Before arriving in Cambodia I had heard of Angkor Wat once.
National Geographic did a whole spread on the ancient ruins when I was about
13. I have a vivid memory of sitting on my couch with my mom looking at the
pictures while she read me the article. I remember thinking, “ It would be cool
to go there one day” And that was the end of that.
Blearily waking up at 4am I stumbled downstairs. I went to
bed the previous night well after 1am and was running on 3 not very restful
hours of sleep. I sleepily jumped into a tuk tuk (a motorcycle with an open
carriage attached to the back) with Rachel, an anthropology major who I’m
pretty sure had been dreaming about Angkor Wat since she was five. As we
catapulted through the dark, I wondered if it would all be worth it. For all I
knew I was going to go look at the sunrise over a big pile of ancient rocks.
Would it be cool? Maybe. Would I care? Probably not. Oh, I was so wrong.
The sunrise was spectacular. It wasn’t that pretty of a
morning, as the tropical rainforest mist obscured most of the colors, but the
most beautiful part was watching the transformation of light. When we first
arrived it was pitch black. I couldn’t see two inches in front of me. Another
tourist actually walked off the path and fell into the moat surrounding Angkor
Wat, that’s how dark it was. Our tour guide situated us just outside the temple.
Slowly shapes began to take form. I saw a tower, a tree, a reflecting pool. And
then all of a sudden the fragmented pieces came together to form a whole. An
entire castle was standing in front of me, backlit by the morning sun. My
pictures don’t do it justice, but they at least remind me of the moment.
I spent the entire day at Angkor Wat Geological Park. Angkor
Wat is the biggest and most famous temple in this park, but there are actually
well over 450 temples in the surrounding area. We spent 5 hours touring Angkor
Wat and learning the history, and then we also toured Angkor Thom and Tap
Proham a city of over 1 million people.
It was fiercely hot all day. I didn’t even notice until
someone mentioned that it was 35 degrees Celsius (roughly the upper 90s in
Fahrenheit) and even then it didn’t stop me. We were allowed to climb and
explore all over the tunnels. I took advantage of every opportunity I got. I
jumped, I climbed, I slipped, I thankfully didn’t fall, but I explored every
nook and cranny I could get into. Even then, I feel like I could go back to the
three temples we toured for the next 10 years and I still wouldn’t know
everything about them. That’s what is so fascinating about Angkor Wat and the
surrounding temples, once you think you finally have a grasp on them, you find
another secret tunnel, another statue that you missed, some more writing on the
wall.
I hiked and climbed and jumped until 5pm at which point we
trekked to the highest point in the geological park to watch the sunset. The
high amount of humidity in Cambodia in addition to the heat led to quite a bit
of clouds which obscured the sunset, but that didn’t matter to me. As I watched
the sun go down, I realized that this was it. I was in Angkor Wat, a place I’d
never thought I’d be, watching the sunset. Life is good.
Fun Facts:
No adhesives were used in the building of these temples.
Instead, the stones were cut at perfect angles to fit on top of each other
exactly. Use gravity not glue.
During the American bombing of Cambodia many people fled
from their homes and lived in Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples because
U.S. forces wouldn’t bomb a World Heritage site.
In the mid 1700s the temples fell into disuse and were
abandoned. They were only brought back into the public eye when French
explorers were brought there by locals. The discovery of these temples was a
large driving force for French colonialism in this region.
Of the 2 million visitors to Angkor Wat each year, only
100,000 are American
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