Last summer, I made a last minute decision to visit Cambodia, and it was one of the best, most eye-opening trips I have ever been on. Have been wanting to post the pictures & write about it since then, but somehow never got around to doing it. In retrospect, I wish I wrote about it earlier because even though everything about the trip was unforgettable, the memories are just not as vivid and my feelings and emotions are just not as fervent or intense. Anyhow, here goes, the first half of our trip:
Day 1
Out first day started with a cruise of the TonLe Sap, which is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia
The TonLe Sap is home to many Cambodians & Vietnamese people who live in fishing village clusters, they have floating homes, shops and we even saw a floating school!
I may be smiling here, but just seconds later I saw this little girl who had a huge gigantic snake draped around her shoulder and I. Completely. Flipped.
Alot of the children we saw were sitting in washing basins and using them as boats to get around alone. It was really sad, they would paddle up to the tourists speedboats and cling on tightly, begging for some money. I always gave the children a little bit, and after awhile, when the speedboats left the waves would cause the children to fall out of their tubs into the dirty lakes. Heartbreaking, seriously.
In the afternoon, after lunch & a nap, we visited the Artisans d'Angkor, which is both a craftsmen company and an institute created to help the young rural population to find work in their home villages by providing them with high skilled trainings and a vocation from which they can earn a living.
The process of silkworms being cultivated for weaving silk.
The 1000+ employees (who own 20% share in the company, making Artisan d'Angkor a fair trade company!!) practice crafts such as silk weaving, wood carving, stone carving, lacquering, ornamental painting and silk paintings.
Ended our day with dinner & a cheap massage!
Day 2
Up bright&early the next morning, having breakfast in our hotel.
Elephants for hire so that if they fancy, tourists don't have to tour the city of Angkor by foot.
The two rows of 54 stone statues on each side of the moat leading up to Angkor Thom depict the ancient myth of the "Churning of the Ocean for Immortality". To the left of the moat, the 54 guardian gods are pulling the snake in their direction, whilst on the right the 54 demon gods are pulling the tail of the snake in their direction, all of them trying to churn the nectar of immortality out of the ocean. To cut a long story short, good triumphed over evil, but you can read more about it on wikipedia here!
This is the "Victory Gate", entrance to the Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom was built in the late 12th century, and was the last and most powerful capital city of the Khmer empire. Historians believed it was home to a population of around 750,000 people then, and covered a land area BIGGER THAN NEW YORK today!
The Bayan Temple is just one of many temples in Angkor Thom, but as it was built right in the center of the walled city, it is believed to represent the intersection of heaven and earth.
The Bayan Temple houses many of these carved "face towers", each featuring four faces looking out in cardinal directions. Here I am, Kissing noses with the sculpture of the Khmer King, hehe. (King Jayavarman the Third).
Tom, Daren & I
I know this is really random (and totally uninformative) but these are the first time I'm actually wearing sneakers!!!!!! We were told to wear sneakers so climbing up and down the temple steps would be easier.
This smaller temple is the Ta Prohm temple, and used to serve as a monastery. In modern day, it has actually been used as one of the key locations in "Lara Croft, The Tomb Raider". The trees in this area have huge huge roots intertwined amongst the ruins of the temple, making the structure of the building dependent on the roots.
Daren is standing outside the echo tower. If you beat your palm against your chest, you'll hear a really loud echo. But amazing, if you clap your hands or shout or make any other noises, you won't hear even the faintest hint of an echo. The only way is to beat your chest. Crazy, or what?
Daren & Tom, Cambodian Children building sandcastles, their leaf-hats are adorable!
After lunch, I wanted to get some drinks from the mini mart, but stopped dead in my tracks when Daren pointed out the store stocked "cigaretts, soft drinks, wine&beer and SOME SNAKES (?!?!!)" Yes, it's my biggest phobia. // Adorable children would look up at us with big wide eyes and I would always find myself giving each of them something because it was just so heartbreaking.
In the afternoon, we visited the magnificent Angkor Wat.
The view was truly a picture of grandeur, it was absolutely breathtaking. My pictures do not do its magnificence justice at all. We just stood there in awe and amazement for a bit, before actually entering.
TSK TSK
Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman the Second as the capital city and as his state temple in worship of his Hindu God Vishnu. The Angkor Wat's key structures feature three pyramids: the first for the pilgrims, then the court officials and finally the King. I found it really interesting that the deeper in you go, the higher the pyramids are.
During the period of the 12th Century, the city of Angkor was actually one of the largest, most powerful, most successful and most sophisticated kingdoms in the history of Southeast Asia. SADLY, it was abandoned by the 16th Century.... through the years, the grasses and trees completely covered up the entire city (can you imagine?!), and was only discovered again in the 20th Century by Europeans.
We were about to leave the Angkor Wat and I was happily snapping my last few pictures when Daren started yelling that the clouds were moving craaazy fast and that a mad rain was approaching, and by the end of his sentence, true enough it started POURING!!!!!!! It was so sudden, the weather all day was mad sunny.
We all got drenched from head to toe (my shoes were completely soaked) but not before I managed to snap this picture of the boy against the grey grey skies.
