SUNDAY 15 | OCTOBER 2017
Angkor Wat is both a national monument and a national symbol of Cambodia, as well as appears on the flag. It appears across the country as much as Che Guevara’s face does in Kerala. It is surprising that Indians are not aware of its existence and importance, as it is an ancient Vishnu temple that later turned into a Buddhist one.
The problem with this tourist location — as with most tourist locations — is tourists themselves. The usual drill was to be present at the temple during sunrise so as to photograph the silhouette of the temple with the golden sky in the background.
There was literally a whole stadium worth of tourists crowding around and taking photos of the monument as the sun came up. They were all not that bad, one guy complimented the Che T-Shirt I was wearing. I came to find out that he was from Argentina as I had some coconut water with him.
It dawned on me — as it dawned — that Angkor Wat wasn’t the only temple in the area. It was just the largest and most well preserved. The area was littered with smaller temples with large stone faces, which I remembered appeared in the Mortal Kombat movie. Forgoing other ’90s movie references, I went inside the main temple.
What struck me as the most surprising thing was the fact that there were huge stone pillars in the central temple complex with inscriptions in ancient Tamil. Only much later I would find out about how the Chola Kings conquered most of the Southeast Asian countries with their superior navy, thus putting an end to the myth that India has never invaded a country in the past.
The whole temple complex is about five km from the modern town of Siem Riep, which is famous as a tourist haven and for having a weekly night market. While on the hunt for coconut water at the market, I found a restaurant which served something even better — ice cold coconut water. In accordance to someone who calls themselves a foodie, I asked the restaurant for the cuisine of the nation. He recommended the ‘river fish stew’ and warned that most tourists can’t handle the spiciness nor the coconut milk in the stew.
For once, I was proud to be an Indian and told the waiter I could ‘handle it’ and to ‘bring it on’. Five minutes later I was served the traditional Kerala ‘meen curry’. Thousands of kilometres and deaths apart, we are all somehow still connected. Vinay is a stand-up comedian and English teacher