Today we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We checked into our hotel and got settled. Tomorrow we’ll tour temples and what remains of the capital city of the ancient Khmer Empire, including Angkor Wat. For us, it’ll be Khmer 101. Better rest up.!
No Brakes!
The ride from the airport to the hotel had been entertaining. Our driver wanted us to hire him to take us on a personally-guided temple tour in his mini-van. He advised us that Cambodian tuk-tuks, (in case we were thinking about taking one for a temple tour), weren’t safe. In fact, he sad, “A lot of them don’t have brakes.”
Later, when I mentioned this to the concierge at the hotel, she rolled her eyes as if to say, “Oh brother!”
“Yes, tuk-tuks have brakes,” she said. “And they’re very safe. He just wanted to convince you to hire him take you on a temple tour.” We had a laugh about it.
A Lazy Siem Reap Afternoon
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the hotel’s beautiful grounds. To get from the lobby to our room, we use a walkway built over a small lake. Lily pads and lotus flowers float on the water’s surface. Exotic-looking flowers, plants, and trees are everywhere.
In the background, we could hear the most enchanting-sounding music. It was subtle. At first, I thought we were hearing a far-off Cambodian music concert of some sort, but the music was being piped through the hotel’s sound system.
I found out later that I was hearing a type of traditional Cambodian music called “pinpeat” music. Pinpeat ensembles usually consist of a couple of kinds of drums, maybe a horn like an oboe, and at least one instrument that resembles a xylophone. The music has a hypnotic flow. I never got tired of hearing it.
Siem Reap for Dinner
We had dinner that night at a restaurant near downtown Siem Reap. To get there, we took tuk-tuks. (The brakes seemed to work just fine). The food was fantastic, and the people at the restaurant were fantastic, too. We spent as much time talking with the staff as we did eating. Everyone was so nice.
After dinner we walked into Siem Reap’s main downtown area. It was a busy place. Lots of people were out and about, having a good time. By this time, it had turned into a long day, so we just had a quick look around. We liked what we saw, though.
Tomorrow is temple-tour day. A guide will pick us up at the hotel in the morning. We’ll tour temples until we have lunch somewhere, then tour more temples after lunch. He’ll drop us off at the hotel late tomorrow afternoon. It was pretty hot today, and it’ll be hotter tomorrow. But according to the locals, the really hot weather won’t arrive for a month or so. That’s their “hot,” though, not ours.
Khmer 101
So what are these “temples” all about, anyway? Well, once upon a time, way before there was a “Siem Reap,” or even a “Cambodia,” hundreds of thousands of people lived in this area. They were Khmers, and their civilization was the Khmer Empire.
The Khmer Empire existed from the 9th to the 14th century. In its heyday, it stretched northward into present-day China, westward all the way to Burma, and eastward through present-day South Vietnam to the South China Sea.
The Khmer Empire is said to be the world’s largest “pre-industrial” civilization. Its capital city was called “Angkor.” A lot of people, myself included, are at least familiar with the sight of the temple called “Angkor Wat.” It turns out that Angkor Wat is just one of about 70 large structures built within what would have been Angkor city limits.
The Khmer civilization was like a lot of other great civilizations. There were kings and royal families, turf wars, wars against neighbors, territories to conquer, and pesky enemies to watch out for. Like powerful rulers elsewhere, Khmer kings liked to build impressive structures to show their power and prestige, and to please the gods. Hence the temples.
The ancient Khmers excelled at water management. They built reservoirs and canals that allowed them to make the most of Southeast Asia’s problematic wet/dry seasons. That’s how they managed to grow enough rice to feed the large population.
Europe “Discovers” the Khmer Empire
There are no written records of early Khmer history. However, the ancient Khmers carved historical events and daily activities into stone temples and city walls, so people today can get a pretty good idea of how they lived. In the 13th century, a Chinese diplomat named Zhou Daguan visited Angkor and wrote extensively about goings-on there. His documents are still in tact.
Eventually, due in-part to the increasing strength of the Thais, the Khmers moved their capital from Angkor to Phnom Penh, where the capital of Cambodia is today.
That’s the background. We’ll get the rest of the story tomorrow.
To be continued…
