to the car. Witnessing a sunrise over Angkor Wat had been an impressive and memorable experience. It had been far better than the prior day’s sunset over Angkor’s Western Baray reservoir, which had been viewed from the hilltop Phnom Bakheng Temple and turned out to be a bit of a disappointment given the cloud cover on the horizon. 

Leaving Angkor Wat, we made our way eastward via the Angkor archeological zone's system of tree-lined paved roads, with our route following the southern perimeter of Angkor Wat's moat and taking us past Prasat Kravan Temple, which we had toured the previous morning, before connecting with the main road that leads north to Banteay Srei Temple and Kbal Spean. Passing through the village of Pradak, the view out the window soon changed from a procession of palms and leafy trees interspersed with homes and roadside vendor stalls to stretches of expansive rice paddies sparsely dotted with palm trees which extended nearly to the hazy horizon, with some isolated stilted thatched houses perched atop low earthen levys in the passing foreground helping to imbue the postcard-worthy scenery with a certain rustic charm. As we passed through another small village about 10km outside of Siem Reap, Mr. Sunny said something to our driver in Cambodian while pointing  to a spot up ahead on the right as we approached a round-about intersected with what looked to be a wide road running in an east-west direction. As we slowed to enter the round-about, he pointed out a sign on the right that indicated the entrance to the Cambodian Army's Fourth Troops Training Center, with a smaller sign near it that advertised the presence of a public firing range on the premises; the crossroad to the left of the round-about was pave and marked with lane lines, but the right side of the road leading onto the base was no more than compacted reddish dirt. Mr. Sunny looked back over his shoulder at me from the front seat with a satisfied smile and commented on how he had to ask around a bit before finally finding out about this place, and reminded me that we would stop at the range during our return trip to Siem Reap.

Banteay Srei Temple

The Interior of the Banteay Srei Courtyard

Detail Views of the Banteay Srei Carvings

We continued northward along the road for some time, passing the Cambodian Landmine Museum, myriad paddy fields and yet another small village before at last arriving at Banteay Srei Temple. Compared to the other temples that we had visited over the prior two days in Angkor, where there seemed to be a never-ending flow of tourists passing through, Banteay Srei looked nearly deserted save for a single van single parked out front, whose half-dozen presumed passengers were seen making their way along the levy-like strip of land that led across the moat to the entrance of the temple's courtyard. From somewhere nearby, the reverberant tones of a traditional Khmer melody being played on a wooden xylophone mingled with the chirps and echoing whistled calls of birds, which invoked a peaceful mood befitting of the surrounds as we paused to take in the view of the temple and its surrounding moat. Upon entering the small temple's compound, one can't help but be impressed by not only the high level of detail and craftsmanship exhibited by the carvings, but also in the shear scale of the effort involved. The strikingly three-dimensional aspect of the Banteay Srei carvings, achievable through the use of the hard red sandstone medium with its wood-like working qualities, sets them apart from the bas-relief carvings seen in the other Angkorian temples, with the depth conveyed by the play of shadows adding a dramatic element to the scenes drawn from Hindu stories portrayed in the carvings. The temple was consecrated in 967 A.D.  as a dedication to the Hindu God Shiva and credited to Yajnavaraha, a counsellor to King Rajendravarman II, making It the only major temple in Angkor not built by a king. The temple was originally called Tribuvanamahesvara ('the great lord of the threefold world'), with the temple's modern name of Banteay Srei translating to 'the citadel of women' or 'the citadel of beauty'. The temple was rediscovered in 1914 and restored in the 1930's using the anastylosis restoration technique, which uses the original architectural elements and materials to the greatest degree possible. Given the degree of restoration, some of the wall carvings do appear as a patchwork of materials and varying colors, though the result does nothing to diminish the temple's visual impact. The limited number of fellow tourists at the temple that morning at times made it feel like we had the place all to ourselves, and that sense combined with the sounds of nature in the background as we strolled about the compound made the visit to Banteay Srei a memorable one. We headed back to the car and made our way back onto the main road for the rural 18km drive northward to Kbal Spean. 

Scenery on the Trek to the Carved Riverbeds of Kbal Spean

 

Heading Up into the Jungle

Scenes Along the Kbal Spean Trail

After briefly stopping to check in at the visitor's center, the driver dropped Mr. Sunny and I off at the trailhead located at the far end of the graveled parking area. The trek started out easy, with the fairly level trail meandering beneath the shade of the tree canopy and taking us past a stretch of rock outcroppings along the edge of the jungle that afforded a scenic view of the surrounding mountains and countryside. Shortly there after, the trail began winding its way uphill through the jungle, taking us up a dry wash that at times had us on and over rocks and through tangles of exposed tree roots that snaked across the trail. The first leg of the trek was a bit of a work-out, but manageable as we were making it in the mid-morning and didn’t have to contend with the afternoon heat. While Kbal Spean's myriad riverbed carvings alone warrant the over one-hour drive from Siem Reap plus the 2km uphill hike, the visitor will no doubt find the interesting (and sometimes 'other-worldly') tree root, branch and vine formations also worthy of the time and effort required to make the visit. Large, gray and scaly silk-cotton tree roots lay over boulders like elephant trunks; strangler fig roots drape over rocks like snakes sunning themselves, or cling to the sloped contours of the jungle floor like long strands of melted cheese; long, moss and lichen-covered vines bridge between the trees and the ground like slack rope, grip the tree trunks in a spiral embrace, and hang in braids like rope, or clumps like Rastafarian dreadlocks. By far, the most intriguing tree root formation seen on the trail resembled some sort of alien life form.

As we hiked through a particular section of trail that took us up a gradual slope through a stand of closely-spaced trees, Mr. Sunny commented that the scenery reminded him of some of the patrols he did while in the Cambodian Army, and proceeded to tell me about some of his experiences. He had served in a commando unit that was tasked with locating remaining holdovers from the former Khmer Rouge, of which there were still many at the time in some of the remote 'lawless' regions of the country at the time. He told of some fire fights that his unit had been in when they came into contact with bands of the holdovers, and how once the opposing force was so strong that his unit was forced to retreat under heavy fire, with some of his fellow soldiers even throwing down their weapons and equipment and literally running for their lives. He talked of friends lost to enemy fire and booby traps, and even how he lost a friend who died after eating poisoned rations that had been left behind by the Khmer Rouge rebels. His tales were both compelling and sobering, and added an emotional element to my visit to Cambodia that I would also experience while visiting Siem Reap's 'killing fields' memorial shrine on the grounds of Wat Thmei, in which the bones of many Khmer Rouge victims are displayed, and during my encounters with impoverished landmine victims begging for handouts on the streets.

The Riverbed Carvings of Kbal Spean

The Waterfall at Kbal Spean

In Sanskrit, the word 'linga', or 'lingam' refers to the masculine gender; in popular Hinduism, linga refers to a phallus or male sex organ, the symbol of the God Shiva. The Sanskrit word 'yoni' refers to the vagina or womb, and is the female counterpart to the linga; in Hindu philosophy, yoni is the origin of live and the representation of Shakti and Devi, the creative force that moves through the entire universe. Although Kbal Spean could be humorously referred to as the 'River of a Thousand Penises', the name actually means 'bridgehead', as the site features a natural rock bridge. Myriad linga have been carved into the riverbed, appearing as very short rounded cylinders or disks; longer, more stylized representations of the linga also appear along parts of the rock bank upstream of the rock bridge. The 1,000 riverbed lingas were said to have been carved in the 11^th century, and were believed to have blessed the water that would flow over them before continuing downstream to the kingdom of Angkor. The yoni is symbolized by a frame-like square shape with an opening at the bottom bracketed by short vertical lines; some yoni symbols are also included in the riverbed carvings. When we arrived at the riverbed, we first took the upper path to view the carvings above the bridgehead, the most impressive being the carving of Vishnu, the Supreme God of the Vaishnavism sect of Hinduism. We worked our way downstream, viewing the carvings at the bridgehead (some of which had been hacked off and taken by thieves), then further down where a carved yoni symbol just below the water's surface was surrounded by hundreds of semi-submerged lingas, and several animal figures were carved into the rocks near the top of the waterfall. After taking the wooden stairs down to get a view of the waterfall (and a few Cambodian who happened to be frolicking in it at the time), we got back on the trail for the return hike to the car.

Exhibits at the Cambodian Landmine Museum

Leaving Kbal Spean, we retraced our route and about 6km south of Banteay Srei Temple arrived at the Cambodian Landmine Museum. The museum, officially known as the Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Facility (CLMMRF), was established in 1997 by former child-soldier Aki Ra. He became an orphan at age 5 when his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, and was later forced to become a child-soldier for the Khmer Rouge by age 10. In 1983 he was captured by the Vietnamese and forced into conscription with the Vietnamese army, and later conscripted into the Cambodian army as a teenaged soldier. He was later trained in land mine clearance by the United Nations, and would ultimately returned to the same villages where he had planted land mines earlier to remove and diffuse them, and other unexploded munitions and ordnance, by hand using homemade tools. In 2008, Aki Ra would go on to establish a formal demining NGO, Cambodia Self Help Demining (CSHD). In the course of his land mine clearing work, he would encounter many impoverished children that had been injured by land mines, and would bring them into his home and raise them with his family. Although the museum's Relief Facility initially provided aid and support to child land mine victims, today it also cares for, and provides education to, children suffering from a variety of physical, emotional and family-related difficulties, and also those children who are deemed at-risk. The CLMMRF is an NGO that is funded in part by the museum admission fees but also by donation, and also accepts volunteers. The museum exhibits informative displays that raise awareness and educate the visitor to the effects that land mines and unexploded ordnance have had on Cambodia's past and present, and how they will continue to affect the country's future. Also on display is a large collection of land mines and other ordnance that had been cleared and diffused by Aki Ra himself, in addition to guns, mortars and other weapons that had been used in Cambodia's civil war. As I only had about 30 minutes to spend in the museum, I walked through the different galleries to quickly browse among the displays and selectively review some of the placards in more detail, in addition to take photos of some of the weapons and ordnance to caught my interest. I did save some time to walk through the museum's mock 'mine field' to see how many of the deactivated land mines, grenades, cluster munitions, and the like (some of which was partially buried or hidden by vegetation) that I could detect; having only found a small fraction of what had been planted on the small plot of land, I thankfully walked away from the experience with the sobering realization of how easily a villager out working his or her land could miss seeing such a device and end up suffering grave bodily harm or death.

Weapons on Display at the Fourth Troops Training Center's Public Shooting Range

A Bren LMG (Top) and a FN MAG 58 GPMG (Bottom)

A V-40 Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launcher

M-16's and M-1 Carbines

12 Gauge Shotgun, AK-47's and a Czech SA-26

M-79, M3 'Grease Gun', MAT-49, DP-27 and PPSh-41's

The driver slowed as we approached the now-familiar traffic circle, then circumnavigated three-quarters of it and entered the dirt road leading onto the army base, with our driver stopping at a security checkpoint booth to get directions to the public shooting range from its khaki-clad sole occupant. We continued down the dirt road past some large buildings on the left that I assumed to be barracks, with a few soldiers dressed in camouflage pants, light khaki T-shirts and boots walking along the dirt path that led to the buildings. Driving through a stretch of open land and barren paddy fields, we veered left at a fork in the road onto another dirt track that took us towards a group of buildings in the distance as Mr. Sunny and the driver appeared to be discussing in Cambodian the directions that they had been given; we made a final right turn and after passing a line of buildings and what looked like a parade ground, came to a stop behind a building at the end of the road, where Mr. Sunny commented that he guessed this must be the place. The driver park the car and the three of us got out and walked around the right side of the building, seeing as we rounded the corner that much of the wall we were parked behind formed the back of a covered patio, with the range's staff office located at the far end of the patio and the indoor firing bays located to the right beyond a strip of uncovered patio. Hanging from metal brackets along the back patio wall were a variety of weapons, some of which were available for rent, including bolt-action and semiautomatic rifles, sub machine gun, select-fire assault rifles, light and general purpose machine guns and rocket/grenade launchers. One of the staff members came out to greet us, first speaking to Mr. Sunny and our driver in Cambodian, then to me in English. Thinking about going with the 'big ticket item' first, I asked if I would be able to firing any rocket-propelled grenades or other heavy anti-tank weapons, to which he responded with a chuckle that they did not offer any of those types of weapons for firing at this range. With USD $200 burning a hole in my pocket, I figured that I would do a first-round selection of which automatic weapons I would most want to fire, then down select what to rent based on the most intriguing combination that would fit within my budget. First on my list was the AK-47, which I was told would run me $40 dollars and include a single 30-round magazine. For the next item in my shopping (or rather, 'shooting') cart, I asked about the rental fee for the M-16, but was told that it was currently not on the rental menu due to 5.56x45mm ammo availability. As I browsed the wall to decide on my next weapon, he asked if I wanted to shoot the Uzi as he pointed to a weapon joined by a length of chain to a column of AK-47's. and an old rusted pump shotgun. Having fired the Uzi sub machine gun on about a half-dozen occasions, I knew that it was not an Uzi. Though it did bare a passing resemblance to it with the magazine well running through the grip and a collapsible steel stock, it looked like the homely love child of an Uzi and a British Sten sub machine gun, but it was attractive enough for me, so I added it to my shopping cart ($40, with one 32-round magazine); I would later do a bit of research and learn that the gun was a Czech SA-26 sub machine gun, with its funky forward-angled grip owing to its 7.62x25mm necked cartridge clambering. Next, I chose the iconic WW-II era Russian PPSh-41 sub machine gun, also chambered in 7.62x25mm and fed from a 70-round drum magazine ($50, with one 71-round drum). I asked about the FN MAG/M-240 belt-fed general purpose machine gun and the Bren light machine gun, but was told that there was no ammo for either. I saw some US mil-surplus carbines hanging on the wall beneath the old M-16's, but decided against one when it was confirmed that they were M-1's and not the desired select-fire M-2 variants. I was then asked if I wanted to try what the staff member referred to as 'the paunce' as he pointed to an oldly-stocked rifle with a high and blocky rear sight that sported a folding bipod and a conical flash hider, saying that it was a lot of fun to shoot. It would later turn out to be an old Russian DP-27 light machine gun, sharing the same rimmed 7.62x54R chambering of the famed Mosin-Nagant battle rifle (of which I own one of the M91/30 variants which was manufactured in Russia's Tula Arsenal back in 1938) and being fed by a 47-round horizontal pan magazine; I figured that for its novelty value alone, it would be worth the $70 investment. Mr. Sunny and our driver had a seat beneath the covered patio as, after the agreed sum of money had changed hands, the staff member and his assistant led me over to the longer of the indoor firing bays which already had a silhouette target posted some 30m down range.

AK-47 and Czech SA-26 SMG; First and Second Rental Guns Fired, Respectively

PPSh-41 Sub Machine Gun; Third Rental Gun Fired

Russian DP-27 Light Machine Gun; Fourth Rental Gun Fired

Posing with the AK-47 by the Range's Wall O' Guns

I was handed a set of earmuffs for hearing protection and told that my glasses would be sufficient for eye protection, and then handed an AK-47 with the bolt locked back on an empty chamber, followed by an loaded magazine to insert into the weapon. I would have preferred to have been firing a weapon fitted with a sling, as I find that using a 'hasty sling' technique, where by the sling wraps across the outside of the supporting arm bicep and the inside of the same wrist and tensioned to firmly bring the stock of the rifle into the shoulder, lends a lot more stability to the weapon and would make it much more controllable in full-automatic firing. Instead of gripping the weapon's wooden foregrip with the supporting hand, I gripped the front end of the magazine with my index finger pressed up against the weapon's stamped sheet metal receiver and tried to get as much contact between the top of my upper arm and my ribs as possible to get the desired 'bone-on-bone' contact to provide the most stable shooting platform. Not knowing what to expect with regards to cyclic rate of fire but figuring it could be somewhere between that of an Uzi and an MP-5 sub machine gun, I pulled the weapon in tight and leaned slightly forward and got a rough sight picture on the target. I curled my fingers around the charging handle and pulled it back slightly against the force of the recoil spring and release them to let the bolt and bolt carrier/gas pistol assembly slide forward to chamber the top round in the magazine. I rotated the fire selector level up to the safe position, then down one click to the full automatic position. Returning my hand to the pistol grip, I aligned the sights for a 'Six-O'clock hold' on the silhouette's center of mass as I began to take the slack out of the trigger; as the resistance seemed to peak, I paused to let out about half of a deep breath and slowly squeezed the trigger until it broke, quickly but smoothly as possible releasing it as soon as I felt the recoil and heard the report. I was a bit surprised to discharge only a single shot with the delay of my trigger release, and decided to delay my trigger release an extra fraction of a second for the next shot. The added hesitation resulted in a fairly controllable three-round burst, with surprisingly little muzzle rise despite the weapon's lack of a muzzle brake. I split the difference in let-off delay time and was able to consistently modulate two-round burst for the remaining twenty-six rounds in the magazine; the target was not retrieved after I finished, so I could not judge the results of my shooting. The next weapon fired was the 'pseudo-Uzi' Czech SA-26 sub machine gun. We moved over to the adjacent firing bay, which is shorter and has the target holder placed at a distance more appropriate to sub machine guns. The SA-26 is a bit lighter than the Uzi and thus felt perhaps a little more maneuverable; similar to the standard Uzi, it is blowback-operated and fires from an open bolt, with the impact of the fixed firing pin bolt against the receiver prior to each shot being fired tending to make the first shot of each burst (or each single shot made) strike a bit below the point of aim. As with the first shot with the AK-47, I squeezed the trigger and quickly released it as soon as the weapon fired to try to modulate as short of a burst as possible, producing what seemed to be a four-round burst with a nice flash from the combustion of unburned gun powder forward of the muzzle, and a streak of soot-laden gun lubricant splashed across the right lens of my eyeglasses. As the location of the lubricant streak obscured my vision, I had the staff member/range safety officer take and safe the weapon for me so that I could clean off my glasses at the small sink provided for the tourists to wash the grease, burnt powder and lead residue (mainly from the spent cartridge primers) off after their range session. As I was walking back to the shooting bench to fire the remaining rounds in the magazine, the other staff member brought me out a pair of safety glasses; the SA-26 was then handed back to me so that I could fire off the remainder of the magazine in a series of modulated three to five-round bursts. After the weapon was made safe and taken off the range, my target was retrieved so that I could see the results of my shooting; my shots formed more of a widely-dispersed pattern than a grouping, though a number of bullet holes were in the form of 'keyholes', meaning that the bullets tumbled end-over-end through the target, which suggested that the barrel's rifling may have been 'shot out' (worn down) due to overuse and thus contributed to the weapon's poor accuracy (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) 

The next gun to be fired was the PPSh-41 sub machine gun, which saw use in wars from WWII on through the Cambodian Civil War (11 March 1967 - 17 April 1975) and into the Iraq War. The weapon is also blowback-operated and fires from an open bolt; the open bolt feature is employed in weapons designed for periods of sustained automatic fire, where the barrel's chamber gets so hot that a round left sitting in the chamber could rapidly absorb enough heat that the cartridge primer could auto-ignite and fire the round unintentionally (this condition is referred to as a 'cook-off'). The PPSh-41 has a cyclic rate of approximately 1000 rounds per minute, higher than that of both the AK-47 (600 rpm) and the SA-26 (650 rpm). What I really liked about the drum-fed PPSh-41 was that, when shouldered for firing, I was able to maintain full bone-on-bone (upper arm to rib) contact with my supporting arm and cant the forearm down such that I could rest the bottom of the drum magazine on my palm; by curling my fingers up to keep rearward pressure on the forward face of the drum, I was able to affect a pretty stable off-hand shooting stance, with the weight of the weapon contributing to the stability. With a Six-O'clock hold on the silhouette's center of mass, my quick squeeze-and-release of the trigger sent six or seven bullets down range with a loud sputter and some jets of smoke venting through the heat shield's lightening holes just forward of the barrel's shrouded muzzle. Once I got used to the trigger, I was able to modulate three to five-round bursts until the magazine ran dry.   Examining my target hanging downrange, it looked like I'd shot pretty good with the PPSh-41, with a few flyers striking just barely off the edge of the  silhouette's left shoulder, but the rest of the shots falling in a well-centered, oval-shaped group extending roughly from the sternum to the navel. With the weapon made safe and taken off the range, one of the staff members walked forward of firing line to retrieve the the target, then returned to give me a better look at the results of my shooting; he looked down at the target and smiled as he nodded to himself, then looked up to me with his beaming smile and flashed me a thumbs-up to convey his approval of my performance with the weapon. 

The final weapon for the morning was the Russian DP-27 light machine gun; it was design by Vasily Degtyaryov in 1927 and went into service in 1928 (hence it is often referred to as the 'DP-28'), and its battle use has ranged from the Spanish Civil War (1936) to the recent Libyan and Syrian civil wars. Like the AK-47, it is gas-operated, meaning that some of the high-pressure gas from the burning gunpowder which pushes the bullet down the barrel is vented off to drive the mechanisms which orchestrated the weapon’s operation. The DP-27 was brought out with its bipod extended and placed on the bench top by the staff member, who then installed the pan magazine and filled me in on the basic 'manual of arms' (operating instructions) for the weapon. One of the design features was an angled safety lever located directly behind the trigger guard that had to be pressed upward with the middle finger before the trigger could be pulled with the index finger to fire the weapon. Thus familiar with its operation, I positioned myself behind the benched weapon and, leaning forward with my legs spread comfortably apart for stability, raised and settled the stock into my shoulder and adjusted my position to align the sights with the target. I took an immediate disliking to the bipod, which seemed flimsy and a bit 'loosely-gooey', particularly with regards to stability about the weapon's bore axis. I signaled to the staff member that I was ready to (rock and) roll and, with my fingers both outside the trigger guard and Lear of the rear safety lever, he raked the under-receiver charging handle rearward to strip and chamber the first 7.62x54R round from the pan magazine. With the DP-27's 500 to 600-round per minute cyclic rate being in the ballpark of the AK-47's rate, I was able to easily modulate a two-round burst, and was treated to an echoing and satisfying double-boom as the weapon gave my shoulder two quick and health shoves that caused the feet of the likely-fragile bipod to skid a short distance rearward across the bench top, with the conical flash-hider affixed to the end of the barrel doing its job efficiently. So as to be able to better appreciate the weapon's report, recoil and the vibrations of it's internal machination as transmitted to my right cheek through the oiled wooden stock, I opted to empty the pan magazine in a series of thee-round bursts despite the resulting foreshortening of my firing session. Things did not quite go as planned, for at the conclusion of one of my bursts as I let off my finger from the trigger enough to reset it but still kept the safety lever depressed, the weapon continued to rattle and buck against my cheek and shoulder to my great surprise (not to mention the surprise and apparent amusement of the staff member standing behind me with his right hand a couple of inches from the back of my should to react in the event of a runaway burst), as the weapon continued its stepwise rearward advance across the bench top until I fully release the safety lever. "Whoa!", the staff member exclaimed, following it up itch a hearty chuckle that added to the slight embarrassment that I felt together the the adrenalin rush that accompanies a surprised sustained burst from a light machine gun in one's hands. As the echoes of the last burst faded away inside the stuffy and now rather smoky confines of the firing bay, I exhaled the second half of a held breath drawn in before the last squeeze of the trigger with a sense of satisfaction. I stepped back from the bench so that the weapon could be confirmed to be in a safe condition and carried over to be placed on the rough concrete floor next to the indoor range's scantily-mortared brick wall, where I would snap a picture of it before my post-range session hand washing. Before leaving the range to continue on our return trip to Siem Reap, I had a photo of me holding an AK-47 in front of the range's 'Wall O' Guns' taken.

Stopping By a Rural Home Outside of Siem Reap

Wooden Tubes for Collecting Palm Sap

Collecting Sap for Processing into Palm Sugar

A Rural Roadside Vendor

A Rural Gas Station and Convenience Store

Somewhere on the outskirts of Siem Reap along a tree-lined stretch of road dotted with houses and rustic vendor stalls, we slowed and pulled off the road in front of a stilted wooden house paired with an adjacent, similarly-stilted thatched house, which were located at the edge of an open field amid a small stand of palm trees; Mr. Sunny announced that we were stopping at the home of a local family that produces palm sugar. We walked over to where a girl was preparing the wooden tubes that are used to collect the sugary palm sap, then were shown some of the collections tubes hanging in the palm trees, and finally the earthen hearth used to process the palm sugar. After a bit more browsing around the premises and taking a few more pictures, we got back in the car and continued our southward drive.

Angkor's Pre Rup Temple

Passing back through the village of Pradak on the outskirts of Siem Reap, we turned right onto a lesser road that took us past a stretch of open paddy fields, then through the sporadic shade of roadside palms and leafy trees where, a couple of turns later, we came to a stop in front of Angkor's Pre Rup Temple. The base of the temple is pyramid-shaped, with five lotus towers on the upper third tier. Mr. Sunny accompanied up the steps leading to the upper tier, giving me some background on the temple (the name Pre Rup means 'turning the body', referring to a traditional method of cremation) and pointing out some of the temple's more noteworthy detailed lintel carvings. He then told me that he was going to head back down to the car, and that I could meet him back down there in about 15 minutes to drive back to the hotel and end the morning's excursion. As I walked the perimeter of the upper tier and shot some photos, I reflected back on the morning's activity and felt that the excursion had been well-worth having the extra day on my Apsara Authority Pass.

Here are some video clips that I took over the course of my morning excursion beyond Siem Reap: 

Update:

Sometime after my trip to Siem Reap, I would learn via an article from The Phnom Penh Post that Sok San Palace, referred to as "...Siem Reap's most prominent girlie bar" and famous for its flexible dancers and its very flexible definition of 'massage', had shut its doors shortly after my visit. It was speculated that Sok San's closure was related to the government crackdown on gambling and prostitution, which had led to the shut down of scores of casinos and brothels throughout Cambodia. But according to Sok San's manager, the shut down coincided with road work on Sivatha Street that would block access to the newly-renovated club (the road work at the time of my visit had not yet come down Sivatha as far south as the club's side street, having only progressed as far as the street leading to the Angkor Night Market.) As the Post article's title 'Sok San Palace trades sin and skin for family-friendly fare' suggests, the new business model of the club would place more of an emphasis on family-friendly entertainment such as comedians, singers and guest DJs for its scheduled reopening in May 2009. The article mentioned that the scantily-clad dancers had been fired, but as the lovely Ms. Sunitha was merely a smartly-uniformed hostess, she may still have been on the payroll for the club's reopening, or perhaps moved on to something bigger and better.