Cambodia 2020 - 10. Angkor Wat: Part 2

10. Angkor Wat: Part 2

This place is huge.

Getting a Blessing

It is difficult to walk through; the floors are uneven, old and broken. There is a bump, a high step-over, in every doorway. Those ‘bumps’ keep out the bad spirits, who slide along the ground.

8-Armed Vishnu

Walking is not on an even floor. Some parts were destroyed by nature, some by man and tourists seem to be everywhere. There is rubble about, fallen down walls fill some ‘rooms’ or spaces. But you need to walk literally one step at the time, watching where you place your foot.

All entrances to the upper floors were blocked off; I imagine it to be too dangerous to walk up there. There

Stairs Everywhere - No Railings

are no guard rails or stair railings anyplace. If Cambodia would be a 1^st world country, you would not be allowed to walk into the ruins. Here though, you are free to roam ‘almost’ anywhere. Each step of the way gives you a different view. Each room you enter, each niche or vestibule has a different feeling to it.

Inside the Main Temple

Yet, the old splendor can still be felt.

It is only my lack of understanding of history that prevents me from enjoying it more. I know very little of the Khmer.

At one time, during the 11^th to 13^th Century, the Khmer Dynasty was the richest Empire in the world. Nothing anyplace came even close to it.

Can You 'Imagine' How It Must Have Looked in the 12th Century?

Angkor Wat was just the temple. Angkor Thom was the actual Capital city of the then Empire. But more about some of those details later in the blog.

But can you imagine if this Angkor Wat is ‘just’ the temple, what the whole of the total city complex must have been like?

Wow! Amazing

Incomprehensible!  Truly, I have never seen such an amassing of wealth. Even the Forbidden City in China is just a shadow of this place.

Carol and I climbed through the ruins. I scaled some stairs on hands and knees. I made Carol climb steps that were so deteriorated that one needed to be a mountain climber. But good for Carol, even though she protested, she did great. Yes, I held her hand.

I Cannot Believe I Climbed This - Even With Help

We scoured what we could, walked where we were allowed but it was tough going. Ah, to be 30 again!

So we walked half way through this temple. We never saw the North side of the complex. We were too exhausted at the end. We remembered that we had to walk all the way back to our tuk-tuk, too.

Standing just outside the entrance again, with a bit of an elevated view, I tried to imagine the time when this Wat was at its best. When it was in full operation, what it would be like on the busiest days, with the old Khmer people all around. I imagined when the royals, the military, the priests, the common folks all were doing their thing. What a sight that must have been!

Multi-Headed Naga (Serpent), Instrumental in the Formation of the World

It is a still a sight to behold today, but just ‘Imagine’.

I know I am a dreamer.

Carol and I walked slowly back to the tuk-tuk. We walked along the forest that is growing inside the outer south walls, which was the shady side. We did not walk the busy, ancient center causeway access on the way back. This causeway is difficult to walk on.

Apsaras - Divine Dancers

Some enterprising ‘vendors’ sold drinks and even some small snacks along our way. I tried the drinks offered. I don’t know what it was, but it was refreshing and natural, the vendor said.  It was!  Carol passed on it; she just had bottled water.

Once we were out of the historic Wat area there were vendors everywhere selling whatever you wanted and offering items I cannot imagine I would ever want. Carol however bought an excellent book describing in detail, with pictures many of the temples in the Angkor area. She paid $5 for ‘Ancient Angkor’ which has a sticker price of $27.95.

We found our tuk-tuk driver in this jumble of vendors, the organization around Angkor Wat is good. While it looks primitive, it all works out pretty well.

Excellent Book For All the Sites We Visited

While the whole of the ‘Historic Area’ of Angkor is a National treasure to Cambodia, bringing in millions of tourists, it is today, mostly stone ruins.

One needs to envision the living quarters for the working class people, and the ‘life’ that was going on around those palatial stone buildings. You need to mentally add the oxen, the fields, the farms the roads, the common man, etc.

The stones somehow survived but the wooden houses, the living quarters made centuries ago only out of natural products, were all reclaimed by nature. What we see today is what has survived from ancient times.

An Awe Inspiring Experience

The Khmer Empire started around 800 AD and lasted until about 1500 AD.  That was a long time ago; the jungle has had plenty of time to reclaim a lot of it. This is a jungle area, a tropical area.

This reclamation from jungle forces is still going on today.

Enterprising People Gathering Lotus Flowers From the Moat to Sell

We used the tuk-tuk to take us past some of the temples that we want to see later in the week along our way home. We asked our tuk-tuk driver to give us a quick ‘drive by’ since a lot of the old attractions are near the Wat of Angkor.

Well relatively near, but again, that is for later.

Lotus Flowers

It was good to have a tuk-tuk, because were tuckered out.