Temple Time at Angkor

Originally, I was just going to say something like "I loved the temples at Angkor!", post a few photos, and not get into the trip to Cambodia, but then I started writing and as you can see, it ended up being a little different. The essential message you should retain after reading all this meandering is that I really loved the temples at Angkor, and that I took a few pretty pictures.

The entrance to Angkor Wat

One of the many naughty monkeys at Angkor, but not the one that stole, and then tried to eat, my backpack

I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the differences between tourists and travelers, and what makes a trip versus a journey. Time is not the key distinction; I've met people who can spend a month in a country and still be more of a tourist than someone who passes through in two days. Certainly a willingness to be open to what the place and the day brings to you is important, and a willingness to step out of your routine and comfort zone to see something new is equally needed. More and more, though, I'm thinking that the crux of the issue is to see beyond the individual people, places, and moments that happen on a visit and assemble some greater understanding and  (hopefully) appreciation for that place - seeing the forest through the trees so to speak. Places are greater than the sum of their parts, as are people, so it's very hard to take only one or two of those parts and feel like you have any coherent sense of what you're experiencing.

The Bayon

Angkor at sunset

Europeans I meet on the road love to tease me about racing from place to place, only spending days in cities or weeks in counties that deserve much more time. It's a common perception of Americans abroad that they drop in, stay a couple of days in gated resorts, and never really experience the country they're in (not exactly a gross exaggeration). For my part, I'm trying to balance my desire to see as many new places as best I can with my time, budget, and AADD (American Attention Deficit Disorder), but I think I have to admit Cambodia was the first place I really botched my visit. I still saw some amazing sights, met some great people, and did what I wanted to do there, but somehow I managed to spend about 5 days there without being able to tell you what Cambodia is actually like.

The Bayon

Ta Prohm

 Cambodia has drifted on and off my itinerary this year, mostly because the only reason I really wanted to go was to see the Angkor temple complex. Before I say anything else, let me say Angkor is absolutely one of the most incredible sites I've ever seen, so please don't think I'm not recommending seeing Angkor. But adding a country to the agenda just to see one massive archaeological site seemed like maybe not the best idea, until a friend from the Maldives let me know she was going to be there at roughly the same time I was thinking. Since traveling with a friend is always preferred, that was enough incentive for me to add a quick trip between Malaysia and India part II. Thanks to the limitations of booking frequent flier flights with less than a week's notice, I flew in late to Phnom Penh, the capital, stayed overnight, and then got on a bus for 8 hours to get to Siem Reap, the city closest to Angkor. I'm sure some of you are thinking "uh, an 8 hour bus ride", but it was actually one of the most memorable parts of the trip when I wasn't in Angkor. Much of the Cambodia countryside seems stunning (huge rivers, endless green rice paddies, small villages), the bus TV played endless awkward karaoke videos (think Lawrence Welk, except in Cambodian), and the roadside rest stops served fried locusts and spiders (I think), as well as huge mangoes and pomelo. These are the kind of things that make a new place real to me, and one of the reasons I'm beginning to like buses and trains better than planes, despite the uncomfortable seats, lack of aircon, and stares from the locals.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

From there, however, I stayed in Siem Reap, which has to be one of the least likable towns I've been in. It's a fairly sizable city that exists solely to support visitors who are coming to see Angkor (e.g., me), and it's so obviously disconnected from the rest of Cambodia that I almost felt like I should have to stop at immigration and get a new stamp in my passport. The prices are many times more than anywhere else, everyone banters, barters, and yells in English (and occasionally Chinese, Japanese, or Russian), and the locals view the tourists as mobile ATMs. I found it to be a grim place, and it really got me thinking about how something so important to the local culture, like Angkor, can do so much to destroy or alter local culture at the same time. Every visitor in Siem Reap was there to see this wonder of Cambodian culture and by doing so, we were creating this completely artificial tourist trap that bore no resemblance to Cambodian culture.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

So, to make a long story short, I spent the first morning being grumpy and annoyed at being asked if I wanted a massage or a taxi or marijuana every 20 feet, then met up with my friend and a couple of backpackers she had met the day before. Talking with them helped me get over myself, and the next morning I rented a bicycle, which let me avoid the street hawkers, and rode to Angkor at sunrise and spent a fantastic day exploring the ruins under my own power. The Angkor complex is absolutely massive and I think you could spend a week there without seeing all of the buildings. Since my time was a little more limited, I spent two days touring around, and focused on the Bayon Temple, one of the largest, and Ta Prohm, the "Tree Temple", which has been left in a more natural state with trees growing up out of the ruins. Even with the huge numbers of tourists and the realization that no matter what I did, I would never be able to take a photo that a thousand people hadn't also taken, Angkor still manages to feel grand and even peaceful. It's one of those places that seems more solid than the world around it.

Ta Prohm

The Bayon

After a couple of days riding around Angkor (I racked up almost 50km one day on a beat-up cruiser bike, according to Google Maps), I grabbed my flight to Singapore and happily said goodbye to Siem Reap. I won't have a post on Singapore, since I was only there 3 days and basically just ate and ate and ate and watched the new Hunger Games movie, but even so I will say I feel like I have a better feel for Singapore than I got for Cambodia in twice the time. The next post will be on India part II, or maybe "India II: the Return", or even "How I almost saw my tour bus driver hit with a metal pipe". I promise it will involve more animals, less philosophizing, and only one traffic accident.