SPIRITUAL JOURNEY- SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

Manila

THURSDAY, 2:00 pm- just escaped from work half-day in order to accommodate the much-awaited trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

3:00 pm- I decide to send some sentimental texts to my friends Kath and Isa and tell them I am ready for my spiritual journey in Cambodia. Considering I have been quite a mess lately.

3:05 pm- Kath replies, “what did you decide to do again?!”

3:10 pm- Isa replies, “I will pray for you!”

4:00 pm- my travel buddies, Lour and Misha arrive. The three of us have 9-5 jobs and three very different personalities. We volt in our hands and say, “spiritual journey! Break!”

7:00 pm- my last text in Manila is work related. I don’t bother to wait for the reply.

           

Siem Reap

SATURDAY, 2:00 pm- we visit Ta Prohm temple, a ‘jungle’ temple where large trees have begun to grow out of the ruins creating a stunning, eerie atmosphere. Also, known to have been the location where Tomb Raider was shot. The trees are massive and the canopies of their branches shade the ground. The roots wind and cling around the ruins. It’s uncanny. Trees have spirits.
 


FRIDAY, 8:30 am- we told the tour guide we would meet him at 8:00 am. It's 8:30. He tells us that we cannot wear our Tomb Raider short shorts to the temples. I’m thinking, holy cow, I didn’t bring anything past the knee. I pretend this scarf is a real skirt.

“Is that a wrap? Because they will not allow that,” he says.

“No,” I answer. But it is.

10:00 am- we visit the temple of Bayon, the temple of a multitude smiling faces. The tour guides all know which angles will produce funny picture illusions where it looks like you are kissing one of the temple faces. Kitschy fun.

11:00 am- I get rejected to enter one temple because they recognize that I indeed, was wearing a wrap.

11:30 am- I buy some pants.      


The spiritual journey reveals no revelations, but provided a much needed detachment from the black hole that is Manila. Cambodia is a rustic reminder of how small you can be in this big, beautiful world.
It’s humbling.


Read full article for Young Star here.