Warning do not read if you suffer from long blog posts and history!!!
With a population slightly larger as Washington state, Cambodia is a pretty small and poor country. It is a constitutional monarchy, like Thailand, and tourism is its second best source of income. It has a history dating back to early times and has suffered one of the worst human genocides in modern times. 75% of Cambodia people work in agriculture, 10% work in the tourist industry, and it is home to some of the world's most beautiful temples in the world. So that's why when we had to go reset our visa for Thailand we decided to go to Siam Reap, Cambodia.
 |
| Angkor Watt |
We were in Siam Reap for 4 days (5 nights), and for the first day we decided to look at what Siam Reap is known for, its amazing temples. We arranged at the hotel we are staying at, Borei Angkor, for a van and possibly a tour guide to take us to the temples.
 |
| View from our Hotel. |
Siam Reap means
Thai defeat after the failed invasion of Cambodia by Thailand in 1431. There are over 90 temples here in Siam Reap. Most of the temples here had a moat and an outer wall that surrounded it to protect the people that lived around the temple. The first temple we went to was a temple called Bayman, which means the temple with many faces, and it was built in 1100. This super old temple lives up to its name. When Bayman was first built it had 200 faces of gods or the Buddha, now it has 148 left. On some of the walls were carvings of Vietnam invaders, or Cham as they called them, attacking Cambodia. Most of these temples were built with sandstone, not ideal, but it was the best material they had at the time. As a result many sculptures, carvings, and parts of the temple are now eroded away. Also, when the Hindu king came into power in Cambodia he had chipped out beautiful Buddhist carvings on many temples and replaced them with Hindu carvings. Oh well.
 |
| Me in front of a carved demon. The moat that surrounds Bayman and the ancient gate are in the background. |
 |
| Us inside Bayman. |
The naga or snake (it had seven heads that represented the rainbow) and the singha or lion are engraved on all the temples, for they were the guardians of the bridges and the gateways. Also carved onto the walls of the temples were apsara or celestial dancers and twala bala or male guardians. The garuda is a half man half wing creature and is the guardian of the sky in Buddhism. They were sculptured holding up the Buddha or heaven.
 |
| The Apsara or celestial dancers. |
The next temple we went to was called Taphrom and was the temple that they used to film the movie Tomb Raider. The temple was overrun by nature and there was a giant tree growing out of the center. You had to be careful when you walked through the temple, otherwise you could trip on a root or vine.
 |
| Us in front of the tree that grew out of the middle of Taphrom. |
 |
| Taphrom |
In the afternoon we went to the temple in which Siam Reap is best known for. Angkor Watt, or city temple, is huge and took 50,000 workers 37 years to build. Like the pyramids in Egypt, the kings of Cambodia built bigger temples then the last king to make them selves look more powerful. Angkor Watt is the biggest temple ever built in Cambodia. It is amazing. It has carvings of the gods and demons using the snake to churn the oceans, battles between the gods and demons, and carvings of heaven and hell. I also went to the tallest tower where above I could see around for miles.
 |
| The reclining Buddha. |
 |
| Our guide, Pitchet. |
Before going to the land mine museum, we headed to a giant waterfall. The first temple for Siam Reap was built in this area. It was so much fun swimming in the refreshing water and going under the waterfall. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, so I was not able to take pictures.
The land mine museum was about the land mines that were placed in Cambodia during the Vietnam war and the civil war in Cambodia. One thing I did not know about the Vietnam war was that many of the Viet Kong hid over in Cambodia and disguised themselves as villagers. The U.S. then carpet bombed eastern Cambodia. Unfortunately not a lot of the Viet Kong was killed and entire villages were wiped out by the bombs. They estimate that 260,000 Khmer people (Cambodian people) were killed. Some of the mines that were placed in Cambodia were placed during the Vietnam War. But most of them were placed during Cambodia's civil war (1970 to 1999).
 |
| The landline museum. |
Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953 after being under their rule for 90 years. In 1960 prince Norodom Sihanouk was elected as head of state and from 1964 faced an underground Marxist movement, the Khmer Rouge. In 1970 the prince was overthrown by a coup headed by Lt-Gen Lon Nol who supported the U.S., and he pledged to throw out the communist forces. However the prince left the country and formed a government in exile, supported by the Khmer Rouge. Forces loyal to the prince, mainly Khmer Rouge fighters, gained control of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, in April 1975. Cambodia was renamed the "Democratic" Kampuchea under the control of the main Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. It is estimated that 3.5 million people were killed in over 3000 killing fields around the country under the communist regime. Mainly the educated were killed and many more were forced to work on agriculture. About the prince...... he was placed under house arrest. After a series of invasions of Vietnam by the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnam army invaded Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) in 1978. By 1979 the Vietnam army captured Phnom Penh and the Democratic Kampuchea was renamed the People's Republic of Kampuchea. However the Khmer Rouge still fought on, especially near the Cambodian/ Thailand border, and Pol Pot was still alive. The Vietnamese also had to deal with anti-Vietnamese fighters founded in 1982 led by, now free, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. They had the backing of the Chinese government. Meanwhile thousands of refuges left Cambodia to the safety of Thailand. After the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces in 1989, the country of what we know today, Cambodia was formed. The Khmer Rouge still fought on. When the UN tried to make peace between Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge in 1992, the Khmer Rouge rejected it. Finally in 1997 Pol Pot's comrades rejected him on show trial and Pol Pot was sentenced to house arrest for life. He died in 1998, and the Khmer Rouge was defeated in 1999.
 |
| Victims of Pol Pot's regime. |
On our third day here in Cambodia we took most of the day off, except for the afternoon. Mom and Dad decided to go in a helicopter over some of the killing fields, temples and parts of Siam Reap. I have not been in a helicopter since I was little in Hawaii, so I was super excited. Siam Reap is beautiful in the late afternoon from the air.
 |
| The helicopter. |
 |
| Ready for takeoff!! |
 |
| Angkor Watt from the air. |
 |
| Siam Reap. |
 |
| Farmland. |
We only had one more major thing to do, so on our last day here, (we left the next morning), we went to go see the biggest fresh water lake in SE Asia, Don Lae Saw. Our new guide, Dee, told us that the river that separates from the lake goes inland during the wet season, and changes direction during the dry season. Pretty neat. After taking a half a hour boat ride, we arrived at the village that lives on the outskirts of the lake. We took a canoe around the houses on stilts and on floats, and through parts of the mangroves. Before going back to our hotel however we stopped for lunch and visited a temple that honored those killed on the killing fields.
 |
| Don Lae Saw. |
 |
| The village. |
 |
| Our guide Dee. |
Before I end the blog post I will tell you about the money here.
Everything here you can buy with US dollars and most of the touristy stuff here is in western prices. The conversion from the US dollar to the real is 1/4000. So if you decide to come to Cambodia make sure to bring US dollars!!!
