Ancestral Art

$3 dollar Coke cans:

I address you, yes, from the vigor and splendor of the Siem Reap Raffles Grand Hotel, the creme-de-la-creme, the added MSG just when you thought it couldn’t taste any better. That’s right. As the editors of Teen Vogue would say, “I’m on vacay with the rentals.”

Months ago, upon learning of the booking of this glorious and heavenly hotel I couldn’t help but think I would want to vomit upon walking inside and viewing the waste—the frivolity—the consumerism present both in the hotel itself and that which drives the clientele in its walls. While indeed the constant waiting on, offering of moist towelettes (moist!) and over-saccharine smiles make my stomach turn, the influx of AC whenever and wherever, wireless internet, warm showers and TWO movie tv stations have never found such a welcoming arms as my own. Indeed as the day of sightseeing draws to a close I find the normally adventurous me opting to stay in to give myself adequate ooing and awing about how every time I remove the “emery board” provided me in the bathroom, it reappears, equally as emerylicious and boardiful as before. A wonder! And all this not to even mention the symmetrical design of the minibar schnapps! Oh great g-d of things symmetrical!

Now on to the real juice.

The city of Siem Reap doesn’t just offer luxury hotels, despite the growing numbers. Behind the booming tourist industry is the driver of it all: Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is, well, the most amazing ruin I have ever seen. Architecturally it’s awe-inspiring and renews the spirit with the idea that humans are capable of remarkable things, provided the cooperation and motivation are in order. We are all amazing. Did you know that?

Anyhow, AW is not really just AW. In fact it is a whole maze of old temples, created about a thousand years ago, a fusion of Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, artistry, architecture, and sweat. You can begin your day at the spires of the temple called Angkor Wat, climbing and getting vertigo, fighting off tourists and learning of remarkable and ancient fables, and end in a hidden temple, deep in the forest, swatting mosquitos as your friendly guide overturns a moss-covered stone to reveal the face of a Buddha only he knows about—a stone that he will return to its former position, keeping it as a personal gift passed down to him from his ancestors so long ago.

To the smiling faces etched in stone, to the permanent citizens of Siem Reap, to art, to inspiration, religion, confluence, existence, immortality and the rest-

Laura!