Our man in Asia, Part 6

Siem Reap, Cambodia   It was another grueling seven-hour bus ride to get from Phnom Penh in Cambodia’s south to Siem Reap in the center part of the country, near the border of Thailand.

Siem Reap is the penultimate tourist town. Loaded with bars and restaurants of all levels, from dives to high-end gourmet, as well as accomodations from backpack hovels to five-star resorts.

Also, endless massage parlors and shops selling the full range of stuff, from junk to exclusive clothing and jewelry stores. It even hosts Cambodia’s most famous circus. During the COVID pandemic, this city, Cambodia’s second largest, became a ghost town.

The reason for this tourist center to thrive is the nearby archeological site of Angkor Wat. This justly famous site covers an enormous area and boasts some of the most amazing examples of temples in the world. I’ve visited many archeolgical sites — Roman Forum, Pompeii, the Acropolis, Delphi, Ephasus, Mayan ruins, etc — and Angkor ranks with the best of them.

There are dozens of these temples scattered over the area.  Some of them are close to each other. Some are buried deep in the jungle. They were built by successive generations of Cambodian kings, each trying to outdo their predecessors. And what a treasure they created.

The religious focus of these temples changed with the whim of the kings. Some started out as Hindu temples only to be converted to Bhuddist and then later returned to focus on Hindu traditions. Some started out as Bhuddist and then back and forth with Hindu.  The result is a fusion of the two traditions. It’s like that throughout Southeast Asia. I understand a little about Hinduism and Bhuddaism.   But trying to sort out what was what throughout this trip to Southeast Asia was impossible.  

But the most important dynamic for a non-religious tourist is the amazing artistic and architectural achievement found among these temples. I found the Hindu-created temples to be the most elaborately and finely carved examples.  As I found during our four months in India a few years ago, Indian Hindus cannot let any surface go undecorated. (Like the elaborate combination of spices used in thier food, those Indians can’t help themselves. More is better.) 

There are three major temples that are musts for any tourist. That’s where all the tourist buses, and accompanying crowds, cluster. There’s so much to admire and study that the crowds seem to fade into the background. But they are hard to photograph without interupting someone’s selflies.  

You might recognize some of the temples.  They’ve been the backdrop for a number of movies, most notably Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  This movie starred Angelia Jolie, who became a quasi-permanent resident of Siem Reap for a time. I think she picked up one of her adopted kids here — the ultimate souvenir. 

I had the time flexibility to add another day to visit temples beyond the three most famous and most visited temples. It take two full days (and I mean FULL) to visit the top three. When I ventured beyond those, I found myself in some of the temples alone. (I hired a tuk-tuk to take me around to the more obscure and distant temples. The distances between the temples are so vast that you can’t usually walk from one to the other. However, in the olden days when the site attracted religious pilgrims, that’s exactly how they got around. By foot. Or elephant.)

Walking through these astonishing buildings alone with only the sound of a few crickets on the ground and birds overhead was about as close as I’ve ever come to a spiritual experience.