Wat up?

While in Thailand we decided that we were too close to Cambodia not to go and see one of the most famous archeological wonders in the world. To get to Siem Reap it was an easy four hour drive to the border, followed by the border crossing, and another few hours driving in Cambodia. The border crossing from Thailand into Cambodia involves stopping to get a visa for about 20 minutes, and then waiting for about 2 hours in a line of tourists waiting to have your visa stamped and finger prints taken. This is really easy peasy when you consider that back in the 1990s when our friend Jacob visited Siem Reap it took him a few hours to get to the border followed by a 19 hour bus drive on a terrible road. He told us that during this drive there was a landmine that was placed in the middle of the road which the bus drivers would pay to have moved so they could pass, after which the landmine was promptly placed back in the road until the next vehicle came and paid the road tax.

Angkor Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern Cambodia. It consists of the remains of the capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century, the most famous of which is Angkor Wat.  The temples in the region have alternated between Hindu and Buddhist cultures with the changing religious tides of the nation.  Old statues and reliefs were destroyed or carved over to facilitate the switch, but details of both religions seem to be present in most of the ruins. 

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure on the planet, even larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Thanks to some impressive engineering, a fleet of elephants and virtually unlimited slave labor, it was completed in an astounding 40 years. The king who commissioned it died only 1 year before it was finished.  Huge sandstone blocks were crudely mined from nearby mountain quarries, smoothed, dragged, floated down a river and assembled into a structure symbolic of the mountain home of the Hindu gods.  Angkor Wat is such a big deal that it is featured on the country’s national flag and money. It is the only building ever to be incorporated into a country’s flag.

Although Angkor Wat was absolutely incredible, there were a few other temples that were even more interesting to us. The Bayan temple at the center of Angkor Thom consisted of huge towers with large Buddha faces carved into them. Banteay Srey was one of the best preserved Hindu temples. It was smaller than the others, but the carvings and some of the colors were beautifully preserved compared to most of the temples we visited. When we visited Ta Prohm it was like stepping into a childhood wonderland of forest and archeological ruins with amazing Spung trees growing on top of and through the ruins. Amazing!

On the way back to Bangkok we had a little more adventure. We were driving down the road when all of a sudden we heard a huge thump from under the bus. Someone said it was about a three foot piece of metal that had fallen out of the bottom of the bus. The driver immediately informed us “bus broken.” We waited around for an hour or so until our bus was replaced with several mini buses and we were on our way.

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