Temple Touring

When I first arrived at my office in Kampong Chhnang (August), I was given the opportunity to join all of the Life With Dignity (LWD) staff while they attended an Annual Program Reflection Workshop in Siem Reap. One afternoon all of the staff were driven to Angkor Wat and given a couple hours to walk around this amazing temple. Earlier this month, the Cambodia YAGM cohort met for their first ELCA retreat. The main event of the week would be touring Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples in Siem Reap. Luckily for me I had already seen Angkor Wat because I spent the whole night before our temple touring day tossing and turning with an AWFUL fever.

My alarm went off at 4am and I laid in bed for about 20 minutes, feeling miserable. I knew I would be very disappointed if I missed this opportunity, so I decided to make the best of it even though I was burning up. We left our hotel at 4:30 and drove to office where we would get our pictures taken and our day passes. We made it to the front of Angkor Wat around 5:15/5:30, and waited for the sunrise. The entire time I wanted to lay down on the ground and cry because I felt so horrible, but I knew as soon as the sun came up we would go get breakfast, and that meant sitting down! Unfortunately, it had been raining the 2 days prior, so the sky was a bit cloudy, however the view was still beautiful. As soon as we were all satisfied with our pictures we headed back to our tuk tuks to find a breakfast spot. Since I slept maybe 30 minutes during the night, I spent breakfast slouched over on the table with my head on my arms sleeping. When it came time to actually tour Angkor Wat, I knew my body physically couldn't walk all the way back there as well as inside the temple, so I opted to stay behind with our tuk tuk drivers. One of the drivers graciously gave up their hammock, and I snoozed for the next 2 hours. When I woke up I felt significantly better, however I still had a nasty fever. I didn't want to miss out on the other temples that I hadn't seen before, so I pushed on, and I'm very glad I did because I was able to see some amazing sites!

While all the temples are truly remarkable, my favorite by far was Ta Prohm temple. All of the other temples were kind of all THERE. You would get out of your tuk tuk and it would be there for you to tour. Ta Prohm was different. You got out of the tuk tuk, walked down a path where people were playing traditional Khmer music and you were surrounded by trees on either side of you. It was like being in the jungle, and the amazement continued. The temple is in a partially collapsed state, giant pieces of stone lying around in piles, and the trees have continued to grow over all the ruins. It's an incredible site to see and there's no way the pictures will do it any justice. One must simply experience it on their own to witness the true beauty.

We ended the day around 4pm, and I was longing to be in my bed. I opted to stay behind for dinner and have the group bring back a little something, and the fever continued. I don't think I've ever had a fever this bad before, and I felt like I would explode into a giant flame at any point. Luckily with 3 days of rest I was pretty much back to normal. I was able to find something similar to an Icy Hot patch, that individuals here use if one has a fever or is too hot. It definitely helped my face, but I probably could have used one for my entire body! Haha.

Enjoy the pictures and remember it is much more impactful in person. I hope you all back home are having a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers, and I hope you all know that all the support you've given truly means the world to me.

Angkor Wat at sunrise!