Jing's Journey: The Hidden Wonders in Cambodia

Lotus-bud temples crowning Angkor Wat

Last year I discovered what it's like to travel shoulder to shoulder with homeward-bound Chinese folks on the days leading up to the Chinese New Year. It's intense. This year I happened to arrive in another country, Cambodia, just before the New Year dawned, only to discover that I was still traveling shoulder to shoulder with many a Chinese tourist, at least when squeezing through the corridors of Angkor Wat.

There, at one of the "Seven Wonders of the World," Cambodian tour guides spoke not only in Chinese, but also in German, French, Italian, and English to describe this pinnacle of the Khymer Empire, this amazing 12th century complex of temples within temples--and to narrate the Hindu tales depicted in the sandstone bas relief.

Indeed, the temples were awesome - a Hindu / Buddhist mishmash reminding us just how fluid the walls are between religion and culture, politics and economics, as competing kingdoms vied for power over a three or four century period. Angkor Wat may be the crown gem, partly due to its awesome scale, symmetry, and stunning detail and its iconic lotus-bud temples, but I found many of the nearby temples more atmospheric and stimulating to the imagination. They were peekaboo play palaces, some with tree roots growing right through the walls, ruins with steep stairways and doorways, towers, ledges, and temples within temples within temples.

But most interesting for me was the Cambodian life in and around the temples . . .

Little barefoot salesman checking his cell phone

Down time at the Bayon Temple not far from Angkor Wat.

Locals and some tourists traveled by motorbike and "tuk tuks" like Wat's below; other tourists sped by in Mercedes Benz buses and Lexus 4WDs. Lemonade-stand-like "gas stations" dotted the roadside in the shade of sugar palms, with petrol in recycled soda bottles.