Cambodia - temples of hope or temples of doom?

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Yesterday at Ankor Wat it was seriously wet. Seriously tropical rain. Flooding, red mud, slippery and absolutely NO occupational and health safety officers or rules. Mrs Bumblefoot (aka me) did not fall down, for a change. Davie did, and was terrifically brave with the hydrogen peroxide cleanse. His knee will recover.

Oh wow. Frank, our dear friend, did you really see all this before the trees and jungle were removed from these unreal temples? This is mind-boggling stuff. 100s of temples, both Hindu and Buddist were built in this region, then the king moved south, and the temples were forgotten for 600 and more years. The jungle moved in and took over. Apparently the land mines left from the 70's and early 80's mean that it is expected that many more of these temples will be rediscovered.

Stunning construction (even to me who understands little about engineering or architecture) and extraordinary statistics - bigger than the pyramids and St Peter's in Rome, dozens of temples built during a single king's reign, thousands of elephants and millions of slaves. Henry Ford's production lines started here.

So here we were, the cynical products of the 20th century, hearing how the Temple of Doom movies were based on these incredible structures - how easily our perceptions around fact and fiction get vague - this is for real, and is simply incredible.

Also incredible is the determintion of the population to rebuild, despite weak and rotten governments. There is no social welfare, mine victims are not compensated and orphans are left by the State to fend for themselves.

Yet, such friendly, hard working and and amenable people abound. Our tour guide is a survivor of the Thai border camps where he recovered from losing an eye, a finger and lord knows what else, while learning French, English, music and compassion. He is now an anthropology professor, heads up an orphanage which ensures that kids are not ony fed, but are schooled and readied for a future. Lovely man.

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Photos

Tree root at Cambodian Temple
Tree roots have crept around so many of these temples. International efforts to remove the trees and restore the temples are very impressive.

Mine victims - self help
This was one of two orchestras we saw - terrible mine blast injuries. Oh boy, this country needs some humanitarian help.