After Angkor Wat - December 3

We woke early and after a quick coffee we made our way to Angkor Wat via tuk tuk.  We didn't bring the packed lunch and snacks we had planned because we got distracted by mini-golf the night before. 

We found a frog and we had a few laughs about minigolf tournaments in the past in Kalbarri and just how silly the concept of mini-golf is.

But on the way back we discovered the seedy side of Siem Reap.  "Massage" place after "massage" place. The girls, and I am certain they are girls, line the entrance to these joints and I guess punters take their pick or the girls are encouraged to compete. Ostensibly bars they are little more than brothels with names like "Pink Paradise" "Kingland" and many more tin shed massage shacks surrounding. Didn't take photos but have one video which will have to be edited down.

To bed and asleep early after quite delicious fresh and tasy soft tacos. And minigolf

A quiet relatively cool morning to Angkor Wat among the crowds trekking in the darkness.

People who barge through patiently waiting crowds to get two metres closer to the edge.
People who keep the flash on for a photo focussed on a subject 600m away
I seriously considered stomping on their achilles tendon, and discarded the notion, twas fleeting.

Wandering Angkor was quite wonderful except for the queue for the central tower in Angkor Wat, which some people had accessed, was closed due to a holy day. I waited a couple of minutes and realised and then just kept walking. 7am and I am absolutely dripping with sweat again.

Hot coffee and condensed milk and a banana pancake, Sandy has iced coffee and lok lak, wok tossed spicy beef.  Both are good. Another circuit of Angkor Wat and a quiet walk in the shade back to Mr Veasna.  We ask to fly in a balloon.

So we do.

The larger story of Angkar Wat is the larger structure/building/polis enveloping it, Angkar Thom.

It is very easy to visualise the enormity and grandeur and vitality of this amazing construction and urban centre, so many people, so much activity. Seems slavery has some good sides, maybe we can activate urban centres through a form of indentured slavery to produce art, music, religion and subservience to a polytheistic power structure of immense wealth.  Then add a noice layer of royalty, cos they aint got shit all over em.

Bayon

But Pol Pot is not the answer either.  And I don't think the exploitative capitalism displayed with the massage places is as well.

So while we wander these simply amazing temples, testaments to amazing endeavours of individual toil, and the incredible ego that decided these structures were necessary, time takes its toll and recovers. Seeds germinate and their roots seek moisture anywhere they can find, breaking concrete, and moving heavy rocks.

We wandered through forests in the Royal Palace where previously there would have been manicured gardens of immense beauty, but we appreciated the few trees that were permitted to remain. The temples that were so invaluable left to shamble and rot, are being replaced by trees that provide blessed shade.

If I come back it will with an eye and an analysis towards the groundwater system, historical and current, and the corruption that allows hotels to pull many gigs a year for their gardens.  The national authority managing water and all other aspects of Angkor is APSARA. I need to do more research.

Anyway holiday.