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Published: July 12th 2011
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You can't compare the temples of Angkor to anything you've ever seen or will ever see. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that drags you into desiring that it won't be. I sincerely believe that if you go anywhere in Asia for a somewhat extended period of time, this is a destination you must put at the top of your bucket list.
The people of Cambodia are INCREDIBLY interested in sharing their culture and history with tourists. Most people respond to smiles or nods and granted, I was in the two touristiest parts of Cambodia. I did hear some stories from fellow traveler’s of prostitution, but never encountered that.
Got into Siem Reap and found a hotel close to the center of town. Afterwards, we rode into a hill close to Angkor Wat to watch the sun set over all the surrounding land, but… no dice. Kind of a bad night to go… 人山人海and most of the surrounding area was cloudy. Went and had fish amok, morning glory fried in oyster sauce, shrimp spring rolls, sweetened pork, mango salad, green chicken curry and incredibly soft and sweet banana amongst a sweet purple tapioca porridge of sorts.
This was recommended to me by multiple travelers and was definitely worth it.
The next day woke up at 4 am to get ready for a sunrise over Angkor Wat, then Angkor Thom and its contained temples, finished off with Ta Prohm, then back to Angkor Wat for an extended visit. Got to Wat about 5:00 and parked myself by two Chinese people from Beijing with the potential to produce some devastatingly righteous photos of Angkor, but it was cloudy so… They were just righteous, not devastatingly so… Met up with a guide and made our way to Angkor Thom. Cambodian people will claim to be Buddhist, but actually follow a combination of Buddhism, Animism, and Hinduism. The South gate of Angkor Thom has a 4 headed statue of Brava, a Hindu god, who ceases to exist anymore in Cambodian religious followings. He was to be struck by an arrow from Karma Sutra that made him abuse and rape his own daughter, so the Cambodians refuse to follow him. The gate also contains three elephants dipping into some coconut milk/holy water.
There’s a Cambodian tradition where the ashes of a relative (after cremation, which is traditional) are mixed
with coconut milk and distributed to family members, particularly grandchildren. If they at least try, or drink any, it shows gratefulness to the relative and also vice versa.
We then proceeded to the main temple inside Angkor Thom (which is 3 square kilometers in total, wow-eeeh!). Pretty crazy multiple Buddha headed towers on a high level surrounded by some pretty intense artwork that modeled Chinese-Cambodian cooperation versus the Cham people around the time of building. The artwork on the surrounding walls, stairwells, and towers were vastly intricate (as I would find out all the temples were).
We then rode around the insides of Angkor Thom until the heat was excruciating.
Took a minor break for some lunch that needless to say made me feel quite indignant as they charged me an arm, a leg, and a countless number of other arbitrarily aleatoric limbs and body parts. Gah! I suppose they do have a captive audience.
After lunch, we made our way to Ta Prohm, also known as Jungle Temple and the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple. Parts of the film Tomb Raider were filmed there and the guide spoke very highly of Angelina Jolie because of an increase
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tonle sap lake of tourism more or less due to her and an orphanage she donated to Cambodia.
The temple is surreal. It is like its taken straight out of a movie, which it is. Giant roots of several hundred-year-old trees caress the sandstone blocks of this jungle-praising labyrinth of cloisters. Unfortunately, these trees don’t have quite the simple touch that they appear to have. Their roots are actually causing a major amount of damage to the temple (but not to the beauty).
I finally ended at Angkor Wat.
I was utterly still speechless, even after I had already seen parts of it at dawn.
Most of the temple (all of these temples were laid out brick for brick with no form of cohesive glue) tells a story through pictures of Rama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama , Rama’s wife, the monkey king, and many scenes of war. There are some side plots including Vishnu (the god of creation and protection according to Hinduism) and Shiva (the god of destruction according to Hinduism). But, no sculptures include Brama! The story starts as the people were challenged to a task: in order to marry a woman, one must light an arrow aflame and send
it far into the sky to ignite a wheel. After many trials, Rama succeeded because he was part god. After some years and trials his wife was tricked an abducted by Ravana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana . Ravana was more or less an avenger of his sister, who in Cambodian culture and history is depicted as a demon. His wife was kept in captive with Ravana who continually tricked Rama’s wife. Rama tried to win back his wife for fourteen years, until finally he did a favor by killing the monkey king and allowing his younger brother to inherit the throne. The favor was returned by having the entire monkey army at his disposal. They then went to war with Ravana and his demon army. Ravana was killed by arrows from Rama in a great battle. Followers tried to avenge Ravana, but failed. They attempted to kill Shiva with an arrow, but shiva lowered his third eye (which destroys everything in its path) and killed Ravana’s avengers. Even though Rama won his wife back, he still had doubts about what she had done with Ravan for the past 14 years.
Needless to say, the artwork is intricate and stunning.
3 different
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seas of people levels, the highest for king, 2nd for priests, 3rd for commoners. Each level has two libraries and the temple is walled in. Actual (not illustrated) monkeys strut around the outer perimeters almost as though they’re unspoken guardians of the temple.
Inevitably, when talking to most Cambodians, you will hear about the Khmer Rouge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge and Pol Pot regime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polpot . It is incredibly depressing, to give an understatement. Members of Polpot’s regime are still currently on international trial for what they’ve done.
…
Needless to say, I was conned and hawked to unbelievable levels while in Siem Reap. I went out for dinner and a lady on a tourist street had a dirty baby and an empty milk bottle in her arms while asking for milk. I supposed there was no crime in supplying someone with milk and walked her to the mini mark and bought a large bottle of water and baby formula. The man at the counter shot me a pretty funny look as I was leaving the store. Outside he and I talked about giving to the poor and he asked me to wait outside the store for a while. Sure enough, I sat
outside and witnessed the same thing happen again to a guilt tripped tourist. They apparently return the formula for money…
Today I went out for a hike to Kbal Spean. Waterfalls and engravings in a river bed were certainly not the highlight, but were advertised as so. The true highlight was just getting out into the Cambodian countryside and then hiking into the root entangled jungle. Throughout my time hiking around, I felt moderately more welcomed by Cambodians who were in the surrounding area.
Afterwards, I was taken to Banteay Srei, which was one of the most detailed temples that I was to visit. Met a Cambodian selling art, who showed me around. I asked him about his life generally and he responded with the fact that his parents were killed in the polpot regime. He grew up in an orphanage/school and went on to make his own school for orphans. He asked me for money and I in return asked if I could volunteer. In 20 minutes I was in front of a mixed bag of dirty shoeless elementary school students for the afternoon. It was a great experience and ended with an unforgettable game of charades.
It truly has enlightened me and I have visited the orphanage in ma’anshan on occasion since.
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