And then there were two...

Safe travels Viv! The group travel has just about come to a close. I knew it would go quickly, but holy cow! I can't believe part I of the trip is over. (In my mind, it's a 3-part journey: part I was group travel, part II: Habitat for Humanity building trip, and then part III will be the Carl/Joc closure). I am having a blast; however, I was reflecting today that if I want that "momentus life" feeling, I have to proactively remind myself of the context - the day-to-day is more of a relaxed fun, which in and of itself is also pretty cool. I compare this in part to my trip 7 years ago, which was amazing, but also a perpetual struggle in some ways - against logistics, the cultures, group travel, etc. Perhaps it's just the difference of being 30 vs 23?

At any rate...

When we planned to go to Angkorwat, I'd say Carl and Viv were driving the process and I was following along to stay with them; at the time it seemed like a lot of travel and money for some cool temples. In retrospect, it was very much worth it, except we wish we'd had another day or two.

Cambodia was not at all what I'd expected. I had heard that Angkorwat was completely tourist-ridden and nearby Siem Reap overrun with junk souvenier shops. Instead, we found it a small town with nice, courteous people (plenty of shopping "opportunities", but they didn't force themselves on you like they have in other places. And the temples were ... amazing.

I didn't know this at first, but Angkorwat is actually a collection of more than 100 temples. Many of them are small, but it was pretty incredible to imagine the area hundreds of years ago without tourists and speckled with temples everywhere. Granted, most of the thousands of people who lived there didn't worship at the temples, just built them for the king. Nonetheless is was pretty cool to think about.

We started the day at the "Tomb Raider" temple. Although the day was full of fantastic sights, this ended up my favorite place, I think because of the interaction between nature and the temples. I haven't seen Tomb Raider, but I heard Viv comment that she thought the movie had been digitally engineered to show trees in and amongst the ruins - turns out, it's real! Extraordinary. We also had the luck of getting there before the multitudes of packed tour buses arrived. (We didn't try for a sunrise visit because it's rainy season and we were likely to be clouded in; instead, we got started just after 8 and still beat many of the crowds at our first stop).

We later saw the temple of happy faces - also very cool. Each spire has four faces on it, representing the Buddhist tenets of compassion, sympathy, calmess and charity. Another stop was at the king's temple, which overlooked a 125m swimming pool in which his 4,000 concubines would bathe. Every night he would climb the (ridiculously steep) stairs - on belay! - to have sex with one of them. The burdens of ruling....

How long did that chiseling take??

We finished the day at Angkorwat itself. Although very cool, don't get me wrong, it actually was less dramatic to me than some of the others. I should note that I was on the point of exhaustion though (due to poor laundry management I was down to just one very hot thick cotton t-shirt, and despite drinking 2 liters of water throughout the day, had to rest every few steps in order to make it through).

With the addition of two pleasant dinners, it was a great stop!

written by

GoBlue on July 5, 2007 from Siemreab, Cambodia

from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys

Send a Compliment

Hi Carl & Joc! I hope you're doing better. Please take care. Everything sounds absolutely beautiful! Hope to talk to you soon. Love, Mom

written by Lynda Addie on July 5, 2007

Hi Joc and Carl!!! Wow - great fun. Please enjoy every minute of your travels. I am living vicariously through your blog. Miss you both. Can't wait to see you at Angie's wedding.

written by Ana C. Shields on July 6, 2007

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