Ankor
Fascinating Cambodian history
I’m sure most people aren’t too familiar with
Once unified all these kingdoms became the greatest kingdom in South East Asian history; The Khmer Empire.
This empire built all the amazing temples, irrigated and cultivated the land and controlled the entire region. Eventually in 1432 the Thais sacked
In 1978
The
There are a lot of amazing temples in Siam Reap, the most famous being Angkor Wat. It’s impossible to see them all in one day, so there are a variety of tickets available: a one day pass for $20, a three day pass for $40 and a week pass for $60. As we’ve seen our fair share of temples on this trip so far but sill wanted to hit all the major spots we went with the three day option. Siam Reap is a small town run pretty much solely on tourism. On one opulent stretch of road you can find all the beautiful five star resorts- pure luxury.
Naturally we were housed on the other side of town near the ‘crocodile market’, a lively spot with plenty of restaurants and entertainment. For value and quality for money,
Our first day we spent touring Ankor Wat temple, getting a bicycle rickshaw there and a motor taxi back (yes the three of us on the bike). It’s spectacular; a monster of a temple- the labour involved constructing it would have been phenomenal.
The next two days we hired bicycles to tour the rest of the temples (averaging nearly 18km a day!). Siam Reap was like an oven, we spent most of the day cowering in the shade of the fabulous temples, with many eyes on us especially at The Bayon temple complex.
One particular temple was carefully deconstructed by the French as the foundations were about to collapse. They meticulously documented where each building block belonged but devastatingly these records were destroyed during the war and now the pieces lie like the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle while they try slowly try to reconstruct its magnificence.
The temple where they filmed the Angelina Jolie move Tomb Raider was one of our favourites, the trees are slowly reclaiming the land and engulfing the temples into its forest. Their massive roots charge between and along the temple walls, caging its beauty and slowly making it crumble.
This was previously a school before the Khmer Rouge, who turned it into an interrogation centre and prison; the last stop before the killing fields. It’s one of the eeriest, saddest places I’ve ever visited.
The fact that the tortures are so recent makes it even more poignant. Little cells with shackles, chains and beds still occupy the classrooms upstairs. Down stairs are hundreds of photos of the men, women and children incarcerated there, they would have eventually ended in a mass grave in one of the numerous killing fiends in the area.
It’s absolutely horrific stuff but doesn't end there, we next took a tuk tuk the 9km out of town to the nearest excavated killing field. There are thousands of these all over the country; some of the mass graves discovered have the sculls of up to 500,000 people! I’m almost in tears here writing about it. Imagine that they did this to their own people. In this killing field they didn’t have enough time in the day to kill everybody so they had to build a holding shed so the truck loads of prisoners could be housed for the night and slaughtered the next day. They erected a memorial monument containing some of the sculls found to honour the victims and so as the world would never forget the atrocity committed.
Sihanoukville
Sihanoukville is another Asian beach side resort. The beach is small, packed with hawkers and child labourers selling books and trinkets not giving you a moments rest on the nice free sun-beds. When you feel like getting away from the blazing sun for a cool dip in the water- you can’t- the water’s warm. Of course you can swim, but just not cool off; it’s actually like taking a bath the water’s that warm! All the little bar shacks along the beach sell the usual drinks and food, but most of them offer a portion of magic mushrooms or dope on the side, with a touch of loud Goan trance music! Away for the beach you’ll find some lovely restaurants with great prices.
We headed straight to the
While in Sihanoukville we swam, bathed, ate drank (small glass of bear 25c and $1 vodka/coke!) had a blind massage- $3.50 for 30mins by a blind masseuse, visited the Starfish bakery where all profits go directly to a Cambodian charity and got caught in a tremendous thunder storm!
We eventually left on a bus at 6.30am to
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