Angkor Wat
It was still pitch black when I left Chris and Miesha's house at 4:30am to meet So behind his Uncle's house to take his Tuk Tuk to the Angkor Temples. The stars in Cambodia are impressive to say the least. It was very dark walking down the ally to get to the back but at least this time I didn't have to climb any walls. So had brought a cooler of water and our first stop was to buy ice at a corner store. Almost all the ice here is factory made and this block was about 4"4"6" and neatly fit in the cooler.
Our mission was to be at Angkor Wat for sunrise. I bought a one day ticket for $20 and they took my photo and printed it in color on my ticket. Angkor must be the one place in all of Cambodia that the government is cracking down on fraud and corruption. We drove through the park next to other Tuk tuks, bicyclists (who were bound to get too hot to move before noon) tour busses and private cars. So left me at the Angkor Wat gate and said he'd meet me across the street when I was done.
I started the long, dark walk from the entrance gate to the temple alongside the hundreds of other tourists also awaiting the sunrise. We pass the two free standing libraries, saw a white horse grazing on the grounds and as we all approached the temple every last person veered left to take a spot next to the Lilly pond just north of the main entrance. They were looking to capture the perfect, elusive image of the sun rising over Angkor Wat with the Lillie's blooming in the foreground and the temple's towers backlit with the new sun.
I kept walking straight ahead into the dark temple. I took the advice of a fellow traveler I had dinner and drinks with in a riverside cafe in Chau Doc, Vietnam. She told me two very excellent pieces of advice. The fist being the Cambodia will make you break out. I was skeptical of this one. She was a thirty-something PhD who had quit her office job to travel SE Asia for three months. She was fair skinned and smoked and of course I was thinking "ok lady, maybe Cambodia make YOU break out, but I have good skin and the sun doesn't bother me and we'll just see about that."
Well, she was right. I feel like a seventh grader with zits all over my nose and cheeks. You'll have to excuse the lack of close up selfies from here on out.
The second piece of advice She gave me was not to huddle around the pond trying to the best photo and instead roam the Wat alone in the dark while there are no other obnoxious tourists to disturb your zen. The best piece of advice I read before coming on this trip was from a backpacking Web site. It asked if I was traveling as a professional photographer or backpacking to try to see the world. My SLR is bulky and big and I think I used it all of 2 days when I was in Korea. It's conspicuous and I get paranoid it's going to break and for all those reasons, I left it at home. The only photo capturing devices I have with me are my phone and my iPad. They are treating me just fine.
At first I thought, "we'll, maybe the temple isn't open yet." I was literally the only person walking up the main stairs. But there was no one to stop me so in continued, down the halls filled of bad relief, down the outside south corridor as far from the Lilly pond as possible. Roosters were crowing. Cicadas were buzzing. The breeze was blowing and slowly, ever so slowly dawn was doing away with the night. I wandered into one of the first floor courtyards, taking I. The grandeur of the edifice. The ancient sandstones wearing away and yet still standing after nearly a millennia. I made my way further back and still didn't see a soul.
In the central courtyard on the second of three levels is a the tallest central tower. There were steps to climb but they were barred off to visitors. A guard came out and told me that the steps opened at 8am (at this point it wasn't even 6 o'clock.) but that he could let me up... If I paid. So much for stemming corruption! I said I'd be back at 8. I didn't even ask him how much he wanted for fear it would be a pittance and I'd be unable to say no. I walked all the way through the temple to the back gate of the temple. Two tourists and a guide were back there and a few ladies who would later be the ones asking "wanna cold drink?" "Buy something?" Were just coming up the drive on their motos. The moat in the back was full of croaking frogs and much less taken care of than the one in the front.
It was calm and peaceful and tranquil. Everything you could want I an ancient place of worship. Then one of the moto ladies asked me if I wanted a ride. That's one way they get you, act like they're doing you a favor then demand payment. It happens in the temples all the time. Sweet old people hand you a burning incense and bow to you and have you place it in the bowl with the other incense and then ask for a "donation" for luck for your family. Or I had a girl hand me a bracelet "for free" when I was heading into a temple the. Become indignant when I wouldn't buy a drink from her stall on the way out. I mean, I get it. Cambodia is a poor country and everyone's hustling, you might as well hustle where the rich western tourists are for the big bucks. I just wish it wasn't so forceful.
I was heading back to the front as all the tourists from the Lilly pond starting filtering in. I'm sure they were disappointed as it was horrifically overcast which doesn't make for that great of a sunrise. Once they started talking and I started noticing the ridiculously inappropriate clothes (you're supposed to have long pants and covered shoulders to show respect) I became even more grateful for theater PhD Karen's excellent advice.
When So dropped me off it was really dark and he jut said he'd meet me across the street. I had no idea that he'd be one of a hundred Tuk tuks waiting to pick up their rides. I got solicited by plenty of free agents asking if I wanted a Tuk Tuk. I find the best maneuver is not to say anything at all and just wave whoever is trying to sell you something off. That way they don't have a fraction of a nugget of anything to grab onto for a second ask. I also don't look anyone in the eye. This has proved slightly difficult for me as I typically smile and nod at everyone, but here, when you look like me, and when you're at the places I go, you are nothing more than a potential sucker. First world guilt at its finest.
I went to 5 other temples on my first day at the Angkor Archaeological Park. The Bayon Temple complex went on forever and was rife with monkeys! Very friendly monkeys who were incredibly nonplussed by human presence.
I will say that Angkor wins by leaps and bounds for nicest bathrooms in all of Cambodia. The litany of amenities just goes on and on. First, they have electricity so you don't have to do your business in the dark. Seconds, they have all western style toilets and an seemingly endless supply of toilet paper. They also all have soap and working, running water. While the whole of Cambodia isn't into drying your hands after they've been washed, Agkor at least made an attempt with another roll of toilet paper by the sinks. Effective? No. A sweet attempt at catering to the western bathroom culture? Absolutely.
Around 12:30 So suggested we get some lunch. As I had eaten absolutely nothing all day and woke up at 4:15 I thought that sounded swell. We went to a restaurant in the park that So said he had been to with Meisha and Chris. We made an honest attempt at communicating. I learned that So drinks beer with Chris every night and that his family went on vacation to Bokor Mountain with Chris and Meisha and it was great. I had fish amok, since it was the last of the big three Cambodian delicacies I had yet to try (the other two being curry and tom yam soup (a less spicy cousin to Thai's tom yum)). Basically it was yellow curry with different spices served, of course, over rice.
We went to a few more temples in the afternoon but ended the day early at 3:30 since we had gotten such an early start. And made plans to go back but not so early the next day. Nothing I can say or write about Angkor will really do it justice. None of my pictures accurately capture what it feels like to climb around on thousand year old edifices. Many temples are in stated of restoration and reconstruction sponsored by many different countries. It's not uncommon for work crews to be hoisting up big sandstone bricks via crane or carving replicas for missing stones. Much of what exists at Angkor is the work and dreams of archeologists who reconstruct the ruins after carefully studying the land. It's full of tourists and obnoxious sales people and yet still, its history and grandeur outweigh any of the negatives, hopefully outliving them by another thousand years.