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January 30 to February 3, 2007
Angkor Wat is indeed a temple, one surrounded by a moat one kilometer on a side. But that is also the name of the entire complex of temples that cover more than 160 square miles of land near the town of Siem Reap. All the temples were overrun by the jungle and have been worn by a thousand years of weather. Some were difficult to spot, until the overgrowth was cleared away. When that was done, they realized Khmer empire had created something amazing. Generations of people -- hundreds of thousands of them -- worked to create these temples for their kings. It’s hard to believe they could have done it with the tool of the day. Now, many hundreds of years later, the roots of huge banyon trees are consuming some of the temples, slowly obscuring decades of labor and separating stones laid meticulously in place. They look like giant hands, or the arms of a huge squid, reaching out to consume their quarry. Inside the temples, long corridors connect sections of these expansive temples, and today portions of stone hallways have collapsed. It is almost eerie, looking into the ruins and realizing how many lives were played out building them and serving the royalty for which they were built. Amazingly, Cambodian officials allow visitors to scramble into almost every nook and cranny of these ancient palaces. Some of the major damage, when sections of roofs or walls fell, occurred during earthquakes over the eons. In other cases wind, rain and erosion took their toll. Only in recent years has the outside world been allowed here. For years after the Vietnam war, during the Pol Pot regime, it was unsafe for everyone -- locals and outsiders alike. It has been reported that Pol Pot killed between two and tree million people, nearly wiping out a generation. Even today, visitors are Now that tourism has come to Angkor Wat, hundreds of thousands of people from throught the world are arriving -- although we saw very few Americans. They hire guides to explain the history, and ride motorcycles and tuk tuks from temple to temple. Some even ride elephants. Actually, just getting here is a feat. The first time we came, we took the overland route. The one hundred mile trip from the Thailand border proved the most harrowing car ride we have ever taken. Tourists coming from Bangkok sometimes fall for an inexpensive transportation package. It’s a scam involving long delays at the Thai/Cambodia border crossing -- or sometimes at restaurants or other stops. The “accidental” delays mean that truckloads of visitors -- literally, people riding on top of This photo of Becky checking out one of the ruins was taken nearly a hundred feet away, down a series of ancient windows with a telephoto lens. It demonstrates the amazing design of these structures. Every Archeological teams -- not just from Cambodia, but from around the world -- are working on a number of temples. Here you see an attempt to keep a ceiling from falling. The buildings are not being rebuilt, although some sections have been restored to original shape. Instead, the effort is to stabilize and preserve the buildings, and to study them so that future generations may know what In this picture of a large room with a collapsed roof, Becky can be seen on the right side, inspecting the area. The amazing thing is that not just hundreds but thousands of rooms like this exist. In some places, it appears the stones could fall at any moment. In others, they seem read to stand another thousand years. This is the kind of places that This gate is being attacked by a banyon tree, and has been for hundreds of years. Think of the thousands of Khmer workers who lived in villages outside these walls, generation after generation, dedicating their lives to perfecting the temples within. We were lucky with the weather, which could not have been more perfect. When we visited three years ago, it was very uncomfortably hot. We recommend coming here December through early March. It is the dry season, and is generally cooler -- although it was January when we were here before. Unless you are a very hearty traveler, we also suggest that you fly here. It’s not cheap. The Bangkok Airways flight here from Bangkok is the most expensive flight we’ve ever taken, in terms of dollars per Only recently have we had an actual home. For more than six years we traveled continuously, without a permanent residence. Because we now have a hometown -- Red Lodge, Montana -- we decided to participate in a feature run by a local newspaper called the Local Rag. They feature people reading their paper in unusual places. In this shot, we gathered a group of We often talk about the joys of exploring the world’s nooks and crannies. This is a place we heartily recommend. Beaches and resort life is fine. But we guarantee you that if you devote one of your vacations to exploration of Angkor, these ten-foot tall stone faces -- and the hundreds of temples and the history, the majesty and the historic reflections and perspective they bring to today -- will stay with you forever. We have placed larger versions of these photos, and many others in our most current Cambodia photo gallery. Please take a look. In this adventure of early 2007, we decided to return to the places we’ve visited in Asia that were most meaningful to us. This is not the last time we will be here. Cambodia When we arrived at the Siem Reap airport, the Mandalay Inn (which we heartily recommend) send a man to the airport to pick us up in his three-wheel motorized rickshaw. We then hired him for three days to show us Angkor. We’re glad we did. We paid $20/night (including breakfast) at the Mandalay. You may wish to do the same. |
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It is difficult to fathom the magnificence of the long forgotten temples that have been discovered in Cambodia. For those who have not been there, go. You can travel the world as we do, but you will never see anything manmade this awesome.
Canals were built to transport huge stones from quarries many miles away. All together, millions of stones were used.
warned not to wander off established trails in Cambodia. We have seen scores of people missing limbs after having stumbled innocently into mined fields.
farm trucks or in beaten up old busses -- arrive in Siem Reap, the nearby town, as later as midnight and are taken to a guesthouse for the night. The visitors have no way of finding alternative lodging, so they have no choice but to stay there. The drivers causing the delay collect handsome kickbacks from the Inn operators.
stone was cut by hand, using primitive tools, and made to fit its precise slot.
this once great empire accomplished.
lends itself to long moments of sober reflection, for it truly is a wonder of the world.
mile. Still, the 50-minute jump eliminates up to two days of uncomfortable and somewhat hazardous overland travel.
young people dressed in traditional Khmer garb and had our picture taken beneath a huge stone face at Angkor Thom. In a shot you’ll see in a future log, we read the Rag while flying past Mt. Everest.
is a country where enormous pain has been inflicted on its people down through the years. And yet we found them friendly, optimistic and eager to show the treasures of their incredible history. We wish these people well. They are due for a little peace and prosperity.