Getting There and Getting Around
Siem Reap, Cambodia is a hot spot for tourist. They used to have direct flights to it to make it easier for people to visit, but then Covid struck and the direct flights were cancelled. It was summer time 2023 when my wife and I visited. As a teacher, I still had summer holiday, but my wife could only get 7 days off. In order to make the most of our time, Tracy and I got off work on Friday, took an evening flight to Bangkok, slept in the airport and then took a short flight over to Siem Reap, Cambodia the next morning. We booked a hotel near the center of town and the night market. The hotel had a shuttle bus service; so it was very convenient. They drive on the right side the road in Cambodia so being from Hong Kong that took some getting used to. The traffic patterns also took some getting used to. Drivers seem to make eye contact and bigger vehicles often win out when it comes to the right of way. There were lots of little scooters sharing the road with relatively few cars. Here’s the video I took of getting to and getting around in Cambodia.
Angkor Wat
Most, if not all tour packages start off with a tour of Angkor Wat. It’s a huge temple that spans across 400 acres of land. The temple contains about 5 million tons of sandstone that was probably transport from a quarry about 25 miles away by around 6000 elephants. It is hard to describe how vast it is. Angkor Wat is recognized as the largest temple in the world. UNESCO, the governments of India, Germany, and Japan have all invested in Angkor Wat’s restoration. If you can, take your time here to soak in the vastness of this temple. Also you will probably meet people from all over the world.
During the Khmer period from the 9th century to the 15th century the Khmer kingdom stretched from present day Myanmar to Vietnam. Angkor Wat was built to accommodate both Buddhist and Hindu worship. One of the most famous epics that live’s on in Angkor Wat’s walls is the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk.” Our host Tha tried to explain it to us. There are parts of it that I still find confusing. According to the epic, the gods began to lose their power so they came up with an elaborate scheme to get it back. At one end of the mural there is a long snake’s head being held by demons and at the other end is the long snake’s tail being held by the god’s – Shieva, Vishnu, and Bhrama. The gods and the demons are churning the ocean of milk. On the bottom half of the mural you can see images of people being tortured. They are being threatened with hell. However, the people on the upper half, have behaved well and they are being comforted with a good life.
After listening to and reading about some of the ancient myths, I sure am glad these “gods” have no power over my eternal destiny. To place one’s hope in any of them is a sad mistake. They constantly deceive, and are not worthy of our trust. It is Satan’s nature to deceive. He is the father of lies.
Ta Prohm Temple – “The Tree Temple”
I call this one the Tree Temple. It reminds me of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the film, the trees fight for the kings and queens of old. The CG in the film is pretty good. In real life trees don’t throw or break things right before our eyes. However, over thousands of years they do break things. This temple is evidence of this. This temple was built in the 11th century so many years have passed.
Our guide, Tha said that Cambodia has hundreds of temples, but tourist generally pay attention to around 10 of them. I’m sure this ranks high on the list of most favored temple. It definitely received grant moneys for restoration. However the people in charge of the renovation didn’t prioritize making it look perfectly neat or tidy. At times nature appears chaotic. They prioritized safety and yet they allowed for some of nature’s chaos to remain untouched. I’m glad that they did. It is a unique temple. Tha told us that the famous film, Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie was filmed here back in 2001.
As you watch this video, you will see Tha point to carvings and explain some legends around the temple. There is a long history of both Buddhism and Hinduism in Cambodia.
Angkor Thom Temple
During this temple visit, Tha explained two reasons why the people did not build a temple to Bhrama. In short, he failed to demonstrate self-control. Like the other temples, this one also has interesting architecture. There are high walls and low door frames. Even people of average height must duck to go through the door frames. I’m 6’3” so I definitely had to duck. We stopped to listen to people playing instruments. Tha explained to us how they had lost limbs due to land mines left from the Khmer Rouge War. Now years later they play music at this temple site to collect money from visitors.
Bayon Temple
Tracy and I had hoped to take some sunset pictures from here. Unfortunately, they close the temple early so people can’t do that. We did however get to take pictures at golden hour. I love the warm gold tones that sun projects on everything. It was really pretty. Tracy and I also got some good pictures of ourselves at this temple.
Bakheng Temple – Sunset Temple
Thankfully we made the drive and the climb up to this temple before sunset. There were probably 100 or so others that also made the trek. It was fun. I enjoyed the conversations with people from a variety of countries here. The pan of the people in this video was shot on my Sony Xperia 1iii. I have been impressed with it.
Artisans Workshop
This tour took about 30 minutes. Our tour guide worked as a wood carver for 15 or so years so he was very knowledgeable. I was really glad we got to see the behind the scenes of what goes into the making of the statues, idols, and other items. The craftsman are very skillful. I am sure that these are considered very good jobs in Cambodia.
Explore Cambodia By Boat
After all the temples, the Artisans Workshop and Butterfly Paradise, we decided to explore Cambodia by boat. Our guide had told us about a popular place so we asked if we could book him for a tour. He was busy, but he connected us with his dad and he did a great job driving us there on his motorcycle rickshaw. We took both the motor boat ride and the river raft ride. After returning home from Cambodia, I was so disappointed because I thought I had lost this footage, 21 GB of data had just disappeared. It made no sense to me. Thankfully I found it.
