An Adventure in Ruins

I don’t often have the opportunity to do “touristy” things while on the World Race. I don’t really mind that much. That’s not why I’m here. But there was one opportunity I had that I absolutely could not pass up, the ruins at Angkor Wat. It has been a dream of mine for years to see these ancient temples. Unfortunately, we were in Phnom Penh, not Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is located. So myself, Larisa and Amber hatched a plan. We would take one weekend to go see Angkor Wat. To us, an eight hour bus ride both ways was worth the one day we could explore. I booked our bus tickets and hostel and away we went. We arrived at 8:00 pm knowing that our day would start at 4:00 am. Apparently it’s the thing to do… watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat. While everyone else was watching the quite ordinary sunrise, we got to explored the temple relatively alone. Our tuk-tuk took us around to the other temple sites.

This was an incredibly profound and spiritual experience for me. I had a conversation with Rynette, one of our squad coaches, at debrief. Mostly we talked about God, how I relate to Him, how I worship Him, how precious He is to me. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to her about my other interests, except maybe worship. So I don’t think she knew that I love history, especially ancient history. I love museums and historical fiction. And I loved seeing the temples at Angkor Wat. Rynette looked at me and said ” Do you know why you love old things? Because God is old. He is the Ancient of Days.” That statement hit home. It instantly spoke to my spirit and I knew it to be true. My love of ancient things is because of my love for God. I will always experience Him in history, in the museums, in the ruins.

And so now I will stop talking about my experience and simply show you…

* this first picture is a contrast in how we should have felt at getting up at four in the morning, and how we really felt 😉