by Rolf Potts
Part of me was transported back to this same stony spot eight centuries before, gazing in wonder at that tower face in pristine splendor, wrapped in the awe this kingly complex compelled. And part of me was exploring the woods behind my childhood home in Connecticut, wondering at the stone walls I found there and the thrilling sense of communion with older histories and hands that they bestowed.
I thought of puzzles: the puzzle of the GHF archaeologists attempting to restore the ruins piece by piece; the puzzle of this enchanting, elusive country—its glorious ancient past and agonized recent past, the promise and peril of its present; and the puzzle of my own ruins, from the woods of Connecticut to the wilds of Cambodia.
Why was I here? Why had I chosen this path?
Now, in the jungle gloom of my Siem Reap hotel room, a glimmer of understanding grew. This is what I do, this was as close to the wild core of me as I could ever hope to get: I follow the compass of my heart, venturing off the map, making connections, asking questions, going deeper, trying to penetrate the essence of a place, so that I can understand it better and bring back precious pieces to share. Piecing together the puzzle of Cambodia was a way to piece together the puzzle of me.
I thought of the soldier at the Peace Temple, of the speech he had made and how he had waved and waved as we had driven away. I thought of Mr. Kim, Sarun, Sopheng, the towers of Banteay Torp and Ta Prohm, the Pol Pot Baray, the unforgettable face in the jungle, my stilt house home. Here I was, a temporary traveler on a spinning globe, alone yet connected to every single one of these: a piece in a puzzle of a journey whose design I would probably never know, but whose path had restored my sense of the whole, in the ruins of Banteay Chhmar.
National Geographic has called Don George “a legendary travel writer and editor,” and he has been lauded as one of the most influential travel writers and editors of his generation. Don has been exploring new frontiers as an author, editor, and adventurer for almost four decades, much of which is in his most recent book, The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George. He has visited more than ninety countries on six continents, has published hundreds of articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers around the world, and regularly speaks and teaches at conferences, campuses, and companies from San Francisco to Singapore to London.
Acknowledgments
“Flight Behavior” by Amy Butcher originally appeared in American Scholar. Reprinted by permission of the author and Georges Borchardt. Copyright © 2016 by Amy Butcher.
“The Good Captain” by Glenda Reed originally appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of Creative Nonfiction. Reprinted by permission of the author. Copyright © 2016 by Glenda Reed.
“Love and Lies in Iran” by Mario Kaiser originally appeared on Narratively in 2015. Reprinted by permission of the author. Copyright © 2015 by Mario Kaiser.
“Playing Dress-Up in the Andes” by Laura Resau published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Laura Resau.
“My Mexican Bus” by James Michael Dorsey published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by James Michael Dorsey.
“Yuan Fen” by Christina Ammon published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Christina Ammon.
“Warsaw Redux” by Thomas Swick excerpted from The Joys of Travel: And Stories That Illuminate Them by Thomas Swick. Reprinted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing. Copyright © 2016 by Thomas Swick.
“When the Journey’s Over” by Olga Pavlinova Olenich published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Olga Pavlinova Olenich.
“Sacrifices, Desires, New Moon” by Cathleen Miller published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Cathleen Miller.
“Mowtown” by Andrew Lees published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Andrew Lees.
“I Am a French Irregular Verb” by Peter Wortsman originally appeared in the 2016 issue of the Catamaran Literary Reader, Santa Cruz. Published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Peter Wortsman.
“A Love Song” by K. M. Churchill published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by K. M. Churchill.
“The Train to Harare” by Lance Mason published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Lance Mason.
“We’ll Always Have Paris” by Mara Gorman originally appeared in November 2015 on BBC.com/Travel. Reprinted with permission from the author. Copyright © 2015 by Mara Gorman.
“Time or the Sahara Wind” by Marcia DeSanctis published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Marcia DeSanctis.
“Honey Colored Lies” by Michael Sano published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Michael Sano.
“Café Tables” by Amy Marcott published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Amy Marcott.
“Sister” by Kimberley Lovato published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Kimberley Lovato.
“An Occurrence of Nonsense at N’djili Airport” by Kevin McCaughey published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Kevin McCaughey.
“The Spinster of Atrani” by Amber Paulen originally appeared in Front Porch Journal. Reprinted with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Amber Paulen.
“Ma Ganga” by Tania Amochaev published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Tania Amochaev.
“Speaking in Hats” by Darrin DuFord published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Darrin DuFord.
“In Vincent’s Footsteps” by Erin Byrne excerpted from Wings: Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France by Erin Byne. Reprinted with permission from Solas House, Inc. and the author. Copyright © 2016 by Erin Byrne.
“War Memories” by Jill K. Robinson published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Jill K. Robinson.
“Breathe In” by Keith Skinner published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Keith Skinner.
“Paddling with Marigolds” by Ky Delaney published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2016 by Ky Delaney.
“Piecing Together Puzzles” by Don George excerpted from The Way of Wanderlust by Don George. Reprinted with permission from Solas House, Inc. and the author. Copyright © 2015 by Don George.
About the Editors
James O’Reilly, publisher of Travelers’ Tales, was born in Oxford, England, and raised in San Francisco. He’s visited fifty countries and lived in four, along the way meditating with monks in Tibet, participating in West African voodoo rituals, rafting the Zambezi, and hanging out with nuns in Florence and penguins in Antarctica. He travels whenever he can with his wife and their three daughters. They live in Leavenworth, Washington and Palo Alto, California, where they also publish art games and books for children at Birdcage Press (birdcagepress.com).
Larry Habegger, executive editor of Travelers’ Tales, has visited more than fifty countries and six of the seven continents, traveling from the Arctic to equatorial rainforests, the Himalayas to the Dead Sea. In the 1980s he co-authored mystery serials for the San Francisco Examiner with James O’Reilly, and for thirty-one years wrote a syndicated newspaper column, “World Travel Watch.” Habegger regularly teaches travel writing at workshops and writers’ conferences, is a principal of the Prose Doctors (prosedoctors.com), and editor-in-chief of Triporati.com, a destination discovery site. He lives with his family on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
Sean O’Reilly is editor-at-large for Travelers’ Tales. He is a former seminarian, stockbroker, and prison instructor who lives in Virginia with his wife and three of their six children. He’s had a lifelong interest in philosophy and theology, and is the author of How to Manage Your Destructive Impulses with Cyber Kinetics and Authority. He is also CEO and Founder of the Auriga Distribution Group, Johnny Upright, Fifth Access, and Redbrazil.com, a bookselling site.