Angkor What (part 1)

Note: This is the first part in what will be a series of entries documenting my weekend in Siam Reap and visiting temples around Angkor Wat. There's so much to remember and document that it would be too big to do it all at once.

This was the weekend of the Angkor Wat/Siam Reap spectacular. For those of you not versed in Cambodian history and/or culture, you should know that Angkor Wat is a massive Buddhist temple – in fact, it’s the largest religious building in the world. It – and the temples surrounding it – date from the height of the Khmer empire, between 1150-1200 AD. They were used for religious and royal purposes. Some are as large as small cities. They’re ruins now, some with nature growing right in the midst of them. The setting is so unique and exotic that this is where they filmed Tomb Raider (as such, Angelina Jolie is quite the celebrity around town). It was a little odd that here, in the middle of the jungle, I could purchase Tomb Raider on DVD for a reasonable price.

No hyperbole: Angkor Wat is Cambodia. It’s on the flag. It’s on the cans of the national beer, not surprisingly named “Angkor.” What the Statute of Liberty, White House, Mt. Rushmore, etc. are combined to the U.S. cannot even touch the significance of this temple to the Cambodian people. Wars have been fought over it. No movies from Thailand are shown on Cambodian television because once a Thai actor said that Angkor Wat was really owned by Thailand. The name of the city nearby – Siam Reap – literally means “fall of the Siamese,” the Siamese being the ancient name of the Thai people.

I was told by someone here that if you visit Cambodia, but don't see Angkor Wat, you haven't truly visited Cambodia. After going, I understand why.

Friday

We headed up Friday in a bus where they played Mr. Bean in English. Titanic in Khmer, and Karaoke (in Khmer of course). The trip took about six hours, we were in by 1:30. We wandered around Siam Reap for a while – and it’s a truly nice town. Much more green and lush than PP. Parts of it actually reminded me of Hilton Head. It is, after all, a major SE Asian tourist destination.

We went to the Angkor complex around 5:30 to catch the sunset from the top of Bayon (sp?), a hilltop temple. I say “Angkor complex” because it’s really a huge mass of temples, ruins, and cities – probably thousands of square kilometers big. Massive. You’d need weeks to see it all. The sheer productivity of the Khmer empire in such a small period of time is incredible.

We climbed the hilltop, where we were afforded quite a view – the landscape of Cambodia stretched on for miles beneath us. I could see so far, and the countryside was beautiful: lush, green, dotted with lakes. In pure Indian Jones-ian fashion, I climbed all over the ruins of the temple, half playing, half in awe of the view and my surroundings. A massive storm drove us off the temple; we made it to our tuk-tuk just in time: the downpour was on. We drove home in the rain, just getting bombarded. Soaked to the bone. We laughed like crazy people because it was the first time in Cambodia we’d ever felt cold. Our drivers aimed for the puddles to soak us, cracking up the whole time. It was fun. Then we went into town, had some beers on Bar Street with some boys from Brainerd, MN, of all places.

More to come.

- m