Today I got sprung from the Big House – the Royal Angkor International Hospital – with a clean bill of health to travel. At least it’s clean enough to get on the plane and get home to address the underlying Afib problem. The doctor was pleased that the swelling is down and the pneumonia was under control so off we went.

We depart Siem Reap at 12:10 PM tomorrow December 5 for Hong Kong. There we connect with the Boston flight arriving there the same day (thanks, International Date Line) around 9 PM. Our guides offered to take us to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise at 6 AM, which would have made a great story: “Sunrise at Angkor Wat, sunset at Boston Harbor all in the day of the dedicated tourist.” But saner minds intervened and we’ll sleep in.

Speaking of Angkor Wat, one of the bucket list sites for many, we did manage a drive by shooting this afternoon. We met the group for lunch and then after quiet time we went at 3 PM and visited Ta Prohm.

A little background: the Khmer or Angkor Empire was centered in Angkor spanned the 9th through the 15th centuries. During its heyday (11th – 13th centuries) Angkor was the largest urban center in the world. And unfortunately, it was pretty much down hill from there for Cambodia. After the Angkor Empire the country was struck by famine and drought, invasion by Siam from the west and China and Vietnam from the east; the French, brought in to save Cambodia from its enemies; WWII and the Japanese; the Vietnam War; and then the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia’s civil war. Today there is a hint of rebirth: Siem Reap, a town of 300,000, will host four million tourists this year (60% Chinese, 24% European, 9% U.S.), growing to 6 million before too long.

Angkor Wat, which the group toured this morning, was built first as a Hindu shrine and within 100 years was converted to a Buddhist temple (the emperors were not finicky when it came to religion). It claims to be the oldest religious structure in continuous use in the world. Te Prohm came a bit later and isn’t as large and, like many of the temples in the region, has been plundered by treasure hunters and enveloped by jungle. Today it is open to the public in its unrecovered state, although a group from India has a reconstruction project underway.

After the 45-minute walk through we stopped at a place where we had a view of Angkor Wat in the distance. Our guides gave us wine and jerky made from cobra and water buffalo. Sorry, our bags are too full to bring any home to share.

So we can claim to have seen Angkor Wat.

Actually, as I said the other day, these World Heritage Sits don’t do a lot for me and this one is no exception. I really enjoy contemplating the achievement and historical significance of these places but the tourist volume and the infrastructures built to support the tourists takes all the fun out of it. You should see the Sofitel here in Siem Reap.
So there you have it: no more touring, no visit to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh. We’ll save that for another adventure. For now, thanks for following along and especially for your kind words, thoughts and prayers during my bout with the heebie-jeebies. I’ll drop a note when were back on home turf.

Judy’s notes on Cambodian society follow this posting.