Tuesday, December 21, 2004

CLIMBING (SORT OF) ANGKOR

If you want to see Angkor Wat, really see it, you have to climp up. And up. On thin, slightly unsteady rocks that jut out from the surface of the temple. It is not extremely high, no, but it is high enough to fall off of, and that fall would not be a pleasant one. There would be screams. There would be the sound of bones cracking. There could even be death, if you're not too careful. And it's not like I'm trying to scare you off, or anything morbid like that. I'm just saying: If you come to Cambodia, and you visit the 'pyramids of Egypt' (which is, to be honest, the only real reason that most people do come to Cambodia), and you go to Angkor Wat itself (as opposed to the myriad other temples that are there), in certain parts of the place, you can ascend. There is a sheer rock wall filled with little stone steps that give you just enough leeway to stand on. It's quite steep, and I'm quite certain that there must have been at least a dozen or so people over the years that have kicked the bucket trying to scale its (admittedly-meager-when-compared-to-like-a-mountain) heights, and while I didn't climb it last year, this year I did, and survived, and somehow made my way back down. And, contrary to popular belief, going down is not always easier than going up.

You can lose your footing either way.


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