When questioned about Angkor’s origins, Khmer peasants said giants built it. Europeans commonly believed that the builders belonged to a ‘vanished race.’ Others claimed that the city was of Indian, Roman, or even Italian origin, alleging common features with Mediterranean architecture...
The truth...is rather more prosaic and yet, on another plane, more fascinating, because it is a story not of giants or extraterrestrials, but of people just like us.
John Tully (Tully, pp. 16 - 17) [1]
Angkor Wat certainly has the name recognition and the rock star status, as far as archaeological sites around here go; it’s the world’s largest religious complex and the only one that can be viewed from outer space (so I've heard). It’s conveniently located six kilometers (about 3 and 3/4 miles) from the town of Siem Reap, one of the largest and most westernized in all of Cambodia and home to an international airport. I’m sure it’s not uncommon for tourists gallivanting around Southeast Asia to fly in to Cambodia at Siem Reap, to spend a couple of nights sandwiched around a jaunt out to Angkor Wat, and to fly back to out to the next stop without seeing too much else of the Kingdom of Wonder. And that’s fine.
What’s less well-known is that Angkor Wat is but one location in the Angkor Archaeological Park, roughly equivalent to a National Park [2]. All told, this park has something like four dozen major and lesser sites dating from the late 9th century through the early 13th century, some of which certainly lay in ruin, some of which have been restored.Taken together, these are the remains of the zenith of the Angkor civilization, which once covered not only all of modern Cambodia, but also a substantial portion of Thailand, about half of Laos, and about a third of Vietnam (Tully, p. 28, map).
2. If National Parks were run by a foreign-owned oil company in conjunction with the federal government, aka "The Perot Plan."
When I first visited Siem Reap, in late November/early December 2012, I did not make the trip out to the temples. Many of the K6s had gathered on the occasion of the Angkor Half-Marathon and Bike Races, it was early in my service, and socializing seemed more important at the time. Visiting Angkor Wat seemed like something you had to kind of plan out, and I hadn’t; besides, Siem Reap is close enough to me that I can get back there without too much hassle [3]. The next time I went, visiting the temples was pretty much the only thing on my to-do list that didn’t involve food, so Kirk and I rented bicycles for the day and got the three major sites out of the way. As foreshadowed and alluded to, I visited Siem Reap once again in late November/early December 2013, once again on the occasion of the Half-Marathon and Bike Races. This time, however, my goal was to visit some of the less-well known sites and temples in the vast Archaeological Park and its environs. I was able to recruit a couple of traveling companions, Kevin and Mike, both of whom are also K6 ET3 PCVs that you might remember from the teacher training workshop in Banteay Meanchey organized by Kevin and his wife, Kayla. I had been doing some research, sifting through multiple guide books and trying to make sense of the remaining sites, so they let me figure out an agenda. Everything I picked out was on “The Big Circuit,” with the exception of Banteay Srey (Citadel of the Women), which stands about 30 kilometers from town.
3. Three trips so far, and one more coming up for my birthday in mid-February.
Because of the distances involved, it’s not particularly prudent to try to complete such a trip via rented bicycle [4]. The most cost-effective method is to rent a tuk-tuk for the day, which normally costs around $10 to $15 [5]. Because of the added distance with the trip out to Banteay Srey, our cost was doubled, but still reasonable when split between the three of us. Our driver was the brother of a kid who worked at the front desk of our hotel. Even though he spoke decent English, I specifically requested a driver who wouldn’t feel compelled to also serve as our guide. We got a relatively early start [6], and by 8 AM, we were on the road.
4. Although, it would technically be possible. I certainly wasn’t up for it, and I know Mike and Kevin weren’t either, having biked to Siem Reap from Battambang and Banteay Meachey, respectively.
5. Since it costs $8 or $9 to get to Pochentong Airport from central Phnom Penh, that’s not too bad.
6. Certainly much earlier than when Kirk and I almost slept through our Angkor Wat trip.
The Road to Banteay Srey and Pre Rup
We hadn’t planned on any stops until we reached Banteay Srey, and as our driver told us all of the different ruins and temple sites we were passing, nothing really sparked our interest. Suddenly, a massive stone structure appeared on our left, looking almost like a ziggurat with a haircut. That’s Pre Rup, the driver said, probably sensing our collective surprise and piqued interest. After a quick huddle, we decided to stop, because what good is a carefully compiled plan if you can’t get to the line and call an audible once in a while?
7. Ray, N., Bloom, G., & Robinson, D. (2010). Cambodia. Australia: Lonely Planet.
8. Glaize, M. (1944). The monuments of the Angkor group. This is a translation of an old French book that I found as a PDF online, written by one of the early French archaeologists to help excavate and restore the ruins.
Built beginning in 967, Banteay Srey was “discovered” only in 1914, and was not cleared until 1924. The success of the restoration there prompted the French archaeologists to fully adopt anastylosis as their go-to method, and special provisions were negotiated in 1941 to keep the site in the hands of Cambodia while much of the northwestern part of the country was ceded to Thailand (Glaize, pp. 181 - 183).
9. More than famous, à la The Three Amigos.
10. Or unfortunately, depending on your worldview.
Dta Som and Preah Khan
A huge tree grows from the top of the eastern gopura. It is destroying the gate but it is a photo classic.
11. Which you can read about and see here.
12. Possibly in his own image.
13. Not by me, of course, because it’s pretty stupid. It also assumes that you know Donald Trump was famous for being a very wealthy real estate magnate before he was famous for being a loud mouth with a terrible hair piece.
14. The eastern entrance was the historical main entrance while the western entrance is most often used by tourists traveling The Big Circuit in a clockwise direction starting from Angkor Wat. We were coming from the other direction, so we used the eastern entrance and met our driver on the other side.
15. Which appears in A. Jolie’s .Tomb Raider movie
16. Such pillars are to be seen nowhere else in the realm of Angkor, leading some to believe it was from a later period.
17. As evidenced by the equal-sized doors.
18. The doors get successively smaller, which apparently emphasizes the inequality present in Hinduism.
19. The outer wall, the gates at the different entrances, and the connected causeways are themselves points of interest.
20. Just as Pre Rup might have been a few hundred years earlier.
21. I don’t like heights, which I understand is ironic since I’m a pretty tall guy.
There was maybe one or two more stops that I would’ve been up for, but I could tell that my companions were ready to wrap things up. It had, after all, been a very long day. When I let the driver know we’d like to go back to the hotel because we were finished, he put somewhat of a damper on what had been a nice day of business by asking if we wanted him to take us to a KTV [22] or get us some girls or get us some marijuana. Since the answer to all three of those questions was no, we set off on the relatively short trip back to Siem Reap, where we had a chance to clean up and rest at the hotel before heading out for dinner with friends that evening.
22. This stands for Khmer Television, which as far as I can tell, are kind of like bars/clubs/restaurants where some shady services are provided for money.
That was probably the last trip to the Angkor Archaeological Park that I will make in my lifetime, and at the time, I thought it was probably my last trip to Siem Reap during my Peace Corps service. Since then, however, I’ve decided to make another trip around the time of my birthday [23], in part because we have a three-day weekend. There will be eating, drinking, socializing, souvenir shopping, coffee, and a special birthday dinner at what I hear is a somewhat legitimate steak house, if you can believe it.
23. February 17, just in case you want to get me presents.
Until next time,
- N