Of course a World Heritage indicates a site of antiquity or beauty or of concern for the past as well as the future. It has been alleged that years previously Angkor Wat was an exotic location for corruption parties attended by those with money and power and who were chauffer driven to a certain Wat to party the night away while antiquity shuddered with a bass kick.
It's better now. Antiquity is privately owned and instead of rotund politicians raving it up on anicent stones, there are coachloads of Antiquity Admirers sashaying in flip-flops with the cultural conga, site maps in their hands and a hands on itinerary on their mind. To do Angkor Wat you need a plan; sunrise here, sunset here; optimum views, celebrated vantage points and in between plenty of photo ops for history renovated; of stone pillars being replaced with quick mix concrete. Nice. Maybe the weather worn carvings will be replaced with Artex: The Esoteric Series. As everyone points and clicks; presses and whirrs we are seeing a people through a viewfinder and recording only ourselves for posterity.
And what did we do? We arrived with only an hour to do the Wats, to cram in history, to traipse around with cameras at the ready to record history for ourselves except someone always get in the way - it's so crowded ( but not as crowded as it can be) that an atmospheric shot is ruined by a kid with an Angkor Balloon being chased away by a tour guide who is trying to squeeze his group through a gap made for svelte monks who are mostly hidden except for the few smoking outside the Wats. A queue forms next to them so that posterity has a suitably religious aspect.
Obviously I did not approach the visit with the diligence it required and looking at other tourists I was woefully under-prepared to take it all in, to attempt to understand and place in context this remarkable site. I became reactionary, digging my heels in like a kid not wanting to do any more. I distance myself from the hordes and yet I was part of the horde; tramping my own footstep into poorly managed paths and worn steps. This incredible site, these temples filled with stories will be bludgeoned into the ground unless managed conservation is put before profit. It is possible for sites like this to be viewed responsibly but it takes an effort to look beyond seeing the site simply as a way to generate money.
If the people local to the temple saw the profit of the $20 US entrance fee ( free to locals) then one might feel easier leaving the Wat as dusk settles but the kids still sell postcards and the women still hold out their skin and bone babies as evidence of our own deluded desire to be witness to history. It would make so much more sense to let the Wats be taken back by the jungle, to be reclaimed by the green and for us, every sandal-wearing, sweating frump to use that $20 to give the Cambodians some possibility of food and education. It's not the history, stupid. It's now.
