Angkor, and An Adventure
The tourist guide for Angkor and Siem Reap recommended a one day tour of the temples in the area if all we wanted to see were the highlights. It was enough, for sure, since many of the temples look much alike. But we were able to choose a few that had some unique features, along with Angkor Wat itself, of course, and we got a good overview of the architecture, the history, and the scope of the ruins.
We were met by our guide, Rith, about 9 am at the hotel. He was a really nice young guy, and a good guide. We kept trying to get things around to spiritual things (working on the comparative religions theme to try to open the door), but he wasn’t biting, I’m sorry to say. This area is now a national “park” of sorts, and the jungle has been allowed to reclaim much of it, so the woods are green and beautiful and dense around the temples. We were able to see the famous faces of the Bayon temple complex, and climb into its interior to explore it from the inside out. There are symmetrical towers throughout the temple, and each one has four faces on it, each facing the points of the compass. From there we stopped at another temple close by the name of which I don’t remember, which had a long causeway leading up to it, symbolizing the journey from earth to heaven. Many of these temples are “mountain” temples, meaning they represent sacred mountains of the ancient Brahman mythology. They take a lot of climbing to get up into them. There was another one nearby that we could have climbed, the so-called “Temple of Heaven,” but we’d had enough climbing by then. We passed through the ruins of the ancient palace, and wound up on the Elephant Terrace, which bordered a kind of parade ground where the king would be entertained, returning armies would be reviewed, and the general populace addressed. Quite impressive.
Our final stop of the morning was Pa Thom, the temple where the famous strangler fig trees are reclaiming the temple by slowing crushing it to bits. Even though we were extremely hot and tired by then, it was worth the effort. The trees are magnificent. Mark and I commented to one another that we found it particularly satisfying that God’s creation was overcoming man’s perverse creation. Sure, the temples were amazing and must have really been beautiful in their prime, but they are attempts to imitate divine truth according to man’s imagination, which never works.
After lunch, we returned to Angkor Wat itself for a tour. This place is immense! If you want a detailed history of the temple complex, you can check out the internet on it, but the accomplishment here, particularly in carvings, mostly bas relief, is incredible. What really is something to consider is that from the 1100s to the about the time of the beginnings of the Reformation in Europe, major kingdoms vied for supremacy in this area, many of which we had never heard. The population is estimated to have been over 1 million around the temple and palace complexes! Yet Westerners never hear much about anything else in the world outside of Europe going on at that time. Very interesting stuff, mostly about battles, and quite a bit of mythology.
Came home really wiped and rested for a bit – it was a really hot day, and it sapped us. After awhile, though, we got pretty hungry, and set off in search of dinner. This is more dangerous than it sounds, since this part of Cambodia was at one time infested with crocodiles. In ancient times, they actually used to fill the motes around the temples and palaces with them as a pretty reliable line of defense. You really have to be careful as they tend to lurk in the ditches beside roads, and we were walking down to the Old Market. Once in the vicinity we came face to face with a crocodile! Not just a crocodile, but a python, too. We, however, were not afraid. We cooked them over an open flame. They were delicious. So were the chicken, pork, and fish portions that the restaurant gave us. Mark had spotted this place on Wednesday evening, and we just had to try it. After that, a short walk around in the cooling evening air, and then back to the hotel for the night.
Friday it was back to the bus station to catch our bus, and a long 6 hours back to Phnom Penh. Once back in Mark’s place we rested up and then set out to rent me a motorcycle for the remainder of our time here, since it will be quite a bit cheaper than paying taxis or tuk-tuks to take us everywhere. More fun, too. That’s when our adventure started. The moto rental place is at the other end of town, so I climbed on the back of Mark’s 100cc and we took off. Clouds were threatening on the horizon, so we wanted to make sure we picked up my bike and did some errands before they unloaded on us. About halfway there, the back tire blew, a slow leak apparently aggravated by putting two people on it whose total weight is about 3 times the weight of the whole bike! Meanwhile, the rain had moved in more quickly that we anticipated, and the skies opened up. There was nowhere to get out of the rain, so Mark pushed his moto while I walked along the sidewalk, both of us getting drenched. Even now, hours later, my clothes are still wet. Anyway, we finally found a guy who fixes flats on the sidewalk. He uses a unique method for putting a patch on tubes. He takes some petroleum based goop and smears it on the back of a piece of rubber, puts it over the hole, lays a piece of flattened aluminum can over that, and then a puts the whole thing in a clamp with a little steel cylinder in which he pours some fuel and lights on fire! It melts the goop and softens the rubber, which fuses itself to the inner tube permanently. Seventy-five cents and an hour later (he had several to fix before ours), we were on our way again. We rented my bike finally, and then set off to find our restaurant in the dark. Took a while, but it was worth it. It was a place named after William Tell, and featured Swiss and German food. We started off with cheese fondue, and then had some traditional German dishes. Good stuff. A long ride home, and now we’re enjoying unwinding a bit. Talk to you again tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers!
