While making all our successful travel connections to our sightseeing destinations, we used every form of modern transportation known to man, including those that are more unique to Asia like longboats, tuk-tuks (open-air taxis) and scooters. The people of SE Asia are very friendly and courteous, and they are also a very handsome people. Thailand is nicknamed the “Land of Smiles” and the dominant religion is Buddhism, except in the southern region, which is Muslim. In greeting a person who is Buddhist, hands are not shaken. Instead, palms are clasped together (as in prayer) and raised to the level of the eyes with a modest bow at the shoulders. The verbal greeting by females is “Saw-wat-dee Kaa,” and by males “Saw-wat-dee Khrab.” They giggle should you make a mistake.
We slept outside and inside, sometimes with nothing more than a straw mat, pillow and blanket (we were always warm), and sometimes on a mattress (very firm or hard), and sometimes under mosquito netting. We also stayed in very comfortable bungalows, homes and lodges. The wearing of shoes in a home or guest lodge is not tolerated.
Thailand is famous for its spicy cuisine and this reputation is much deserved. The food service is very attentive and prompt, and the best tasting food usually came from street vendors or little cafes along the city streets and highways. I did get homesick for things made with wheat flour and also fresh ground coffee. However, these items can be enjoyed more often in the country of Laos.
Susette and I are making the journey through Cambodia alone and without the assistance of our hostess Nantiya, who has excellent language skills. This excursion will include five connections by the time we are ready to fly back to Thailand from Phnom Pehn, Cambodia’s capital city. Starting from Bangkok on a motor coach, we headed for a border town called Poipet. Here we would transfer into a heavy-duty bus designed to travel across the rugged and unpaved roads of Cambodia. After emerging from a very long wait at the immigration office, we discovered Poipet has many towering hotels with casinos, with a few under construction.
The gambling industry here was established about seven years ago with Asian investors from other countries providing the capital. The change from Thailand to Cambodia was like entering a time machine. The poverty of rural Cambodia is quite real and to see this poverty juxtaposed with Las Vegas-like buildings was very unsettling. The casinos are very controversial and have created resentments among the Cambodian people, mainly because the profits leave the country and provide little opportunity for Cambodians outside of a subsistence job.
It took fifteen hours to do what is essentially the equivalent of driving from Moab to Flagstaff, Arizona. On the following morning we hired a driver to take us to the ancient temples that are scattered about an area of 77 square miles. We purchased a three-day pass at the entrance station and began our tour into the wonders of an Asian culture that existed at the same time as the Puebloan culture here on the Colorado Plateau. Three days turned out to be a drop in the bucket.
Susette and I have never traveled internationally until this trip and we have never seen the ruins of Rome, Greece, Egypt, or the Yucatan. So we confess that we are not qualified to fully explain the wonders of the ancient world. The general consensus among the international travelers we spoke with, however, was that Angkor Wat is a remarkable gift for the citizens of the world. We were certainly impressed with the gift before us. The endless surprises and perplexities begged us to go on and on and on, and our leg muscles were pushed to the limit each day. This visit also turned into an exercise of looking at that, which was present and imagining that, which was absent. Fitting in all the puzzle pieces was a lot of fun for us. I know it is an old cliché to say “you’ve got to see this place!” but that is my advice.
Every stone exposed to the sun, except the paving stones, is a work of sculptured art. But time, for example, has removed much of the stucco that once served as the base for murals of colored paint, and the ornamental carvings of finished wood have long since rotted away. Vandals, acts of Nature and accidents have broken many of the statues and some of the finer finished works of stone. And centuries of looting have relocated sculptures to places unknown, including panels of script, fabrics, and ornaments of fine metal and precious gems.
Though modern-day workers have beat the jungle back into submission (and in the process removed 25,000 explosive land mines placed by the former Khmer Rouge government), centuries of massive tree fallings have crushed many stone walls and temples that otherwise would have weathered the effects of time quite slowly. The roots of the massive trees that yet remain alive have totally assimilated themselves into the joints and crags of some buildings and dominate the scene like temple guardians.
Some of the missing artwork is still with us and located at various national museums throughout the world. For example, archeologists from France started their scientific inventory of these ruins back in the 1860s and some of the artifacts they discovered were transported to France. Many pieces were collected illegally and sold to private individuals on the black market. International efforts are being made to locate missing artifacts from Angkow Wat with the purpose of repatriating them to the people of Cambodia. Fortunately, many artifacts still remain in Cambodia and are on display at their National Museum in Phnom Penh, which we visited on the day before our flight back to Bangkok.
The ruins of Angkor Wat and the communities of Cambodia are getting considerable financial aid through the assistance of the United Nations, and from individual countries and foundations from Japan, Australia and the Europe. This aid is designed to restore the ruins, while at the same time providing education, skills training and employment for the Cambodian people, and to provide infrastructure for Cambodia’s growing tourist economy.
Besides restoring fallen temples, workers are removing the centuries of sediment that have accumulated in the ancient water works that were originally dug below grade and by hand. (As I mentioned in my previous article, the terrain in this part of Cambodia is extremely flat.) The perimeters of these massive catchments are bordered with square blocks of cut stone. The water works include reservoirs, pools, canals and moats. The source of water for the reservoirs come from drainage systems that collect rainwater from the surface during the wet season; groundwater seepage also helps to fill the reservoirs.
Watching the modern-day workers dredging these basins was very interesting. Using long, flat spades as a lever, a team of workers pried a section of mud (like prying off a hunk of glacial ice) into the reservoir or moat. This chunk of mud will float because the organic matter trapped inside makes it lighter than water. The workers then coax this deep, rectangular mass of floating mud on to a conveyer belt, which is then loaded on to a waiting truck and hauled away. This method made me speculate that the modern workers might be repeating the excavation process of the ancients.
Well, that ends my three part series for the readers of The Times-Independent. I would like to thank the T-I for giving me this opportunity to share. I would also like to thank Susette and Lara for the year-long planning that went into this trip; to Owen and Nantiya for showing us a real cultural experience; and to all our friends who tended the home and business while we were away. If anybody feels the urge to visit SE Asia, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to provide assistance to you.