Cambodia #1

Our Trip to Cambodia

In October, we went on an adventurous trip to Cambodia and Thailand. We've been wanting to go to Thailand for a while (its a popular tourist destination when you live in Asia, and we know many people who have been there)--but we also have some friends who visited Cambodia last year, and we decided we needed to go there too while we were in the area.

Here is why:

This is Angkor Wat, the most famous of the ancient Angkor temples, built by the Khmer civilization that ruled this part of the world between the 9th and 15th centuries.

We flew from Seoul to Phnom Pehn. The city near to the ruins we were looking to see is called Siem Reap. It is about 6 hours away by bus. 

This is Andrew on the bus we took up to Siem Reap.

Photos from the drive up to Siem Reap: Seeing the countryside is really what made taking the bus (rather than flying) worthwhile. It was near the end of the rainy season, and was very flooded.
Any houses we saw were up on stilts. Then there was always a lake of dirty water in front, in which children played and animals bathed. Those less fortunate had little shacks or just a wooden platform to get them up out of the mud and water. It was a bit of a reality check for us to see how people here live, especially coming from our fancy penthouse apartment.

We took a tuk-tuk (motorcycle with attached to a few seats) from the bus station to the hotel.

Siem Reap

A photo from the show at the restaurant near our hotel that we went to. This is traditional Khmer dance (which was adopted very early on by the people living nearer to present-day Thailand--which is why now the traditional dress and dancing are so similar).

The first thing we did in Siem Reap was to wake up early and go to Angkor Wat (a "wat" is a temple). It is a huge temple complex--in fact, it is the world's largest religious building. 

Notice Katelyn's bed head (I told you it was early!)

Here's a better photo of the scene that has become a symbol of Cambodia--It is even on the Cambodian National Flag

As you walk along the large, elevated stone walkway into the main building, there are two "libraries" on either side.

A couple was having their wedding pictures taken at this one.

The speck of a person in this photo is Katelyn, who didn't want to walk anymore.

And here she is when she finally decided to join us (crying that I'd left her).

Up the stairs to the top of Angkor Wat. We had to wait around until it opened, and go up individually (kids under 10 weren't allowed--it was a pretty steep climb up).

Looking out of one of the side inner courtyards.

The interior of the main part of the temple had four of these large areas. They looked like huge holes for swimming pools. I suspect they used to have a floor that long ago rotted away, but I'm not sure.

Some examples of carvings:

Notice the traces of paint still on the carved stone? This one was pretty well protected inside.

View up over the temple complex. The yellow balloon is actually for taking up visitors to take photos.

The obligatory Khmer 'strange hand pose' photo.

Out the back end of the complex.

These monkeys were not friendly. There were some vendors down the road out the back of the temple, and the monkeys were hanging around waiting for bananas or other things tourists might buy and give to them. We bought the older kids some creamy popsicles, but the big male monkey chased Andrew until he dropped his. Katelyn dropped hers on her own, and so two out of three monkeys got a free popsicle out of it. Dave and I couldn't help laughing about it. The kids did not think it was funny.

Heading back out of Angkor Wat

Next Up: Bayon Temple

This is the entrance to the Angkor Thom area, where Bayon Temple is.

This is the Bayon Temple, made famous for many the four-sided towers with huge stone faces. They are said to be the face of the ruler Jayavarman (who set himself up as a God-king) and the face of Budda combined (he was a Buddist).

It was a very interesting place, but we were there in the full heat of the day, and poor Katelyn melted. See her sour look? While the temple was really neat, this wasn't our best moment of the trip!

Andrew, however, is such a trooper on our long, tiring, walking vacations!