Angkor What?
There are some places that every tourist seems to go or have on their bucket list to go to. Such seems to be the case with Angkor Wat. Last year when we were at Abu Simbel in Southern Egypt, very near the Sudan border and literally at the far reaches of most touristic travels I have made, they had a panorama on the walls of the visitor center that showed the placement of Abu Simbel as one of the great ancient monuments in the timeline of the world. That timeline was arrayed as follows:
• Saqqara Pyramids – Egypt 2700 BC
• Stonehenge – England 2600 BC
• Giza Pyramids – Egypt 2550 BC
• Ur-Ziggurat – Iraq 2100 BC
• Abu Simbel Temple – Egypt 1250 BC
• Great Wall of China – 600 BC
• Roman Forum – Italy 500 BC
• Chichen Itza – Mexico 800 AD
• Borobudur – Indonesia 900 AD
• Easter Island Heads – 1250 AD
As you can see, the Angkor Wat Temples got left off even though it was built in 1113 AD and should have made the list. But my point is that this all puts the age of this antiquity into perspective. Angkor Wat may look extremely impressive to us, but it is simply the case that it is a relatively new antiquity in the grand scheme of history.
We started our tour of the Angkor Archeological Park with a visit to Angkor Thom, the capital city built in 1181AD. It housed the 1 million people who lived here and was the seat of the Khmer Empire. It is surrounded by 17 km of moat for protection against marauding Chams, Vietnamese, Javanese and Siamese. There were five gates to the city, one at each ordinal point, and one extra on the east face, specifically from which the dead were carried out for burial to the west. The towers of the entrance gates all were adorned with stacked stone images with a face facing each direction to ward off evil. Like the many temples in Egypt, the wall surfaces surrounding the main temple were all covered in bas relief depicting the history of the Khmer Empire. It was particularly interesting to note that the artists depicted the various soldiers in one manner for the Cambodians, in a different manner for the Chinese and then a different manner yet for the Javanese, all of whom they felt had distinct facial features.
Angkor Wat was built in 1113 A.D. and is about a mile away from Angkor Thom. It is not just older than Angkor Thom but it is also considerably smaller. The moat around Angkor Wat is 5.6 km long as an indication of relative size, so about 1/3 the size of the capital city. The moat is all man-made but is extraordinarily wide but only about 10 feet deep. That was just enough to provide the necessary protection enabling the city and the temple to be defensible against these regular attacks. Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple in the world and that explains why so many Indian nationals visit it. It is a massive complex which was used only by the monks, who resided there and prayed. Its five towers are unmistakable in their stacked and pointed glory. I used my walking sticks to get to the Temple and then left it to the others to go inside while I admired it from the outside (the irregular and many steps not being to my hip’s liking), helping tourists to take pictures of their groups. Its a beautiful and special place, and the campus on which it sits is well tended and policed. Overall, it is a magnificent example of the Bayon style of Khmer temple. It symbolizes the Hindu culture of SE Asia as much as the Pyramids at Giza symbolize ancient Egypt.
After that, we were all pretty done in by a combination of the heat, humidity and walking so we appreciated the lunch break planned inside the Park at a local restaurant. While half of us continues to enjoy local cuisine, you can tell we are at the end of a long trip because there were lots of western dishes ordered just because there is only so much fried rice and noodle soup we can enjoy without longing for a burger and fries.
We had one more stop after lunch and that was to the Ta Prohm Temple to the east of Angkor Thom. This was the temple made famous by Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and is recognizable by dint of the banyan trees and their roots that cover ruins of where the monastic school centered at To Prohm used to be. Between my fatigue and Kim’s sore right foot, we walked up to the temple again, but left the exploration inside to our friends to go ahead inside and snap some photos. We were all thankful for the end of the tour and a safe return to the hotel. We can’t even imagine what it must be like trying to function in the heat and humidity in this place during the summer months.
We are winding down our trip at this point and have one more day to see some added sights around Siem Reap. There was a boat ride and a visit to a fishing village and markets. We also visited an indigenous Cambodian school just long enough to be mobbed when Kim and Melisa handed out pencils and notebooks to the children. We took the boat cruise in Tonle Sap Great Lake to visit Kampong Phluk fishing village to experience the daily lives of the fishermen, as well as visiting Artisan Dángkor, and its old market. The village was pretty ragged during the dry season and the muddy waters were none too inviting. It gave us a good hard look at what life in Cambodia is like for many of its people and it is not so enviable. As for the artisan shop, Kim and I just had to buy a limestone hand-carved elephant in an elephant in an intricately carved ball. Now we just have to get it home in one piece.
This has been a long and interesting trip. Ending in Cambodia and specifically Angkor Wat was perfect and it highlights all the reasons I like to travel, antiquities being at the top of that list, but simply getting off the couch being another. I am glad we chose to see what’s what in SE Asia, but I am also feeling like it has reinforced most of my views about the region. Little is divergent from what I expected, and most of it has reminded me of my life spent traveling the developing world and being glad I live in the United States. Everywhere I go I think about the ancient world on the one hand, with all of its wonders and brutalities. But I also think about the modern world and how man in whatever form or culture he inhabits is still who he is, both bad and good. Traveling makes me more reflective than usual, which is a place with which I am familiar and comfortable. I believe I am still vigorous enough to enjoy travel, but I am also reminded that the constraints of my body, both its timeless bulk and its time-worn limiting mobility, require me to pace myself as though I were picking my way down my back hillside. I miss my home on the hillside. I miss my family, including little Buddy with his feisty ways. I will end this travelogue of the last 20 days tritely noting that as important and invigorating as distant travel may be, as Dorthy told us years ago, there really is no place like home.