Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Our adventure this week stars:

The intrepid Megan Kenney…

The quixotic Mark Auger…

And the energetic Mr. Wong!

We met our dear friend Mr. Wong after we stumbled off the long bus from Lao to Siam Reap, Cambodia. Now, Mr. Wong speaks little to no English. He was tired after that long bus ride and wished to accompany us in our tuk-tuk to our guesthouse. (He gestured to say he was sleepy and needed a bed). He came with us and got his own room at the same guesthouse as us. As we were heading to bed, he asked us “What time morning?” It seems that Mr. Wong wished to join us the next day for our trip to the ancient temple of Angkor Wat even though we hadn’t mentioned anything to him. We told and gestured to him ‘7.’ And there, lo and behold, at 7 am, was Mr. Wong eating his breakfast waiting for us. Smiling, we joined him. We conversed through Mr. Wong’s translator on his phone over our bacon and eggs; he informed us that he worked in air conditioning in China and that he came to Cambodia through Vietnam; he wished to hire a Chinese speaking guide to come along with us, but upon learning a Chinese guide would cost $35, he shook his head while making a gesture of cutting his own throat.

Angkor Wat Entry Cards

Our tuk-tuk driver Paul and Mr. Wong

Mr. Wong himself

It was a fun day with Mr. Wong. I would compare it to a day with Mr. Bean. Like Mr. Bean, he communicated with his hands and face, with an occasional grunt or guffaw. While touring the temples, he would encounter other Mandarin speakers, but he stuck with us nevertheless. We had all organized a tuk-tuk to take us to Angkor Wat for the day, so maybe he wanted to uphold his end of the agreement with us. Or maybe not. Mr. Wong sweat a lot on our hikes, so when it came to lunch, he decided to take off his soaking wet t-shirt. So there we were, eating our lunch at a restaurant with a shirtless Mr. Wong. He didn’t like hiking up the endless stairs at the temples; eventually, he would start vigorously shaking his head ‘no’ if we were even thinking of climbing up a tall temple. At one point, some hikers, along with Meg and myself, were taking a break in the shade on the grass, when Mr. Wong sprawled down next to them with an assertive sigh and accompanying stretch.

He also taught us how to haggle Chinese style. He refused to pay top price, and would bring down the sellers to the price he wanted. I took a few notes. As a result, we found Cambodia a place with great deals. All in all, a fun day with Mr. Wong.

Back to Angkor Wat: the temples there are some of the best examples of architecture in the world. There’s the classic Angkor Wat, Bayon with the 216 faces, the gates into Angkor Thom, as well as Ta Prohm, where the jungle literally grows out of the rock: it looks like a setting for Indiana Jones and was actually used in the Tomb Raider movies. There’s also Baphuon, the biggest jigsaw puzzle in the world: archaeologists had taken apart the crumbling temple piece-by-piece, making meticulous records; however, the Khmer Rouge destroyed those records when they came to power… so the archaeologists had to put it back together like a puzzle. It’s pretty impressive how far they’ve come.

At this point, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Angkor is absolutely beautiful. At one point in history, Angkor Wat was the home of a million people. We spent 10 hours there in total. Everyone should go there once in their lives; it’s certainly worth it.  

Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat

Photo Courtesy of Mr. Wong

Angkor Wat

Monkey at the Wat

Gate of Angkor Thom

Bayon

One of the many faces at Bayon

Bayon

Baphoun

Reclining Buddha at Baphoun

Lunch Guest

Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider Temple)

Once back in Sieam Reap, we ended up going to see a movie in a theatre that had private viewing rooms.   These rooms are called DVD bangs in Korea; they’re just called a tourist theatre here. Megan and I ended up watching the 1984 film The Killing Fields about the Khmer Rouge takeover and genocide in Cambodia from 1975-1979. It was an appropriate choice since we would be visiting the real Killing Fields in a couple of days; it was a great movie, but more on that tale in our next post.