Angkor

Angkor makes such an impression on you that you dream about it the day before you go there. It is a vast complex of temples, larger than the Island of Manhattan but without the hot dog vendors or Broadway theaters.

We had changed dollars into Riels the day before and it was a big mistake. Nobody wants these Riels. You should see them wrinkle up their noses when you offer them. Because this is a coinless republic they end up being just used for change.

I went via tuk-tuk with the Americans. Outside the temple was a long row of bamboo, grass-roofed, dirt floor food vendors with charming names like "Restaurant #43". We were immediately besieged by shoeless children selling, postcards, books, bracelets and cold drinks. Kendra had practiced saying "no thank you" in Khmer "Dayt Ahoo-kun" and this worked best for keeping them at bay. The other thing to remember is that the head shake for "no" means nothing to them, while a hand wave like we do to say hello is how they signal "no"and is infinitely more effective.

We passed through the deliberately awe inspiring gate to Angkor Wat and Chuck felt immediately ill. Asia was catching up with him. He went home and Kendra stayed with me. Later that day when we were having a very tart and very spicy lime fish soup at Restaurant #16 I asked her why she didn't go back with him.
"I''m not really the nurturing type." She said.
"You miss a great opportunity." I replied. "Nothing says I love you more than taking care of someone when they are sick."
"Yeah."She said. "That's something I need to work on.

We spent the rest of the day climbing over and around the inner loop of temples. You can still walk all over them. There are signs here and there saying don't touch this or that but mostly its right there. Angkor Thom was my favorite. The main temple Bayon is a big and gloomy place with huge stone faces. We spent a lot of time talking too. Mostly we agreed on politics but I should have seen the red flags. She was opposed to the IMF and the World Monetary Fund but didn't know who Paul Wolfowitz was or Robert McNamara or their roles in the Iraq and the Vietnam war respectively. I am a liberal progressive but she stunned me with this one.
"All the bad stuff you hear about Mao is just western propaganda."
I could hear the whine of the cicada in the jungle.
"By who? The New York Times? I ventured.
"Among others."
"The Great Leap Forward? The Cultural Revolution? They made those up?
A pasty middle aged Korean woman took a flash photo in the blazing sunlight.
"No, but they exaggerated the deaths."
"Forty to Seventy million deaths they just fabricated? What about his War Against the Sparrows, you didn't think that was a little nutty?"
"I never heard of that."

In the last few years the government has made the roads straighter and flatter. The preservationists have also removed most of the trees and jungle growth from the temples, save one. Seeing it now made me regret not going when I had first heard about Angkor in 2001. Back then one was still a discoverer. Still, if you removed the busloads of Japanese, Koreans and Thais you would have only a handful of Europeans and only perhaps two Americans.