Day 3: Cambodia (Siem Reap)



Can you see? Mingxiong is back in action!! That is after countless rubs with counterpain and numerous usage of salon pas! Ouch, very painful to take them out cos of the leg hair!

Prah Ko. This is rated 2-star. It is interesting to note that people at that time already owns the knowledge to use plaster mixture. They would carve on it since it is softer to display their art.

Talk about false ceilings and plastering walls to make them smooth...these ancient people already have the technology!

The temple was built in the 9th century. As you can see from this pic, there are 3 statues kneeling. They are the sacred bulls. They are Siva's Nandi and give the temple its modern name, 'The Sacred Bull'.

In front of the temples are lions guarding. Many temples in Angkor are going through restoration. At Baphuon, the temple is still under restoration after like 20 years! Most restoration are carried out by other countries, namely France, Japan and so on.

It is not easy as they try to match the stones that have collapsed and fit them back to the original state. To gel them back, they resort to using cement. Up till now, we are not sure how they manage to keep their buildings intact. Not sure if they have a substance as sticky as cement to hold them together. It is still a mystery! By the way, this temple was constructed using bricks, not the huge sandstones.

Bakong. This is a mountain temple and it was the first to make use of sandstones to construct. It was built in the same period as Prah Ko.

My god! Steps again...

Mingxiong decided to walk around the perimeter.

This is a school! Aiyo talk about doing volunteering work here. Hmnn...let me consider.

Check out the blackboard. For those of you who are not in education service, we NO LONGER use blackboard haha...it is whiteboard. But I am sometimes lazy and would prefer to use my tablet pc so that I do not have to clean the board. More convenient too when I have to switch to powerpoint.

The elephant statues line each storey of this temple.

Again a pair of lions guard the various towers of temples.

















It is a must to take pics from the top! Even though it is not so nice. We should have passed one camera to Mingxiong as he said that he could capture the different views of the temple as he walked the perimeter.












On the 3rd day, we actually preferred this temple.














The chambermaids on the previous nights saying, "Yes sir!"














Look at the radiance on his face! The result of a well-rested trip haha!














Lolei. This is a temple built in a reservoir. Received 1-star rating due to the poor state it was in.

Wenhui met with a mishap here. While coming down the steps, she slipped and fell. The stone steps were so old that they have kind of eroded and the surface became so smooth. That is why my hot babe hurt her bum ...














ahh...the ancient inscription! It's Sanskrit.


















Yep, they even have drainage system at that time. The idea is to determine which area is better for farming. When the water flows, they will see which direction has more water flowing. then it will mean that that area is better for farming.










Yeah! End of temple tour...we again headed back to hotel to KOON! Hurray, no more temples, no more steps ...


As the name says ...

Initially, I thought that Rong will bring us to an air-conditioned place.












It turned out to be like that!

There are the different kinds of grenades, mines and artifacts collected in this musuem and it is located in a poor village...

It takes a long time to reach this place as the road leading to this musuem is full of potholes!

This musuem was set up by Akira which displays the many thousands of relics of war from clearing the mines.

I donated US$3 and received a handout about the life of Akira. The following is an extract taken from that article:

"Life with the Vietnamese army continued in a similar vein as with the Khmer Rouge. We still had very little to eat and would be constantly looking for food. Both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Forces would raid villages and take what little food they had. I ate many bizarre things during this time, on one occasion, the trunk of an elephant. The rations were very poor and the packets of rice were often found to be old and mouldy with bits of rocks. If we were very hungry and were unable to find water to cook the rice with, we would pee into the plastic bag to soften the rice and many times I had to eat like this."

As I read the article, I thought about Rong, our tour guide. Cambodia people about the same age as us were all involved in the war from young. They had to be enlisted into the army at an innocent age. Rong lost his brother as a result.

On the way into the museum, Mingxiong was harassed by a young boy begging for money. The young boy said, "My father killed in mine field, please buy postcard." We did not pay attention to the young beggars as we do not know what they will do with the money, which might be channelled to gambling.





This was the penultimate stop of our tour. A memorial site for the victims of the genocide. As you can see, these are the skulls retrieved.
















Our tour ended with a last stop at the craft factory where we were shown the various craft made by the locals.

Yep...last nite at Siem Reap and we had enough of amok curry! We also had enough of the sandy environment! It is also sandy in the hotel room....

It is time we go Bangkok to pig out, haha.

Okie, the next posting will be the Da Vinci Code travel destination, followed by Phuket and Hokkaido. That will roughly sum up our group's travel plans for the year!

As for next year, Wenhui and I would like to visit another wonder! Great Wall of China...any takers?