Agkor Wat lives up to its billing

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Once upon a time (~1200) there was a city with 1,000,000 residents at Angkor Wat, that ceased to exist. It is now a series of temples covering 400 sq KM with numerous remote temples outside this area. Up until now I had found much of what we’ve seen in Vietnam and Cambodia small and either quaint or amateurish as compared to what we saw in China. Angkor Wat is neither small, quaint nor amateurish. The temples are enormous with beautiful carvings.

We started the day with a guilt trip. We had arranged with the travel agent for someone to pick us up in Siem Reap. When we got in the car the driver asked if we needed a guide for Angkor, when I said no that I had already arranged for a guide, he explained that he had paid the travel agency for our name in the hope that we would hire him as a guide. We gave him a big tip, but like so many people here they desperately need work and you can’t have more than one guide at the same time.
When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by staff dressed to perform in The King and I (Rogers and Hammerstein musical from the 50’s). You could call it quaint or silly. Our actual guide who I had hired over the internet because of a recommendation by a woman whose husband is an avid photographer arrived at 10. Bunleat has been great. He is very interested in photography and has been a big help to Jack schlepping his equipment. Also, Jack is enjoying explaining what he is doing to an interested student. Overall, he has also helped us visit sites at times when they are not crawling with busloads of Japanese tourists.

Our first stop was the North Gate of Anchor Thom one of the largest temples. This temple has 4 entrances, one for Hindus, one for Buddhists, one for common people and one for royalty. Most of the temples reflect both Buddhism and Hinduism primarily because the dominant religion changed through time. Occasionally, the King would try to integrate the two religions, but this never really happened. Next we went to Preah Khan, where 96,000 people lived in village surrounding the actual temple. The Temple has 4 gates one dedicated to Shiva, one for Krishna, one for Buddha and one for the royal family. We next went to Ta Prohm, the temple with the trees that grow out of the ruins and appear in well know photographs of Anchor. Last stop was to the Victory Gate of Anchor Thom. There were 1,000 dancers and 1,000 teachers with the head teacher being the queen. The Kings carved images of themselves in the temples because they believed that at their deaths they became gods and the temples they had built would be their homes.

Sunday was an even better day for touring. Our guide picked us up at 5:30 AM so we could be at one of the more remote temples, Baentay Srey when the sun came up about 6. The temple we went to was one of the smaller temples but the most beautiful. After a short conversation with the guard, he let us know that for $5 the guard would let us into the restricted area for Jack to photograph until other visitors showed up. The 15 minutes turned into at least 45 minutes. Jack was ecstatic and he even had some time with good light. Since he knew his time would be limited, he shot digitally. Bunleat who has been working a guide for 5 years had never been in this area before and saw cravings he had never seen including one of a beautiful lady whose picture is on the blog. Most of the time Bunleat kept the guard distracted and when he could he told me the stories behind the carvings. The Hindu carvings tell very complicated stories of gods and man. Knowing the stories I found the carvings more compelling. When you know the background of the god with 10 heads and 20 arms, you can respond more emotionally than if you don’t know the story and the carving simply looks weird. About 8 AM a few tourists started to arrive and when we were leaving at 8:30 6 – 10 busloads of tourists passed us on their way to the temple. The other temples we visited before lunch were Pre Rup (believed to be a crematorium) and Banteay Kdei (largely unrestored). After lunch we went back to Bayon, the center of Anchor Thom. King J VII who was the master builder here constructed Anchor Thom. In Bayon there are 49 towers each with 4 cared heads of King JVII with a couple of exceptions where the towers were too close together for carving to be done. The number 49 is important because in the Buddhist legend when a woman brought Buddha rice in a golden bowl he divided it into 49 portions and when he threw the bowl into the river it skipped 49 time predicting that Buddha would find enlightenment in 49 days which he did. The last top was Angkor Wat itself. To give a sense of scale it is a mile from one end of the Ahcnor Wat complex to the other.

At every temple there are small groups of musicians who are survivors of land mines. Their signs say they are trying to earn money through their music rather than begging. The saddest part is interacting with the kids who are trying desperately to sell you something. Today it was paper birds that they said we could use as Christmas tree ornaments. Since don’t do Christmas, it really wouldn’t matter if the paper decorations could survive the trip since we wouldn’t use them any way. I had some small Cambodian money and Bunleat was good enough to give it to some of the kids. Jack reminds me that I can’t save the world and even though I know this intellectually, it’s hard to see these kids literally begging you to buy something from them.

Bunleat was saying that the city doesn’t provide water and electricity is very expensive. He doesn’t own a refrigerator because he can’t afford it. He has a university degree, but while he may do OK by Cambodian standards, his standard of living is below what we are used to in the US. He has a 5 year old daughter and said he probably won’t have more children so he and his wife, who also works, can afford to educate his daughter. He is a really good guide who I would now rank as #1 for the trip. We just finished lunch with him so Jack could process a couple of photos for him to post on his web site. His driver is his brother-in-law who

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Photos

Angkor Thom
One of 49 towers with most having 4 carvings - built by King J VII who built 100 temples, roads and canals

Preah Khan
being restored