Will I Make It? – Cambodia blog entry #15

 After that miserable afternoon and evening on Friday, September 21, I woke up at two a.m. and stretched. The left hip that was causing me so much pain when I went to bed wasn’t too bad. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

A few hours later I woke up again and once again stretched. I slowly rolled my way over to sit up on the edge of the bed, then tentatively stood up. My hip was fine. All those tears of pain and frustration that I had been holding back the night before, thinking I would not make today’s six-hour bus ride and totally miss seeing the temples at Angkor Wat. Those tears almost spilled out again, but this time because of thanks and joy.

God is good, so, so good to me!

The long bus ride to Siem Reap went well; the coach bus we rode on was huge and modern. We got to pick our lunch from a menu of several entrees, then after a stop for a potty break and to buy snacks, they served us our meal as the bus continued rolling into Siem Reap.

It was easy to fall in love with the town as soon as we got there. But I’ll write more about that later. For today’s blog post, I need to write about the next day.

We got up at three a.m. and were picked up by our tuk tuk at 4:30, arriving at our destination well before sunrise. The sunrise we never saw because of the heavy cloud cover.

But as day broke over Angkor Wat, the huge and iconic temple complex rose out of the dim light.

I made it! Don’t ever, ever, EVER let anyone tell you to give up on your dreams. And don’t ever doubt that God listens to your prayers!

Angkor Wat was built by the Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. The temple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and original religious motifs were derived from Hinduism. The temple was dedicated to Buddhism by the wife of the next king, who encouraged him to convert. After the transformation from a Hindu place of worship to Buddhism towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat continues to be a Buddhist center to this day.

Angkor Wat is always packed with people when it first opens before dawn. But because it is so big, the crowds disperse enough after a while that it’s not so bad. The perimeter around its outer wall is over two miles, while the moat surrounding it is over three miles around. Basically, it is really huge.

But enough of my chatter – here are just a few more pictures, in no particular order.