Angkor

So in the morning we awoke early in the morning to go view sunrise over Angkor Wat. I wanted to get away from the group, so when I heard music in the distance, I charged ahead and made my way there. It was a call to prayer and I found several monks beginning their day. I waved and said “Auronsuicidai!” (Good morning) and they greeted me back. As the sun was rising, I went back to the tourist photo-position and observed along with the rest of the group. It was stunningly beautiful! The sky changed from black to dark blue to pinks and oranges, all reflecting off the pool with brilliant color! The pool in front of the main temple served as the most amazing mirror for this fantastic site! I want to share more with the history of these temples, but to be honest, I’m too backlogged in my blog to collect all the historical info, but I suggest you look into some of it on our own.

            What I will say is that the Khmer empire reached its peak between the 8^th-12^th century AD and this is when Angkor was the capital. At the peak, around 1 million people lived in Angkor. The lived in wood and thatch huts surrounding the main temple complexes, which were built of stone to last. The carvings on the stone are remarkable! I got a rubbing to give a sense of how exquisite they truly are. Angkor Wat means Capital Temple and it is the largest temple complex in the area. It was built in the 12^th century as a Hindu temple honoring the god Vishnu, one of the three main gods of Hinduism. There are 33,000 gods and goddesses in total.

            I wandered around the complex more after the sun rose. I walked behind the main temple and found another set of beautiful pools. There were locals driving by on their motorbikes and I wanted to walk across to join them, but our guide had suggested against it and I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to make much of a connection with anyone. I did find a crazy huge spider though and I took some great photos of it catching a fly. Then, with 20 minutes until I needed to be on the bus, I headed back. Turns out, I had wandered much farther than I thought and I was 10 minutes late. Oops… I didn’t think it was a big deal, but apparently some girls on the bus thought it was (one was the same girl who told me to shut up the day before, by the way). They complained to the trip leader and told her to write me up. But Jenny was the leader and she understands my desire to meet people and really take in the surroundings, so she was not about to get me in trouble. She did talk to me at lunch though and I apologized for being late, only because I know it means she has to deal with people’s complaints and I know that’s hard for her. I really did make an effort to be on time, but that was really hard for me. After breakfast we spent another hour walking around Angkor Wat, found a pack of wild monkeys and gave them water. They were really cute! I have lots of pictures to share when I get home (I think I posted one or two actually). Then we went to Angkor Thom, which was spectacular and far less populated that Angkor Wat.

            When I went in for lunch (meals were included in the tour) there was a young woman playing a stringed instrument in the corner, entertaining the tourists. She looked rather sad so I went up to talk to her. I said "Suicidai! Da nit chmo awai?" And she just looked back at me, wide-eyed, with complete awe and she took a moment to register something. She told me her name (I've forgotten it though, I feel terrible for that but I'm bad with names and its especially difficult when the names are so unfamiliar) and then she asked for mine in return. "Chmo ro baknion ge Liza" (Liza is the name that the man at the front door gave me because Alicia would be too difficult to remember. He taught me several Khmer phrases). I asked for the name of her instrument and she told me it was a sikhon. So I told her, "Kingom jochat Sikhon." (I like Sikhon)

She grasped my hand and stared into my eyes, into my soul it seemed. She caressed my arm and said, "I like you. I really like you." She didn't know much English, but she managed to get across (with a mixture of language and signs) that she had worked there 2 years, playing music for tourists and not once had someone come up and spoken to her in Khmer.

This made me so sad and uncomfortable with being a tourist. It seems that so many people tromp into this hotel to go look at Angkor without any interest in the people. I don't want to be associated with a group like that. I'm truly worried about coming of as an ignorant, self-centered tourist who's just there to see the sights. Students in my own group were laughing at me for trying to learn some Khmer. "What's the point," they would say. "You're only here three days."

But it’s not for me. It's to show that I have more respect for the people of Cambodia and their culture and language and that I'm not just interested in coming in, seeing the sights and leaving. Since being back on the ship and sharing my stories, plenty of people have said they're grateful for what I do and say, but I have yet to find someone else who took the time to talk to the people themselves. I should try not to be so judgmental of others with privilege, but that's something I struggle with sometimes. 

            There are around 200 temples near Siam Reap and I only visited the three most popular with tourists (although I would have loved to see more). After lunch we visited Ta Prohm and Bayan Temple. Ta Prohm is where Tomb Raider was filmed, so that gives you a sense of its appearance. It is overgrown with amazing fichus trees, whose giant roots are breaking through the temple walls. In other temples, these trees were cut down, but here their removal would jeopardize the stability of the buildings (plus, I think it’s more beautiful with them anyway). Ta Prohm is a Buddhist temple about 1km large. Here I met two guys who were painting images of the temples and Cambodia. They were both 16 and were raising money for their orphanage. They said that they used to just beg for money but then they met a teacher (who was with them as well) who taught them that this wouldn’t help them at all. He brought them to his orphanage and encouraged them to learn English and to study history, culture and basic math. They also learned to paint and play music. Now on the weekends they sell their painting and those of he other kids in the orphanage to raise money for their program. Myself and several other students bought painting from them. I now have a beautiful sunset over the Mekong painting by my Khmer friend Friovet.

            Bayan Temple took 27 years to build and is also a Buddhist temple. Here there is a large inscription on the wall that shows how the stone was brought here and also give insight into the life and festivities of the local people at that time. It shows the Khmer, the Cham and the Chinese people engaging in their different lifestyles. The Cham people were Hindu (today they are Muslim) and the bas-relief describes a war between then and the then Buddhist Khmers.

            The best thing about the carving was the way the women were portrayed. The female form was not something sinful, something that needed to be hid. It is embraced and worshiped. Indeed, this is true in Khmer culture as well. In Cambodia, when a man and woman get married, the man moves in with the wife’s family and helps take care of her parents. In many other cultures it’s the opposite; it is the woman’s duty to take care of the man and his family. But not in Cambodia. In Cambodia the woman is the boss. My tour guide, Thy, agreed that that is how it should be. Thy was amazing! He taught me Khmer and shared his stories with me. We’re email friends now. I asked him about his view of tourists and he said it’s mixed. Sometimes they are great and treat him very well; sometimes they are snobbish and rude and have no interest in the local culture or people. I want to make sure I’m not one of those latter tourists.

            Well… after the temples we went to the airport and flew back to Saigon.