Sea Glass Kids: Cambodia - Siem Reap [James Burke]

In Cambodia I went to Siem Reap which in the Khmer language means Thai defeat. The Khmer people named this city because the Thai people invaded Cambodia in 1431, but they failed. This city has ninety temples you can visit and there are 1million people in Siem Reap.

Here I went to the three main temples. The three main temples are Angor Wat, Bayon and Ta Phrom. When I was done with the flights to Siem Reap we got on to a bus and we got dropped off at a very nice hotel Called the Borei Ankor. The Borei Ankor has great rooms and a cool pool. Mom and dad let us have a room to ourselves.

The day after I arrived we went on a tour to see the three main temples. The first temple we arrived at was Bayon. Bayon once had over two hundred faces of Buddha carved in to the wall. Bayon now has 148 faces remaining. Bayon is 800 years old.

The second temple I went to was Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom is also 800 years old. Ta Phrom was made because the king of Cambodia wanted to make a temple for his mom so he forced the Khmer to build Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom is also being invaded by nature.

The last temple I went to was Angor Wat. Angor Wat is 900 years Old. Wow that's old! Angor Wat means city temple in Khmer. The king wanted Angor Wat built and it took over 50,000 people and 37 years to build. When we left we went back to our hotel and watched tv then went to bed.

The next day I went on a helicopter ride over Angor Wat and the Siem Reap area. It was my first helicopter ride. When the helicopter lifted off I could see the Khmer land scape it was very flat. I only saw two big mountains. On one of the mountains was a temple. And then I flew over Angor Wat which was really cool. Then I flew over a lake that really looked like an ocean. After that I flew over over the floating village. After I landed I got out. It was very cool.

The day after that we went to the floating village. First, I hopped on to a boat and went to the floating village. When I got there all the houses were on stilts in the lake. The Khmer got around by boat. Then I saw real floating houses which was really cool. Then I docked on one of the floating houses and got a boat ride paddled through the floating village and the mangrove forest. I really enjoyed Cambodia and it's nice stuff.