Once we were done with Angkor Wat we headed into Angkor Thom, which was the ancient capital city with Bayon at the center. That temple is famous for its many towers with faces facing most of the cardinal directions. It was quite a maze as it has been changed and added to a lot since it was originally built in the 12th century.
We enjoyed the temples quite a bit and Siem Reap is a neat city to explore. Our day today was mostly a relaxing one and we're headed to Bangkok tomorrow.
-Miranda
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Inside Angkor Wat.
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View of Angkor Wat from the north.
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Checking out the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat.
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Faces of Bryon.
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Bayon reflecting in the surrounding moat.
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The second day we left at about the same time, which was around 9am and headed towards Banteay Srei, which is about 35km outside of town. Along the way we stopped at Pre Rup which was a neat temple. Most of them aren't too big, so we spend just under an hour exploring them.
Banteay Srei was very neat. The towers are quite a bit smaller than most other temples, but the bas-relief designs are all over, essentially covering everything. They are very detailed and still well preserved. This one also has the first 'monkey guard' statues that we've seen.
After, we headed to Ta Som, Neak Prahn and Preah Kahn. Again, all very neat. Preag Kahn is pretty big and has a few trees growing on the walls and buildings, though not even close to as extensively as Ta Prohm.
On our way back to the hotel we drove by Ankor Wat and through Ankor Thom. In Ankor Thom, there are some locals with monkeys. The driver stopped, so we did buy a bag of bananas and fed the monkeys. They were climbing all over the tuk-tuk. One even jumped up on Joe's shoulder, which was amusing. I tried to use a banana to lure it off, but instead it just took it and munched on it while sitting there.
We took a day off today, but we plan on spending tomorrow seeing Ankor Wat and exploring the temples and sights of Ankor Thom, which was the ancient capital city. The little we saw in there while driving through was spectacular. It should be an interesting day tomorrow.
-Miranda
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The towers of Pre Rup. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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A very detailed bas-relief at Banteay Srei. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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The 'monkey guards'. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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An old dead stump on a building at Preah Kahn. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Joe with a monkey.
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We left Phnom Penh and took the bus for about 6 hours to Siem Reap. One we found a hotel we did some research to decide where to go and what to do. The next day began our first day of visiting temples.
There are a few different ways to get around, but we chose tuk-tuk. Basically you find a tuk-tuk driver and use him for your entire trip. You just pay a set price (agreed upon before starting) for what you plan to do on that day. You also have to buy a pass to see the temples. Cambodians don't have to, just foreigners, which is hopefully going to help protect and restore the temples.
All the temples were built during the Angkor period, which was the 9th to 13th centuries. For our first day we six temples; Lolei, Preah Ko, Bakong (previous three are part of the Roluos Group), Ta Prohm, Banteay and Prasat Kravan. The temples in the Roluos Group were relatively small, but pretty interesting. Ta Prohm has a number of trees growing on top of the walls and buildings, giving it a bit of an 'Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider' look. This is a large and pretty popular temple. Banteay Kdei was similar, just a little smaller.
It was a bit hot, especially when the sun was out, but the temples were amazing, especially the carvings and bas-reliefs that are left. You could spend hours just wandering and checking examining those. So many are different, especially over each of the doors on the towers.
Our favorite of the first day was probably Ta Prohm, though all were awe inspiring.
-Miranda
A link to a map of the temples if you're curious.
http://www.palmasplace.com/images/maptemples.jpg
Preah Ko. Lions guard most entrances and stairways in the temples.
Bakong. This is a brick tower.
One entrance of Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm
Banteay Kdei
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In April of 1975 the Khmer Rouge defeated the Lon Nol Government and took over the capital city of Phnom Penh. People were immediately forced to abandon their homes and walk for days to other villages where they were to live and work. Many atrocities happened during the 4 years the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia. Labor camps were formed where people had to work from sunrise to sunset digging trenches or planting rice. The Khmer Rouge also systematically killed anyone they deemed a threat to their government. This included officers of the former government, foreigners and intellectuals, people that could speak a foreign language, were formerly teachers, doctors, etc. They even killed people that wore glasses.
Tuol Sleng (S21) used to be a school, but since all schools were closed, it was turned into a prison. The Khmer Rouge brought prisoners here they wanted to interrogate. Interrogation involved a number of forms of torture. They also kept meticulous records, including photos of every prisoner and even photos of the tortured. The space has now become a museum which was horrific to walk through. Some rooms just had photos of all the prisoners. One building showed where prisoners were kept in small skinny rooms. Some of the buildings didn't have separate 'cells'. One room could be crowded with 30-40 people simply lying on the floor. These buildings also had barbed wire over the walkway/balcony area in order to prevent prisoners from trying to commit suicide.
Once the interrogation was done, most of the prisoners were stuffed into a truck and shipped 14km outside of town to Choeung Ek, now known as "The Killing Fields". Officers, men, women, children and babies were all killed here. Many by simply beatings because they didn't want to "waste precious bullets". Mass graves were found, the largest containing 450 bodies. One just had women and children in it.
In 1989 a memorial stupa was built for those killed. It has 17 tiers and contained the bones and ragged clothes from those found in the mass graves. How many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge is up for debate, but most numbers we saw mentioned almost 2 million.
The day was very sobering. Especially since there are still so many people alive that survived it or were greatly affected by what happened.
Sorry for the depressing blog post, but I felt it important to mention the history. It was something I was relatively ignorant of before this trip.
-Miranda
One room that contained wood cells.
View through the barbed wire to other buildings at S21.
The memorial stupa used to house the bones.
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We took a 9am bus heading to Phnom Penh so we would get there with enough time to find a place to stay. We made to within 30km of the city when the bus pulled over and stopped. After about half an hour of messing with it, the bus driver finally got it started again and off we went. We were in the city when it died again... Once he got it started, he drove another 5 minutes and reached a bus maintenance area. We waited for them to fuel it and mess with more stuff before we finally piled back on the bus where it took us to the Central Market. We found a pretty fancy hotel not far from there to stay in. The area is pretty chaotic, but it's quiet in the room, which is what matters.
Today we walked to the Grand Palace to be told by every single tuk-tuk driver "Grand Palace not open. Opens at 2 o'clock. You want to go to killing fields?" Saying 'no' to them barely dissuades, so, needless to say, it got a bit old. We did find some place to kill some time though. There was a national museum that was interesting and we had lunch at a Mediterranean place that was very good.
The Grand Palace was pretty impressive. The Silver Pagoda is a temple that has silver tiles on the floor (most of which are now covered with a carpet to prevent people from walking on them) and a Buddha that has 2000 diamonds on it. No photos were allowed inside though.
-Miranda
The Grand Palace.
Neat thing that I don't know the name of.
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