Tag: Siem Reap

The Magnificent Mekong Day 17

Saturday, September 9th, 2023

This morning we checked out of our hotel and went to visit Ta Prohm temple. It was used for a couple of scenes in the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.

It was built in 1186 and was a Buddhist temple.

We entered at the West entrance of Ta Prohm and walked to the East Entrance.

As we were walking we passed a group of ants that we were told to not let crawl on us because they would bite. We all steered clear!

The trees(Fig, Banyon & Kapok) and their roots had taken over much of the area and made it creepy as you walked around the grounds.

From tomb raider

Records showed that Ta Prohm was home to more than 12,500 people which included 18 high priests and 615 dancers. More than 800,000 people who lived in the surrounding villages provided services and supplies to the temple.

It was a temple of towers, closed courtyards, and narrow corridors. Many of the corridors were impassable with piles of stone blocks dislodged by the roots of trees.

Bas-reliefs on walls were covered with lichen, moss and creeping plants.

Our guide pointed out that one of the wall reliefs that dinosaurs were carved back in the 12th century! It looked like a type of stegosaurus.

After the temple we visited the Sihanouk-Angkor Museum. The museum opened in 2008.

Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum

A giant Buddha sat at the entrance to the museum.

It had a collection of 274 Buddha statues.

Just one from the Buddha collection.

The “Thousand Buddha” pillar had 1,008 small carvings of Buddha meditating and it covered all four sides.

“Thousand Buddha” Pillar

Our next stop was the airport to check-in for our flight to Hanoi. We flew on Vietnam Airlines.

When we landed in Hanoi it was close to 8:00 PM and by the time we picked up our luggage and boarded our bus to the hotel it was after 9:00 PM. The traffic and motorbikes was still very heavy!

A lot of traffic in Hanoi

We had a good view of Hanoi from our hotel room!

View from our hotel room.

Tomorrow we would be exploring Hanoi.

The Magnificent Mekong Day 16

Friday, September 8th, 2023

Our Angkor Wat pass was still good so today we visited Angkor Thom. It was the last capital of the Khmer Empire and was well fortified. Angkor Thom when translated from the Khmer language meant “Great Kingdom”. It was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII.

Five bridges lead into Angkor Thom and they were identical in length, width, and height. Each bridge was decorated with carved stone balustrades that depicted larger than life-sized figures of gods and demons. There were 54 gods on the left and 54 demons on the right.

Entering the South gate to Angkor Thom
South entrance and the moat that surrounded Angkor Thom

As we entered we saw a lot of archeological digs happening.

Many of the structures here were made of wood so they were gone. The remaining stone monuments illustrated how magnificent the city was within its walls.

Bayon temple was located in the city of Angkor Thom. It was built almost 100 years after Angkor Wat. Bayon had 216 large smiling faces from 37 towers. The Bayon had three levels. We could not visit the third level due to safety reasons.

Along the temple was a bas-relief that depicted the Khmer Army March.

We walked over to the Terrace of the Elephants. It was part of the walled city of Angkor Thom. It was mainly decorated with carved elephants. It also had a viewing platform for the king to watch his army returning through the grassy field. This wall was once attached to the royal palace.

Then we walked through the Terrace of the Leper King. It was located north of the Terrace of the Elephants. It had bas-reliefs on the Interior and exterior walls and stood almost 23 feet tall. There was speculation of why it was named the Leper King. Most believe it was because one of the former kings had leprosy. The statue of the Leper King was a replica because the original was in a museum in Phenm Penh.

Replica of Leper King statue
Inside the Leper King Terrace
Bas-reliefs on the Terrace walls
Detailed bas-reliefs

This afternoon we visited H.V.T.O. (Homestay Volunteer Teachers Organization) school. This “school” supplemented the public school education of the rural Cambodians. It was founded by Sim Piseth. He was one of our Cambodian Guides and he wanted to give back to his village. Viking helped this school financially.

When we visited two 14 year old girls picked us and took us around the school grounds and practiced their English!

Our guides and readers

They then showed us the library and picked the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss. They took turns reading the book to us.

We went with them into the various classrooms. Some of the classes sang a song in English, another did the ABCs, and others explained what they were learning. It was a wonderful afternoon.

In one of the classes a little 8 year old girl came up to me and handed a beautiful picture that she had drawn.

Before we left one of the girls gave us her handwritten biography! It was so special.

Our dinner was at the Mahob restaurant. As the servers were delivering the main course, the lights went out! It wasn’t just at the restaurant but the entire city of Siem Reap! Another guest told us the power had gone off twice in the afternoon. It must be fairly common because the restaurant had battery backup lights to give us a little light and we also used the flashlight on our phones!

The Magnificent Mekong Day 15

Thursday, September 7th, 2023

This morning we visited Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Angkor Wat translated from the Khmer language (Cambodia’s official language) as City Temple. This was a temple complex that was the largest religious structure in the world.

It was designed as a Hindu temple to serve King Suryavarman II. By the end of the 12th century it was considered a Buddhist site. It also was an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The five central towers symbolized the peaks of Mt. Meru which according to Hindu mythology was the dwelling place of gods.

The “mountain” was said to be surrounded by an ocean and the moat suggested the oceans were at the edge of the world according to Hindu mytholodgy.

A 617 foot bridge allows access to the site.

Angkor Wat covered 400 acres. It marked the high point of Khmer architecture. You would even find Angkor War on the Cambodian flag.

There are over 1200 sq. meters of bas reliefs that represented 8 different Hindu stories.
One of the many reliefs
Another relief example
Steep steps going up to the 3rd level.

Our clothing was soaked due to the temperature and humidity.

Angkor Wat was surrounded by heavy forests.

Our guide, Reth, grew up here and he told us stories about Angkor Wat being his playground during the period of unrest in Cambodia before it became a World Heritage Site in 1992.

Reth

After spending the morning at Angkor Wat, we went back to the hotel to clean up and have some lunch. Our lunch consisted of walking from our hotel to the 7-Eleven nearby and picked up a couple of snacks to eat in our room!

This afternoon we went to the market in town. Our guide told us pepper was very popular and of high quality. We bought some Cambodian peppercorns to bring home. We also found our Cambodian Christmas ornament for our International tree.

A portion of the local market

We had some extra time so we walked to the Red Piano where they had a drink called “Tomb Raider” named after Angelina Jolie. When she was here filming part of Tomb Raider she would come to the Red Piano and this was her cocktail.

Our Tomb Raider drinks

After the market we had time to freshen up before going out to a lovely restaurant for dinner, Sokkhak River Restaurant. The staff was extremely helpful and careful with our food, especially those of us with dietary restrictions.

Our local restaurant

This afternoon we drove by Pub Street which was lined with restaurants and bars and was known as being the Nightlife spot. Below was a picture taken in the afternoon and another taken after dinner on our way to the hotel.

In the afternoon, not much is happening!
In the evening, music and a lot more people!

Tomorrow was a visit to Angkor Thom and a visit to a local school.

The Magnificent Mekong Day 14

Wednesday, September 6th, 2023

This morning we disembarked from the Viking Saigon and boarded our coach to take us to Siem Reap. Viking provided a brown bag with juice, chips, an apple, and a protein bar as a snack to have for our ride.

As we rode along you could see rice drying out on tarps. They do this near the roads because it usually doesn’t flood there.

Drying rice on blue tarps

Our coach made several “comfort” stops along the way and another stop was for our bus driver could have lunch and have a break.

Have you ever seen furniture moved on a flat bed pulled by a tractor?

A clothing store that travels from village to village selling merchandise!

We made a stop at a rubber tree plantation where we saw resin dropping from the trees.

Young rubber tree- about a year old, takes 7 years to grow for rubber resin to produce.
Rubber trees over 10 years old
Rubber resin from the tree

These ants would bite so we stayed away from them!

Another stop was to see an elephant! The elephant made a trek into town once a year for its owner to sell his medicine that we were told helped arthritis!

Girl elephant, 2 months away from home, 90 years old, takes this journey once a year, sells medication to help with arthritis
Heading out

Before reaching our hotel we made a stop at the entrance of Angkor Wat to get our picture taken for our three day pass.

Angkor Wat Entrance

When we reached our destination we checked into our hotel. We were greeted by some musicians.

The hotel was beautiful! Below are pictures from the lobby and some of the outdoors.

We visited the pool which was refreshing but didn’t cool you off. The water was quite warm from the sun not from any pool heater! At 6:00 AM the water temperature was posted as being 86˚ F!

Our room had a balcony and a beautiful view of the grounds.

The hotel gifted each of us a Cambodian made scarf when they came to do the evening bed turn down and at dinner we had a Cambodian dance team perform.

Tomorrow we visited Angkor Wat!