20-26th January 2011
“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going”---Paul Theroux.
We motored around the crumbling temples near Siem Reap for three days, wind blowing through our hair and cooling our sweaty bodies. Our tuk-tuk driver, Khan, ever ready with a beer, coke or ice cold bottle of water, knew all the right places to take us at all the right times. There are hundreds of falling down temples in Angor Wat, sensu lato. I say sensu lato because the whole area is referred to as “Angor Wat”, while Angor Wat itself is actually the largest (?) temple in the complex, as well as a candidate for one of the 7 wonders of the world and huge draw for tour groups in large buses world-wide.
Scrambling, tripping, elbowing, and edging our way around these temples was at times thrilling, obnoxious, spiritual, and, well, hot. We visited dozens of temples that ranged in size, building material, crowdedness, and state of decay. While many were beautifully restored others were frighteningly instable, with hundred pound sandstone blocks perilously perched above our heads, every other one a victim to Earth’s greatest downfall- gravity. On the heels of every other tourist in the tri-country area, we grimaced our way through the temple made famous by Angelina Jolie in “The Tomb Raider”. Unfortunately, the temple in question was remarkably beautiful, though painful to admire. The buttressed roots of huge rainforest trees were literally consuming and destroying the ancient temple walls. When nature fights back… It was a very unique sight. As awe-struck as we all were, it shouldn’t have surprised me that a very small woman of unknown Asian descent bumped into Nick and was so startled by his height that she actually cried out in fear as her terrified eyes stared up at his relative brobdingnagian size. Hilarious.
Some of our best moments were at the temples less frequented by tourists. We climbed hundreds of shockingly steep, not to mention downward slanted (damn erosion), stairs to the tops of intricately carved temples. The trek to the top gave us great views, solitude, and for a price we could be blessed by the resident Hindi/Buddhist dude who kept Buddha happy with bottles of coke and young coconuts. Buddha and Vishnu really love their coconuts. In such temples, we could sit peacefully in the shade and appreciate them for their inherent loveliness and the miracle that after all the tragedies that have befallen Cambodia they still exist.
One morning we visited the main attraction, Angor Wat, for sunrise. Arriving at around 5:30, we were ushered across the surrounding moat by the benevolent light of a full moon. Even at this early hour we were struck by the crowds, all straining with every minutia of their being to get the perfect view of the temple at sunrise. Unfortunately, this was expressed as people jostling other people and jamming their tripods on people’s feet (ugh) while those other people were just sitting down unassumingly trying to take up as little space as possible to make room for everyone else. Anyway, as it so unremittingly does, the sun rose. We, the billions of us, basked in the spreading beams of golden light that streamed in our direction. In our post-sunrise glow we explored the relatively un-crowded temple and fully understood why it is such an attraction and candidate for one of the 7 wonders of the world. The carvings are exquisite and the passageways and towers are awe inspiring. The journey and the crowdedness of the place are worth it, but I would suggest to anyone interested to visit in the low season and enjoy the empty temples with an umbrella and some muck boots.
And, we have a confession to make. We spent five nights in Siem Reap soaking up some pretty heavy cultural “stuff” and while I swear we ate Khmer/Cambodian food for lunch we ate at the same Mexican restaurant every single night. Let me explain. After seven months of travel we had yet to eat a single passable Mexican dish. What we found at “Viva” in Siem Reap were $1.50 margaritas, $1 tacos, delicious burritos, chimichangas, yummy salsa, and salvation. I hope you can all understand our hedonism and will forgive us as we have already forgiven ourselves (we still feel guilty).
After enjoying (did I say enjoy?) the 12 hour bus ride back to Bangkok, we suddenly realized that “someone” (Rachel? Nick?) forgot Chinese New Year was coming up! Meaning, trains to our next planned destination, Chiang Mai (in northern Thailand), were booked for days and days and a long bus trip was now a sour subject. So, what did we decide to do? We went on AirAsia.com and found the cheapest flight out of Thailand (since our visa expires in 13 days) to Penang, Malaysia! We already spent two and a half months in Malaysia in July and August, but we did miss a few things and are pretty happy to be going back. Thrilled really. In the next few weeks we will travel around the west coast of Malaysia, spend some time in Sumatra, Indonesia, before heading to Chiang Mai and ultimately ending up in New Zealand! If this sounds confusing to you, I assure you that it is. It really is.
Posts
