Kingdom of Cambodia

Angkor Wat and More...

A long time dream of visiting the Angkor Wat temples finally came true. The Kingdom of Cambodia (sometimes transliterated as Kampuchea to more closely represent the Khmer pronunciation) is a Southeast Asian nation bordered by Vietnam to the east, Laos to the north, Thailand to the northwest, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.Cambodia has had a pretty bad run of luck for the last half-millennium or so. Ever since the fall of Angkor in 1431, the once mighty Khmer Empire has been plundered by all its neighbors. It was colonized by the French in the 19th century, and during the 1970s suffered heavy carpet bombing by the USA. After a false dawn of independence in 1953, Cambodia promptly plunged back into the horrors of civil war in 1970 to suffer the Khmer Rouge's incredibly brutal reign of terror, and only after UN-sponsored elections in 1993 did the country begin to totter back onto its feet.It helped restore some semblance of normalcy, as did the rapid diminution of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1990s. A coalition government, formed after national elections in 1998, brought renewed political stability and the surrender of remaining Khmer Rouge forces. However Khmer Rouge is not what Cambodia was about in ancient times, anybody who witnesses the magnificent temples at Angkor can attest to the fact that the Khmer Empire was once wealthy, militarized, and a major force in the region. Its zenith came under Jayavarman VII in the 12th century. India had cast its spell and brought prosperity to this region and Hinduism thrived till another Indian export Buddhism came to be adopted as the national religion in the mid 15th century. Today Cambodia is 5% Hindu and 95% Buddhist. This conversion translated on to the temples at Angkor as well where within the Hindu edifice and among the Hindu deities stand the various facets of Buddha, with one temple still open to worship. Anyway more as we go along...

Our destination - Siem Reap - Siem Reap has colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter, and around the Old Market. In the city, there are traditional Apsara dance performances, craft shops, silk farms, rice-paddy countryside, floating fishing villages and a Tonle Sap Lake. Purnima and Sreekanth, Ranga and me left for Cambodia...left home at 8pm

Day 1 & 2 - Bangalore - KL - Siem Reap (Malaysian Airlines - MH) - 08/12/12 & 09/12/12

Boarded the Malaysian Airlines 12.20am flight to KL which brought us into KL at 7am (local time - 2 1/2 hrs ahead). We had a couple of hours before our connecting flight, so chilled, sending emails, having a good strong cuppa, then boarded the 10.20am flight to Siem Reap (Siem - Thailand - Reap - Vanquisher, so the name means Vanquisher of Thailand) and reached at noon (local time which is only 1 1/2hrs ahead of India) the lovely quaint airport built in local Khmer style with lovely statues and looking for all the world like a museum more than an airport, the feeling enhanced by the low volume of traffic and just a couple of planes, more like a flight club or a resort!! Photos are permitted (we Indians have become so used to over-the-top security issues that these small freedom have been sadly forgotten ). Mr.Sokchea (a combination of the Hindi words sukh and chain), our guide was waiting for us and we immediately went to lunch and after a tasty South Indian meal, checked into our hotel the Tara Angkor at 2pm. Lovely little boutique place with its vantage location - wonderful.

Our room was spacious, large, had a lovely king size bed, all the usual facilities you would expect in a 4 star hotel. Relaxed for a couple of hours, then strolled down to Khmer Ceramics and Leather shops where crocodile leather items and stuffed baby crocs are a big thing, but anything remotely connected to the lizard family gives me the heebie-jeebies! Returned, changed and left for the Apsara show at 6.30pm. A lovely cultural show depicting the traditional folk dance forms of the Apsaras - the stories all have Hindu influences and are similar in nature to the Thai dances. That does not take away anything from its beauty and grace and team it up with some yum South East Asian cuisine buffet, and you have a beautiful evening, literally feels like Apsara-loka! Appreciate the listing of all the ingredients of each dish, which helped my friend Purnima (yes, we share the name!) who is terribly finicky when it comes to veg food. After being shutter-happy, posing and clicking with the Apsaras, we went back to the hotel and just collapsed on to the bed. Tired but satisfied. We had an early start the next day.

Day 3 - Siem Reap - 10/12/2012

Had a lovely breakfast at 7.45am and left for the Angkor Wat (Temple City - Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara and Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds", derived from the Pali word "vatta" ) complex at 8.30am, fortunately as in Kumarakom, again the weather Gods were kind and though it was hot, it wasn't sunny...so enjoyable. Reached the ticket complex, had our photos captured by a web cam, tickets printed with our photos and set off for Angkor Wat - a nearly 2kms walk is needed to reach the complex, but with my bad leg in mind, Mr.Sokchea persuaded the authorities to allow us to drive through which was a blessing. Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 sq.km, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging program to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings. Ranga was in the proverbial seventh heaven, clicking away merrily.

Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world and is oriented such that its main entrance faces west. The temple was built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaivism tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. As in ancient Indian temples, the stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that were sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The monument was made out of enormous amounts of sandstone, as much as Khafre's pyramid in Egypt. This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately  40 km away. The stone was presumably transported by raft along the Siem Reap river. This would have to have been done with care to avoid overturning the rafts with such a large amount of weight. One modern engineer estimated it would take 300 years to complete Angkor Wat today. Yet the monument was begun soon after Suryavarman came to the throne and was finished shortly after his death, no more than 40 years!! Incredible! Several countries including India are still involved in the restoration work at Angkor Wat's various 200 temples.

Ranga at the doorway made famous by Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider'.

Thirsty, we trekked back to the van, emptied out a bottle of water and then moved on to Ta Prohm - the modern name of a temple built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara, Located approximately 1km east of Angkor Thom, it was founded by the King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors.UNESCO inscribed Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992. Today, it is one of the most visited complexes in Cambodia’s Angkor region. The conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm is a partnership project of the Archaeological Survey of India and the APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap). We saw boards in Hindi warning people of dangers of wandering in places where restoration was on!! The main attraction of course is the place where Angelina Jolie shot for "Tomb Raider"!! You are swamped by sellers of various artifacts...and need to mow through them to reach the temple! The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm, and "have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor." Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize observed, "On every side, in fantastic over-scale, the trunks of the silk-cotton trees soar skywards under a shadowy green canopy, their long spreading skirts trailing the ground and their endless roots coiling more like reptiles than plants." Its eerily fascinating!

By then stomachs were rumbling and we headed to Psar Chaa (the Old Market), had lunch at an Indian restaurant and then went shopping for those artifacts we had been hounded with - beautiful reproductions mainly in mahogany or teak are available at literally ridiculously low prices, but bargaining is a given and is a balm to every Indian's heart, isn't it? Which true blue Indian doesn't like haggling for a good price? A 30% to sometimes 50% down from the marked price is quite par for the course!! Makes you feel great, having driven a good bargain, but do not exchange any money to convert to local currency, it is literally worthless (1USD = 4000 Khmer Riel!!), just use US dollars, the locals are happy to deal and will return dollars too, so no sweat! 

Returned to the hotel, sweaty, had a good shower and flopped on the bed. Had some coffee and then left at 4pm for the Bayon temple - Built in the late 12th century or early 13th century as the official state temple of the King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman's capital,Angkor Thom. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.

En route is a place where people climb a peak to view a spectacular sunset over Angkor Wat, or one could climb the peak over an elephant's back, we chose to do it in a modern way with a hot air balloon. Yay! A huge cage which can accommodate 15 adults floats up in the air and one can look fascinated at the big balloon holding us all up or look down at the Angkor temple complex blushing rosy in the setting sun. A spectacular experience! 

Went for dinner at "Taste of India" - yummy food!!, and hungry for more souvenirs, went to the Night Market. Bought some absolutely mind blowing oils on canvas...at ridiculously low prices...what amazing work by the artistes! Also some lovely reed work and silks...fabulous.

Day 4 - 11/12/2012 - Chong Kneas (Floating Village)

A bit more relaxed departure of 9am, so a leisurely swim and breakfast and we were on our way to the floating village.This is the village most people visit and the one most often touted by tour guides, guesthouses, etc "you go see floating village?" Chong Kneas is the floating village at the edge of the lake closest and most accessible to Siem Reap and a quick boat trip around the village will not only show you people in conical hats, which usually makes them Vietnamese, refugees of the horrendous wars and are mainly women and children, going about their daily lives (Men are in short supply thanks to the wars), but you'll also bump into a dozen other small boats ferrying camera-toting tourists going about their daily tourist lives. To be perfectly blunt about it, I think this village is a cruddy tourist trap and not surprisingly, many of the locals are either thoroughly tired of all the tourists floating around their neighborhood or have devised ingenious ways of separating them from their money, like little kids in boats with pythons wound their necks thrusting it in the face of tourists!  

It is a good example of the resilience of the human spirit and their ability to adapt to change. With schools, markets on boats, and houses on boats, these people have learnt to literally stay afloat when life has tried to drown them. Today they breed crocodiles for their skin and meat and along with fishing, supplement their meager incomes - which can be as low as $1/month! I was fascinated yet felt bad that I was watching human poverty and hardship being displayed as tourism! Not my cup of tea. Slightly upset and feeling like a voyeur, we left and drove once again to the Old Market for good ol' retail therapy convincing ourselves that we are helping Cambodian economy grow!! 

After lunch we went to the National Museum. Opened on 12 November 2007, the Angkor National Museum offers visitors a better understanding of the area's archaeological treasures . The Golden Era of the Khmer Kingdom is presented, including the use of state-of-the-art multimedia technology. The museum covers Khmer history, civilization, and cultural heritage in eight galleries. Beautiful and air conditioned its a brilliant way to end the tour.

An early dinner at the 'Taste of India' and we ended the day. Cambodians are early risers and like many in hot places have very early meals, and their day ends by 8pm! We watched "The Game" and retired by 10pm.

Day 5 - Siem Reap - KL - Bangalore (12/12/12 and 13/12/12)

Checked out at 10.30am after a leisurely breakfast, I thoroughly enjoyed the local cuisine, and took our MH flight to KL, had a layover of 6 hours and caught the 11pm MH flight to Bangalore. The duty free shop in Bangalore offers the cheapest merchandise in the world (its a challenge thrown by them!) and can be bought in the arrival lounge...which is what we did! Esp. with the bonus of being able to pay in INR! A fantastic way to end the trip without having to lug in heavy bags from the duty free shops abroad in addition to all the other purchases.! 

Ending with some funny signage we saw...smile!!