The Grand Tour

Angkor What?

Well, screw it. We're not going to be catching up anytime soon at this rate. Lately, we have been busy from early morning to late at night and barely even have time to sleep much less write log entries. So, since we've been in Cambodia for a whole week now, I figure we might as well log in some stories from our time here and worry about filling in the rest another time...

The title of our entry comes from Toli, who until he actually saw the temples with his very own eyes, did not actually know what Angkor Wat is. (Yes, he has seen "Tomb Raider" but he was probably too focused on the robots - or was it Angelina Jolie's cleavage? - to notice the surrounding environment.) Not like I should poke too much fun at him, because I myself thought Angkor Wat was this one big magnificent temple in the middle of Cambodia when really it is this one big magnificent temple among at least a dozen big magnificent temples in the middle of Cambodia. :)

So, I guess I should backtrack a little since it's been so long since we've written a decent-sized entry. After our long haul from Hanoi into Saigon (which we do promise to write about when we have time), the fresh young blood of Maria (best friend from high school), Grace (cousin), and John (Grace's ex-roommate and fellow Angkor Wat junkie) joined our tour group's ranks. We did spend a few days in Saigon together, seeing touristy sights and shopping in District 1. The bulk of the tour group then left for Phnom Penh by combination bus and boat trip on the 20th, while Toli and I went by air since the flight was part of our round-the-world airplane ticket. Later, we were told that this was a good thing, since we conveniently missed staying overnight at the "resort" in Chau Doc that had broken air conditioning and smelled like sewage. Whoopee!

However, our luck ran out within the first day of staying in Phnom Penh as Toli and I soon learned that our "iron stomachs" in Vietnam rusted when met with Cambodian cuisine. Toli spent the first night in Phnom Penh in the hotel bathroom, while I only wished that the food could pass as quickly through (or back out of) my own system. By the way, food issues aside, Phnom Penh is indeed a lot more modern than any of us had expected. The layout of the city is easy to grasp, the streets are wide with large sidewalks, the drivers don't honk nearly as much as they do in Vietnam, and more signs seem to be in English than in either Hanoi or Saigon. Also, the favored currency of everyone here is the dollar, and Cambodian riel tends to be used only for very small transactions or as small change since they don't use U.S. coins.

Anyway, after just one night in Phnom Penh, we were scheduled to leave for a boat ride to Siem Reap (where the Angkor temples are) early the next morning. Poor Toli had to drag his mostly comatose self onto a cramped, non-airconditioned boat and bear through the next six hours as the boat traversed up the Mekong River towards Lake Tonle Sap. The lack of air-conditioning was fine since the boat created a nice draft, but there was what seemed like a half-hour stop mid-river to refuel - refuel, meaning that they had to empty several plastic bottles filled with gasoline into the boát's tank, causing all of us on board to swoon in the nauseating fumes and heat. Thankfully, after another change mid-river to a smaller boat (that could handle the shallower waters), we all made it to the port in one piece...only to wait in the searing noontime heat for about an hour until the van from the tourist agency came to pick us up. I cannot impress upon you what the heat is like here in Cambodia - the closest comparison I can think of is sitting in a parked car with the windows up in the middle of Austin during the month of August...while Cambodian children knock on the windows and ask you for food or money.

We were all a pretty exhausted and unhappy bunch by the time we made it to the hotel, and Toli and I ended up collapsing in our room for the rest of the day. At about this time, Grace decided to stage a separatist movement from the rest of the tour group and hire another driver to take her, John, and Maria directly to the Angkor complex and forego the typical tour group itinerary of two-hour lunches, souvenir stops, and irrelevant town sights. Whether this speaks more of her enthusiasm for Angkor Wat or her ballsy nature, we cannot say, but we are very glad that she did it because we sure didn't have the guts to break away!

The next day, Toli and I were feeling well enough to take on the temples ourselves, so we joined Grace's faction for an amazing sunrise at Angkor Wat. I won't bore you with the details of our long day touring the temples, especially since you will see for yourselves once our pictures are up, but suffice to say that the temples are an astounding feat of art, religion, and engineering that the Khmer ("Khmer" is a more accurate word to describe qualities that are "Cambodian") people should be proud of.

Of course, Angkor Wat is the biggie - the major temple that is shown in most pictures, featured in movies, and proudly flown on the country's flag. But each of the other temples we managed to see over the next three days is unique in its own way. The Bayon at Angkor Thom, for example, is a hauntingly beautiful structure with the large face of King Jayavarman carved on each side of the 52 towers. If you think Mona Lisa has the loveliest smile in the art world, you may think again after visiting the Bayon. Ta Prohm, by contrast, is a small temple that has been completely overgrown and overrun by the jungle, with tree roots growing into the structures. Visiting it makes one feel like "Indiana Jones" exploring a hidden and mysterious place. Then there is Phnom Bakeng, everyone's favorite spot for sunset, but where we caught sunrise the following day - avoiding the 500-person crowds. And Preah Khan, which boasts a 2-story temple that looks almost Greek. There are the beautiful sandstone carvings of Banteay Srei, and the Aztec-like brick structures of the Eastern Mebon and Pre Rup. In stark contrast to all of these is Ta Keo, which was unfinished and therefore sports large but bare stone walls. Or Ta Som, which would be considered small and unmemorable were it not for the tree which is literally swallowing up the eastern gate. And last but not least was Preah Neak Pean, a water-based temple, which Toli and I had the wonderful experience of visiting completely alone by ourselves. (Grace, Maria, and John had left for Saigon by this point, and no one else was at the temple when Toli and I visited it at the end of the day!) Okay, so I lied, and I did bore you with the details. But don't worry - Toli took so many beautiful pictures, which will make everything seem that much more interesting...or bore you that much more.

One thing that I forgot to mention about visiting the various temples in the Angkor complex was the prevalence of Buddhist monks in and around the area. The first temples built around Angkor were Hindu temples, in honor of Vishnu, Shiva, or Krishna. However, somewhere in the 11th century, there was a large shift in the population towards Buddhism, and the place remains very much a site for Buddhist pilgrims to this day. Of course, the sight of these monks in their beautiful saffron and orange-colored robes in and around these majestic temples was more than any shutterbug could resist, and Toli took many pictures of them. What we were wholly unprepared for, though, was that these monks owned cameras themselves, and found *us* just as interesting a camera subject! More than once, Toli, Maria, Grace, or I would be approached by a monk or group of monks asking if they could take pictures with us. We're still not quite sure what made us such a curiosity - was it our physical beauty (yeah, right), the mix of races among us, or the fact that we were tourists from America? Even so, it was probably the closest feeling I will ever have to being a celebrity, with small crowds of people around asking for my picture. :)

Lastly, after spending so much time in Siem Reap, marvelling and enjoying the temples, Toli and I found a lovely way to give back to the local people. Or rather, Toli did...or rather, I did, and as usual just pimped out Toli to do the actual work. It probably has not come across very well, as this entry is full of ecstatic descriptions of Cambodia's cultural riches, but the fact remains that this is one of the poorest and most desperate countries in the world. Cambodia's recent history is filled with war and genocide, and despite the cosmopolitan feel of the capital city, this is very much a third-world country. Even in relation to its neighbor, Vietnam. Anyway, while eating dinner at one of the typical backpacker haunts, Toli and I came upon a sign asking for monetary or blood donations to a local children's hospital as they are in the middle of a dengue fever epidemic. For those of you who don't know, until recently, Toli has donated blood very regularly to the Austin Blood Bank. He has not given for the last year or so because of tighter restrictions over mad cow disease that exclude him based on his one-time living in Greece. So it was really nice that we found an opportunity for Toli to give blood again and do so in a way that we know will directly help someone who truly needs it. (I would have given too, but my weight doesn't allow for it, so yes, I pimped out my husband to do it.)

Well, I hope that this long entry will suffice for now, as the local Internet cafe is starting to turn out the lights in the hopes that we will actually get out of here. We'll write again soon, as our adventures in Cambodia have taken us now to Sihanoukville which in itself has many wonderful things to relate!

Posted by Christine at April 27, 2004 08:24 AM