Advertisement
Published: April 11th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Doorways
A view from inside. Arriving in Siem Riep couldn't have made us happier after our long and painfully hot bus journey from the border of Cambodia at Poi Pet. Actually, if the bus company wasn't a royal rip off and they dropped us somewhere in the city near common accomodation, instead of thier commision charging guest house with ridiculous $US prices I would have been more impressed... none the less we scored a wicked spot at the Orchidae after a half hour walk with luggage and a bucket of sweat!
Siem Riep in a nutshell is the base city/town to make the Angkor Temple experience happen. We purchased 3day passes and hired some cute little bicycles and spent the first 2 days taking the scenic ride through Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and visiting surrounding remnants of the Elephant temples and Royal Palace. Our favourites would have to be Ta Phrom, which was where Tomb Raider was filmed. It was incredible seeing these huge trees growing out of stone walls hundreds of years old, their roots pushing the stones apart until they're the only thing holding the place together! These pyramids and temples stretched over kilometeres so on the last day we hired a
Stone Faces
Making an impressive entranceway tuk tuk and visited the outskirting and equally impressive ruins. By this time we could understand the grandness and efforts of the artists involved in carving the sculptures, and also the extremely strong religous influence similar in all. Hinduism was so large and influencial in this era and its so astonishing to realise that in the prime of this buzzing city from 1000 to 1600AD or there abouts, there were 1 million people while London had only a population of 50,000. The fact that Budda is derived from Hindi religion was an eye opener to me as i always thought that it was a religion of its own. Most of the Budda statues where infact beheaded and partly stolen in the 80's but some still standing are very much so idealised and intrically colorfull and decorated daily for prays - there's been huge problems with art theft in this country... seems to be a running theme (Nepal was the same).
In between of all the sightseeing we visited the local market and purchased some cool and cheap hammocks inwhich we used on our 2nd day at Angkor for an afternoon nap in the wilderness. Cambodia was colonised by the
skulls
The many skulls removed from the mass graves and now held in the memorial stupa on location. French and the food shows it! We enjoyed some great pastries and baguettes plus the all famous "happy" pizzas 😊 We did also try the local "Amok" fish dish served in a coconut and made from the cream and curry which was well tastey! Time flew by and bellies grew and once again we boarded a bus heading to the next biggest attraction- Phnom Phen.
An easy and comfortable ride with the first paved roads we've seen in Camboda had us settled into our accommodation set over the Green Lake on wooden planks and long stilts 😊 The comfy bamboo and cane couches and unlimited DVD options were incredible! Since it was extremely humid we enjoyed lots of 65 Riel mixed fruit shakes (with a splash of vodka) and chillaxed with as much extremity! Took a long walk to the river and beyond and hired another tuk tuk to visit the location of the killing fields. Very much a depressing place but still, something to see to remind you to apprieciate a comparatively moral government and the good people in your social surroundings. If you are ignorant to this place as I was, it's a mass grave site where
Cells at S21
A few dingy rooms. 20,000 people of all ages were brutally murderered and tortured under the khmer rouge regime (they don't deserve capital letters) over just a few years in the '70s. Today at the site is a tall glass stupa containing 8000+ of the skulls found, serving as a reminder of what insane evil manipultors the human species can be (my perception anyways). Some skulls showed bullet holes, but many were extremely fractured - conserving the valuable bullets. The next thing to do on this awful touristy experience is to visit the Tuong Sleng museum - aka S21. This is the location of the prison in which the Kmer soldiers imprisoned, tortured and interrgated the prisoners, with more nasty things that I'd rather not speak about. Of the thousands held here, only a handful survived; those still alive when the place was liberated. It was formally a school, which is noticeable by the close to home buildings and playgrounds, now left in a deserted like state with new additions of cells and torture chambers built by the soldiers. Honestly I wont go on because its all to sad.
We enjoyed another day of relaxing before making our way north again to Bangkok
Scratched Face
Scratched into the paint at S21... intense - not because we particularly want to be there but around here all roads lead to Bangkok! Meeting up with a mate Lisa we met in Nepal as a side bonus, and looking forward to celebrating the New Year Thai style 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0396s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
russell
non-member comment
FANTASTIC FHOTOS GUYS!