Siem Reap, Cambodia - February 2, 2018

I keep thinking, my God, we are in CAMBODIA!!!

Never letting any dust settle, we flew a one-hour flight to Siem Reap in northwest Cambodia, and in vast contrast to the larger cities we have visited, Siem Reap is a much quieter, less densely populated town. Because of the heavily increased tourist traffic, all new construction is to provide new grand hotels. Already it has over 300 hotels, not including homestays and hostels, and officially, there are only 300,000 residents. It is the ancient capital of Angkor. In its heyday in the 12 century, it was home to more than 1 million people living in one of the most advanced civilization in the world. Who knew??

Angkor, the "real name" of Siem Reap, is home to over 200 Hindu/Buddhist temples all built by slaves of Khmer kings to honor their royal ancestors or themselves. I can't tell you how many temples we saw for they began to run together a bit. I will share a few thoughts . . . first, they are not merely a temple; they are a complex of stone temples, pagodas, ceremonial buildings and libraries. They are wonders of the world; they are huge, magnificent ancient. Some dating back to the 4th century when the Khmer Empire, what eventually became today's Cambodia, developed into a super-civilization.

Next, it is important to know that each element of every temple represents earth and heaven or the kingdom. For example, the Temple of Faces or Bayon Temple once had 54 spires representing the 54 provinces of Angkor Thom. Each tower has a face on all four sides, for an original total of 216 faces in the temple. Only 37 towers still stand today. Further, built like a square wedding cake, the center tower on the highest level of Angkor Wat reach toward heaven,;the highest level below the main tower represents the king; the mid-level tier represents people and local life; and ground level represents the earth. Ground level is actually above the actual ground. It was first a wall that slaves built and then filled in from the dirt excavated in the construction of a wide, man-made moat. Most temple complexes have moats like this. Its purpose is to one, separate the temple from common people, two, to provide a means for defense, and finally to provide the materials for building the first level to raise the temple above common life. The moat symbolizes the ocean.

We rode in tuk-tuks from the city to Angkor Wat - these are cute little surrey-like carts pulled by a man on a motorbike. They are very popular here; they are everywhere.

Our first stop was Angkor Wat, possibly Cambodia's most important and famous temple. Its name means City of Temples. It is the largest and tallest of all the temples and was originally built as a Hindu temple but over the years became and still is a Buddhist temple. The walls and doorways of the main "wedding-cake" temple of Angkor Wat feature carvings of Gods, and religious mythology. They depict battles, lotus blooms, dancing girls and royal life with the king and his queen. The stone reliefs also depict important animals like bear, turtles, elephants and the seven-headed dragon. Each temple was artfully and skillfully designed and decorated to worship a Hindu God or later, Buddha.

Angkor Thom (Big City) is important too as it was indeed the capital of the kingdom during the golden years. Inside the walled Angkor Thom are several temples and sites we visited, Bayon (Temple of Faces), The Terrace of Elephants, and Ta Prohm Temple. Ta Prohm is the temple you've probably seen in photos that literally has hundred-year-old trees growing in and out of its walls. When you see the photos you will recognize this site as location for Angelina Jolie move, Tomb Rader.

We wrapped up our day of temples with a visit to nearby Pre Rup Temple to watch the sunset. God did his best to give us a glorious spectacle and as always, it worked.

The Khmer kingdom ruled until the 14th century when despite their vast armies, slaves and temples protected by walls and moats were overcome by of invasion by their enemy Siam. Coupled with a 40-year drought and famine, the civilization struggled until its final end about one hundred years later. the exact cause of the end of the era is unknown.

After their wealth of gold and inlaid jewels was pilfered and in some cases statues beheaded or defaced, these temples lie abandoned for centuries. They became part of the jungle, completely overgrown with trees, undergrowth and years and years of leaves and debris. First accidentally rediscovered by French naturalist, Henri Mouhot in 1860, who was said to be chasing a butterfly. I'm not so sure about that. They did, however, set fires to burn the jungle in order to reveal the structures. Many stones are still black with soot and fire discoloration. Some say the temple city of Angkor Thom was never "lost" or in need of rediscovery. While some areas of the enormous religious monument had been overtaken by centuries old jungle growth, the Khmer people continuously occupied and maintained the central 'Wat' temple since its construction.

I think what moves me most about the temples is the collection of ancient civilizations, like the Inca's, the Aztecs, the Mayans, Egyptians, and the Greeks, just to name a few, of the most renown, who developed advanced and accomplished civilizations hundreds of years ago. They had great architects and craftsmen who built cities and massive, heavily carved and decorated stone temples and shrines. They developed written languages and calendars; they farmed and learned about medicine. They built strong temples honoring their Gods and their kings. Even on opposite sides of the earth, many of these cities, temples and shrines share a similar design and certainly similar purpose. It's hard for my mind to process.

By the end of this day, having just flown in from Phnom Phen earlier in the day, we were pretty tired, yet we had tickets to the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus. Oh boy! We dragged ourselves together and went! What a blast! Our seats were the best in the house. We were only a few feet from the young athletic performers who chanted, danced and did amazing displays of acrobatics and strength to lively native music and drums. Their performance told a folk story. Of course, in one performance a cute but flaming dancer got his eye on Stan sitting in the first row and made the audience crack-up with his flirtatious antics. Stan nearly melted into his seat. I was laughing so hard I didn't even think to catch all this in a picture.