There is no doubt. Ancient ruins are playing a large part in Jonathan and my trip around the world. With exploration of the ancient pillars and agoras in Greece, climbing atop massive temples in Sri Lanka, and spending a week in the city of Jerusalem, we are no strangers to the works of long-past civilizations. It would then be completely out of character for us to miss the pride of Cambodia, Angkor Wat.
This is going to be a bit of an educational post in part to help us remember the outragious facts we learned, but also to bring this incredible place to the forefront of eveyone’s mind. It really is that amazing! Angkor Wat is the centerpiece in a great temple complex larger than modern day Paris (yeah… Paris!) built between A.D. 1113 and 1150. The site, which holds the largest religious monument ever constructed is a legitimate fortress whose name means “city of temples”.
Angkor was once the capital of the Khmer Empire. The city contained hundreds of temples and a population possibly over 1 million people, easily the largest city in the world until the Industrial Revolution. It stunned Jonathan and I how little we knew about this extinct population and their ancient metropolis. We started having flashbacks to our days in Jordan discovering the unknown Nabateans and their glorious Petra.
Building Angkor Wat was an enormous undertaking. It is surrounded by a 3 mile radius moat which required 53 million cubic feet of sand and silt to be moved, a task that would have required thousands of people working at one time! The buildings, made of laterite (a strong clay rock), are encased in sandstone blocks that were quarried more than 25 miles north of the city and transported to the site by a series of man-made canals. The sandstone allowed the multitude of artists a softer stone to work both in sculpture and relief – and it paid off! According to inscriptions, the construction of Angkor Wat involved 300,000 workers and 6,000 elephants! No wonder it is so stunning both for its grand scale and incredible detail.
We spent two days winding our way through this epic ancient city using everything from tuk-tuks to mountain bikes for transportation. With advice from friends, we broke up the blistering days with lunch breaks by hotel pools ($2 for the afternoon and comes with a beer?!) and saved the big temples for early mornings and late afternoons.
The main temple, Angkor Wat, dazzels with its five perfectly aligned towers, but it is the details of the more than 3000 beguiling apsaras (heavenly nymphs) carved into its walls that leave you breathless. Each is unique with hundreds of variations of hairstyles and dancing positions.
The “otherness” of the art and architecture show a wonderland of all things imaginable and unimaginable in such exquisite detail that you find yourself easily getting lost in the “stories on the walls”.
A crowd favorite among the great temples, and for good reason, is Ta Prohm. This massive temple has been swallowed by the jungle and has been left close to as it was found in the 19th century.
This is a temple of crumbling towers and walls locked in the embrace of branches and root systems.
Ta Prohm is commonly spoken of as a poetic cycle of man conquering nature to rapidly create, and then nature once again conquering humanity in slow destruction.
Angkor Wat was inviting yet intimidating, grand yet detailed, and a masterpiece of both humanity and nature. Cambodia, you have such a treasure!
Cambodia was in our travel plans not only for Angkor Wat, but also to visit some old friends. Meeting new people is a well-known benefit of traveling, but there is nothing like being in the comfort of good friends as they introduce you to their neighborhood. Luckily for us, our friends Alexis and Alex were ready with plans for a weekend adventure up north to “4,000 Islands”. Jonathan said it best when he commented, “the best way to have adventures is to surround yourself with adventurous people.” Alexis and Alex did not disappoint.
With three days to play with, Alexis’ motto of “Do. All. The. Things!” took us (and a few other friends) up north to where the Mekong River serves as the border between Cambodia and Laos.
After a night of swimming and sunset beers it was decided we would attempt a “not-so-legal” border crossing across the Mekong into Laos. The morning started with motorbike rentals and a three hour ride through the country.
After a couple of breaks to cool off in the river and some smooth negotiation, we ditched our motorbikes and had a boat, a driver, and some cold beers. We were on our way to Laos.
With a gang of motorbiking locals (ages 10-71) happy to take us around the area, we flew through the jungle along single-track dirt trails and over “bridges” that required unimaginable negotiation by our drivers. I sat on the back of the bike, giggling away and gripping the waste of my 10-year-old driver as he worked to prove himself with the rest of the gang.
Our few days in Laos were a blur of waterfall swimming, spicy food, and trading currencies in the small river-front town of Don Det.
This week served as a beautiful adventure to close out our time in South East Asia and start our journey to New Zealand (via motorbike, boat, bus, tuk tuk, and finally plane)!
Eastbound and Down 