When we retired six years ago we sat down and tried to compile a list of “The 100 Things We Want to do Before We Die.” It was a great way to start out this new phase of our lives and resulted in lots of discussion, soul searching and planning. What was not on that list was, “Spend a great deal of time in Cambodia.” Yet here we are again, what is it that brings people to Cambodia in the first place, and back time and time again?

For most it is the tales of the lost temples of Angkor Wat, certainly one of the wonders of the world today.  We have all seen pictures of the temples with the jungle encroaching, we have seen movies like Tomb Raider, yet compared to sites like the Great Pyramids or Machu Picchu Angkor Wat is a little know site. Did you know for example that it is the largest religious monument in the world? That Angkor covers 200sq Km. (77 sq miles)? That its architecture is uniquely Khmer, influenced by India and Hinduism, but also of considerable import to Buddhists? That its gates are large enough to allow the king to pass through them on an elephant? I have to admit I knew none of this and having spent some time traveling in SE Asia by the time we reached Siem Reap I wasn’t sure I wanted more temples. However when I stepped out of the car and gazed across the causeway at the spectacularly grand building with its incredible towers reaching up above it I was hooked. The morning at Angkor Wat flew by and after an afternoon inside the walls of Angkor Thom we felt we had only just begun.

For some the architecture itself is what holds them. Angkor Wat is a temple mountain that was built around the early 12^th century and which was never completely abandoned. Hence one can still wander the courtyards and climb the narrow steps exploring the galleries at three different levels to the highest point and gaze up at the immense central tower reaching skyward. In contrast to most of the other temples which were abandoned to the encroaching forest, Angkor Wat was used and restored over the centuries, work which continues today. For a temple of its age, it is in remarkably good condition. This is particularly true of the carvings and bas-reliefs.

photo by Philippa Nigg

As we reached the entrance to Angkor Wat I found it hard to believe the beautiful dancing Apsara, carved into the walls, were over 800 years old. Their graceful movements have been held in stone throughout the centuries. Further into the temple the four walls around the central temple form a gallery where the walls are covered with a series of spectacular bas-reliefs. Here we found battles between the gods and the demons, scenes from the Ramayana, such an important story in the mythology of this part of Asia, depictions of the joys of heaven and the sufferings of hell and many more tales partly historical partly mythological. The detail of these ancient works of art held us fascinated, we could see the individual men in battle, the fallen and the wounded. Our guide pointed out how the Thai army could be distinguished from the local army by the clothes they wore and the weapons they carried. Every level, every wall and pillar told tales, depicted gods or demons, dancers and mythical creatures.

But Angkor Wat is not a museum or just a place of the past, it is very much a place of the present too. Every so often we would come around a corner or up a flight of stairs to find a statue of the Buddha with a length of saffron material wrapped around it and tended by a small, generally very wrinkled old woman.  From her we could buy incense sticks to light and place before the statue, bowing our heads to the floor three times in the time honored way. Further on we watched a fortune teller as he talked to a client, what they were saying we couldn’t understand but the mystery and curiosity held us momentarily as we passed by. Every evening, and especially on Sundays the local people pour into the Angkor complex to enjoy their building, their heritage, of which they are justifiably so proud. It is the symbol of their once immense and grand empire.

When tired of climbing stairs, admiring the workmanship, or hearing the history, there are corners to sit on and look out over the whole amazing area. Angkor Wat is just the first of around a hundred temples in the area, each with its own unique characteristics and some stretching back to the 9^th century. For many Bayon is the temple that stays with them after they leave. The 216, enormous smiling faces carved into the four sides of 54 towers are like nothing else I have ever seen. As we sat surrounded by these surreal faces, some above us, some below, we looked out with them across what was once a vast city supporting perhaps a million people in the surrounding area. I thought of all they had seen from their perches up here in the exact center of a capital city that ruled perhaps the greatest civilization ever in South East Asia, and which reached out as far as China to establish diplomatic relationships. This was a city where only the gods could live in stone buildings, so their temples are what remains, for the houses of the common folk were made of wood and have since rotted away and been replaced by forest even inside the city walls.

photo by Andrea Ross,  Journeys Within

Forest however, does not stop for walls or antiquity and so over centuries of neglect it has crept into the abandoned buildings and courtyards. Roots push between the vast building blocks prizing them apart. Shoots tentatively raise their heads from their perches on the tops of walls and grow into huge trees that today seem to balance above you as you wander the much loved temple of Ta Prohm. Here, in places, great building blocks have fallen to block your way and the roots seem at times to be all that is holding a wall or a roof in place. Here you can sit in the shade and imagine how this whole area looked before restoration programs started at the beginning of the 20^th century and fought back the jungle, or you might contemplate on how man, without modern technology, cut, carried, lifted and fitted these blocks weighing over a ton each to fit with such perfection.

And so it is that it is the mighty Angkor Wat that generally brings first time visitors to Cambodia, but what is it that brings them back? Many of us when we travel to new countries state that one of our main reasons for coming is to see the culture and to see how the people live. Cambodia is a wonderful place to do this and when visitors get to know the people it is these memories that bring them back. Cambodia’s recent history is full of horror. The Khmer Rouge were in the countryside outside Siem Reap still intimidating the locals as little as 7 years ago. Since peace has arrived they seem to find life worth lots of smiles. Tourists are made welcome and many young Cambodians are working hard to learn English. On a Village Tour you can get to see how simply many locals still live, learn about growing rice and fish farming. At the local market you shop where the locals shop, seeing where they buy everything from groceries and vegetables to clothes and bicycles. You can visit the after-school classes where the young study foreign languages and others volunteer to teach them, and meet these young people who are working so hard to improve their futures. In the evening you may meet them working as waitresses and waiters in some of the wonderful restaurants in town, or attend a performance of traditional music and dance. Nearly all of the classical performers were killed during the war and today the few who survived are passing their skills and knowledge onto the young so these arts, hundreds of years old, will not die.

So do what we did, come to Cambodia to see one of the wonders of the world and return to enjoy the people with smiles that will continue to tempt you back years after you leave.

Author's Note: Philippa and her husband are currently sailing around the world and first visited Cambodia in 2002 with their daughter and son-in-law who now live in Siem Reap and run their own tour company and Bed and Breakfast.