Temples of Angkor

reap

Reclaimed by nature

In front of Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat from the second enclosure

Balusters in the stone windows

More face-towers of Bayon, which are said to resemble the face of their creator, Khmer King Jayavarman VII

I robbed the bank caravan while Christina harvested the organs

We flew from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon and then traveled through the Mekong Delta across the border into Cambodia. Exhausted by the mega-cities of Vietnam, we sought relaxation on the beaches of Sihanoukville in the Gulf of Thailand. There one unlikely and rotten event led to another during the most challenging and desperate stretch of the trip. Though night-diving alongside squid ("CALAMARI!" our Neapolitan instructor cried out), cuttlefish, shy crabs, and sleeping reef fish was an unforgettable thrill, it wasn't until we escaped to Phnom Penh a week later that we could emotionally move on (a visit to the Cheung Ek Killing Fields also lent us some needed perspective). From there it was a night bus to Siem Reap, launching point for Angkor Wat and the Khmer temples.

Between the 8th and 13th centuries the Khmer Kings created the magnificent stone temples of Angkor, which stand today as evidence of the greatness of the Khmer Civilization. What part does Angkor Wat play in Cambodian national identity and pride? Its iconic silhouette is on beer labels, the flag, t-shirts and hats, tattooed on the chest of the man sitting next to you. In 2003 a Cambodian newspaper falsely reported that a Thai actress had claimed Angkor Wat was in fact stolen from Thailand. Cambodian media picked up on the story and word spread, while Thai television programming was removed from the Cambodian airwaves. One day later, the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh and a handful of Thai businesses were burnt to the ground by nationalistic rioters.

Built under alternately Hindu and Buddhist Khmer kings, the temples feature deities and images from both religions. In a sort of tug of war, many Buddhist icons were removed from temples by Hindu kings who came to power after their completion, and some were later partially restored by the Buddhist faithful. The temples were not actually places of meeting or worship, but were built as the palaces of gods who were there enshrined to bring good fortune to the Khmer kings. Angkor Wat is one example of a Khmer temple built as the Hindu universe in microcosm, with central towers as an image of Mount Meru, the center of the world, surrounded by the primordial ocean, in Angkor Wat's case a large moat.

In Siem Reap, which translates to Siem (Thailand) Defeated, by the way, we purchased a three day pass to the temples and got to work. Many sites are densely centered around Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, though there are over 50 temples by my count, and Angkor Wat to the jungle surroundings of Banteay Srei, for example, is almost 25 miles each leg. With 95 degree heat, an oppressive sun, and dustbowl roads, we did not want to waste our limited endurance covering the distances between temples on bicycle. So we hired Mr. Choom, a young tuk tuk driver who picked us up before sunrise and brought us to whichever sites we desired, to fruit and beverage stops before we even knew we were dehydrated, and to the finest toilets available when emergency struck (and it did).

Our plan was to start small and work up to the sluggers: Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm.  The plan backfired when early morning on day two Christina badly sprained her ankle on the uneven stone footing of Banteay Kdei. Our lawsuit against the Cambodian Department of Tourism was thrown out when evidence surfaced that she was actually balancing on one foot attempting to copy the professional-grade moves of the royal dancers seen in the Kdei bas-reliefs. She went down hard, and suddenly we weren't sure if she'd see anything more of Angkor Wat than what was available from the road. Ice... Elevation... Advil... James Bond films... echoed the voice of Dr. Walton in my mind, and with a little treatment Lionheart Rosenthal was back out there, hobbling up rainforest paths and climbing the steep stone steps of the largest religious structure on earth.

For my reference, if nothing else, I recall visiting: Preah Khan, Ta Som, East Mebon, Pre Rup (sunset), Srah Srang (sunrise), Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat (sunset and sunrise), Angkor Thom, the Elephant Terrace, Bayon, Ta Keo, Kbal Spean, and Banteay Srei.