I’m In The Ancient City

When I thought about doing something radical this year, I decided to embark on my annual expedition to ‘anywhere.’ Anywhere must be somewhere I hadn’t been before. And anywhere must be authentic. Anywhere must be affordable. So I searched everywhere to find anywhere to see.

With last year’s spectacular Royal Flora Ratchaphruek in Chieng Mai, this year had to outdo the last. I wanted to document an experience that I could look back in years to come & say, “Wow! Look at that…..!” And I did just that. And anywhere with the greatest monuments of the ancient world has got to be found in Siem Reap. I journeyed through the ruins & learnt of a history that dates back a thousand years. I began to marvel at the engineering & architecture that the ancient world possessed even though none of the modern technology of computers & tractors were used to aid the design & construction of the temples. Not only the structures were huge but the whole of Angkor Wat area spans miles. All the steps & stones of the ruins almost caused my back & hip to give way again but thankfully I am still in one piece. I would not go into a temple if it was still an active place of worship.

I got here on Wednesday & will be flying home on Monday. A three-day temple pass to enter the World Heritage Site cost me USD40. I covered almost all of the ruins in Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom, the ancient city, allowing me to have a sense of the civilisation that took place. I went to Ta Phrom where Tomb Raider was filmed & got astonished by the size of the humungous banyan trees that intertwined the the temple. The roots have grown into the building & it’s best left alone. The jungle literally swallowed up the temple when it was found.

All the bas relief (carvings) on the stones of most temples, tell of the way of life & the legacy of the kings who ruled in that era. The downside to these places is the hoards of tourists (like me) who want a piece of the experience while I took pictures with them in my frame!!!

I have just enough energy to write this & post it via my guesthouse’s wifi service. Cambodia is a great place to be in. I’m like a sponge right now, absorbing all that my guide is telling me, about the Khmer Rouge; Pol Pot’s Regime, rise & fall of the empires & so much more. I can’t wait to share it with you….