The Amazing Angkor Wat

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We got very early (even before the usual Navy reveille) to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which is the only temple out of about 70 in the area that faces west. We arrived early and claimed the steps of the one of the outlying library buildings. Initially it was eerily quiet with few other tourists around. As the sun slowly lit up the sky, however, more and more tourists arrived and eventually formed a whole row of tripods, all trying to capture the reflection of the sky and the temple – those of us with inferior pocket-sized digital cameras had to really fight just to see the view – but it was definitely worthwhile. After a little harassment from the coffee vendor, I ventured back to our quite steps. The sun breaking the horizon was like an alarm clock for all the insects. Nature’s clock slowly turned the volume knob and the buzz of the insects steadily grew louder and louder. It was a magnificent show, produced entirely by Mother Nature.

We were among the first to enter the temple. Our guide, Polen, led us through the lower courtyard and explained all of the bas-reliefs. The scenes were in three levels, similar to hell, earth, and heaven. The carvings illustrated the popular ideas of horrific punishments, routine manifestations of daily life and incredible celebrations that awaited in the afterlife. After our fill of carvings, we scrambled up the steps of the temple. The original architects built the steps so they’d be challenging to ascend, mirroring real life: it’s difficult to be perfectly good all the time, and easy to slip along the way. Luckily, we were all good enough (climbers) to explore the upper levels of the temple.

Unfortunately all of the temples in the area were occupied by both Pol Pot forces and the Vietnamese Army during the Khmer Rouge area. What wasn’t looted was used as target practice.

On our way to breakfast, we had to battle the usual swarms of beautiful Cambodian kids trying to sell us the usual souvenir items and palm bracelets. One came right up and grabbed my hand, asking where I was from. When I responded, “USA,” she immediately rattled off the capital and population. She even knew most of the states. So that was enough for me to buy some postcards. While at breakfast, they wrote us little letters wishing us good luck and thanking us for talking to them. So cute.

Breakfast was the usual eggs and coffee. For an iced coffee, they blend pretty strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk with some ice. You have to really stir it up and then blow through your straw so that you don’t end with a big sip of what feels like milk jelly.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Aki Ra’s Land Mine Museum. This man is pretty amazing. He was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, then the Vietnamese opposition forces. When the UN came through, he started helping them to clear mines and never stopped. Now he goes out deactivating mines, takes in mine victims, raises awareness and runs a museum. It’s heartbreaking to read the stories of the victims (who usually had nowhere else to go after being abandoned by their families because of lost limbs) but very effective, as I emptied my wallet into the donation box.

We also stopped at the local market. The fruits and vegetables were all nicely displayed in palm baskets. We tried lotus seed, which is definitely the best part of the fruit. It’s densely sweet and nothing like the starchy part that holds it. We also tried tamarind, which I had never eaten whole before. Further back in the market were the fish and meat stalls. There’s no refrigeration, so imagine carcasses hanging from little rods, or fish lying open on a table, complete with flies buzzing around. But the view wasn’t nearly as gut wrenching as the smell, which changed from foul to worse as we walked deeper into the meats area. The experience made us all appreciate the sanitation offered by our modern grocery stores.

Later that day we went out to Lake Tonle Sap, the largest in SE Asia. As the Mekong region floods each year, the Tonle Sap River reverses direction and swells the lake by a factor of four each year. About 2000 families live on houseboats in the lake which drift around based on the seasonal flooding. 75% of the fish in Cambodia comes from this lake, which makes the living pretty good, especially compared to the farmers’ homes we saw. These houseboats had all kinds of stuff, including generators and cable TV. There were also floating stores, restaurants, gas stations, service shops and dry docks.

In the evening we tried to take in some culture in the form of apsara dancing. The costumes were incredible – from traditional peasant dress to crazy monkey type outfits. Apsara is the extremely slow-paced, Khmer dance that was traditionally performed for the Buddhist kings. It was all but lost during the Khmer Rouge period. We think the dances were acting out some kind of storyline, but unfortunately there was no narration so we had to guess – I’m pretty sure we were way off.

The town of Siam Reap had some really nice bars, with plantation style wicker chairs. We ventured to the Red Piano and tried Tomb Raiders, the drink created for Angelina Jolie while she was there filming the movie. It’s a mix of Cointreau, lime juice and tonic and really refreshing. I’ve also got to put in a plug for Angkor Wat beer!