Originally published in the January 2015 issue of Smile, Cebu Pacific’s inflight magazine.
I’m a person, not a mountain goat, I tell myself as I carefully position my foot on an awkwardly angled sandstone block and shift my weight. My traveling companions are coping with Banteay Chhmar’s topsy-turvy walking paths better than I am at the moment, leaving me to bring up the rear. In my struggle, I almost forget to look up. When I do, it’s directly in front of me: the Bayon-style “face tower” known as Tower 18, its impassive visages held high, as if human vices and the caprices of nature had not laid its surroundings low…
Visit Cebu Pacific’s Way to Go website for the complete text.
I wish you had put bigger images here and done justice to the post. Statues and idols fascinate me as we have a rich tradition of carving them from rock and hills.