Where Are You From?

And we're off! Whizzing across the Cambodian landscape in the back of Bun's Tuk Tuk! We're getting a later start than most. It's already 9 AM and quite a lot of the herd has already moved out.

We're not visiting Siem Reap. It's the nearest town to Angkor, the capital of the ancient Khmer Empire. The temples at Angkor are why we sat in buses for 13 hours yesterday. And cut to the chase, the temples are worth the long ride.

The prize, as I speculated in the prologue, is Angkor Wat. A wat is a temple. So the name Angkor Wat is like saying Westminster Abbey. Angkor Wat is the largest temple here. It is so important to the Cambodian culture that it is on their flag.

Bun drops us off across the street. Before we can unload the backpack which must never leave our side, and the water, we are rushed by a pack of wild children trying to sell us guide books, bangles, and in general, useless junk. We push through, show our ticket to the guard and we're now officially having fun.

The temple is surrounded by a very large moat. It is probably four times the size of the moat at the Edo Palace in Tokyo. We cross via a stone causeway. Next, there's a barrier wall to be passed through. As we enter, there is a large Buddhist statue, and a few people explaining what we're seeing.

"Where are you from?"

Oh, beware these words! If you start talking to whoever asks the question, before you know it, you have hired a guide. We've got a pair. They start explaining everything about the carvings in the walls.

Now that we've passed through the barrier wall, there is a huge open space, and finally, you see the temple. It's bigger than you think from the distance. Whoever laid this out understood the visual effect it would have.

One of the guides starts suggesting locations from where good pictures would be taken. I later learn he figured this out by looking at the pictures in the guide books and then finding where they were taken. These guys are smart.

Suddenly, we've come to a point from which they can go no further. That's because they aren't legal guides. But truthfully, they knew a hell of a lot. We asked what the fee was, and they wouldn't say. This is a smart move. It gets you to use your value system to set a price rather than theirs. We give them some dough and move on.

The temple itself is three layers. We climb in, out, and around. There are reliefs on the walls that explain stories of great battles. There's one that depicts an army pulling a great snake back and forth to make the elixir of youth. This pulling the snake (yes, I know what that sounds like) is depicted in many places in Angkor, especially across bridges.

After I had completely shot the place up with my camera, we jumped back in the Tuk Tuk and saw Angkor Thom. Now, I thought because all other temples were going to be smaller they would be less impressive. That just wasn't so. When you pull up to Angkor Thom you think you're in a movie. There are over 20 giant faces carved into the towers of the temple.

After climbing in, we found a group of photographers very carefully setting their shots. There was also a policeman who, I thought, was there to keep them in line.

"Have you shot the funny one?"

I really didn't know what he was talking about, and he took my camera, and posed me, and took a few. He had positioned me so, in the shot, I was facing, chin to chin, one of the giant faces.

It started to rain. We dashed into one of the towers and started talking. With any luck the rain would end soon.

"Where are you from?"

We get to talking, and before we know it, the cop is our tour guide. Wow! That was smooth!

Our last stop was a temple used in the movie Tomb Raider. What's interesting about it is how nature is taking it back. There are giant trees growing on top of the walls and towers. I'll have to see the movie again when I'm back in The States. By the way, you can find a copy of Tomb Raider in most tourist shops here.