..
there are over one thousand temples in this area, siem reap and the tonle sap lake. they range from next to nothing, to doorways, to mile-wide cities. they were built by the khmer empire, which began in 802 and lasted until the mid 1400s, when the thais invaded, won, and overtook the land. however, though much of the temples are still intact, a good bit isn't. not only has time taken over, but the khmer rouge (unrelated to the khmer empire, as khmer is simply the cambodian culture, more on the khmer rouge later) did a lot of damage in their rule, destroying what they could, trying to eliminate the country's history.
..
siem reap is about 4 miles from angkor wat.
rather than spend $20 on a tuk-tuk, we decided it would be easier on our bank accounts and much better for our bodies to rent bikes. we rented them from our guesthouse, and it just so happened that they gave us the ricketyist bikes from the 1980s you could imagine.
my ass hurts so bad.
we hadn't even ridden a mile before we heard drums coming from a nearby mall and market building with a crowd of people outside. they were clapping to the low, repetitive beat. three boys were covered in a long red sheet with black accents and an elaborately-constructed face that resembled a dragon. they were celebrating the chinese new year.
they danced around, then another came out, and they circled together. another boy with a mask that was more human-like danced over, and with a whistle, he controlled the dance between the two dragons. the cambodians were laughing, clapping, and watching in awe almost as much as we did. after about fifteen minutes, they finished the celebration.
we've also seen them burning money. dont worry, those are really franklin, they sell fake money at the market instead of burning the real stuff like they used to. it's kind of like a sacrifice, but i don't know what budda's gonna do with those usds...
again, we set out towards angkor wat.
..
as we approached, we watched the mobs of people cross the stone bridge to the entrance. aaand, maybe we stopped a few times for some photo opportunities.
then pulled our bikes into the roped area where we could lock them. as we arranged and clamped them, children approached us numerous times. "you want to buy postcard? ten for one dolla... oooone, twwooooo, threeeeeee..."
it's so hard to turn down their sad eyes, but we have to. we can't help them all.
the front of the building was just as phenominal as the pictures make it to be. we crossed the street and slowly made our way towards the entrance with everyone else in cambodia. as we arrived at the stone stairs, we stopped to look at the intricasies of the carvings.
people split off in all directions in the entranceway, not knowing where to begin their tours, as the long corridors were open to the public. alex and i continuted straight, and through the next doorway we were welcomed by the open fields and the trademark ankor wat skyline. it was massive, and trying to process building this temple for solely religious purposes was too much for our tiny brains. we meandered among the crowd, stopping at the first building we saw, a supposed library.
throughout the day, we continued on, pacing through the herds of people. we passed by so many parts of the buildings that we couldn't even identify-- staircases that led to huge holes, shines, and hallways that only led around the building to the outside.
one of the courtyards
a lot of it seemed to serve no purpose, but without a guide, we had no idea. we tried avoiding all of the people, tried to enjoy the site, but as the sun moved across the sky we realized how annoying it was trying to battle all of the other tourists. especially when they were in groups of ten or more. when we finally came to the back of the major temple building, we saw a pathway that led to an empty temple and decided to snack on our lunch of dragonfruit and mango there, in the shade.
side view of the temple's second main entrance
the camobodian sun is something that deserves an entire entry itself. it is so hot here. even though we're much farther north than we were, and this is the northernmost point on our trip, i feel like we've travelled to the sahara. forget the fact that it's about one hundred degrees-- it's dry and so still that the leaves only flutter if a bird flies by or a monkey jumps on the branch. i'm usually half-tempted to jump in the still waters that were built for the temples and haven't moved in years, or the small river that flows through siem reap and is about as clean as the baltimore harbor.
i love you amanda and darby. :)
we finished our lunch and wandered back out around the temple paths. we went through the woods for a bit, looking for places with no people so we could just sit and enjoy the architecture. though there were many small piles of ruins throughout the trees, we never stepped off the path. it's probably more my own obsessive worrying than alex's, but with the khmer rouge long gone, they still kill people every day.
this country has more land mines than anywhere else in the world.
they're placed sporadically, and you never know where they are until they're stepped on. there are many cambodians with missing limbs. in fact, we gave one money and a loaf of bread from our breakfast this morning, pass one every day selling books on our way to dinner, and see a man in a wheelchair with no arms or legs quite often near the market. heng's mother may have been killed by a landmine, but he's too young to be able to explain much to us and we couldn't quite piece his wild stories together. but the khmer rouge never made documents as to where the landmines were placed, and they were usually in villages with citizens branded as "traitors." still, they passed through the temples to destroy as much as possible, and i won't let us stray from the path.
"we have to get home alive alex, remember? that's the goal of this trip."
..
we finished exploring angkor wat, the most famous temple, and decided to find angkor thom, the biggest temple. technically, angkor thom is a city with temples inside that spans an area of one square mile. we were greeted to the entrance by two long rows of statues, most of them missing heads. we entered, and since this area is so large, we were able to ride our bikes along roads.
in the dead center of angkor thom is a major temple, "bayon," though on the stone the "y" is a "v" due to older fonts and type.
it is basically a huge circle, with an outer circle around it. there are two floors, and from afar, it only looks like a jumble of stones that distrupt the clear skyline above.
but it is one of the more famous temples for a reason. the closer you get, the better you can see why it looks like a broken puzzle from the distance. it i one of the more famous temple for a reason, as paintings in the marketplace, statues in hotel lobbies, and graphics on restaurant menus mimmick the faces that are carved in stone.
it is possible that they belong to javyavarman vii, a king in the khmer rouge's history to have ordered most of these temples' construction.
he was a very confident man, i guess you could say. he called himself "devaraja," or god-king, and this stature put him in the same ranking as buddah himself. however, there is no documentation for this, and the temple was built as a buddhist shrine, not to worship the king.
as alex and i climbed the stairs to the main floor, we looked at the faces that surrounded us.
these temples are huge, measuring at least five or more stories. having been built around the 13th or 14th century, it is hard to imagine how they were ever constructed. there has to be much more stone used in these temples than the local area could supply, and the detail in the carvings was much more than we can wrap our minds around, especially with the primitive tools they would have been using.
we continued our walk, marveling at the eyes that seemed to follow us everywhere we turned. the repetition of this face made his prominence well-known, and he seemed almost godlike as the face effortlessly surrounded us.
each one stood more than 10 feet tall. every face was exactly the same. and every detail was one hundred percent perfect.
i almost felt like i needed to worship him too.
..
we left bayon and returned to our bikes. we agreed that we'd bike to ta prohm, the temple on the schedule for tomorrow. since we're getting up at 5am, we decided it would be best to find the temple with assurance rather than wandering around before sunrise to see if we could magically find it amidst the thousand other temples in the area.
eventually we passed it and agreed we'd be find to find it again in the morning. exhausted after a long, hot day of walking and biking in the sun, we continued home.
..
it's reasons like this that we're glad we took bikes instead of a tuk-tuk. though our ride totaled over 18 miles today, we were lucky enough to see about 8 or 9 monkeys on the side of the road near angkor wat. we pulled our bikes to the side of the road to watch for a few minutes, hoping to get a few good pictures. as soon as alex put down her kick-stand, two of the baby monkeys ran right over to her bike and began to climb up it.
"oh my god! they're going to rip my face off!"
considering they're not quite babboons, or chimpanzees, i tried to calm her. when she realized the babies were no bigger than her forearm and probably harmless, she breathed a sigh of relief.
valid point though.
they must see tourists all the time, because i was able to walk right up to them. the two smallest just stayed on her bike, climbing the wheel. had alex not screamed, i'm sure they would have made their way right up beside her, maybe even on her. they chewed at the bike, their little eyes staring up at us. we regretted not having any food to feed them.
(come with me little monkey, hop in the backpack... i'll give you lots of food in your new home...)
:)
..
Y rae. racho. d.
