After an almost seven-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, we finally rolled into Siem Reap with my excitement swelling into a massive wave inside my body. My mind was painting a picture of the vast Angkor Wat complex and its nearby and equally impressive temple ruins. Comparing what I had imagined and read before to what I would see in a short while mirrored every adolescent boy's first foray into a lovemaking session with a beautiful girl.
Chasing the Sunset at Phnom Bakheng | Cambodia
I had been obsessing about visiting the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor for a very long time, and to have that moment laid out a few minutes in between was like what every climber felt when one saw the towering peak of a mountain. There was that absolute moment of finality; the long journey of dreaming, planning, and the eventual trip itself had finally come.
The First Steps Into Angkor
After settling in at the River Garden Guesthouse—which took our tuk-tuk driver a while to locate—we got down to business and hurriedly headed straight to the ticket booth located near the entrance of Angkor. We waited for the ticket booths to open at 4:45 PM, and along with other tourists, we bought ourselves a pass for one day, which cost us $20.00 each. By using that ticket, we were told that we could right away enter the Phnom Bakheng temple for free to watch the sunset.
Going to the Hindu temple of Phnom Bakheng required a modest fifteen-minute hike atop a hill where the temple—built under the rule of King Yasovarman, who ruled the Khmer empire from 889 until 910—stood like a figure 'of a temple mountain'. It had been resting there since the end of the ninth century.
Moments earlier, as our tuk-tuk ride was breezing down the long highway en route to Angkor, I saw a glimpse of the main Angkor Wat temple with its thick forests and a scenic lake surrounding it. Like consuming a drug that flowed smoothly through my veins, I felt a sensation that was more powerful than any known LSDs could offer.
Racing Against the Clock
Upon reaching the top of the hill, I saw the towers of Phnom Bakheng covered with visitors lining up to climb the steep and narrow stairs. I stood motionless for a minute as I stared at my very first temple in Angkor. It must have been an awesome sight and atmosphere 1,200 years ago. That was a temple that was built more than two hundred years ahead of Angkor Wat, which, of course, I considered the main dish of the whole trip.
The Angkor tourist staff manning the line kept on reminding us that the stairs would be closed exactly at 5:30 PM; that was to ensure that people atop the temple would not become too crowded. I looked at my watch and it said 5:25 PM; I was resigned to the fact that I would not see the sunset atop the Phnom Bakheng temple. However, after a minute, they allowed more people to climb, and soon I found myself stepping on the steep stairs and slowly making my way atop the temple.
A Symphony of Light and Stone
I had arrived indeed! A eureka moment just happened. The first thing I saw when I looked up at the sky was the sun bursting with a fiery, inferno-like ball, and in the opposite direction was a rainbow beaming down in the direction of Angkor Wat. It was like a threesome of sorts—myself, the rainbow, and the magnificent sunset.
Some tourists, French I assumed by the language they spoke, started prancing and dancing around. Soon, a vibe of togetherness collared the place with each one nodding at each other as a good gesture. As the sun continued its grand exit from the light of the day, I felt the wonderful embrace of the temple. The brewing wonderful atmosphere around evoked a higher form of peace. Right then, I told myself: it was a singular moment that should have been multiplied and shared in earnest with one another on any place on Earth.
Then the sun was gone, but the smiles on people's faces remained. After delighting ourselves witnessing a regular occurrence that happens every day, I saw the significance of that afternoon, as I was able to view the sunset in a place with so much history—the symbolic representation of the home of Hindu Gods, Mount Meru, and mostly, from a place I had so longed to visit.
Tired and restless from walking around Saigon for two days, the bus trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh, and the next day's trip to Siem Reap were all dissolved by that seemingly routine movement of the sun. As the light went out in a puff and nighttime arrived, we walked back down, and I carried with me another indescribable experience I would willingly recommend to other people to also experience for themselves.
