The remarkable Mekong River stretches far across South-East Asia and holds plenty of surprises for river cruisers.Perhaps the biggest shock to those who visit the region is the rare blend of the modern and the ancient that seems to pervade Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar to name but a few.
Where else for example, can you experience the wonderful chaos of Ho Chi Minh City and the seclusion of tiny villages in Tibet? But of all these unusual delights, Angkor Wat tends to encapsulate the historical significance of the region in the most awe-inspiring way.
There are plenty of archaeological sites scattered throughout south-east Asia – if you were to pin point them on a map of the region, you’d find yourself looking at a constellation of ancient temples and boundary villages too innumerable to count.
Perhaps the reason that Angkor Wat holds such mystique with travellers is its state of preservation. For a complex which was built in the first half of the 12th century, the temples and grounds of Angkor Wat remain almost impossibly intact – the forests and farmland that surround it haven’t even properly encroached on the buildings themselves.
As the seat of the Khmer empire, Angkor as a city flourished for over 6 centuries under the rule of powerful Hindu monarchs, becoming a cultural, religious and mercantile centre for the whole of Cambodia.
Nowhere has the extent of this power been more readily expressed that Angkor Wat, which is the largest single religious monument to be found anywhere in the world. The spires and towers look spotless, mainly because restoration projects are in constant rotation, and have been for decades.
There’s an extremely necessary logic behind this unending preservation – those who curate the massive complex have to contend with over 2 million tourists visiting annually, which, as you might expect, present certain challenges.
The sandstone of Angkor Wat can only endure so many footfalls per year, and UNESCO has had to be innovative in the extreme in order to preserve the towers and monuments which lie within. From set routes which change throughout the day, to strategic opening times, these small acts have saved weeks, if not months of reconstruction work.
In fact, the very stone in Angkor Wat is what makes it so precious. In the times of the Angkorian emperors, all non-religious buildings, including the residence of the king himself were made from perishable materials such a wood. In their society, only the gods were entitled to houses of stone, and to build such a shelter was considered, at the very least, a self-aggrandising social faux paus, and at the very most, blasphemy beset with extreme arrogance.
So it was with reverence for the gods that a king slept in a wooden house similar to his public, and Angkor Wat was untouched by anyone but the Buddhist monks who wandered the halls.
The complex has contributed an untenable amount to the city, having served as the basis for a royal cult of personality that would foster an empire, for the development of Hinduism, and as a sanctuary for Buddhists who were persecuted across south-east Asia.
So this sandstone temple remains intact on the banks of the Mekong, even with just a fraction of its secrets unearthed.
If you are to visit it on a river cruise, just remember, without the diligent work of the anonymous behind the scenes, the footsteps of the adoring masses could have crumbled the iconic Angkor Wat in the space of just a few years. Luckily for us, their remarkable work still manages to beat the rigors of time and popularity.