Cambodia: I put my paws on Angkor Wat

We tourists have multiplied, and for the ancient Angkor temples, in Cambodia, this represents a 21st century kind of stress that is spelling trouble for some of the ruins. As reported by Los Angeles Times writer Paul Watson in “Too much adoration at Cambodia’s Angkor temples,” about 300,000 tourists per year visited the site a decade ago; Cambodia’s government hopes 2010 will bring in 3 million visitors.

That’s a lot of feet stomping on centuries-old stones, a lot of dirty hands on aged sandstone slabs.And my paws and I are among those to blame. I spent three memorable days at the spectacular temple complex in 2002. I doubt that I purposely bumped up against the stones or finger-traced any carvings -– I’ve learned at least some environmental and cultural sensitivity over the years -– but color me guilty anyway; I’m sure that, inadvertently or not, I touched the wat (temple). Even if minimal, I left a little impact, particularly considering that in a place like Angkor, some of the temples have yet to be tourist-proofed.

With hope, conservationists will make headway at the site, helping to put into place plans that minimize future unintentional damage, and hopefully we tourists will try to tread sensitively. Ankgor Wat and the other temples and ruins of Angkor are truly among the world’s most wondrous sites. I wish for everyone the opportunity to explore them, and I’d like to see them again myself –- if we can prevent our curiosity from having a deleterious effect.

By Susan Derby