Indiana Hef and the Temples of Angkor

After the 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh we arrived in Siem Reap where we would spend the next few days and one exciting day visiting the Temples of Angkor. After hiring a tuk-tuk to take us to our hostel we arranged transport for the day to view the temples. We were told that sunrise at Angkor Wat was a once in a lifetime event.....so we signed up for it. Basically we would be leaving the hostel at 5:30 am and returning after sunset. We were all extremely excited. The next morning came rather quickly but we were too excited to be tired. We loaded into our tuk-tuk (Krista and I in one and Kevin and Chris in another) and headed out. It was a really neat ride flying through the jungle on our way to see some of the most famous temples in the world. We arrived at Angkor Wat, with about 300 other people, and found a place to view the sunrise since it was still quite dark. One thing automatically bummed me out about it though......there was scaffolding on the main tower. Kind of took away from the mystique. The other unfortunate thing was that is was incredibly cloudy. As the sun came up Angkor Wat was exposed. I thought it was pretty cool but not as cool as I had hoped for. Everyone always says that sunrise is such a spine-tingling, once in a lifetime experience but I just thought it was okay. We walked around the temple which was really cool. The temple was built in the 12th century. One unique thing about Angkor Wat is that it is oriented to the west and west is symbolically the direction of death. This led historians and other intelligent people to believe that the temple was built as a tomb for Suryavarman II (say that ten times fast) who ruled Angkor. This idea was supported by the fact that carvings around the walls of the temple were designed to be viewed counter-clockwise which was a practice common in ancient Hindu funerary rites. Interesting stuff. Scholars now believe that the temple was used as a place of worship as well because the Hindu God Vishnu is associated with the west. Just so you know. After walking around a bit, taking loads of photographs, and fending off the army of mosquitos we headed off to our next temple.....Angkor Thom.

Angkor Thom was really really cool. Much better than Angkor Wat in my opinion. It was really a large complex with a bunch of temples and ruins within it. The first place we checked out was the Bayon which was this large temple that had faces carved into each side of each pillar. The faces were of the King and they represented him looking/always keeping an eye on his people. They may be smiling but I'd still be a little intimidated. After roaming around the Bayon we checked out a few more ruins around the Angkor Thom area. One thing I've noticed about South East Asia in general is that there really aren't any rules or safety regulations going on. We were able to climb up any temple and the steps were pretty worn down and incredibly steep........and pretty high at that. In the States they would definitely be too concerned about some idiot stubbing their toe and suing to allow people to do the things we were doing. Good times. My other favorite part was these carvings of elephants with thier big trunks. I just like elephants. We visited a few more temples that weren't anything special. They pretty much just looked the same but smaller.

The last temple we visited as Ta Prohm and it was awesome. By far my favorite. This temple is back in the jungle and was pretty much left to be eaten by the jungle. Because there was no care given to it there are huge trees that have literally devoured the walls and buildings. In some rooms there were buttresses set up to prevent the walls from giving in. It was so cool. And everything was green and mossy and in shambles so I proceeded to run around like Indiana Jones, darting through dark corridors and jumping over giant roots. So much fun. After this temple we went to the top of this hill to watch the sunset. We were hopeful that it would be more entertaining than sunrise.....and it was. However it was only entertaining because a storm came in and there was a rediculous amount of lightning. In fact, when we were driving back into town we passed by Angkor Wat for one last view and this huge bolt of lightning struck right behind it. If I would've captured a photo of that it would've been priceless. It was definitely a cool way to end an awesome day of sightseeing. And it actually got even better when we got into town as we found a Mexican food restaurant called VIVA!! Now I know what you're thinking.....the foods going to suck. But you'd be wrong. It was actually delicious and legitimately tasted like mexican food. I got a chimi and it was fantastic. Plus they gave you a salad with ranch dressing. Now my day was complete. After dinner we headed back to our hotel to pack our stuff and prepare to leave for Laos the next morning. This is also where we said goodbye to our good Irish friend Kevin. He was an awesome guy and it was a real pleasure to travel with him.

In general Cambodia has been such an awesome place. I think the most amazing thing about it was the spirit of the people. They have endoured so much in the past 20-30 years. It was crazy for me to see people over the age of 30 and think about how they lived through the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, perhaps even lost a family member or two. Also you couldn't help but fall in love with the children. They were so friendly and happy and smarter than most people in the states. They would come up to you and recite about 30 capital cities from around the globe. I don't know that many people that could do that. It's just really sad how poor these people are and at some point in the future I would love to come back and do some volunteer work or something that could benefit these great people. It was such a pleasure to be in their country and I hope that everyone can come to this country someday and experience the same things that I did. Now it's off to Laos. Until next time............

---

---