Angkor Comes into View

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After a short flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, where I spent my initial night in country, I found myself in the domestic terminal having to make my first decision: taxi or open air tuk-tuk. Easy. Tuk-tuk it is. I wanted to feel Cambodia. Listening to Cambodian band Dengue Fever’s CD “Deepest Lake” I whizzed through outer rings of the city towards the hostel where I was to be staying. The colors, fragrances, heat, and otherworldly tunes filtering through me were intoxicating. I was back in Southeast Asia.

When the tuk-tuk arrived at the hostel the driver tried to upsell me on the many wonderful tours he could take me on during my stay. No thanks, friend. And I vanished into the hostel. It was large and busy with a very young smiley Cambodian staff. I immediately signed up for an Angkor Wat tour for the next day. I wanted to make sure to have seen it just in case I got carried away with nightlife and let my sightseeing fall by the wayside.

My first tour was to be a sunrise tour. I figured that since I was still jetlagged and thus had no idea what time it was anyway I might as well get some advantage from the situation. As I predicted waking up at 3:30am the next morning for the 4:30am tour departure was beyond easy. I happily ate my breakfast of coffee, bananas, and toast and waited for the tour to begin.

A voice from the hostel's entrance called out for everyone taking the tour to come forth. Down an alley a van awaited. It was completely black outside. So much so that I could barely see the faces being loaded into the van alongside me. I did detect three American accents in the seats in front of me. A conversation about American football was started, which made sense since the Super Bowl was the next day. Soon we had all made plans to watch the game together the next morning. Which was strange since we couldn’t really see each other. Another early wake up call.

The van stopped at the huge Angkor Wat ticket office. The place was absolutely packed with hopeful sunrise worshipers. There were many lines for each various pass you could purchase. However, I was the only one int whole building buying a seven-day pass so I was able to get my ticket ten minutes before everyone else since there wasn’t a queue. I went back outside and waited for them to return.

Leaning up against the van in the still dark morning I got to talking with a nearby tuk-tuk driver. We talked about girls and he mentioned how the recent doubling of the entrance fees of Angkor Wat had harmed his business. Maybe people were only going to Angkor Wat once? I can’t imagine that someone would come all the way to Cambodia and balk at going to Angkor Wat just because of an expensive ticket fee. Anyway, our guide thought it was funny that I had bought a seven-day pass saying that I would get bored after so many days. However, the seven-day pass was only $10 more than the three-day pass so I decided it was worth it just in case I REALLY loved the temples.

As we made our way to Angkor Wat, my pulse quickened with excitement as I saw all these tourists being whisked along in the dark, some in buses, some in vans just like ours and some in open-air tuk-tuks. All zooming towards a crossing off of yet another life goal from our collective bucket lists.

Once there and leaving the van behind I could still not see anything except the ground in front of me. And that was only if a light was put directly in front of my feet. However, I could feel this palpable buzz in the air of the surrounding unseen crowds. The first step was bewildering and unsettling. Was my vertigo back?! Unbeknownst I had stepped onto a large floating bridge which crossed an unseen moat. My legs swayed back and forth, further disorienting me about place and time. I could feel the presence of the ruins of the temple complex, but because of the darkness I still could not make anything out. All I knew was I was crossing a moat with a group of voices I had met a short time earlier. Keep up with them or get lost forever.

After crossing the moat our guide, Curly, recommended a spot for us to stand where we could get the perfect picture of Angkor Wat with the sunrise reflecting off of a lake. He then told us to memorize this clump of trees and to rendezvous back there after sunrise and sent us off on our own. I was not that interested in the photo opportunity since I am not the world’s most professional photographer and the best spot to stand would inevitably be the most crowded. Besides if I wanted the “perfect” photo I could just find one on the Web.

The other three Americans and I began wandering to a more relaxed spot. I had read that if you wanted to have the temple to yourself you should go in while the rest of the people were still snapping their sunrise photos. I convinced one of the Americans that it would be cool to venture into the temple while it was still dark. I am glad that I had him with me because it turned out the light emanating from his iPhone was the only thing that lit the way. We wandered up along a side path toward the hulking black mass of a structure that pulled me in its direction like a magnet.

We stumbled up some ancient stone steps. Being up there without anybody else I could definitely feel a spiritual energy tickling up my spine. At one point the other guy swiveled wide eyed and was like “Was that a ghost in there” as we peered into an empty void. As we walked along the stone walkway his phone light illuminated these intricate carvings of scenes from long ago. The white light and the shadows being cast made the figures seem to come alive. It was definitely a “ghostly cool” and the closest to Indiana Jones that I suppose I will ever feel. I kept trying to lead us into the inner sanctum of the temple complex, but it was not easy given that we had come in from the side and I had never been there before.

In an effort to orient ourselves better, we made our way to the alleyway out on the front of the building to get a clearer view. Unfortunately, this was our undoing as were spotted. From somewhere unseen a Khmer girl’s voice said the temple was not open yet and that we needed to go back and rejoin the crowds. We could not even see her in the dark, but we assumed she was official and not just some local busybody.

By the time we were back with the crowds the sun began to rise and the sky lightened. I could see with my own eyes what had been haunting me since that cancelled trip of 2008. I finally stood in front of mighty Angkor Wat itself. Check. With the rise of the sun we all gradually filtered back to the assignated clump of trees. I could finally put faces with the voices I had been hearing all morning. When everyone was there, about 10 of us, our group headed into the temple.

Inside was amazing. I had no idea just how massive that the whole temple complex was going to be. Curly was very good about pointing things out and explaining the history and I loved everything I was seeing, but nothing could compare to the initial thrill I felt walking around the darkened temple with hardly a soul about.

As we were walking away from the temple a young German girl in our group whipped out a huge juicy mango she had been carrying with her. As she began to eat it a few interested parties began to take notice and walk alongside us. Monkeys! More and more crowded around, closer and closer. Curly’s eyes grew wide and he nervously grabbed a nearby stick. Just as it looked like a cross-species ruckus was going to break out, the girl hastily tossed the mango into the woods sending the monkeys scurrying off after it.

We then all went to small roadside restaurant for lunch or was it breakfast? We all ate together and got to know each other better. One pleasant revelation from all this was that, even though I was pretty much the only person over 30, I did not feel old at all. I fit in with the young backpackers perfectly. I guess my mentality skews young. Another pleasant revelation was that the coconut shake I had for lunch was beyond delicious.

We visited a few more temples after lunch. Before I came to Cambodia I thought that I was really going to like Bayon, which is the temple with all the faces. However, it was smaller and therefore infinitely more crowded and cramped by the time we got there. You were never out of elbow distance with anybody else and the paths would periodically grind to stop in a fit of pedestrian traffic. I was a bit disillusioned, but I can see how it would be awesome if I came back at a less crowded time.

We also went to Ta Prohm. It’s the one where the trees literally have taken over and incorporated themselves into the temple walls. Curly kept pointing out where Angelina Jolie, during the making of Tomb Raider, had either filmed a sequence or posed for a picture. I don’t know what the guides talked about before Queen Angelina graced the place with her appearance.

Back at the hostel the other Americans and I made plans to meet at 5:30 the next morning to watch the Super Bowl. With that I crashed out and slept hard for four hours. I had to forcefully rip myself away from sleep or I would have been out for another 4 hours. I stayed awake until dinner by watching Hangover III which seemed oddly appropriate. I wandered over to Pub Street for a quick dinner and then called it a night. I had accomplished my main mission of seeing Angkor Wat. The rest of the trip would be gravy.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Angkor Wat
I've just recently discovered your blogs and I'm enjoying them. Looking forward to more. So many temples, so little time.... well 7 days. Sunrise, sunset, sunrise.