On Angkor Wat! ( From Julie, a bit belated)

So, I can finally cross something off my "100 things to do before I die" list. That would be good old # 17, "Watch Sunrise over Angkor Wat".

We hired a guide that came highly recommended , and I think it was worth every cent. Or thousands of cents. ( Brief note: imagine my surprise when the ATM in Phnom Penh spit out American dollars. I'm also glad I realized this before withdrawing an ungodly amount of money, thinking it was measured in Cambodian Riel! 4000 Riel= 1$)

Our guide turned out to be a guy around our age named Kongkea. Before the first day, we told him we wanted to see sunrise and he said " Alright, pick you up at 5AM". We dutifully tried to get to sleep early, but I was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve. I woke up every few hours, checking and re-checking the alarm and thinking "in just a few hours, ANGKOR WAT!"

Angkor Wat has been on my mind for a long time. Before I met Alex, just after I got back from the last trip and was busy moping around Anchorage, I made a list of things I wanted to see. I needed a goal, a reason to work on the train, something satisfying, to do with that money. I finally decided I was planning a round the world trip. The list included seeing the Taj Mahal, diving the Great Barrier Reef, the usual BIG HUGE AMAZING things. But Angkor Wat stood out. I saw a picture of a huge ancient tower, covered in vines, green trees contrasting with the dark grey of the stone. I knew I HAD to go. Life intervened and I met Alex. Blah blah blah, everyone knows the story, nearly 3 years later, here we are!

Initially I was against going to see the temples on this trip. I wanted to really be able to soak in Cambodia, and spend a month or more. But we were SO CLOSE to Siem Reap, it seemed silly not to go now.

Back to business! The sunrise was amazing! We got at the eastern gate so early, it was still pitch black and stars twinkled over our heads. We got there so early, we beat just about everyone else. We watched the slow dramatic arc of the sun over the main tower as the tour groups descended.

Short Aside: The couple that recommended our tour guide also recommended we check out the outfits of the Asian tour groups. I was impressed. One older ( 75ish?) Japanese woman was wearing these sweet brown knee high cowboy boots, and a black shimmery translucent top with a golden glitter belt VERY securely tightened over what was once the general area of her waist. How did I know her boots were knee high? Because she was also wearing a miniskirt! Gramms, are you reading this? Her outfit looked exactly like one my lovely sweet Aunt Sibyl wore on a very ...ummmm.. memorable occasion!

Man, I am really getting off course here! I'll try again.

We had our tour guide for 3 days, and then Alex and I went out on our own for one more day. We got see all the temples we wanted and had the time to go back to the ones we wanted to see again. I could have spent another two or three days, easily. The temples were so much larger than I had imagined and so much more beautiful.

What impressed me the most was how in the finished temples, every surface is decorated. And every decoration has an underlying meaning, be it political or religious. The dancing ladies, the Apsara, frame nearly every window and door. Gods ride elephants into battle on murals that stretch for 80 meters. Buddha is well represented, as well as several Hindu gods. The serpents, the Naga, take the place of gargoyles on the crumbling rooftops.

We visited around 20 temples, but I still think my favorite were the biggest: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Bayon. The most interesting, Bayon, has 49 different towers topped with Olmec-style heads and an Esher-esque feel to it. The rooftops are mostly intact and it's a multileveled playground with hidden corridors and stairwells. Instead of catching the sunset at crowded Angkor Wat, we spent a sunset at Bayon, playing hide and go seek. The temple is so large, we had to set time limits and the location of our meet-up or risk losing each other. The taller towers house large bat colonies and as I was darting around the "basement" in the dark, bats were swooping over my head. Better than a haunted house on Halloween!

Guess who won?

The pictures are in no particular order. Narrowing down the few dozen we post can be a nightmare, so I'm going to stick with the really cool shots and the ones with us in them!


On another note, Alex is fully recovered. How do I know this? Because late night I watched him polish off a rack of ribs, a roasted chicken breast, corn, jalapeno bread, baked beans and a mountain of pulled pork, followed by apple cobbler and then some Toblerone. This was a far cry from eating dinner when he was sick. After 2 bites of food, he would throw his fork down with disgust and say " This food sucks." The food in Vientiane was bad, admittedly, but when has that ever stopped Alex?

---

---

---