Postcards from Cambodia 2

The scenes that greeted us along the way to Angkor Wat were a tell-tale sign of what the ancient ruins of Angkor have become: a vast tourist playground, incorrigibly and unmistakably so. The cacophonous blend of roaring motors and blaring of horns had replaced the natural serenity of the place. Like many a foreigner, I was eagerly looking out for Angkor Wat to emerge. For the locals though, nothing could really excite them, for this place is their backyard, and the famous ruins are just that - ruins.

Sekth, our amiable and soft-spoken tut-tut driver, often had to manoevure the kerb of the narrow road, to avoid vehicles sliding past in both directions. Despite the absence of traffic lights, amazingly there never was a hostile moment on the roads in Siemp Reap.

It's almost like a way of life, the way the locals take to the road with a certain sense of equanimity. If there is congestion or if their vehicle faced obstruction, they showed no signs of impatience or anger. Like the way they go about their simple lives, they just quietly find a way out of their predicament, and the journey continues after that.

The mammoth tour coaches plied the narrow roads in the Angkor area ceaselessly. Until then I never saw them on the roads - not surprisingly, for the Asian tourists that they carried must have been here on a package tour and they stayed in hotels that are further away from the town centre. Occasionally, I would spot one or two Caucasians cycling on the road. They seemed the kind who were there for a longer period of time, to study the ancient temples in greater detail, I reckon.

As the tranquil surroundings passed us by and as we explored the temples on foot, the mood gets a little quieter, and one turns almost contemplative. The intricate carvings on the walls, the symmetry and geometry of construction, the mere thought that we've descended on a place that rose from the hands of ancient men and which has survived centuries to this very day: these thoughts filled me with a palable sense of surreality.

It's as if History threw up such a huge disconnect, placing Modern Man in a setting that belonged to a bygone era. And we - we are but trespassers on these ancient, sacred grounds.