ANGKOR WAT (Day 1)

March 16
Tanat greeted us right on time with our tuk tuks in the morning (Dad and I in one, Josie and Mark in the other) and we set off to see one of the wonders of the world: Angkor Wat. I’ve actually been counting down the days ‘til I got to see this place and it really didn’t disappoint We started the day with Angkor Wat itself which is indescribable. It is this expansive, beautiful, symmetrical, architectural phenomenon surrounded by kilometers of moat and dense jungle. It’s made stone and the lower level walls are covered in bas relief carvings depicting various Hindu and Buddhist lore (depending on who was ruling the kingdom at the time). Its endless column-lined hallways are designed in such a way that you can look down one and see the light at the end of the tunnel over a km away. You continue across a massive courtyard with a central promenade that leads you to the inner temple. As you approach it looks like 3 peaks all next to each other, but up close you realize that there are actually 5 peaks (4 corners and 1 higher middle peak) that are spaced out in perfect symmetry giving it the illusion of a straight line until you see it’s actual depth. Sorry if you’re completely lost, but it’s a really difficult thing to explain without actually seeing it—pictures don’t really even do it justice as they don’t capture the depth and are fooled into falling for the ‘straight line’ illusion. How a civilization could build something like this by hand without modern technology and in only 47 years will forever boggle my mind.

After a couple hours we sweatily hopped in the tuk tuk to Prah Thom, a temple literally overtaken by the jungle. You had to crawl over tree roots and ruins as you made your way, imagining the whole way what life must have been like when this place was at its peak.
After lunch we made climbed the steep steps of Ta Keo and went to explore Angkor Thom (the center of Khmer civilization before Angkor Wat). At Angkor Thom we climbed on the Terrace of Elephants, hiked up the remains of the old palace of Baphuon and ended up at Bayon. Bayon is one of the more unique buildings in the complex as its beautiful spires are carved with face after face of Buddha. At this point in the day we were all getting a little loopy/delusional having been dehydrated under the beating sun, but we decided to soldier on and make it through the whole day (as it would have been an insane amount of $$ to go back to the hotel and come back). It was seriously so hot that we drank four 1.5liter bottles of water each and never went to the bathroom once AND were still thirsty. Good thing there was no shortage of water though as in front of every temple there were hordes of people screaming at you to buy from them: “Meeestaa, Laddyyy you want some dlink? some wataaa? my wataaa cold! good plice fo you!!”

The last stop was the hill of Phnom Bekang for a view of the sunset over the ruins, which turned out to be kind of a wash. Due to burning season there was a haze over the sky which blocked what would have otherwise been a nice sunset, but it was all worth it to watch the throngs of Asians literally fighting and pushing each other out of the way to get a photo of the lackluster sight. It was hysterical as people were making shape with their hands around the sun, pretending to hold the sun up as though it were Simba in the Lion King and one pair even acted as the Person A was dropping the sun into Person B’s mouth. Yes, definitely worth it. A haggard bunch, we hopped into the pool upon arrival back at the guesthouse, gorged ourselves on some amazing kebabs for dinner and fell asleep before the lights were out.