April 5
We enjoy a pretty good night, but have to get up very early
in order to beat the heat. We have a
great breakfast compliments of our hotel and hire a taxi driver to take up to
Angkor Wat. His name is Wendy and he is
just fabulous….the nicest guy who happens to speak very good English. He takes us to the entrance where we purchase
our tickets and out the other side.
Since Angkor Wat is the largest religious site in the world (yes, that means
larger than Vatican City!), we will rely on Wendy and his AC car to help us
along on our journey today. We have
reserved only a single day to tour the site, so we will want to make sure to
hit the highlights which are a bit spreadout.
First up is Angkor Thom and it is quite impressive. These temples were begun in the mid-12th
century. Many people might recall them
from the background scenes in the Laura Croft movies. Yes….walking in the footsteps of history,
err….Angelina Jolie!
We pass through the entrance gate that goes over the central
moat to the site. The gate is pretty
awesome and is flanked on one side by 54 carved gods and on the other by 54
carved demons. Once inside we make our
way to the actual Wat and it is amazing.
The carving appears to be ancient and many of the columns/structures
have simply fallen into huge heaps of carved stone. This is also considered to be the 8th
wonder of the world. We wander through
the many chambers and rooms, leaving offerings of incense along the way. Once back outside, we meet up with Wendy and
head over to the Elephant Terrace, where they used to have the elephant fights
for entertainment. We are beginning to
wilt and so kind of breeze through this site.
As we wait for Wendy to bring the car around, we purchase some cold
water and Wham…..we have now become fair game for everyone selling anything and
all of the children that have sweet faces that are really good at getting
unsuspecting tourists to buy their stuff.
They are fairly relentless. We make
a quick getaway in the Wendy-mobile and are off to our next site, the Temple of
the Perfection of Wisdom, also known as
the Temple of the mother….I’m liking this notion! This is the temple that has the huge tree
roots climbing through the ruins and holding them in place like glue. Afterward, we have a break for lunch and
invite Wendy to join us. We have a great
meal and then we are back at it. We have
saved Angkor Wat for last. This is a
source of great national pride for the people of Cambodia and it is featured on
their national flag. It has been in
continuous use for nearly 900 years. The
city of Angkor Wat was the home to nearly one million people when London only
had a population of around 50,000. It
was also begun about the same time as Notre Dame in Paris.
We are in awe of the sheer size of this massive temple and
are trying out best to fight the exhaustion
we are all feeling after spending the day in the blazing heat. One thing I don’t get is how we are simply
puddling our sweat off our entire body and the people working here are in full
long sleeves, hats, long pants and one girl even has on gloves! Amazing.
We spend about two hours roving around and then limp along the exit path
back to Wendy who must see our ragged figures from afar as he speeds up to pick
us up and return us to the hotel. We
enjoy a great swim in the pool to cool off and rest for a while before heading
out to the night market. We get a
tuk-tuk driver to take us into town and we stop around what appears to be a pretty
happening shopping scene. We can’t even
begin to take in the range of wares that are being offered here. The prices are even less than in Thailand, if
that is even possible. We make a few
purchases and then seek out an ATM and some refreshments. We soon tire of the market and decide to go
back to the hotel for another great dinner.
We hire a tuk-tuk and are on our way home when I notice a woman on the
outskirts of town, sitting on the side of a darkened road with two children
about 3 and 4 years old sleeping on bags of sand. I cannot shake this image as we head toward
our cozy hotel and upon arrival I ask the driver to take me back to the corner
where she is hunched over. He obliges me
and we go the short way back. When we
arrive, the driver pulls over and I get out while Sam and Annie sit and
watch. I go over and kneel down to where she is sitting and place a $20
bill in her hands. I pat her on the back
to show her some kindness that it seems has been completely absent from her
life. She looks up at me with tears in
her eyes and bows her bony body in disbelief.
I stay there a minute and then return to the tuk tuk and back to the
hotel. I must admit that this is a very
powerful moment and one I will never forget.
We need to remind ourselves everyday how very lucky we are and I wanted
to make sure the kids knew this and could have empathy for those who are less
fortunate. We are all very
tired and make it an early night as we turn out the lights on Siem Reap.
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