We arrive in Siam Reap after a 5 hour lunatic drive from Phnom Penh – our driver almost fell asleep on us several times, stopping every once and then to splash himself with water and fill up on energy drinks. Not very reassuring. Considering the COVID situation – at this stage really only affecting China and Chinese travellers who make up the biggest part of the tourists in the region at this period – we managed to snag a great deal at a 5-star hotel where we are planning on camping out for a good week to be able to enjoy all that the site has to offer without having to rush. That very evening, I had already booked us tickets to the popular local circus: Phare is a NGO project using music, acrobatics and dance to transform lives of underprivileged children coming from neglected and often violent backgrounds. It is a small theatre and we get to see everything up close. We all enjoy the show a lot, especially the more daring acrobatic balances and jumps. A lovely way to arrive at the gateway to Angkor.
The next morning is a day of chilling out before we start our tours of the site the following days, but Thierry seems to have gotten food poisoning or a stomach bug – after months of eating out “in the streets” it seems our bellies are not used to 5star hotel food anymore! Then it kicks in for me, too, and so both Thierry and I are out of business for the next 48 hours. Fortunately the hotel has big enough grounds and old colonial style bicycles which keep the kids busy and we manage to postpone our tours by 24h. On Wednesday, March 5th, it is finally time – and everyone pretty much fit enough – to discover the much anticipated site of Angkor. When you book 2 days of tours, you usually do the “Big Tour” and the “Small Tour”, the small one being the one with Angkor Wat, the big one covering the temples a bit further out, After purchasing our 7day pass, we kick off our tour with the 10th century Pre Rup Temple (aka Fire temple) dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, preceding Angkor Wat by ca 150 years. The temple’s name apparently means “turn the body” which leads experts to believe that funerals were conducted here with the ashes of the body being ritually rotated in different directions as the service progressed. The temples archways are beautiful, as are the carvings. We go on to visit East Mebon, Preah Khan and Angkor Thom. Our guide is, frankly, sadly, not very good, but we still enjoy the grandeur of the 4-headed-Buddha gate – each gazing into one of the cardinal directions – with a long row of gods (devas) on the one side, and demons (asuras) on the other side, each row holding a 7-headed naga (serpent/dragon) in the attitude of a tug-of-war. Although Angkor Thom is a Buddhist city, historians say this is a reference to the Hindu myth, popular in Angkor, of the Churning of the Sea of Milk. The nagas may also represent the transition from the world of men to the world of the gods (the Bayon), or be guardian figures. Either way, it is very impressive.
Angkor Thom was founded by King Jayavarman VII, one of the most important figures of the Khmer Empire, in the late 12th century. He was a Buddhist, and during the time of his reign oversaw a wholesale conversion of the Khmer people from Hinduism to Buddhism, thus leaving behind temples incorporating symbols from both. He was a great believer in public works, creating schools, hospitals, and reservoirs. He created a new capital city – Angkor Thom – which became the central hub for a population of around 1 million on a 9sqkm area. The surrounding wall, 8m high and 12km long, has five gates (two in the eastern wall) and is circled by a 100m wide moat. Bayon is in the center of this area, constructed around 54 towers, with a total of 216 (!!) smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara (a lord who looks down with compassion – an enlightened being destined to become a buddha but who postpones this final state in order to help humanity) peering down at you. There are mazes of tunnels, blocked doorways and tumble-down rocks – the perfect historical “playground”. Angkor Thom remained the capital of the Khmer Empire throughout its decline – and was probably fully abandoned in the 16th century. Considering the amount of destruction this site had to endure during the Khmer Rouge regime and pre-ceding and subsequent bombings, as well as the sheer power of the hungry jungle conquering the land, and seeing the high piles of yet to be reconstructed rocks, we can only imagine the monumental work archaeologists have faced piecing the wreckage together.
Our before last stop of the day is Banteay Srei (the pink temple, also known as the “lady temple”), ca. 20km to the North of Angkor. The comparatively small complex (compared to the grandeur of Bayon we just came from) is stunning: covered in elaborate carvings of female deities. Built in 967 A.D. it is the only major temple in the Angkor historical site not to be built by a King. It is really very pretty – we visit during the hottest time of the day and the temple does not offer much refuge in terms of shade so we do not linger as much as we would have liked, but happy to have discovered this little gem.
The temples part of our visit is over, so we ask our guide to stop off at the Landmine Museum which is on the road back to town. This stop turns out to be an educational highlight of our visit – it is a small museum, with a passionate personal story behind it. It is founded by Aki Ra, an ex-child soldier. His personal story is heartbreaking and a testimony to both the madness of war (from the age of 5-35 he fought in several different armies, playing with his friends one day and shooting them after a switch in sides another) as well as to the incredible resilience and strength of the human spirit, but to make it short here, after years of fighting, he returned to the villages in which he had planted thousands of mines as a soldier and began removing them, by hand, and defusing them with homemade tools. In his home, he displayed some of the items he had made safe and charged the tourists $1 to view them. He used the money to support the children in his care. Now, the Cambodia Landmine Museum and Relief Center serves to educate on the dangers of landmines, with the funds used to educate Cambodian youth. Cambodia remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world following the decades of conflict, from a civil war, Khmer Rouge regime, American bombings (see the map in the picture below – it is heart wrenching insanity), and Vietnamese occupation and dozens of civilians are still injured or killed every year by landmines and other unexploded ordnance that have been left over from all the fighting. Landmines and UXOs are found in backyards, in the rice fields where people work, and on the roads to school. Millions of the country’s landmines have now been cleared, but there is still a lot of work to be done – as we were looking into treks in the area, it quickly became clear that you cannot go off the established routes, it is just far too dangerous.
The museum is small but very well done, explaining the story of the founder, the viciousness behind the designs of the different types of mines (some designed to blast everything away within meters, some “just” to rip off bodyparts) and the intricacies of demining. Even today, many large nations refuse to sign the Ottawa Landmine Treaty, a convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. These countries include the United States, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel. Our crazy world, in which access to lethal violence is easier – and cheaper! – than ever. The museum exhibition also gives a condemning documentary of the farce of the trial against the Khmer Rouge leadership, both from the international as well as the local courts with millions of USD spent on giving the illusion of justice, but without any notable result, legally nor emotionally.
We thus finish the day filled up to the max with big impressions.