Angkor Wat

I spent this weekend, with the 12 students in my TESOL course, at Angkor Wat one of the world's largest religious monuments. It's an entire city, basically, of temples built in the 12 century as home for King Suryavarman II and capital. At the time built as a Hindu Temple dedicated to Ganesh, the faces of many Hindi gods can still be found (namely Vishnu, Naga and Shiva) even though the transition to Buddhist iconography began the following century. The Wat has stood, then, for over 900 years and multitudes of changes, internally and externally. Though most of the temples lay in ruin (not from war, however, but rather the inevitable wear of time), but new temples exist within for Buddhist monks to meditate and study.

We left Phnom Penh just before 2 in the afternoon after a meager morning of classes on Friday, June 5, 2009. The Cambodian countryside reveals very few hills and flat lands of soaked rice paddies. Villages line the road but have no streets parallel. After minimal stops we reached the city of Siem Reap, which is only 5.5 kilometers from Angkor Wat. Language Corps paid for the trip in its entirety, so we stayed in a nicer hotel. At dinner at a pizza place and after a couple of drinks settled down for the night, with the exception of Paul, a Brit, who's fervor for the night life never wanes. He showed up in my room with a small group around 4 am to have more drinks and some music. When he realized my position he hugged me and kissed my cheek proclaiming a mutual affinity betwixt brethren of his nationality and my own. Whilst I appreciate the sentiment I prefer he keep his sweaty face and kisses distanced from my sweaty slumbering head.

Had breakfast and on our way by 9 in the morning. We started with a group tour guide, which while informative drove me nuts because of the slow pace and constant breaks. By noon I was on my own wandering through the woods, climbing towers and temples with no one in eye or ear shot. I crept through the woods aimlessly chasing monkeys, talking to young monks about their appreciation of the serenity and simplicity of their lives and the world around them, and even took a nap in a dusty corner of a nameless temple. I loved the history of the place, even if many specific details are beyond me. It'd been built and preserved for nearly a thousand years for the purpose of peace and serenity. Even in the light of 2 million people dead in the 1970s via the hands of the Khmer Rouge as well as the other inevitable idiotic and destructive tendencies so intertwined with our human shitheadedness, this ancient place remains. I climbed around on my own for a while and for a while with a Norwegian chap named Arild (part of the TESOL group). We hardly spoke, just brief exclamations, simply breathed words of wonder. 

Being able to climb, to touch and be a part of the experience made it unique from my other experiences with religious monuments. Much of Christian decoration is off limits, not to be touched and seen as holier than humanity. It furthermore glorifies and idolizes the brutal murder of a Jewish man, driving home his graphic death over and over and over. This place knew no outward malice like that (although I'm sure like every other sizable structure many workers died to see it's construction through). Vines grew with the fallen stones and trees grew from temples. It seemed the temples were meant to co-exist with the life growing around it, not to dominate or control it. Once away from the tourist traps, which unfortunately exist, you can find a lot of peaceful walking and exploring to do.

The next day we stopped on the way back to Phnom Penh at a Temple with equal or even more beauty. Away from the tourism of Siem Reap we were able to freely explore ruins of a more dilapidated state. James of England and John of Texas and I found a young boy who led us through partially collapsed rooms, ruins and hallways. It rained for a spell and we hunkered underneath a bridge. The scene is indescribable to me. It was a moment of clarity where, in my naivity and childishness, I find myself imagining the millions of years, simultaneously, of human thought, intelligence and organization it took for this place to exist. Hunched beneath that bridge watching the vibrant green forest highlight the rain falling on mossy old stones, sitting next to a Texan, an Englishman and a nameless Cambodian boy. Two weeks ago we didn't know any of the other existed.

The long weekend ended. The sites were amazing, though as per usual, I find it hard to keep company of others. A girl from San Diego, California can't help herself. "This road is so bump!" (yeah, we're in rural Cambodia and that's the 9548th pothole we've hit, what's the surprise?). "It's so hot here. We need more AC's." (Yes Cambodians, get on that. More AC for Princess California. Never mind rebuilding your infrastructure, get this woman mildly warm at the least!). And my favorite "These cheeseburgers don't taste like American cheeseburgers" (Ugh, no comment). Others who earlier made such claims as "This is the best food I've had in my entire life" now lament that they're "shitting green sludge 8-10 times a day" and "can't take anymore of this food, dude." I'm also in that boat of bowel movements, but I semi-expected it and have been narrowing down foods that my stomach reacts well to (ginger beef with noodles, Lok La chicken and rice with an egg) and other dishes it does not (eel). The trick, for me, is lots of vegetables and keep up on fruit intake. They like fruit at a different ripeness here (a ripeness I would hardly even consider ripe) so that changes things a bit, but fruit vegetables and lots of water keep me mostly healthy and regular.

In all a great weekend. A memorable experience to say the least and now back to living in this ever shifting, muddy, drunk, crazy, beautiful, uplifting city of insanity.