6 am is far to early to wake up on vacation. Unfortunatly most people think that also, so in order to beat those tourists to the temples, thats what we had to do. Then at 7am it was downstairs to meet Panna, our guide.
While we were waiting for steve and johnny (who durring this trip made me seem like a morning person they were so slow) Panna and I discussed what temples we would plan on seeing durring our two day tour. The Angkor area is made up of dozens of temples, so it would take more than a week to see all of them. We decided on an itinerary and eventually Johnny and Steve were ready to go. We got in Panna's car and headed out.
The first temple we went to was called Beng Meala. The cool thing about Beng Meala is that it has not been restored. The only work on it was done to stabilize it to prevent blocks from falling and killing tourists, but other than that, it was left as it was found.
The most amazing part of it was that despite being able to clearly see the layout of the temple there were still massive piles of blocks everywhere. I wasnt sure what they all were for, but it was quite evident that this temple was simply magnificent in its time.
The Jungle had slowly but surely exercised its dominion on the temple. Without anyone to tend to it for hundreds of years mosses, trees and bushes grew everywhere. The temple was a study on Chaos and Organization, with it expertly laid out by its builders, the stones cut with precision, the temple plotted perfectly to the cardinal directions, and the entire thing in shambles, taken down by natures apathy.
Panna provided us with a wealth of information throught the temple. Most of it i have already forgotten, but it added to the experience.
When we had finished we that temple we headed out to the next one. On the way we passed rows of stands selling sticky rice. I had Panna pull over so I could purchase some breakfast. I told him to stop at the best stand, he said "we will stop at the one with teh best looking girl selling". The rice was cooked in bamboo and served this way. The bamboo was ripped off and the rice exposed to be eaten. It was pretty taste.
The next temple was to be Ta Phrom. This is the temple that was featured in the movie Tomb Raider (in the scene were she follows the giggling little kids through the ruins). It had been cleared to make it easier to navigate than Beng Meala, but the forest was still left to slowly digest the temple. This one was a bit more busy than Beng Meala (which was an hours drive away from the main mass of temples) but we were still there at a good enough time to really avoid the hordes.
The temple is full of iconic views that are used on countless brochures on Cambodia and angkor wat. What I didnt expect was all of the walkways, and platforms built for the photo ops. I suppose I was just not thinking about it, since its not really surprising, but I felt it slightly ruined the magic.
Despite the extra people and the blatant signals of where the best photo-ops are (i think people should have to figure that out on their own. and if they couldnt figure out that standing in front of a tree swallowing a temple is an awesome photo, they really shouldnt be at angkor in the first place) walking through the temple was a magical experience. There were carvings of ancient religions, with deities staring out at us as we wandered thier sacred grounds and marveled at the the fruits of their followers labor.
The yellow crane was a bit of a jarring sight, cutting straight bright lines in this world of earthtones and beautiful deterioration. However it was a magnificent testament to the people who built the temple with their hands when now we use technology to do the same.
As we were finishing up with Ta Phrom it became increasingly busy, so we went off to the next temple. Its interesting that all of the temples have peak times, and we were simple able to ask our guide to avoid the peaks and i think we had a much more fun experience. I dont know why this works, because i would figure everyone would make the same request of their guide.
Before getting to the next temple, we stopped for lunch. Our guide suggested a place that was a bit pricey but had good Khemer food. (the country is Cambodia, but the main culture is Khemer).
We invited Panner to eat with us, but he turned down our offer. It was evident that he had a free meal in the back whenever he brought them costumers, but that is a common way to do business in southeast Asia. Everyone gets a kickback.
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