I’ve developed this routine where I book a wake-up call before I go to sleep at night, and I wake up to it at 7:00am the next morning. I left my beautiful old school alarm clock in my hotel room in Singapore, but I’ve been using the alarm on my iPhone as a backup. I press snooze a couple of times and then get up to start the day.
I answer some emails and check the social media for one of the societies I manage, and by 10:00am, I’m ready to go downstairs and meet Thy. This morning was a special morning because I knew he was getting a tour guide for me to show me around Angkor Wat and the temple of Ta Prohm.
The temple of Ta Prohm is actually the reason I came to Cambodia because there is a carving on one of the walls that looks like a stegosaurus. Creationists believe it is a stegosaurus and that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, while ancient astronaut theorists believe there is a link between the stegosaurus and a mythological figure named Preah Pisnokar. So, I was really hoping for a guide who is open to dinosaurs and magical deities.
I walked outside the hotel to the pick-up/drop-off point, and my manager friend was talking to Thy and another man who had an official lanyard around his neck. My manager friend greeted me, and then Thy introduced me to my guide.
His name is Tim, and he was an older Cambodian man who looked like he knew what he was talking about. The manager, whose name is Maky and is quite similar to my brother Maiki, told me that he knew Tim from when he was a manager at Raffles. Apparently, Tim got a lot of work out of that hotel. They also used to call him with clients, but after Covid, they did a restructure and started using their own guides.
Whilst I am not a snob in any way, I know good quality when I see it, and knowing that he was used by Raffles made me feel secure in his hands. Maky also mentioned that he used to be a manager at the Marriott Hotel, so his résumé demonstrated that he was highly qualified, and the Borei Angkor is lucky to have him. It is also obvious to me, through my dealings with him, that he is top of the range.
Thy, Tim, and I said goodbye to Maky, and we got into the car. The first thing I wanted to do was test the waters about the dinosaur carving and Preah Pisnokar. I have a photo of the carving on my phone, and I showed it to Tim and asked him what he thought.
“It’s a dinosaur, isn’t it?” I said, and he took me very seriously, telling me that many scholars think it is. I then asked him about Preah Pisnokar, and he knew a lot about him, describing him as the great architect.
Tim spoke perfect English, and he told me stories all the way to the temple, which was only a 20-minute drive. We arrived at Angkor Wat, and I had already established that Tim was the exact opposite of Thy. He wouldn’t stop talking, but what he was saying was precious.
Everything he said had relevance to the book I want to write—the old Khmer stories, the Khmer Rouge, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism—he knew everything. When we arrived out front, I showed the officials my one month pass that I had purchased earlier, and we stopped to take a look at the temple from behind the moat. Below, you can see a photo.
We slowly walked to the entrance. There were lots of stairs, and it was a very physically taxing experience. I remember going to Angkor Wat with my family when we came here 20 years ago, but I didn’t remember it like this.
Tim asked me what I wanted to do today. Did I want to go through and have a look at the carvings on the walls, or did I want to go up the steep stairs and see the view? I asked if we could do both, and he said it would be a very long day. Since I desperately wanted to see the dinosaur carving, I chose to walk around the circumference of the temple inside to see the carvings on the walls.
Tim knew what it all meant. It was all Hindu deities, with stories of good and evil, monsters, and kings. It was actually hard to keep up with what he was saying, but I loved it, and I am going to take it all down. This was all from the 12th century, though some of the carvings were done in the 16th century.
Below, you can see a photo of Tim looking at some of the carvings on the wall.
Tim mentioned that the carvings used to be covered in gold. I asked him if they were gilded, but I don’t think he understood the term, so I just said “gold leaf,” and he said yes. I want to do some more research on that because, if it’s true, I don’t understand why they would have removed it.
There were monkeys hanging around the temple. You can see a photo of one on some scaffolding below.
After Tim had shared stories with me for a few hours, we got a call from Thy, who was hungry and wanted to get some lunch. We were also hungry, so we started to walk back to the entrance.
On the way back, the temples seemed to be perfectly positioned above a small body of water, and I managed to take a beautiful photo where you can see its reflection in the water.
We arrived back at the car and agreed to go and get some lunch. I like to drink a cold Coke in the heat, so Thy went out and bought a slab of cans of Coke and has been keeping them in an esky in the boot of the car on ice for me. I thought that was a very nice touch.
Tim is a wise, older Khmer man, and he has a kind of likeable arrogance about him. He knows exactly what he’s talking about, and I get the sense he suffers no fools. I asked if we could go into town for lunch at the place I’ve been going the last couple of days, but Tim just said we were close to Ta Prohm and basically told me I needed to embrace local food.
I like him. I like it when someone overrides me, and he has done that a few times today.
We arrived at a restaurant, and while Thy went to park the car, Tim walked me to an air conditioned part of the restaurant and told me to enjoy my lunch. I just assumed they were eating with me, so I said, “Please join me.” He was very happy to and called Thy to let him know that we were all eating together.
There wasn’t much for a vegetarian to eat. Surprisingly, there was a lot of meat, but I ordered a club sandwich minus all the meat and added a few extra things. Tim and Thy ordered some local vegetables with meat.
Below, you can see Tim with his coconut milk and then Tim and Thy together with their lunch.
After lunch, we walked over to the Ta Prohm Temple, which was just opposite the restaurant. I said to Tim that I really just wanted to see the dinosaur carving today and come back another time to take the notes I need.
It was another long walk to the temple, and there were a lot of tourists at this one. There were lots of trees and tree roots. When we arrived at the temple, there were some stairs, but not as many as at Angkor Wat. We walked around and saw the beautiful stonework, which seemed to be a fusion between trees and stone. Below, you can see what I mean by that.
It was a surreal moment for me because I first saw it on an episode of Ancient Aliens, and I have since done some research into it. To see it in real life felt like something of a dream to me. I think Tim could appreciate what it meant to me to see this carving, and he gave me a moment alone with it.
Below is a photo I captured of the stegosaurus carving, which is going to be central to my book.
After I stood in awe of that for a while, we decided to go back to the car. As we were walking back, I was so hot—I know I was red in the face, and I was dripping with sweat, as was every other tourist I saw.
Tim told me when he was a boy and the Khmer Rouge were in power, he didn’t have any toys, so he used to get a leaf and amuse himself by making music with it. You can see a photo below of his demonstration.
I was exhausted when I got back to my room. I had a booking at the spa for a flower bath and a blow dry. Initially, it wasn’t until later, but I called them and asked if they could move it up, so I pretty much went straight down. The flower bath had petals of a flower I am not familiar with, and it was surrounded by candles and all lit up.
But then I looked at some of the websites, and they all seemed pretty shady. I also had a look at my feet, and they are hideous. Below, you can see my foot in the bath—it’s swollen, cut from today’s walking, and dirty in general.
I can’t wait for Maiki to get here—if he gets here, that is. Immigration rejected his visa application, and now they are asking him for more information, like bank statements, and saying that the tickets he sent them aren’t sufficient.
I know exactly why they’re doing that—it’s because he is coming from Africa, and they probably think he won’t leave. But that’s what I don’t get. Cambodia is a third-world country too, so as if he would just go from one to another!
