Goodbye Cambodia

Today I arrived back in Bangkok after a wonderful 5 days in Siem Reap. As I mentioned before we stayed at Smiley's Guest house which was sublime! A huge room with a balcony that overlooked Terra Cotta roof tops and a great view of the sunset. Every morning we were able to indulge in home made bread, coffee, and fresh fruit and eggs for a measly $2.50 each.

The best part about visiting Siem Reap, was biking around Angor Wat. Angor Wat is a massive explosion of temples from the 1100's. It is where Tomb Raider was filmed and has a very unique construction compared to other ruins of the time. So, we jumped on some mountain bikes and traveled down the dirt roads until we came across the beautiful Angor Wat. Words can not describe the intensity of coming across this site in person. The view of it is something between a fairy tale and a strange surrealist painting. There were carvings on the majority of every wall, small shrines in every door way, endless hallways and more things to look at than seemed possible.

(Brief background knowledge: Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

So, after the initial astonishment of coming up to a temple like this, we parked our bikes and went inside. Every wall, every door way, every pillar has super detailed carvings on it. One of the most popular themes were smiling dancing, or sitting woman. This struck me because they were... all smiling. Every carving had details beyond explanation and expressions that told of pure happiness. Each had a detailed outfit and were put in different positions, sitting, standing, or dancing.

The corridors had war themes that were just as detailed but even more astonishing due to not having weathered as much. The walls told stories of wars with fighting elephants and monkeys and had so much detail that I could entertain myself by staring at one spot for an hour... if I had that kind of time... Every inch of these temples were thought through, every inch stood for something and had a purpose. Not only the construction of the temples was amazing but the carving upon them was just as prolific.

We biked around the temples for 2 days and on the third we woke up at 5am and rode a tok-tok to see the sunrise. It was a crazy eerie feeling walking up to this monstrosity in the dark... and we forgot our flashlights. So, we kept close to people who had thought ahead, and stepped into the temple. We followed the crowd to the other side of a court yard and by sun up, there must have been at least 300 people standing to see it. What can I say, it was Beautiful!

Then, we took our tok-tok to see the temple from "Tomb Raider" and quickly took our pictures and did some exploring before the crowds from the sunrise got to it. After, we headed back to town, had breakfast and went back to bed.

Nothing could have made these past 3 days better. It was a sublime experience. Riding around the streets of Seim Reap with the locals. Eating like a king, and exploring a fairy tale temple that few get to see in a life time. I wouldn't change a thing. Life is beautiful!

Now, I am back in Bangkok for the night and tomorrow we will board an overnight bus to Phuket. There, we will spend one night and head out to the islands for the next 2 weeks.

Side note:

There are people traveling here from across the entire world. Young and old, all shapes and sizes. It is an amazing thing to be around such diversity. We saw tour groups of people in their 50-70's from France, Germany, and England... families from Eastern Europe, Belgium, and Austria... and travelers from everywhere you could imagine. It's a life changing experience that you can't get from reading a book... I am blessed to have this opportunity.