Thais Defeated

So, my Thanksgiving adventure consisted of a short little excursion to Siem Reap, Cambodia (literally, Thais Defeated, Cambodia) to check out Angkor Wat and its bevvy of ancient temples. In preparation for the trip an Australian colleague of mine, formerly an Angkor Wat tour guide, armed me with three different books about the Angkor period and the tumultuous history of Cambodia in general. He also gave me Khmer language lessons, but I've forgotten everything except Admin Loi Te, which means "I don't have any money." The spelling of that phrase, by the way, is a total invention.

The first thing I noticed about Cambodia was the smell. When I landed in HCMC, the smell was immediately distinctive to me as well, but it was more complex. It took weeks to differentiate the aromas in the bouquet--eventually, I settled on a description that included a strong sewer presentation, with an undercurrent of durian fruit and a soft finish of spent cooking oil.

Siem Reap smelled like a campfire. It was lovely in comparison.

Every person in Siem Reap who is not Cambodian is there to see the Angkor Wat complex. I have to admit, before coming to Asia, I had never heard of Angkor Wat. Turns out, it's a pretty big deal. A large majority of the country's income can be easily attributed to travelers coming from all over the world to visit the temples. I visited as many as I could in one day-- 4-- but you could stay there for a full week and still not have run out of things to see.  What you probably will run out of is the energy to care about seeing another temple.

And I took hundreds of pictures while I was there. So many that our tour guide worried that my camera's battery would die and wouldn't stop reminding me to charge the battery over our midday break.

I'll start with the main attraction, Angkor Wat itself. Something you'll notice about Cambodia is the rather strong influence of Indian culture, particularly Hinduism. During the "Angkorian Period," the kingdom was generally prosperous enough to allow each king to build a temple to whichever Hindu deity he aligned himself with. The glory of the temples showed each king's devotion to his patron god, and helped develop a sort of notion equivalent to the "Divine Right of Kings"--that is, each king is an instrument of the gods.

Angkor Wat would have been a major religious city back in the day. The King dedicated it to Vishnu, one of the primary forms God can take in Hinduism, generally credited with creating and keeping the universe in balance.

This guy right here.

The most "interesting" thing about Angkor Wat is that it is oriented to the West, which drives history scholars nuts trying to figure out its meaning. The west is often associated with death, the place of the sunset, the place where darkness comes from etc. So, people debate the King's intentions for building an enormous religious building with an orientation to the death part of the sky.

For the layperson tourist, it means that the sunrise at Angkor Wat is the most spectacular sight. In favor of avoiding the crowds, we elected not to see this wonder. You can google it though. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has a a backlit shadowy Angkor Wat against a purple pink sky, probably on prints you can buy if you're so inclined.

So without further ado, I give you the Angkor Wat photo album. I'll be back soon with pictures from Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, The Unknown Temple, and Tonle Sap Lake. Soon.