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Worst Night Bus Ever? You Decide.

Erin — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:00:53 +0000

Recently we had the opportunity to go to Cambodia and were there just before Christmas. If you ever have the chance to go to Cambodia, Christmas is a good time to go. Especially if you want to go to Angkor Wat. We were in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is, and were amazed at how few tourists were there. We actually were the only people at some of the ruins in Siem Reap, which surprised us a lot. Being in Cambodia and getting more familiar with the country was a really great experience, definitely one of my top international experiences. Our first few hours there, though, gave us quite an opposite impression and made us a little skeptical about the rest of our trip. As we were arriving at the Cambodian airport, we got a little weirded out. Southeast Asia has this strange thing where they fog their airplanes just before landing. I had no idea what it is for at the time and we both had some concerns about it. Thankfully, though, one of our subsequent flights said what the smoke was for and it made us feel a bit better. The smoke is just some kind of anti-bacterial fog and not actual smoke. Thank goodness. That tripped me out the first few times it happened. Before we got all concerned about the smoke, though, we had some nice views of the Cambodian landscape as we began our descent. I’ll apologize now for the low-quality photos in this post. My DSLR was packed away, so I took most of these either with my cell phone or my really old digital camera. Landing in Cambodia and getting through the airport wasn’t so bad. That was actually the easy part of the evening. The landing was smooth (which you will learn to appreciate traveling around that part of the world) and we were able to get off the plane without any drama. We had gotten our visas several weeks before our trip, so we were able to get through immigration fairly quickly, too. It only took about 10 minutes to get our visas examined, arrival cards scanned, passports stamped, and be out the door. It was after leaving the airport that things got a little strange. We arrived in Phnom Penh about 4:45pm and had booked an overnight bus to take us straight to Siem Reap. The one we’d booked didn’t leave until about 6:00, so we had a little bit of time to kill………..but that’s not the one we ended up getting on. When we got outside the airport, we snagged a little tuk-tuk to take us to the bus stop so we could get there early and not risk missing it. One thing that is common in Asia is that time is relative. Buses and trains rarely ever leave on time, but you never know which day they will leave early or which day they will be running late, so being decently early is a good idea. We figured being about 30-40 minutes wouldn’t be so bad. We could pick up our tickets, maybe get a little something to eat, wander up and down the street, and then get on our way. Our tuk-tuk driver, though, had other plans. Once we told him where we wanted to go, he got all excited and told us that he knew of another night bus heading to Siem Reap that was leaving right then and there. He said it was better than the one we had booked and that it was the exact same price, so he wanted to take us there instead of to the one we booked. Um, okay, great. We’d love to be on a bus that is leaving now. But, dude, we’re not there. We’re still at the airport. We’ve already missed it. Not to be deterred, our spunky little tuk-tuk driver drove all over Phnom Penh to track down the bus. It was hilarious at the time. He went to the bus depot and found out the route the bus was taking and took all these little side streets to get to each pick-up spot as quickly as possible. It was actually pretty neat to get a super speedy scenic tour of the city before leaving. These are some of the interesting things we saw. Our view from the back of the tuk-tuk as we left the airport. These things aren’t too bad for a quick trip around the city. The weather was nice and there wasn’t a lot of pollution, so we rather enjoyed the fresh air and pleasant breeze. Obligatory selfie. We were super excited to be in Cambodia. We were going to Angkor Wat first thing in the morning and were brimming with enthusiasm for this wonderful new experience. And, no, I didn’t cut my hair. It was just in a bun. Whenever I fly my hair is either in a bun or braids. Also, this is a rare photo of Troy smiling. Sort of. Usually he’s making a goofy face or sticking his finger up his nose. So, enjoy this rare treat. His smiles are quite handsome. Snack carts are so popular here. Most of the time people just push them, but this one was unique because it was attached to the guy’s motorbike. We both kinda wished we could buy some stuff from him since we were both a little hungry, but we were in a hurry and already had some snacks in our backpacks, so we just zoomed right on by. This is off to the side of one of the main streets in Phnom Penh. Every so often you will see a congregation of food carts and people coming to get snacks or meals. We really wanted to stop and check it out, but, alas, we were on a time schedule. This is a typical convenience store. This is basically what most stores on the main streets look like: open front with shelves of wares out on the sidewalk. We were only stopped here for a couple of minutes so the tuk-tuk driver could pop in the bus station office and ask which route the bus was taking and then we were off again. And you think YOUR traffic is bad. This is actually not that bad of traffic for this part of the world. Cars are always up on each other and nobody really pays attention to lane lines. At this point our tuk-tuk was halfway on the sidewalk, but nobody really cares about that here. The only time we got concerned was when we almost got squished by a big bus. Scooter gangs are the most common site on the roads in Asia, which makes sense since scooters seem to be the most maneuverable. They seriously do whatever they want. I’ve seen scooters drive on the sidewalk for a block to bypass stalled traffic, I’ve seen scooters at a red light dart across the road between cars that have the green light, I’ve seen scooters drive between cars going the opposite way, and I’ve seen scooters going up and down stairs. Nobody really cares what scooters do. Kinda wish we’d been driving around town on one, but alas, we were not. The tuk-tuk was fun and we don’t regret it at all. After driving around for about 20 minutes, we made it to this little hole in the wall shop where our driver stopped and ran inside. And I mean that literally. There were several doors lining a portion of the wall down an alley and that is where the tuk-tuk driver took us. I thought we were asking directions again, but the tuk-tuk driver came back outside and told us that the bus would be here any minute and that we could get tickets by paying the man inside. So, we paid the man inside and got our tickets. We were pretty happy about getting tickets for a bus that left an hour earlier than the one we’d reserved. And we were also happy that we didn’t have to pay to reserve a spot on the other bus, so it wouldn’t matter about taking this one. They were both the same price, so it all worked out in the end. Or so we thought. This is about $10.14 USD. Once the bus arrive and we got on the bus, we started to realize we may have made a grave mistake. This bus…….was………awful. And it was non-refundable. So, as unfortunate as it was, we were out of luck. The first thing we noticed about this bus was that it was not a sleeper bus. Troy had reserved us seats on a sleeper bus and this one was definitely NOT a sleeper bus. This was a double-decker travel bus…..kinda. There was a downstairs where all the luggage went that was tall enough for people to walk around, but it wasn’t set up so people could travel down there. The people went on the upper level………which was just seats, no sleepers. It looked comfortable enough, though, after we got on and looked around, so we just sat down and off the bus went. We figured we’d just lay our seats back and sleep that way. That is, until we realized how bumpy the ride was. Holy bananas was that ride bumpy. It was like going over train tracks the entire time. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the craziness. After the bus stopped a few more times, we realized people were looking around and picking specific seats. Once we actually looked at our tickets, we realized we had seat numbers, so we got up and found those seats. And immediately wished we hadn’t. What we hadn’t noticed upon entry to the bus was that most seats only had one arm rest. The other arm rests were either missing or the plastic was gone, leaving only the metal body, which was rather sharp. My seat had the metal body on one side and plastic on the other. Troy’s had plastic on the outside, so we were at least fortunate that only one of us had sharp metal stuff. I put Troy’s hat over my one gimpy arm rest so I wouldn’t get my arm all scratched up. The other fun part about our seats was that mine leaned back really far and wouldn’t sit up. Troy’s sat straight (and I mean STRAIGHT) and wouldn’t lean back. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, Troy’s seat wouldn’t stay on. lol. The first bump we hit, he slid forward, flailing his arms around and almost tipping sideways into the aisle. It was sooooooo funny and I laughed really hard. Troy was only slightly amused. Every time the bus hit a bump, he would slide forward and have to catch himself. It was pretty funny the first 5-6 times. But by the 20th time, it wasn’t so funny anymore. He eventually wedged his backpack between his seat and the seat in front of him, but that meant he had nowhere to put his legs and had to straddle the backpack. We figured once we were on the road that we’d just switch to different seats, but by the time we left the city our bus was completely full and we were stuck in our less than ideal spots. For the first hour or so, we sat like that: me leaning at an awkward and uncomfortable angle and Troy with a backpack between his legs. I was able to doze for a bit, but couldn’t stay asleep for long because ‘things’ kept crawling on me. I’m hoping they were just ants, but my suspicion is that they were other things. Yuck. And it didn’t help when Troy got super excited because down the stairs (we were seated across from the stairs) on a piece of luggage was a spider the size of a half dollar. He turned on the flashlight on his cell phone and went down to check it out. Thankfully, the dang thing didn’t bite him, even though he was moving luggage...

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The Stavelot Triptych

Erin — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 04:26:32 +0000

During the Middle Ages, religious travel was becoming popular. As more people began pilgrimages to seek out religious relics, different churches and monasteries began working to draw visitors and gain additional funding through donations left by the devout. Since very few churches or cities could lay claim to such renowned relics as were in Jerusalem and Rome, many commissioned elaborate housings for the small relics they did have in an attempt to draw visitors. It was during this time, roughly 1156 AD, that a small abbey in what is now known as Belgium commissioned local Mosan artists to create a reliquary to hold their small, precious relics. This is now known as the Stavelot Triptych. Background While it is not known who commissioned the Stavelot Triptych or the actual artist was, it is there is an understanding in the art community of where it originated. It is commonly believed the Abbot of Stavelot Abbey requested its creation and that Godefroid de Huy, a prominent goldsmith during that time, created the work. Wibald, the Abbot of Stavelot Abbey from 1130 to 1159, went to Constantinople in 1154 and returned to the abbey with a piece from the cross on which Christ was crucified, known as the True Cross, and a small scrap of the Mother Mary’s robe. In order to show proper reverence to these items and to draw additional interest in seeing them, Abbot Wibald had a beautiful and ornate Romanesque reliquary made for them: the Stavelot Triptych. A triptych is something that is made up of three pieces. In this case, it is a set of three ornately decorated panels that are hinged together so they can be closed and minimized for easy transport. The main panel of the Stavelot Triptych is set up like an ancient shadow box to display two smaller Byzantine triptychs which hold the relics Abbot Wibald brought back from Constantinople. Those triptychs date from the “11th or early 12th centuries” (Ross). On them we see depictions of the cross surrounded by images of Constantine and Helena, archangels and the military saints George, Procopius, Theodore and Demetrius along with four evangelists. The Left Panel While the objects in the center panel of the triptych are fascinating and worthy of attention, the side panels of the triptych are also remarkable and warrant equal attention. For, on the side panels we find the stories of Emperor Constantine’s conversion and St. Helena’s quest to find the True Cross. These panels are designed in a way that is very typical of Romanesque art during this time period. Bottom Medallion On the left-hand side of the triptych is the story of Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. The story begins at the bottom and is an idealized version of true events. In the bottom medallion, Constantine is shown having a dream of an angel. The angel is telling him he will be victorious if he goes into battle with the sign of the cross. The angel is bending over, gesturing up, while Constantine is laying down sleeping. This animated gesture is a contrast from the stoic poses used in Byzantine art as are the labels, details and speech bubbles, which are storytelling elements that are common of Romanesque art at this time. There are also various symbolic elements in the image. The crown hanging from the center shows Constantine is destined for greatness. The curtain being pulled aside behind him denotes he is a holy figure. There is a cityscape in the background which suggests that this takes place in a city in Rome. Middle Medallion The middle medallion depicts the end of the Battle of Milvian Bridge. In this battle, Constantine was victorious over Maxentius, who is seen running from Constantine’s troops who are carrying a cross. Constantine became Emperor after this victory, which he believed came about because he used the cross. As an added dramatic element, two soldiers lay dying at the bottom: one is speared while the other is bleeding out through the neck. This element was included because Romanesque artists told stories in more lively ways to engage the emotions of the viewer. The earth is represented, as well, to ground them and give them a more realistic and relatable quality. Top Medallion The final medallion telling the story of Constantine’s conversion is on the top left. In this medallion, we see Constantine being baptized, which is a partial fabrication. Constantine really was baptized, but not in the manner depicted in the medallion. He was actually baptized by a heretic, which the church did not want represented. This picture depicts him being baptized by Pope Sylvester at the end of his life while priests and ministers witnessed the ceremony. The lines on his body represent ribs and muscles which was done in a typically Romanesque fashion as Romanesque art exaggerated muscles and strength. This baptism is shown to be blessed by God by use of the rays and God’s hand and is shown to have taken place in Rome. The Right Panel On the opposite side of the triptych we see the story of Empress Helena, Constantine’s mother, seeking for and finding the cross which Jesus Christ was crucified on. This cross is known as the True Cross and is highly revered in Christian culture. It was sought after for years and is commonly believed to have been found by Empress Helena during her visit to the Holy Land from 326-328AD. Empress Helena is believed to have found the crosses for Jesus Christ and the two thieves who were crucified with Him and legend states that “a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross” (Wikipedia). Bottom Medallion As with Constantine’s story on the left, Empress Helena’s story begins at the bottom of the panel. The bottom right medallion shows Empress Helena sitting on throne, talking to Jewish elders. She went to the Holy Land to establish churches and relief agencies as well as search for relics and bring them back to Rome. In this scene Helena is seated while talking to the Jewish elders as she tries to get them to tell her where the cross Jesus was crucified on is. They refuse to tell her and she threatens them with fire, which is shown behind the elders. The Jewish elders are labeled as Jews and also dressed with white hats which denote them as Jews. As was typical with artistic conventions of the time, Jews wear different kinds of clothing that sets them apart from Christians in art. Middle Medallion In the middle medallion on the right, we see Empress Helena giving direction while the Jewish elders dig a pit. After severe threatening, the Jews finally capitulated and told Empress Helena where they thought the crosses were. Empress Helena had the Jews dig up (and destroy) the Temple of Venus, which is where the crosses were. This act is shown to be blessed by God by use of the rays and God’s hand. There were three crosses underneath the Temple of Venus and they had to figure out which one was the True Cross. Top Medallion The top medallion shows the story of how they figured out which cross was the one Jesus Christ died on. Soon after finding the crosses, they saw a dying person passing by and asked him touch each cross. Legend states that the True Cross healed the man. This act is shown to be blessed by God by use of the rays and God’s hand. Comparison Analysis As a whole, the Stavelot Triptych is fascinating and very ornate, though that was not unusual for this time period. Since many churches were commissioning elaborate reliquaries for their magnificent relics, works of such ornate and elaborate craftsmanship were becoming common and held similar characteristics. The elements and conventions of the Stavelot Triptych, while detailed and beautiful, were very typical of Romanesque art. Within 50 years of the Stavelot Triptych being created, another famous work was created that held very similar elements. This was the Reliquary of St. Maurus. Similarities Both the Stavelot Triptych and the Reliquary of St. Maurus were created by Mosan artisans and commissioned by churches in what is now known as Belgium. Mosan artists were craftsmen from the Meuse valley, which is on the modern-day border between Germany and Belgium. These artists were in high demand during the Romanesque era and created such works as the “Baptismal font at St Bartholomew’s Church in Liège, the Shrine of Saint Servatius in Maastricht, the Shrine of Saint Hadelin in Vise, the Shrine of Saint Remacle in Stavelot, the Shrines of Saint Domitian and Saint Mangold in Huy, the Shrine of Our Lady at Tournai Cathedral, Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, Shrines of Charlemagne and Mary at Aachen Cathedral, the Barbarossa Chandelier at Aachen Cathedral, the Stavelot alter base, Retable of the Pentecost and the Reliquary with head of Pope Alexander I” (Wikipedia). Aside from being created by artists from the same area, the Stavelot Triptych and the Reliquary of St. Maurus have several elements in common, which were typical of that time. Both works were made of wood, were heavily gilded, were decorated with enamelwork and were inlaid with precious stones. While one is a triptych and the other a chasse, a chest with slanted roofs, they both have the same purpose: to house precious religious relics. As such, they are both covered in depictions of saints and religious figures. In typical Romanesque fashion, the figures are shown in motion and with narrative qualities. Both pieces also contain medallions which tell stories of the persons important to each reliquary and have labels along with various indicative text. These works also have an increased amount of detail and depictions of the ground, which are typical features of Romanesque art. Religious Importance When creating the Stavelot Triptych, the artist created a work that is mesmerizing and timeless. This work, while typical of its time, is fascinating and worth the esteem it receives. Aside from being the housing for religious artifacts, this work is important because it is a combination of two styles: Byzantine reliquaries housed inside a Romanesque reliquary. This was entirely unique and allows us to fully compare the two styles. The Stavelot Triptych is also important because it is evidence of a person being able to safely travel great distances during that era. Traveling great distances was new to that time period and the combination of two art styles from two different areas made during this era shows that people could travel successfully. And the final reason the Stavelot Triptych is important is because it shows that Romanesque art had an interest in the narrative of telling stories with lively characters, which was a big change from the stoic and stiff characters from Byzantine art, thus providing a segue between Byzantine art and Western Medieval art. Conclusion Overall, the Stavelot Triptych is a very important and stunning piece of Romanesque Mosan artwork that has retained its importance and veneration for generations. Whether or not we ever discover who commissioned it, who created it and whether or not the artifacts inside are truly what they claim to be, this work will always hold an aura of mysticism and reverence. Its significance as a religious artifact as well as the artistic skill used in creating this work have made it a timeless work that will maintain admiration and adoration for decades to come. Works Cited “Concise History of the Reliquary and Its Restoration.” Relikviar Sv Maura. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://www.svatymaur.cz/en/restoration/concise-history-of-the-reliquary-and-it.html>. Petzold, Dr Andreas. “Khan Academy.” Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/latin-western-europe/romanesque1/a/a-beginners-guide-to-romanesque-art>. “Reliquary of St. Maurus.” Memim Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://memim.com/reliquary-of-st.-maurus.html>. “Reliquary of St. Maurus.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliquary_of_St._Maurus>. “Romanesque Art.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesque_art>. Ross, Nancy. “Stavelot Triptych.” 10 Dec. 2014. Lecture. Sorabella, Jean. “Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Apr....

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