DAY ONE: Angkor What? Angkor Wat!

Taken discretely, quantized completely
Each of them separate, not much to view
In combination (what incarnation!)
There's the impression, wonders it's true

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

July 31, 2008

Yesterday was Day 1 of Angkor. We were up very early so we could catch sunrise at Angkor Wat and we did make it there in time, but unfortunately, it was more than a little cloudy and our spectacular sunrise over Angkor Wat was more of a gradual lightening of the sky. The sun unfortunately didn't seem to make it.

Walking along the causeway and through the front gate to Angkor Wat was reminiscent of my visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing -- underwhelming -- but for different reasons. In Beijing, the palace was under construction. At Angkor, the temple, while beautiful, was just so...small. I'd seen so many pictures of it in advance, many being photos taken from an elevation and the rest artistic renditions which, I have now learned, were not so true to their subject. It's the largest religious structure in the world...but it didin't seem so big.


Exploring it was a different matter though. The bas-reliefs on the outer walls told Hindu stroies through their immaculately craved images, and though I was tired beyond belief (by 8 am I thought I'd collapse), I was thirsting to see more. The inside was huge and featured an incredible architectural style.


Unfortunately, the stairs leading up to the main central tower were closed so we couldn't climb up, so I was pretty disappointd because the stairs were ridonkulously steep and I could hear the chanting of monks up in the temple.


While Banana and gf and Peon 2 grabbed breakfast in some overpriced tourist restaurant on the temple grounds, TH and I ventured out to look for something btter. What we found were miraculously wonderful sandwiches: it was a baguette on which the seller ladled gravy, then lined with a bed of lettuce and shaved vegetables, sprinkeled with sliced pork, overlain with green onion, then drizzled with sweet pepper and chili sauce. SO GOOD. A little soggy by the end, but good...and only a dollar.

We did Angkor Thom city after breakfast, which included the famous Bayon Temple, which was super eerie. It contains something like 70 odd of these giant stone faces...a bit Mona Lisa looking. It was really neat seeing all of these plaes: amazing to know that the same things I saw, that I was running my fingers over, were trouched by a builder's hands a thousand years ago. There's a connection across time that is maintained through these structures.


The bas-reliefs on the Bayon were interesting because they told the story of the friendship between the Khmer and the Chinese people. Our tour guide pointed out how to tell if the carvings wre of Chinese people: "long beard, hat, and eyes small small -- like sleepling." They looked the same to me.


We looked at temple after temple until lunch, when our guide brought us to a tourist restaurant. (A) It was overly pricey and (B) it had a menu that looked like and contained the same items as Seaside Guesthouse so Peon 2, TH and I went in search of other food. We couldn't find anythign except for these nasty sweet pumpkin glutinous pieces of mastiness, 2 for 12.5 cents, which we ate in the tuk tuk outside the restaurant. Banana's gf thinks were crazy because we're cost conscious (well, that's how Asians are, and anyways, we're not all made of moola) and we wouldn't eat the Angkor food (YOU try spending two months in Kep).

As we ate our glut-nasty, little kids came up to harass us, as they'd been doing all day ("Lady, buy, one dolla"). We were both pretty fed up at this point (and unfed, in a manner of speaking) and we wanted to enjoy some quiet, so we tried every tactic we could think of: unfriendliness, raised voices, ignoring. Until TH pulled out the cut eye, aptly coined the "death stare" once she realized it makes the kids scatter like leaves from a leaf blower. She was so proud of herself...even as I pointed out that the kids were about 6. She just smiled. Outwardly.


The temples we visited after lunch made a greater impression on me than did the ones before. I really enjoyed a small one whose name escapes me right now, a smallish temple which was by far the quietest, and off the tourist track. There is something mystical about wandering aimlessly through these temples, something that inspires a sense of awe that these buildings, built so long ago, still remain, but remain a mystery. And in the quietest of temples, it is most easy to feel that awesomeness bubble up inside the pit of your belly as the significance of their presence reaffirms your own insignificance. Or maybe that bubbling is just the remains of a pumpkin lunch.


By far the coolest temple of the day was Ta Prohm. Remember Tomb Raider? It was shot here, because the temple is so insanely cool-looking. When Angkor was discovered, temples had been devoured by jungle, with trees growing out of rooftops and slowly reclaiming the land that humans had so toilingly stolen from nature. In most places, the trees and bramble have been removed, but at Ta Prohm and a few others, trees have been left in place to show the visitor the mighty power of the jungle. It is a war of wills and perseverance: the trees which have grown into the structures, are slowly destroying them, sending out their roots among bricks and stone, while Angkor preservationists struggle to leave as many trees in place as possible, cutting away trees hundreds of years old only when they threaten to collapse a structure.

My wish for stair climbing did come true this day. At one of the temples, we got to climb up five tiers, pretty much on hands and knees because the stairs were so steep. So danger! I remember thinking as I was climbing that this was all crazy, and never in Canada would we ever be allowed to do something like this...liability or something. I love Asia for the lack of safety, allowing me to do crazy stuff.


At this point, I was super tired (considering that it was, by now, about twelve hours since we had arisen in the morning) and ready to rest. Our guide suggested a temple for sunset, and we headed over in our tuk tuks, which stopped at the base of a hill, allowing our guide to hop out and say: "Okay, we climb." CLIMB?! And so I was tricked into climbing a mountain, exhausted, starving. And, there was no sunset. See how amused we look? No sunset. So tired.

At least there was a killer view of Angkor Wat from the mountain. Again, looking so small.


When we made it back to town, we hit up a supermarket and then grabbed dinner: I had my last amok, which came in a banana leaf bowl. I got so excited that I didn't get a picture until I was half done. So much for my foodie-ness.


A huge day. Interestingly enough, I found few of the temples spine-tingling, but I think what was most impressive was how many temples -- not each individual temple -- were contained in the area. Taken as a whole, Angkor is truly amazing. What a communist view of Angkor...