More of a “birthweek” than a birthday

Originally, the purpose of this whole trip was to watch the sunrise from the steps of Angkor Wat on my 30th birthday. Instead, we started the celebrations a few days early by doing that Monday morning instead. Dara picked us up at 04:30 so we could beat the crowds to buy our tickets before dropping us off at the temple. My first glimpse of it was in the dark, looking across a distance (the moat), to see a bunch of trees only illuminated by the lights of other tuk-tuks. Grateful I’d brought a headlamp, we made our way in the dark across a stone walkway, up and down a bit of stairs, and down another long walkway. At a junction, a woman offered to let us sit with the crowd in chairs to watch the sun come up behind the temple. Not wanting to share the moment with crowds, we opted instead to hike around the temple and watch the sun rising on the temple. For this, we had the moment practically with ourselves, only sharing it with a few cows and locals who biked by. The sky gradually lightened to various shades of purples, then blues, allowing us to see the temple emerge from black darkness to grays. Finally, when we could wait no longer we went in. How do I describe it? Massive, intricately carved…I’m sorry words aren’t coming to me. It was great having Cori there as we read in our guidebook about the symbolism of the layout (three tiers symbolically rising to heaven in the middle), and I realized that the general purpose of a temple in their culture held many similarities with my own religious beliefs. In some respects, they learned about the Creation through the engravings and were preparing to meet their god(s) in the next life. Armed with our guidebook we wandered around, trying to decipher the different murals and shoot as many pictures as possible. My favorites were the hairstyles of the Apsaras (celestial dancers) and a mural depicting heaven and hell. Truth be told, heaven looked rather dull as everyone lounged around in their choice of several elegant mansions that all looked somewhat alike. Hell, on the other hand, had much more creativity behind it. Different sins had different punishments associated with them, which were carved with gruesome detail. They had their tongues cut out, were cut in two, cast into flaming lakes, etc… The list goes on an on. My favorite was simply people shivering in the cold—amen, brother!

When we were finally satisfied, we headed to Ta Prohm. This temple actually became my favorite because of the wild state it was left in. I should probably explain at this point that there are several temples in this region built during the Angkor period. After the fall of that civilization many temples were abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle with the exception of Angkor Wat, which was converted to a Buddhist shrine. The French (re)discovered Angkor Wat in the 1860s and the other temples in the following years, leading to the debate of restoration versus preservation. At Ta Prohm, the decision was to leave it in its wild state with many of the giant trees actually holding the walls up in between their roots. I truly felt like an explorer as we weaved our way around fallen passageways, massive carved blocks of stone, and giant trees. Apparently this one had some connection with “Tomb Raider”, but since I haven’t seen it all I could think was “Indiana Jones”. I also appreciated the shade of these trees during the heat of the day.

It was during our late lunch that the early morning, combined with previous nights of little sleep, combined with the overpowering heat, hit me hard. I could go no further, and thankfully Cori was a little knackered herself so we begged Dara to let us lay in the hammocks usually reserved for the tuk-tuk drivers. He laughed and agreed, which led to a great conversation. Cori was determined to learn Khemr, and I was determined to nap, so everyone was happy. Fascinating, and tragic, to hear Dara’s story.

Our final temple of the day was Bayon, a temple covered in giant faces of a particular king. Imagine wandering around in the late afternoon shadows, feeling like hundreds of faces are staring at you as you clamber up steep steps and try not to fall off. All in all, a fabulous day!