Bodhisattva – Steely Dan

Angkor Wat Dawn 025
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Cambodia

– 3-27-07

Since I first started planning this trip people have looked at the itinerary and always hesitated when they came to Cambodia. ‘Why?’  Angkor Wat, I'd say. They would just shake their heads, probably thinking of the Killing Fields of the previous Khmer administration. All that horror is in their past but I had my concerns too, hearing friend’s stories of locals offering RPG (yes, a grenade launcher) target practice on cows. That’s probably why I only scheduled a few days in country.

Angkor Ta Prohm Me
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Well, we’re all wrong. At least from what I saw, and granted that’s only the touristy town of Siem Reap, Cambodia is an incredibly friendly, inexpensive and laid back country. Really, no hassles at all from arrival to departure. I honestly wish I spent more time and ventured further south. The only drawback is the heat. Ooof. Was I complaining about the cold in China? Well, I got warm weather all right. Walking in that humidity for five minutes had me soaked. Add a little jungle and mid day sun and heat stroke isn’t far away. I must have drank five liters of water the first day alone. Might have helped the beach physique for Thailand so what the heck. Anyway, that’s the only minor complaint. Like I said earlier the whole trip was about the Angkor Temples and they did not disappoint.

Angkor Thom 034
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The Khmer regime built the huge Angkor complex of temples between 1500 to 500 years ago. Then they up and abandoned the whole darn thing to the jungle, it not being discovered again till last century. Because of the devastating effects of the weather and jungle all the sites look and feel much older than they are. Dark molded streaks and vine cracks inundate everything, even the centerpiece temple, Angkor Wat, whose five spires are a wonder of the world view for certain. The many temples alternate between evilish looking Hindu deities to peaceful Buddahs depending when they were built. The relief carvings are just unreal, especially the Elephant Terrace with a wall a hundred yards long with one elephant after another carved into the wall’s stones.

Angkor Wat n me
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All the restored temples are great but to me the thrill were the areas that haven’t been fully restored or taken back from the jungle. Walking through these amazing sites is a true Indiana Jones experience. Fallen celilings, crumbling walls, huge tree limbs growing though floors and over the walls, spiderwebs, crawling reptiles and screaming monkeys. ‘You call this archaeology?’ Hell yeah!

Although modern as compared to the Roman and Egyptian sites I’ve seen on this trip, having to climb up a dark, dusty corridor full of webs and huge vines wrapping around it beats the hell out of a plexiglass view of the ancient any day of the week for me. In fact the best site, Ta Prohm, was where the jungle scene of the first Tomb Raider movie was filmed. Seems Angelina liked the place so much she bought a house nearby. So I had a short but great trip to Cambodia, but I’m sorry to say I still haven’t found any chilled monkey brains and didn’t have a single Brangelina sighting.