Cambodia

I always wanted to go to Cambodia. You can say that it was on my bucket list. We were there last month and it dint disappoint.

Cambodia is not a new country , it is an ancient civilization dating back thousands of years. A local told me that, Thailand is a new country formed only 700 years ago , while theirs is an old civilization. Officially the Kingdom of Cambodia was formed in 1993, so people think that it is a new country. It is still not too commercial and crowded , the essence still remains but I don’t know for how long. People in Cambodia are nice. When I say nice, they are really nice – calm, patient and just sweet. Like all the other tourist destinations they are not grabby, they don’t want your money, they are happy showing off their country to you. Considering their recent genocide it is surprising that they are so friendly, I expected them to be more suspicious. They are slowly rebuilding their country, brick by brick.

Buddha

The country is very famous for the largest temple in the world – The Ankor Wat. It is a Vishnu temple. Indians brought Hinduism to Cambodia in the 3-5th centuries. Cambodians graciously accepted the religion and built lots of temples honoring Shiva (in the form of the Linga) and Vishnu. Surprisingly they don’t have any female deities except Lakshmi. We can see these temples in Siem Reap, the capital of the Khmer regime. The entire landscape is pristine, well maintained and organised. Everything is controlled by the government and reasonably priced.

Tourists mostly come to Cambodia for the ruins in Siem Reap. This tiny place also has its own airport. The traffic moves slowly at 30 km/hr, we find it strange but the locals say that it is a rule so that no one gets hurt. There are hotels for the budget conscious and also the extravagant. There are BMW’s at your disposal or you can take a Tuk tuk to go around the city and the ruins. Apart from the UNESCO heritage site there are night markets in Siem Reap which are totally worth every penny you spend there. You can get silver , bags, clothes , art work, jewelry any artsy stuff imaginable. The night market is the venue for great food and cheap beer. It is totally worth checking out .

The night market in Siem Reap 

The UNESCO Heritage sites is a 10 minute drive from Siem Reap. We covered only 3 temple sites with Ankor Wat being one of them. We started with the Ankor Wat, the first surprise was that it has a moat. The moat is massive with a lot of fresh water life and fishing is not allowed there. The temple complex is divided into 3 distinct levels, the first level is the ground level it progressively gets higher. Each level has its own carvings and stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. The last level takes you to the top of the temple and that is breath taking , imagine you are on top of the gopura of a Hindu temple. It is also being renovated and dangerous. My impressions were that though it is a vast temple, the carvings and the architecture is nowhere near our temples in India. Ankor Wat is nice but our old temples were a work of art.

A part of the outer entrance. 

Ankor Wat seen through a window from one of the outer structures.

The famous reflection of the temple on the lake. 

Buddha as Vishnu.

The next temple was the Bayon temples, it is a little further from the Ankor Wat and has the famous smiling faces. Indians again came in with Buddhism and converted Cambodians from Hinduism to Buddhism. Till today Buddhism remains the dominant religion in the region. The Bayon temples are incomplete. They were supposed to represent a buddisht temple but hindus got angry and destroyed half of the temple when it was under construction, they never completed it. The locals are mystified as Buddha is actually supposed to be a incarnation of Vishnu, so why did the Hindus destroy their own god’s temple. But even in ruins the faces are stunning. They are all smiling , just like the people of the land.

A smiling face. 

The last of the temples was Ta Phrom, this is an interesting temple as it was not a temple but a memorial to a king’s mother. It was left as is for centuries and the forest had taken over, there are trees growing through the buildings. They are renovating the structure with the help of the Indian Government. This is where the famous movie Tomb Raider was shot. It is brilliant to see how nature just takes her territory back.

Trees growing on the structure.

After Siem Reap we flew to the Capital Phom Phen. It is a bustling city, a city coming to terms with its own changed status and its growing ambition. The royal palace is worth a visit, it looked beautiful from the outside. We went on a holiday and were’nt allowed inside.

There are stark reminders of the Pol Pot regime, the genocide memorial is one of them. That is one place I never want to see again, you can hear the screams of the dying there, there is something about that place. They say that they keep finding new bone fragments  and clothes of the women and children who were killed.It is just painful to hear them talk about the genocide.

The entrance to the Royal Palace.

Cambodia is hot and humid through out the year but it is worth a visit. It is expensive to get to the place but really cheap when you are in Cambodia. It is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places we have been to in a long time.