Temples smile on visitors

SIEM REAP, Cambodia – A Cambodian teenager guiding an elephant motions
for the animal to stop under a tree.

The boy straddling the elephant's neck plucks leaves from a branch and
places them between his lips, producing a reed instrument to entertain
the American tourists he is leading. The elephant ride is a majestic arrival to the ancient Angkor
temples worthy of the Hindu kings who ruled this mythical temple city
from the 9th to the 15th century.

"There are over 100 temples. Most are dedicated to Hinduists," said Sar
Kunthy, an English-speaking guide at the "Lost City" in Northwestern
Cambodia.

After being ignored and neglected for decades, the ancient city is
gaining broad attention from across the globe now that Cambodia is
enjoying peaceful times.




It had not been safe to visit this region of Southeast Asia since
before the Vietnam War because of land mines and civil strife.
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime also looted the temples, and its guerilla
fighters used nearby jungles as hiding places until the early 1990s.
Cambodia's monarchy had returned to power by the time the regime's
leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, bringing an end to one of the bloodiest
chapters in the country's history.

In 2004, the palaces and temples were removed from the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's most endangered
ancient sites list because millions of dollars had been spent to restore
the former Khmer Empire capital city. It was a monumental task just
removing the land mines, as well as jungle roots and vines that covered the crumbling,
sandstone buildings.



Archaeologists from several countries, including Australia and France,
have been putting the temples back together and studying the many
bas-reliefs and intricate irrigation system that served the more than
one million people who once lived here. The temples, some built to
honor Buddha, are situated across 248 square miles, making up one of
the largest archaeological sites in the world.

There are many mysteries to be solved and unknown sites for researchers
to discover and explore.

"They recently found a 2,000-year-old tomb," Kunthy said. "There are
still underground temples yet to be found. So far, we have not been
able to find the tool used to cut the stone."

The most famous temple, Angkor Wat, was constructed over three decades
in the 12th century during the reign of King Suryavarman II. It took
50,000 workers 37 years to build the world's largest religious
building. It stands nearly 190 feet tall and is reached by a walkway
crossing a nearly 600-foot moat.

The entrance to Angkor Wat is flanked by giant sandstone sculptures of
serpents representing fertility. Crocodiles, according to legend, once
lurked in the water to protect the city from invaders, Kunthy said.

Inside, visitors pass the world's largest bas-reliefs telling the
stories of Hindu mythology. Some of the intricate and beautiful
sculptures pay tribute to the Hindu god, Vishnu, whose four arms, mercy
and power preserved the universe and ensured cosmic order.

Organized tours also offer visitors a taste of deep-fried crickets sold
at roadside huts. Villagers string light bulbs over small plastic ponds
to catch the insects, that when fried, taste like cashew nuts, the tour
driver says.



Children by the hundreds pressure tourists to buy postcards, small
flutes made from bamboo or Tro Us, the traditional Khmer string
instrument made with a coconut shell covered with snakeskin. Their
sales pitch requires them to memorize and recite the capitals of each
of the 50 states to impress American travelers. A Cambodian police
officer, meanwhile, follows a crowd trying to sell his police badge
that looks like a cheap, plastic replica of the one he is wearing.

A band made of up musicians with missing limbs or eyes – land mine
victims – performs outside one temple where the jungle has not been
stripped away. The temple, Ta Prohm, can be seen as a backdrop in
Angelina Jolie's 2001 adventure movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."

Every family in Cambodia has at least one member who was either killed
or injured by land mines placed by Pol Pot's army or the Viet Cong,
Kunthy said.

"There are up to 200,000 people with land-mine injuries," he said.

Angkor is drawing more than a million visitor, Kunthy
said, creating the need for the rows of new luxury resorts in Siem
Reap.

(One day is not enough to see or appreciate Angkor, an hourlong flight
from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.)

Quick with scissors

With a few dozen rapid snips of scissors, Hou-Tien Cheng can transform a paper plate into a dragon hat or an ordinary sheet of white paper into SpongeBob SquarePants.
The New Jersey man is one of the best-known masters of ancient Chinese, freeform paper cutting, who demonstrates his skills at schools and conventions across the United States.
He boasts that he “will create any subject you can think of in paper cuts ... quicker than two bites of a cookie.” And, he can.
Historians believe paper cutting was born in North Chinese houses where people once felt a need to dress up their dull, paper windows coated with tung oil with red cutouts of flowers.
Cheng learned this artform from his grandfather as a child before immigrating from Taiwan to the United States.
He drew a steady stream of visitors to his booth at the Pittsburgh Folk Festival over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. He also has made a string of television appearances since 1970, including a role in a 2003 Citibank commercial.
Slovenian folk dancers spun in circles on the main stage, wearing colorful, traditional costumes, while Cheng worked his magic before a young couple who were amazed by his skills.
And, I broke out my wallet and gladly paid $4 for a matted black and white Cheng design of two panda bear. Without notice, he slipped a small, cool paper cut of a unicorn into my bag.

Touch for luck

OAKLAND – An unusual superstition believed to bring good luck has put Pittsburgh on a list of destinations with the most unusual tourist attractions.

A bronze statue of locally-born musician Stephen Foster with his slave outside of Carnegie Music Hall in city's Oakland section has caught the eye of Roadside Magazine because of the number of people who believe that rubbing the slave's big toe will put fortune on their side.

"It's listed among the bizarre places to go in America. It's like the world's biggest ball of mud. We're right up there with that," said Kathy Haines, associate director of the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh, which houses Foster's archives and a nearby museum in his honor.

No one seems to know how the superstition began at the statue, which was moved from Schenley Park to its present site along Forbes Avenue to protect it from vandalism.

Many Pittsburghers are probably unaware of the giant ball of mud near the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. It's not lucky, either.

Someone with more of an interest in America's most famous folk song writer would not want to pass up the Stephen C. Foster Memorial at Pitt, directly across the street from the statue.

Housed in an alcove at the Gothic landmark Cathedral of Learning at Pitt, the museum is home to the only known likeness of Foster's wife, who was believed to be the
inspiration for his tune "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair."

While there, check out the cured horse's jawbone mentioned in Foster's song, "Angelina Baker," and used as a percussion instrument in his minstrel show.

Hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday

Call: 412-624-4100 for group tours

(Portions were published with permision of the Observer-Reporter)

Going home

GUEST BLOGGER: Harry Funk, who made a weekend trip to his boyhood hometown of Paxtang, Pa., a suburb of Harrisburg

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Throughout much of the 1970s, I spent a lot of time at the splendid example of architecture pictured above. In one half of the duplex lived my best friend, and in the other ... well, I haven't seen her since 1977, so I can admit to her being my first big-time crush.

At any rate, none of us youngsters really appreciated the fine old homes in the neighborhood around Paxtang Avenue, the main north-south street of Paxtang Borough. Come to think of it, they probably weren't as fine when I lived there. During visits of the past several years, I've noticed concerted efforts to restore many of the residences to the grandiosity and splendor of their early days.

Paxtang is getting ready to celebrate its centennial next year, meaning the borough is likely to see an influx of visitors. In turn, those visitors will see an array of interesting and appealing architectural elements.

Click here for more scenes of Paxtang, Pa.

Time travel

With an upside down green, penny stamp, bearing the likeness of George Washington, Mrs. Gup H. Williams used this postcard to send well wishes to Mrs. James Sphar of Charleroi, Pa., on May 31, 1923.
"I hope you are gaining in health fast now," Mrs. Williams wrote on the back of this view of Fallowfield Avenue in Charleroi, between Fourth and Fifth streets.
This kind of postage arrived, with love, from what I understand.

Hot dip can turn cold

Mary soaks her aching body as often as she can in the 118 degree, once abandoned hot spring pits at Montezuma Castle outside the other, lesser known Las Vegas in New Mexico.
“I could sit here all day,” she said, clad in her required bathing suit and soothing a sore sciatic nerve in her left leg. “It makes everything, your whole body feel pretty good,” she said, even though the well has green, slimy walls and dark floaties in the mineral water.
Her companion waddles through chocolate brown mud alongside the baths hugging the main road, taking another sort of soul cleansing. He then rinses his dirty shell in 40 degree, mountain fresh water running through a creek before returning to Mary’s side.



Montezuma Resort and Hot Springs was built in 1882 for Santa Fe Railroad along the Santa Fe Trail that once brought expensive trade to the region by covered wagon.



This Las Vegas, founded in 1832, now has an economy that suffers dearly from the decline of the railroad era. The boom left behind more than 900 historic buildings representing nearly every construction style in America.
After falling into disrepair, the Victorian castle became the first property west of the Mississippi River to become a concern in 1997 of the Save America’s Treasures program. It was resurrected in a multimillion dollar renovation by the Armand Hammer United World College, which now operates an exclusive high school on the site for international students.
While the local tourism office promotes tours of the castle, the school’s cold-spritied security guards will tell visitors to immediately leave the property unless they want a peek inside an unusual small chapel that is lit inside by a bunch of large prisms.



Public tours of the old brick hotel are offered for one hour on just a handful of dates each summer.
The springs, however, are open to the public at its own risk. The guards stop by here frequently, too, to make sure that no one is dipping in the nude.