Siem Reap, Cambodia -AHS

                November 4-6, 2014

Fortunately our departure from Siem Reap was a whole lot easier than getting there, which took us 13 hours from the time we left our hotel in Yangon to when we finally arrived at our hotel in Cambodia.

But, after a very long day in the Bangkok airport, our two and a half days in Siem Reap visiting Anghor Wat flew by.

Anghor Wat became a Unesco World Heritage site twenty years ago, but did not really come into its own as a tourist destination until a decade ago, as it took that first ten years for the infrastructure to develop. And 20 years ago, Siem Reap was probably like Myanmar is now.  Today it is tourist central with hoards of tourists from all over, but especially from the nearby Asian countries. Our Odysseys' tour guide  Bunrit suggested we get started early on Thursday morning, but getting to the entrance gate before 8:00am did not mean that we were the first to arrive.  At that time of the morning, it is already fairly hot and humid and the crowds have started to appear. And so began our two days encountering many Chinese tourists, who, to a person were rude and pushy.

 The Khmer Empire began around 802, reached its height in the 11th and 12th centuries and by 1325 was in steep decline. During the 500 years it was a driving force in Southeast Asia, there were two Kings, who were chiefly responsible for much of the building of the empire. Suryavarman II, ruled from 1130-1150, and Jayavarman VII, one hundred years later from 1181-1220.

Suryavarman expanded the Khmer empire to include most of what is now Thailand.  Jayavarman further expanded the Khmer empire to include parts of what is now South Vietnam.  Both  rulers constructed magnificent temples, with the earlier ruler constructing Hindu temples and the later ruler building temples with Buddhist orientation. Many countries, through UNESCO, including the US, Japan and China have played a role and contributed funds to the restoration of this site which covers about 100 square miles. During our two day visit we visited about 6 of them.  Anghor Wat, the original temple on the site and the largest, is Hindu in its iconography and symbols, others were either Buddhist or Hindu, depending upon when they were constructed.

Elsa and I were both skeptical at first about whether Anghor Wat (which is what the entire site is referred to but is also the name of the largest temple) would be any different than the many temples and pagodas we had already visited in Myanmar and that I had visited previously in India. But we were both awed.  One of my favorites was Bayon which had been built by Jayavarman VII and had amazing reliefs depicting the lives of everyday people. It helped to have an excellent guide who was able to deftly explain what we were looking at.  I had read in one of the guide books about the Chams, but had not really figured out who they were. This guide explained as he pointed out key story elements in the relief.   The Chams of the Champa empire had defeated Anghor in 1177.  The Champa empire was in what is now South Vietnam, in an area which was a stop on the East West trade route from China. The word "Chams", according to the guide, means Chinese Muslims. Javayarman VII defeated the Chams and scenes of the battles as well as other everyday historical scenes are depicted.

In addition to Bayon, we toured the Anghor Wat temple, which is dedicated to Vishnu and has beautiful scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics.  The five soaring towers, with the largest in the middle representing Mount Meru, the mountaintop residence of the Hindu gods, have been beautifully restored.  There was a Hindu nun sitting across from the large shrine of Vishnu at the Temple. Elsa and I each gave her money and she held our hands (one at a time) and chanted a blessing.  In its intonation, I could hear our priestly blessing..May The Lord keep you and bless you and grant you peace...We visited this temple just before dusk, so we were able to get some lovely photos as the sun was setting.

We also  visited Banteay Srei, a temple built for the Hindu god Shiva. And, we wondered out loud whether our Jewish tradition of sitting shiva was derived in any way from the Hindu god Shiva who is described as the destroyer of life, but is also described as transcendent and limitless. Shiva is worshipped through the linga (penis) and there were also linga throughout the temple.

The other two temples we visited were Preah Kan, built by Jayavaraman VII in memory of his father and Ta Prohm, built by the same ruler to honor his mother. The former is currently being restored by the World Monument Fund, the latter has not been touched and is a wonderful example of what all of the temples looked like before restoration began.  Ta Prohm, a decaying Buddhist shrine has been overtaken by the jungle and there  are massive tree roots strangling many different walls of the temple. Great photo ops. And many aggressive Chinese tourists who were not all that interested in taking turns.  Elsa and I patiently waited our turn as one large family took pictures. After they were done we started to take our pics, but they apparently were not finished and they returned and tried to stand in front of us to resume their picture taking.   We were not terribly inclined to let them do so.

We took a tuk tuk ( bicycle driven cart) to the old market on our last day in Siem Reap. The driver was nice enough to arrange a time to return for us, and the cost was minimal at $2 each way. The market provided some good picture taking ops, but not much to buy. We ended our stay in Cambodia lounging at the pool, a very civilized way to wind down.