Angkor

The place you imagine when as a child your mother reads you fairytales. A hidden door, framed by beautifully carved stones, you discover at the end of a pathway through an ancient forest with trees as old as the beginning of time, their branches reaching out for each other, covering most of the fresh green grass protecting their roots. Here and there a sunbeam magically lights up the intense green color. The narrow paths slithering into the darkness make my inner child want to go explore and turn around every stone I walk by. All around you hear the soft and echoing whispers of souls at piece at this hallowing place, chanting monks from the past. The serenity engulfs you, silences you.

It’s 5.30 am when in the dawn of the day –the sky is still pitch black- we are slowly walking across the stone bridge leading us through the impressive main gate of Angkor Wat. One by one, the gate seems to swallow us. Inside the main entrance a glimpse of a faint flickering light (incense) guides all of us towards our main prize: the sight of the mighty Angkor Wat with the rising sun as its spotlight.

The once lost but found again holy city of Angkor has made me fall in love with fairytales again. The huge ruins of temples, sometimes resembling mighty fortresses, protected by the dense jungle covering most of the 400 square kilometers, all exude an air of ancient wisdom. The long gone power these architectural masterpieces represented still echoes through collapsed hallways and the stares of visibly impressed and -for once- quiet tourists.





Angkor Wat: the most known temple of Angkor.