Imagination - Climbing steep Angkor steps
Re-reading old entries and realize (mortified) that while I discussed our Siem Reap hotel in some detail, I make no mention of the wats themselves. Bad tourist - for my next post will review the poolside menu and gift shop's pricing.
Of course we went to the wats - every morning for three days and would have gone more if there hadn't been that restrictive 3 day pass. Instead of getting to do one last wander on our final morning, instead did the hotel's breakfast buffet.
Planned to do Tha Prom first (the moody, over grown with trees one) but our cyclo brigade was forced to halt (tire puncture) directly where the men carrying the epic length naga meet the road, at the doorstep of the magnificent Angkor Wat itself. Turned out, of course (higher powers working amidst their ruins) very much for the best as it was high noon and, for the most part, the tour groups had retired to AC-ed luncheon buffets and we had the wat almost to ourselves - sweaty bakpackers, Cambodian tourists and monks sparsely scattered.
Puncture mended, when we reached Tha Prom later in the afternoon as it began to burst at its ragged seams. Had memories of it virtually empty in 1998 (Jase and I got stoned in it and he took 6 rolls of film) - now there's a line of couples having their photos taken amongst the most evocative wall/root combos. Loads of American on tour (unexpected, Americans anywhere other than Bermuda and London is unexpected), French striding about as if it's birth-right to be there, Germans touring as means of domination in bulging photographer's vests, and the Japanese (for whom enough has been said). Still, a magical place but our near perfect Angkor visit of the morning toppled Tha Prom from my #1 wat position.
Angkor! Look left and the series of doorways frames an orange scarved Buddha, look up and the tapered stone tower frames a patch of sky, look through the stone window columns and another scene is framed. Its builders, its architects, allowed no off-views - there's no point anywhere in the complex where there's simply nothing to see. And if a saffron robed monk should happen into frame? - you have a photo op that feels Buddha-sent.
More to be said and shown about Angkor but later.
C
No comments:
Post a Comment