I have not updated for a very long time. The reason is a combination of fatigue, disease (fortunately the worst effects staved off with the wonders of modern medication) and the 2 antiquated computers which compose our current guesthouse’s free Internet service consistently being occupied by angmohs. Not to mention the machines being located in a beastly hot and humid corner of the lobby.
Ah, the heat. Yes. One thing I have noticed is that adult Cambodians do not wear shorts. The men wear long pants and the women usually long skirts. I am not able to understand it, considering the fact that this is one of the hottest places on Earth. What is more, the incredible heat is accompanied usually by 90-100% humidity, which means that the human body’s primary defence mechanism against high temperature – sweating – is rendered utterly useless. Worse than useless, in fact, because the sweat stays on the skin or gets in the eyes and adds to the discomfort.
To compliment this excellent situation, air-conditioners in Cambodia seem for some reason to be unable to produce cooled air – or much air at all, actually. Our current guesthouse is, fortunately, an exception. But somehow the local people can take the heat and humidity while in shirts and long pants, with a single tiny fan located high up on the wall, which is rotating to boot. I have no idea how they don’t all keel over from heatstroke. In t-shirt and shorts and with a fan turned to full blowing directly on me, I feel perfectly ready to.
In any case, the past few days have been simply packed, the heat notwithstanding. When I last updated, we had just arrived in Sihanoukville. After a couple days of sea, sun, surf and seafood, we left for Siem Reap, from where we would go to visit the majestic ruins at Angkor. This involved literally an entire day – morning till night – travelling. Scintillating, as you might imagine. So let’s not get into that. Let’s talk about Angkor instead.
Angkor is often associated with just one of its monuments – Angkor Wat. But the truth is that Angkor is enormous. Spread over 310 sq km (according to an information board I read today), there are multiple temples and other structures in varying states of decay and restoration. Next to Angkor, Sukhothai is Bishan Park. An area half the size of Singapore with so many ruins we could not visit all in 3 whole days.
And so it was three days of playing Indiana Jones, dodging through ruined and restored temples. We climbed steep, narrow steps, stooped through dark corridors, balanced delicately atop stone ledges and gazed upon enough ancient carvings to last many people an entire lifetime. It was an incredible experience, despite the heat. One question stayed always in my mind: How did these structures look when they were new? Even ruined and eroded, close to a full millenium after its construction, Angkor Wat looms majestically over the Cambodian countryside. Imagine when it had just been completed. What did it look like then, in its full glory? What happened along its now quiet and judiciously maintained corridors? Who lived and died within its vast compound? What decisions were taken within its now-restored walls, and what impact did they have? We don’t know. It is not possible to know. What we have is mostly conjecture.
Years and years and years of history looked down upon us, and we looked back.
Today is our last day in Siem Reap. We leave, by boat, for Battambang tommorrow. That should be interesting.
