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| (1986) Crocodile Dundee's innocent misunderstanding about life in the city: "Imagine seven million people all wanting to live together. Yeah, New York must be the friendliest place on earth" |
And if a distraction is not enough, Seoul also offers various forms of stress relief. For old birds, traditional relief includes the time-honoured 'personal massage' but for spring chickens, options now include dedicated 'Rage Rooms', rented for half an hour, in which you and your friends can throw a completely lunatic fit of unbridled vandalism. Armed with hammers, golf clubs and baseball bats you can smash inanimate objects into the smallest pieces and entirely wreck all the furniture you can trample on until you have worked all the stress out of your system.
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=241268
Needless to say if you are an impatient, feisty female whose daddy or hubby owns a national conglomerate, then you can simply treat the workplace as your own personal Rage Room and vent your anger directly on the employees; abuse them like inanimate objects and then spend a fortune on lawyers to cover it all up with gagging orders.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/korean-air-suspends-executive-over-violent-outburst-meeting-nut-rage-daughter-airline-chairman
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/05/10/2018051001521.html
When the time finally comes to leave behind the stress of the city for somewhere blissful and timeless, it is reassuring to know that you can fly to Cambodia's ancient temple complex at Angkor in just five and a half hours without any risk of 'nut rage' because, mercifully, the route is not covered by Korean Air.
Cambodia
Cambodia looks west onto the Gulf of Thailand, nestled between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Although its economy based on agriculture and textiles currently struggles to support a modest population of 15 million, the country has enjoyed a much more glorious past. From 800 to 1400 AD Cambodia was the seat of the Khmer Empire, based at Angkor on the northern shore of the near-central great Tonle Sap lake.
The City of Angkor
By sometime in the 12th century the Khmer empire had become the largest in Southeast Asia, with the city of Angkor becoming the world's largest city prior to the Industrial Revolution; larger than modern day Paris and comprising more stone than the combined structures of ancient Egypt. The earliest temples built in the area were Hindu but these gradually gave way to Buddhist designs as the new religion swept the empire. Today approx 70 major stone structures are concentrated in an area 24km by 8km, with hundreds of minor structures beyond. Modern survey techniques estimate the city covered between 1,000 and 3,000 square km, possibly making it as large as modern day Washington.
By the 1400s the Khmer Empire was already in decline and although the city of Angkor was sacked in 1431, the temple of Angkor Wat itself continued as an active Buddhist shrine. Many surrounding temples were abandoned and virtually all were starting to be neglected by the 1500s but even these were visited by the occasional French missionary or Portugese monk as they attempted to enlighten the locals with the latest Christian rapture.
Credit for promoting Angkor's wonders to the western world officially falls to French naturalist Henri Mouhot, sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society. Mouhot made a long expedition to the area in 1860, writing breathless journals on what he found there shortly before prematurely expiring from a bout of malaria just a year later. Mouhot claimed the ruins exceeded those of ancient Greece and Rome effusing;
Mouhot's journals stimulated sufficient interest for other European notables to start adding the Angkor temple complex to their itinerary. In 1865, five years after Mouhot's death, Anna Leonowens (popularly recognised as 'Anna and the King' [of Siam]) also visited, although her impressions were never widely published. Only at the end of the 1800s, following the visit of two eminent French archaeologists, was sufficient finance secured to begin the methodical, ongoing task of clearing the jungle, fixing drainage and restoring structural damage.
The Temple of Angkor Wat
Today the temple of Angkor Wat is claimed to be the largest religious structure in the world, set on a vast moated island accessed over a causeway the length of London's Tower Bridge.
The Temple of Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm is an example of a flat, Buddhist temple abandoned for centuries. Restoration efforts have been deliberately minimal to preserve the harmony between the jungle and the structures.
The Temple of Bayon at Angkor Thom
The last temple to be built at Angkor, also in the pyramid style, originally a Buddhist temple, converted to Hindu, reverted to Buddhist and finally abandoned to the jungle for centuries.
Siem Reap
The previously unknown nearby village of Siem Reap mushroomed quickly from the global interest in Angkor such that it now serves the needs of tourists coming from far and wide to while away the hours, unwind under the trees and wander through the temple ruins at their own leisure.
Although most visitors only stay for a few days or perhaps a week at most, the ancient city of Angkor offers enough temple ruins to keep a person busy for months. That's even without digressing to the mangroves of the great Tonle Sap lake, river cruises or other tourist attractions. Whichever brand of spiritualism you succumb to there is a tangible feeling of peace and tranquility to be absorbed from these ruins which is curiously not present when ambling around other hallowed loci such as the Vatican, the Temple of Karnak, Bangkok's Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Ephesus' House of the Virgin Mary, Turkey's Mount Nemrut or the Hagia Sophia. Whether this is due to the natural jungle setting or the magnificent size, scale and geometry of the structures, the colours of the rock, the intense hue of the sunlight or the play of the shadows is impossible to say. The overall impression that one takes away from the place is one of quiet, contented, calm, confidence, energy and optimism. The ideal place to get away from it all.
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=241268
Needless to say if you are an impatient, feisty female whose daddy or hubby owns a national conglomerate, then you can simply treat the workplace as your own personal Rage Room and vent your anger directly on the employees; abuse them like inanimate objects and then spend a fortune on lawyers to cover it all up with gagging orders.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/korean-air-suspends-executive-over-violent-outburst-meeting-nut-rage-daughter-airline-chairman
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/05/10/2018051001521.html
When you are too busy to even prepare an instant noodle, it is worth remembering that any quantity of food or snacks, from a three-course meal to a single bottle of Yakult can be delivered to your home or work at any hour of the day or night to help you maintain focus. If you have already lost focus due to too much alcoholic stress relief, then you can simply dial up a driver to drag you out from under the table of your favourite karaoke bar and drive you home in your own car - assuming you can remember where your car is and where your home is, which is not always as easy as it sounds.
When the time finally comes to leave behind the stress of the city for somewhere blissful and timeless, it is reassuring to know that you can fly to Cambodia's ancient temple complex at Angkor in just five and a half hours without any risk of 'nut rage' because, mercifully, the route is not covered by Korean Air.
Cambodia
Cambodia looks west onto the Gulf of Thailand, nestled between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Although its economy based on agriculture and textiles currently struggles to support a modest population of 15 million, the country has enjoyed a much more glorious past. From 800 to 1400 AD Cambodia was the seat of the Khmer Empire, based at Angkor on the northern shore of the near-central great Tonle Sap lake.
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| Stress free: Cambodia's Great Lake Tonle Sap |
The City of Angkor
By sometime in the 12th century the Khmer empire had become the largest in Southeast Asia, with the city of Angkor becoming the world's largest city prior to the Industrial Revolution; larger than modern day Paris and comprising more stone than the combined structures of ancient Egypt. The earliest temples built in the area were Hindu but these gradually gave way to Buddhist designs as the new religion swept the empire. Today approx 70 major stone structures are concentrated in an area 24km by 8km, with hundreds of minor structures beyond. Modern survey techniques estimate the city covered between 1,000 and 3,000 square km, possibly making it as large as modern day Washington.
By the 1400s the Khmer Empire was already in decline and although the city of Angkor was sacked in 1431, the temple of Angkor Wat itself continued as an active Buddhist shrine. Many surrounding temples were abandoned and virtually all were starting to be neglected by the 1500s but even these were visited by the occasional French missionary or Portugese monk as they attempted to enlighten the locals with the latest Christian rapture.
Credit for promoting Angkor's wonders to the western world officially falls to French naturalist Henri Mouhot, sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society. Mouhot made a long expedition to the area in 1860, writing breathless journals on what he found there shortly before prematurely expiring from a bout of malaria just a year later. Mouhot claimed the ruins exceeded those of ancient Greece and Rome effusing;
"At Ongcor, there are ...ruins of such grandeur... that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works?"
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| Angkor Wat by Henri Mouhot in 1860: still an active temple but with few visitors |
Mouhot's journals stimulated sufficient interest for other European notables to start adding the Angkor temple complex to their itinerary. In 1865, five years after Mouhot's death, Anna Leonowens (popularly recognised as 'Anna and the King' [of Siam]) also visited, although her impressions were never widely published. Only at the end of the 1800s, following the visit of two eminent French archaeologists, was sufficient finance secured to begin the methodical, ongoing task of clearing the jungle, fixing drainage and restoring structural damage.
The Temple of Angkor Wat
Today the temple of Angkor Wat is claimed to be the largest religious structure in the world, set on a vast moated island accessed over a causeway the length of London's Tower Bridge.
 |
| Constructed from 1113-1150, its pyramid style features higher structures in the centre. Current day forest has replaced the original wooded structures of the city around the temple |
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| Angkor Wat temple; built as a mausoleum, designed to reflect Hindu cosmology, later transformed to Buddhism |
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| Endless lofty sandstone cloisters funnel breezes and provide shade from the afternoon sun |
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| The top and centre of the temple, representing heaven, where quiet reflection is still possible |
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| After almost a millennium, technology now encroaches, not the jungle |
The Temple of Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm is an example of a flat, Buddhist temple abandoned for centuries. Restoration efforts have been deliberately minimal to preserve the harmony between the jungle and the structures.
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| Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft at Ta Prohm temple in Tomb Raider (2001), the first Hollywood movie filmed in Cambodia since Peter O'Toole's 'Lord Jim' in 1965. |
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| Ta Prohm temple; worship in a magnificent natural setting |
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| Ta Prohm temple; difficult to see where the temple ends and the jungle begins The Temple of Baphuon at Angkor Thom An example of a pyramid style, Hindu temple, later converted to Buddhist and subsequently neglected requiring extensive demolition, new foundations and reconstruction stone by stone.
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| The Terrace of the Elephants; wall detail showing elephants and riders |
The Temple of Bayon at Angkor Thom
The last temple to be built at Angkor, also in the pyramid style, originally a Buddhist temple, converted to Hindu, reverted to Buddhist and finally abandoned to the jungle for centuries.
 |
| The shade of the ruins provides relief from the afternoon heat |
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| A total of 216 stone faces look down from the towers with serenity at people passing by |
The previously unknown nearby village of Siem Reap mushroomed quickly from the global interest in Angkor such that it now serves the needs of tourists coming from far and wide to while away the hours, unwind under the trees and wander through the temple ruins at their own leisure.
Although most visitors only stay for a few days or perhaps a week at most, the ancient city of Angkor offers enough temple ruins to keep a person busy for months. That's even without digressing to the mangroves of the great Tonle Sap lake, river cruises or other tourist attractions. Whichever brand of spiritualism you succumb to there is a tangible feeling of peace and tranquility to be absorbed from these ruins which is curiously not present when ambling around other hallowed loci such as the Vatican, the Temple of Karnak, Bangkok's Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Ephesus' House of the Virgin Mary, Turkey's Mount Nemrut or the Hagia Sophia. Whether this is due to the natural jungle setting or the magnificent size, scale and geometry of the structures, the colours of the rock, the intense hue of the sunlight or the play of the shadows is impossible to say. The overall impression that one takes away from the place is one of quiet, contented, calm, confidence, energy and optimism. The ideal place to get away from it all.
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