Angkor Wat?

As the sun crept up above the jagged edges of the temple, the clicking, shuffling, yawning, and chattering buzzed around us. It seemed like a small section of the world had stopped to capture the breathtaking view of Angkor Wat at sunrise. People travel hundreds of miles to see one of the man made wonders of the world. We are just ants compared to the massive size of this enormous pile of stones.

For those of you who don't know about Angkor Wat (I didn't know as much as I do now), it is one of the most amazing religious temples in the world. It was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state Hindu temple and capital and was, over the years, transitioned into a Buddhist temple.

Angkor Wat is the biggest temple in Cambodia and it is surrounded by hundreds of other temples. The next most popular "temple" is Angkor Thom. However, we found the most intriguing ruin to be Ta Prohm, where the overgrowth of trees have created their own temple and where Tomb Raiders was filmed (anecdotally). You could spend a month just searching out and capturing images of the work that was put into this empire (and our guides are intent on us seeing a much as possible in the few days we are here).

It's difficult to juggle a camera and a thoughtful reflection. Somehow, it seems as if you are not present when you hind behind the lens of your camera (the ultimate tourist accessory). A strange sort of inner struggle possesses me. Do I snap the memory into the digital world, or do I take a true moment to absorb and become a part of the world around me. It's a fine tightrope to toe. In the end, the heat wipes are minds of anything accept the beads of sweat rolling down our noses. But, the question remains.

Besides all the great piles of rubble and ancient architecture, there are hordes of people. Speaking languages from French, to German, to Japanese, to Korean, and Hindi, the tourists (ourselves included) swarm the sites like shoppers at WalMart on Black Friday.

Speaking of language.... somehow, as per Katie, things have gotten lost in translation. Its really quite comical. So, we have these incredibly lovely people hosting us through our adventures. They are friends of friends, and have adopted us in a way that makes me feel so blessed. We are picked up at our hotel and dropped off here and there throughout the city and surrounding cultural sites. They have taken our visit seriously and leave no tourist mecca ignored. Oh, and they speak little to no English.

It's the greatest game a charades I have ever played. Albeit, when we lose, we end up somewhere completely unexpected, and that seems to happen more often than not.

"Yes" and "no" in English, I think must sound too alike. It's the only way I can account for how confusing this has been on our end. Being that Amy and I only know "thank you" competently in Khmer, things have been rather delightfully ridiculous, to say the least. No matter how many times we say, "hotel," receiving and confused wiggle of eyebrows and a return, "you go to hotel?," we still invariably end up someplace quite different, like, at a museum, an additional wat, a remembrance for the dead of the Khmer Rouge, or some restaurant.

Alas, we are working on finding acceptance and patience. Perhaps we shall do a bit of Buddhist meditation is search of enlightenment. We've certainly seen enough Buddhas to make that possible.