See The World

with BILL'S EYES

Day 5 Cambodia and Vietnam

Nature has a way of winning over the folly of human kind.

Never easy getting up at such an early hour, but sunrise at Angkor Wat awaits. The drive to Angkor Wat is only 20 minutes, and after lining up to obtain an official pass including a photo taken at the same time, we are dropped off with our guide in darkness to walk a dirt road in darkness through a dark forest. Yes, it was very dark.

The moon is there in the heavens, and sometimes it's dim reflected light peeks through the trees, at other times the darkness envelopes us and the weak beam of the guides' torch, on the last legs of its battery power, sprays light randomly on the ground near our feet. My pupils have dilated to the max, trying to take in the details of the surroundings and the birds have awoken and begin their morning songs.

Such a rough and ready prelude to such a historic world heritage site seems very fitting. The experience wouldn't be as striking if we had merely been dropped off in front of the structure that is Angkor Wat.

I spy to my left a temple facade and behind it a more substantial structure, but it is not what I thought Angkor Wat would look like. The guide is quick to point out that this structure is one of many along the tracks that lead to the Angkor Wat. We take some grainy pictures of this small temple structure since the low light sensitivity of our mobile phone cameras is not very good and our flash not up to the job. The trek continues until we approach the Western side of Angkor Wat and at a clearing, in the forest, the towering spires poke over the tree-tops, while the moon becomes a lantern in the sky and illuminates the clearance between us and the temple of Angkor Wat.

We walk in the moonlight, the full 600-meter Southern perimeter of the 600 meters by 600-meter structure towards the Western perimeter so that we can find a position on the Western side to observe the sun rising in the East over the spires of Angkor Wat.

We are not alone, and the hordes have begun to gather and take-up positions to best suit the pictures they want to capture. A central raised walkway stretches from the Western perimeter of Angkor Wat, all the way to the next major temple.

There are two small almost dry lakes, one each side of the raised walkway and some 300 meters or so West from the Western perimeter of Angkor Wat. Some of the crowd is standing around the Western side of those lakes, taking pictures and waiting for the sun to rise, which is still some 20 minutes away. 

The remainder of the crowd of about 600 people, in my estimation, are waiting on the walkway. That seems to be the place to be, as we are told, the sun will rise directly behind the largest and central spire of the temple, and that event only happens twice a year. 

The crowd, including a truly international collection of on-lookers and fellow trekkers, are chatting to their partners, friends and the people next to them. Some are exchanging photography tips and others talking because they are excited to be where they are. One tip I noted is to hold a light reflective surface, such as the face of a mobile phone, under the front of a separate camera lens and the image framed by the separate camera seems to be an inverse reflection of the scene being photographed as if a reflection over water. Very cool.

At one time, as if the suns arrival was just a moment away, the crowd became silent. No one spoke or made a sound. I could not believe that was possible. The moment passed as the sun was still to make its greatly anticipated appearance but a special moment in my opinion. So few times does a collection of the people of the world stay silent to listen to the non-human world.

The light of the day is filling the sky, and the clouds in the distance cause the sky to change colour. Grey turns to orange and back again as the thicker clouds jostle to spoil the moment.  Eventually, the sun makes its appearance from behind the clouds, and although not in exact line with the central spire, it is close.

With some lateral movement, I capture some pictures and over the next ten minutes as I walk further away and then closer to the temple, I take more pictures with the bright orange sun peeking through the wave-like shapes of the sides of the central spire of Angkor Wat.

Mission accomplished and with photos and memories stored away, the tour of this very large temple begins. 

You can look up all the information you need about Angkor Wat, so I will not regale you with the details. I will describe the feelings I had and the thoughts that I had, as the guide took us to different locations in this vast structure, which is the largest temple in Cambodia. 

My first thought is awe for the accuracy of the builder. The guide finds a compass application on their mobile phone, showing a compass on its screen and places their phone on the stone floor at a point inside the Western facing wall of the structure. North, South, East and West as displayed on the mobile device is perfectly aligned with the walls, the ceiling stones, the orderly arrayed floor tiles, and I am sure with the external walls of this grand temple. 

Next is the amazement of how the builder placed thousands, of 1-tonne and varying weights up to 10-tonne stones to perfectly match in height and alignment to the previously laid stonework.

There are four quadrants to the temple and each has a large pool area (no water in the current arrangement) and was clearly a contemplative area and a place of beauty in its time, since the soft and calming surface of the reflective water would be a lovely contrast to the orderly carved stonework of the walls surrounding the pool.

Many of the walls and columns are adorned with carvings, and one of those carvings is an image of the same woman in traditional garb. That image of traditional beauty is in stark contrast to the contents of some of the other walls, which depict in great detail, war, death, mayhem, torture and pestilence. 

Each half of each outer sidewall of the temple is devoted to a theme, and we only viewed two of the 600 meter long sides. The carvings often repeat for a meter or ten along the wall, but with careful review, there are subtle changes between the warriors, soldiers and servants. The facial expressions of fierce warriors and self-important kings and courtiers are a treat to behold.

The climb to the highest level of access to the temple is precarious and taken at your own risk, but many young and old take that risk.  The upper floor area allows for views towards far-flung temples in the vast area surrounding the Angkor Wat temple, but mostly the surrounding forest and glimpses of the four-mile square moat surrounding the grounds, which are the Angkor Wat temple area.

The temperature is about 38 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is about 90 %. Not the most conducive to exploring a vast building but the occasional breeze is a welcome relief.

We finish our tour of the great temple and begin walking beside the previously described walkway to benefit from the shade of trees dotting the landscape.  

We walk past two temple-like structures which, we are informed, are libraries. It seems that the King appreciated the importance of scholarship and history, while they constructed edifices that would stand as a testament to their greatness into what we call modern times. 

However, the King that created Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples and city of more than one million people did not appreciate that their grand edifices would succumb to nature in the hundreds of years following their abandonment. Neither, did they know or could have ever imagined that the structures might one day be re-built, as best they could be, by local and foreign devotees of the greatness of the structure and its builders.  The builders and re-builders were not necessarily devotees of the King and those that followed them but to the structure that is Angkor Wat.

Fortunately, our guide knows where the best eatery is, and the cloth covered tables, sturdy chairs, fans on the ceiling and good food are a welcome respite from all the standing, walking and climbing we have been doing in searing heat and humidity since about 5:00 am, it now being about 8:30 am.

Once fed and watered, we are ushered to a waiting vehicle to take us to Angkor Thom, the temple of faces. The entrance is grand with an access bridge lined with heads and each face of each head having a different expression — one side of the bridge devoted to fierce looking faces and the other to happier faces. One of the fierce-looking faces is very much what I look when exposed to reality TV for more than two minutes, stern-faced and ready to explode.  

Originally there were two hundred and sixteen faces -four to each spire of the temple which makes for lots of walking to see those faces that have survived the jungle occupation and the ravages of the environment. The carvings in the walls are intricate and reveal beautiful female characters as well as unusual creatures looking down on you.  Doorways and corridors lead to more spires, and the crowd become thicker and more determined to navigate the maze.  Photo opportunities abound, but getting enough free space to have you in the picture with one of the stone faces as the background is a challenge.  The walls are replete with Sanskrit to be read but not understood by me.  

We walk to another less than complete temple. The jungle has taken its toll, and the roof of the temple collapsed long ago, not yet restored or ever for that matter since the damage to stone walls and ceiling stones seem to be irreversible. Blocks of rock that formed the roof lay strewn on the ground. The stones are not catalogued or marked, thus not destined for a return to their places in the jigsaw of stonework any time soon.

Another temple is a short walk beyond, but we are spent and looking forward to visiting the Ta Prohm Temple but that that is not the temple grounds we are about to enter.

A short drive and drop off results in us walking down a dirt road towards a side entrance to a walled city that contains the Ta Prohm Temple. As we enter the city grounds through a large opening in the outer wall, we purchase some postcard pictures from a young man selling them for 2 US Dollars (we later notice that the array of photographs does not include the main Angkor Wat temple). We also need to show our pass card (obtained very early that same morning) to a ranger. Standing in the heat and humidity all day checking passes must be a physically and mentally draining job, and since we entered by a side entrance, the long day would not have been interrupted very often.

We walk the route less travelled, but the surroundings give a sense of the power of the jungle as we navigate a dirt path, dodging fallen palm fronds, errant branches and the occasional fork in the path and are glad to be following the guide.  The forest ceases, and we walk across a dry riverbed and on the opposite bank we see large rectangular stones, some basalt and others limestone randomly arrayed on the ground.

A wall has partially collapsed and formed a gap which provides us with a short cut to the Ta Prohm temple. Again the roof of the Ta Prohm temple has ended up on the ground and nature has won again. However, there are many carvings on the walls.  Some doorways reveal long passages and spires in the distance because there is no roof. All the spaces and remaining walls give a sense of what was in the past. 

You may recognise the name, Ta Prohm temple since it featured in one of the Indiana Jones movies and a Lara Croft movie as well.  The main feature of this temple is the impressively massive trees reaching for the sky supported by exposed roots reaching to the depths, through and around the temple walls and footings. 300 to 600 years of tree growth preserved for us to wonder and take many thousands of pictures. I do not think people truly appreciate the tale of survival involved. 

The trees grow as if the stone barriers in its way do not exist. The tree roots grow over and under the stone, or through the narrowest cracks. The roots wend their way regardless and ensure the survival of the tree they support. It is a very popular temple, and it is not easy to take pictures without people in the foreground, but I am fortunate on several occasions, so I am pleased.  Although some pictures that include people are a good thing since they provide a scale reference illustrating how big the trees are.  

These examples of trees versus temple are a perfect example of the long term wrestling match between nature and human-created structures. Would our modern skyscrapers be similarly subsumed by nature, I think so. Interestingly, this is my favourite place so far, as it illustrates the falsehood of human dominance over nature, as nature will typically get its own back.

Just after noon, so it is time for us to return to the residence and an afternoon snooze is needed as we find the heat and humidity draining.

We have a lovely meal at the outside dining room of the residence and chat with the friendly waiters. We find out that they work six days a week and in the case of one of the waiters, he has Saturdays off. Tomorrow he is going to see Angkor Wat with his girlfriend, so even the locals are drawn to this wonder of nature and human endeavour. We are going to begin our Mekong River Cruise tomorrow, so we leave a tip for the waiters and the cooks because we will have left our Siem Reap residence by the time they next return to work. 

The main spire at Angkor Wat.

We were exhausted by the time we saw these marvels of nature, so our spirits were lifted.

This is one of many images that we captured while we simultaneously captured our feelings.

The sun is yet to rise but its rays are seeping through the morning sky.

This is photograph of a photograph presented at the booking office where it is necessary to purchase a photo pass to gain access to the vast Angkor Wat area. We entered the area from the bottom left hand side of the picture.

Even the monkeys get breakfast.