Looking Back: Cambodia
Angkor Wat
Phnom Penh (June 28, 2002) — Phnom Penh is spill of whitewashed buildings heaped together on the shore of the Mekong like bones bleaching in the sun… Under the high eaves of the Foreign Correspondents Club sunburnt tourists divine their futures in the runes of ice-cubes settling in sweating glasses… Suspended in the ground, fleshless skulls shine inviolate like stars arranged in fallen constellations…
Roadside children collect lotus flowers to weave into bracelets while, feet away, latent and unseen, landmines lay underground like knives asleep in kitchen drawers imagining meat… Roots of Banyan trees slowly and incessantly cleave apart the carved-sandstone knees of celestial nymphs… A monk—his back bisected by the soft evening light—wraps a headless Buddha in an orange tunic.
We’ve started a new category on our blog called ‘Looking Back’ that will include an occasional entry from our journals that date back to 2001 when we first began writing about living and travelling abroad. We’ll present these paired with a photo in the form of a verbal postcard. Together, these postcards provide an (in)formal and often (in)coherent narrative of the trips we’ve taken!
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Angkor Wat is a magical place; much more than I even imagined. I recall climbing to the top of the hill at Phnem Bakheng for the sunset which overlooks Angkor Wat. The beauty was overwhelming. Where in the complex was this pic snapped?
If I remember correctly—and it was close to seven years ago now, it was the north library of the outer enclosure. It had just been restored.