Siem Reap, Cambodia

The next day we woke up bright and early to fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I have been wanting to see the temples of Angkor for as long as I can remember (I think I read something about Angkor Wat in high school) and I had been looking forward to the trip for months. We were met at the airport by our guide, Mr. Bobo, and our driver who would be schlepping us all over Siem Reap for the next four days. The first thing I noticed about Cambodia was how hot it was. It was like I was wearing that cardigan in the Thai Palace all over again, except this time all I had on was a tank top and shorts. It was the kind of heat that hits you like a wall as soon as you step outside and you begin sweating instantaneously.

We drove along the road to our hotel and all of a sudden we were in front of Angkor Wat, the mack daddy of all the temples in the area (wat = temple). It’s just sitting there on the side of the road, no big deal. Totally not what I expected. Over the next four days we would end up driving past it more than a handful of times. Our hotel was located on the outskirts of Siem Reap, a mid-sized town that thrives on the tourists that come to see the temples. The hotel was called a “botanical” hotel because of the gardens in the complex, and it really was more like a garden with some buildings here and there than a hotel. It was built in the colonial style, and I you definitely got the feeling of what it would have been like to live in Cambodia back in the day if you were a wealthy Frenchman there to claim your fortune in whatever it is they were there to claim their fortunes in.

In the jungle surrounding Siem Reap there are 2000+ temples, but only 20-30 can be visited by tourists. The others are in complete ruin or have not been cleared for landmines that were placed in the region during Cambodia’s horrible civil war (more on that later). The temples were built over hundreds of years by different warlords. They are either Hindu or Buddhist depending on the beliefs of the ruler who built the temple, and oftentimes on ruler would overthrow another and turn his previously built temple into the opposite religion by changing the statutes and what not. It was easier to just change the temple than have an entirely new one built. So the same temple may have been built Buddhist, then it was Hindu, then Buddhist, etc. Some of the temples were built purely as ancestral burial sites, and you can tell the difference between a temple for worship and an ancestral temple based on the height of the temple. Those with high central towers reaching up to the heavens were for worship, and those with more level architecture were for burial. All the warlords considered themselves reincarnations of the gods, so they were always buried in the central tower of the temple so they could go back to the heavens after their time ruling on earth.

Western revitalization of the temples was started in 1914 when the French began the restoration of Angkor Wat, and as the years have progressed more and more nations have gotten involved. The entire region is supported by UNESCO, but for each restoration UNESCO pays half and the Cambodian government is responsible for paying the other half. Some temples are sponsored by other countries as well, so there may be a sign stating that the Japanese are helping to restore this temple or what not. The difference between an un-restored temple (basically just a pile of stones) and a restored temple is astonishing, and it’s amazing that these archaeologists can piece everything back together. Most of the temples were built using lava rock as a foundation which is then covered in a layer of sandstone. The sturdy lavarock forms the base of the structures, then the details can be carved out of the less dense sandstone.