Chasing Amy-Lou

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia:

Today was the day I finally went to Angkor Wat. It was the excursion I had been looking forward to most in Cambodia, and I was excited to feast my eyes upon the ancient structures that make up this Unesco world heritage site.

Myself and my hostel buddies (Germany, Dutchie and North Carolina) thought it would be an epic idea to take a tuk-tuk and go watch the sunrise. It had been raining most afternoons in Siem Reap making for pretty crappy sunsets, and seeing as the mornings had been reasonably dry, sunrise seemed like the best idea.

Waking (reluctantly) at 3:30am, we were lead, bleary eyed and tired, by our tuk-tuk driver (who looked half asleep himself) to the Angkor Wat site some 7kms outside of Siem Reap.

As we approached the ticket office, it didn’t seem that busy, and my inner traveller did a little dance as I thought to myself, “We might just have managed to escape the crowds; we might just have chosen the perfect time of year to come…!”

Aaah, if only that had been true. No sooner had we stepped through the doors and the crowds began to gather. Queues and queues of avid sunrise watchers, tripod-toting toffs and binocular-twitching fanatics were poised and ready to get their tickets; ready to find the best spot to capture the colours and soak in the atmosphere that this time of day was sure to provide.

Making our way towards the temple, which from a distance, didn’t look as big as I thought it would, we waited with baited breath as the morning gradually got lighter. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited. And the sky got brighter, and whiter and lighter. Come 6am, the four of us, still stood there with our cameras in our hands, still waiting for the reds and oranges and yellows, glanced at each other and said, “This isn’t happening is it? There’s no sun!”

The cloud cover that morning had completely eradicated the possibility of any kind of stunning sunrise whatsoever. And despite us being there, in the moment, in front of this magical, glorious structure, in what was perhaps the most important archeological site in the whole of South East Asia, one of the seven wonders of the world, I kind of felt a little underwhelmed.

So with no breathtaking sunrise to be had, we continued, and spent the best part of the next five hours wandering round the various sites of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom on a mini circuit, taking in the gorgeous details of the Bayon sculptures, ascending the many steps up to Baphuon and gasping at the entanglement of tree roots that splayed through the devine looking Ta Prohm. And when I say ‘wandering round the sites’, what I mean is, we walked through the temple structures themselves but we were actually transported between them by our hostel tuk-tuk driver…when we could wake him up that was; for on more than one occasion we caught him snoozing in a hammock he’d hung up at the back of the carriage; laughing sheepishly and chuckling to himself each time we disturbed him.

Now, I don’t want to be cynical here…but…as with most things in my life, I tend place far too much expectation on events and their possible outcomes and am therefore often left with a bitter taste of disappointment in my mouth when they don’t live up to what I imagined.

I’m not saying for one minute that Angkor Wat et al are a disappointment. Not at all. They’re impressive, massively impressive – structurally, historically, aesthetically; in every way possible. There’s every inch of detail you could imagine. There’s evidence of careful and meticulous stone craft and intricately thought-out planning and positioning; there’s reason behind the designs; there’s reasoning behind the placement of the stones and the distances between each site and the patterns they form; there’s religious and symbolic values attached to the site, and there’s countless other magical, mystical and spiritual connotations associated with why they were built; some of which we’ll never know.

In hindsight I should’ve just taken Angkor Wat at face value and appreciated it for its unsolicited beauty. And I tried. And for the most part, I did appreciate it. I’m very glad I went and would urge others to do the same. What did disappoint me most though, aside from the lack of a beautiful sunrise (the less I keep mentioning that the better), was the mass enveloped tourism and the hoards of people.

I can understand that it’s a heritage sight, it’s famous around the world, and it needs the money from the ticket prices for preservation and restoration (and to also line the pockets of the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments, but we won’t get into that) and people, people like me, like to go and look at this kind of stuff. We can’t get enough of bloody temples and old relics. But the sheer amount of people that visit the temple sites day after day, year after year, and who throw so much cash into the place, well, like with all mass tourist spots, they kind of ruin it. Not in the sense that they ruin the structures or destroy the area or leave rubbish behind; I mean they ruin the ambience. They ruin what should be a unique and peaceful experience, and if millions of other people are doing it, then it’s not really unique or peaceful anymore is it? Especially, and I say this through gritted teeth, when you get stuck behind the whole of Beijing during your tour of Ta Prohm who are insistent on grabbing as many selfies as they can, usually in front of trees, trees that aren’t even part of the temple structure you’re trying to look at. And you can’t move past them or enjoy just looking, as they kill the atmosphere (it’s not just Chinese tourists, it’s all tourists…well, no, it’s mainly Chinese tourists) because they come in swarms…sorry, groups. And the groups are huge. They arrive by the bus load and walk round in gaggles of twenty or more. And when it’s hot, when you’ve already trudged up and down and in and out and round and round for about 500kms, and all you want to do is look at another bloody temple without having inconsiderate people push past you or block your view, that’s when it becomes disappointing.

ANYWAY, I digress; I guess what I’m trying to say is Angkor Wat is stunning. It really and truly is. It’s a man-made phenomenon that we as humans today will never be able to replicate even if we tried. It is not in any way disappointing. And I’m sure there are certain times of the day when the crowds are less and the experience can be enjoyed peacefully (see waitamoment.co.uk), but if you go with the mindset that there will be hundreds of tourists, (whatever time you arrive); if you go with the expectation that unless you’re the new David Bailey, you’re probably not gonna get that award-winning sunrise shot, then you won’t just be able to appreciate the finesse and beauty of the place; you won’t just be able to lose yourself in the experience; you’ll enjoy yourself. And if you don’t, well, you’re more of a cynic than I’ll ever be.