Just over a year ago we spent a long weekend relaxing at Sea Ranch with Cynthia, her husband Humberto and their two sons Julian and Emilio. This was an annual trip for all of us, and we always enjoy working on a puzzle together. In anticipation of our year traveling in Asia, we bought a puzzle of Angkor Wat. The image on the puzzle was so interesting that the three of us, Cynthia Pete and Kristina, decided we wanted to visit it together.
From Laos we flew to Siem Reap to spent a few days visiting the largest religious site in the world, Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat means City of Temples. When it was built in the early part of the 12th century, Angkor was the largest city in the world. The temple is so important that it is on the Cambodian flag.
King Suryavarman II commissioned Angkor Wat as a Hindu mausoleum for himself and dedicated it to the god Vishnu. The steep steps lead up to Mt Meru, the realm of the Hindu gods.
The numerous devatas, minor female deities, graced the walls as elegant carved reliefs.
When Angkor became Buddhist near the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat was converted into a Buddhist temple. Buddhist sculptures were added, like this one where the Buddha is being protected from the rain by snakes called nagas. Nagas are an important Buddhist symbol.
Originally all the statues were painted, but only traces remain.
in the middle of the 13th century, the temple reverted to Hinduism, only to recycle again to Buddhist at the end of the 13th century. So today what's left is a blend of Hindu and Buddhist elements.
We found the bas reliefs at Angkor Wat to be an impressive part of the temple. Covering 600 yards around the main complex and at a height of six feet, the stone carvings are Hindu and from the Ramayana and Mahabartha stories.
Particularly moving was this story about about churning the ocean of milk into the elixir of immortality. In the center is Vishnu and he is standing on a turtle, his avatar.
In this story, the gods and demons joined forces and used the body of the serpent king Vasuki to churn the ocean for 1,000 years. Here you see some of the hundred demons pulling the serpent's body.
This close up of the three gods shows how they held onto Vasuki.
At one end of the relief is Hanuman, the monkey king from the epic Ramayana. While he was not originally part of the story, the beloved monkey king was added because the Ramayana story was very popular.
This is a view of the bas reliefs' building with its numerous stone columns.
Angkor was the capital of the Khmer empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. There were 37 significant temples built during this time, and we visited nine of them. At Banteay Srei temple the rose colored sandstone carvings are some of the best preserved, due to the hardness of the stone.
The temple was built on a miniature scale. Almost every inch was covered with intricate reliefs.
Banteay Srei temple was Hindu and dedicated to Shiva. Here Shiva is dancing the world into existence in this Nataraj carving.
This is Garuda, a half human and half eagle creature that Vishnu rides. There are thousands of Garudas throughout the Hindu temples.
At Banteay Samre, the tall laterite walls show that it was a citadel. Laterite is clay that is high in iron. When exposed to the sun, the laterite bricks shrink and harden, leaving air holes.
Laterite is a strong material that was used throughout Angkor for temple foundations, walls and floors.
This is Ta Prahm, a Buddhist monastery that was built in the early 13th century. It has not been restored and nature has taken over in a powerful way.
This is a silk-cotton tree.
These trees with trunks like huge fingers are strangler figs.
We enjoyed riding bikes to go between temple complexes.
Elephants were used to build the temples and they moved the heavy stone blocks. At the Elephant Terrace, a government council building, we enjoyed these beautiful stone elephants on the walls.
This is the Bayon temple that was built at the beginning of the 13th century by the Buddhist King Jayavarman VII.
We loved the full lips on these Avalokitesvara sculptures. In looking at a statue of Jayavarman VII, it became clear that his own image was the model for Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion.
Also at Bayon were many carvings of devatas.
Another temple complex that is mainly unrestored and being slowly engulfed by the surrounding jungle is Preah Khan.
The temple entry gate is guarded by stone lions.
The layout includes a series of rectangular galleries that provide long views through ornate openings.
One of the galleries is known as the Hall of Dancers, which included these wonderful reliefs of apsaras over a doorway. Apsaras are celestial nymphs that are superb dancers.
As with so many of the temples here, the stone work was stunning.
Our favorite meal in Siem Reap was at the Mie Cafe. This green papaya salad had a perfectly cooked egg and a lightly fried river fish.
This is Paul, who was our wonderful chef and waiter. Like most Cambodians we have interacted with, his English was excellent.
We visited the L'Ecole D'Artisans where young people from throughout Cambodia are taught traditional arts, in an effort to foster cultural skills and provide a vocation for these young adults. Here two men carve a wooden statue, an effort that will take several months to complete.
We learned that some of these artisans were involved in a restoration project at Angkor Wat. This display shows how a stone sculpture is carved from a solid block.
We are happy that Cynthia was interested in being a guest blogger and writing about Phnom Pehn. The next section is her contribution to the blog.
With 17.5 percent of Cambodia's GDP coming from tourism, my experience here has been one of an outsider. This differs from my experience in Thailand and Lao. It's also been surprising that most Cambodians speak English proficiently and at least for tourists, the currency is American dollars.
We prepared for Phnom Penh by reading about the Khmer Rouge and the five different regimes that have held power here since the 60's. We were curious how mass genocide could happen and what made the people vulnerable. Years of civil unrest, poverty, and fear from the years of war in southeast Asia (including the American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail that runs through Cambodia), all seemed to have played a role.
We visited the Genocide Museum and the Cheung Ek Genocide Center (aka, the killing fields). During the 3 years and 8 months of the Khmer Rouge's rule, 2 to 3 million of Cambodia's 8 million citizens were tortured and killed. The Khmer Rouge started by burning the market, abolishing the monetary system, eliminating culture, destroying schools, hospitals, and monuments. While it seems impossible, genocide has happened many times and so we must ask ourselves... How strong is my will to live? What would I do in order to save the life of my child?
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was the prison in Phnom Penh where over 16,000 people were tortured and interrogated prior to being executed.
Before the Khmer Rouge took power, Toul Seng was a school, not a prison. The Khmer Rouge turned this swing into a torture device. Prisoners were hung upside down by their ankles and repeatedly dunked headfirst into water-filled urns.
Like the Nazis before them, the Khmer Rouge were incredibly thorough in documenting their victims, which included mugshots and brief biographies. What crime did these young boys commit in the eyes of their captors?
Fiendishly small cells and barbed wire were evident throughout the complex.
Here are the regulations prisoners were to follow.
Prisoners were transported at night to the village of Cheung Ek where they were beat to death then pushed into mass graves.
Loud music played from speakers hung to drown out the screaming. The killing tree was were children were killed and buried in a mass grave with their mothers. The Khmer Rouge was sure to kill all members of the family so no one could seek revenge in the future.
The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (killings fields) was hard to visit, but handled the matter with incredible compassion by way of audio tours with moving stories of those held by the Khmer Rouge. Not surprisingly, their pain is palpable more than 30 years later.
A Buddhist stupa was built in 1988 as a memorial to those that died at Killing Fields throughout Cambodia. It houses the skulls and femers of over 9,000 people. The other bones were left in the mass graves.
In 2010 (31 years later!) the UN War Crimes tribunal sentenced Duch, the man responsible for the prison and killing fields, to 35 years in prison.
The country has been successful in rebuilding their arts to keep the Khmer culture alive and we saw a moving opera called Mak Therng at the National museum. Lovely costumes.
Interestingly, we learned they changed the end of the story so that now the King acknowledges the prince's crime of stealing another man's wife and punishes him, as opposed to the original version in which the king took no action.
We also visited the Royal Palace, a huge compound that was well thought out and fortunately survived the Khmer Rouge.
The National Museum was home to many treasures that we found much easier to appreciate after having spent time touring Angkor Wat. It was designed and built by the French during the colonial period, but pays tribute to traditional Khmer architecture.
We enjoyed body scrubs and massages at the lovely La Rose Spa, Boutique and Restaurant that we've called home for the past few days. We enjoyed the hotel's door pulls.
In case you are curious, our blog title is a nod to a punk song from the 1980's. Here's a link to the lyrics of the Dead Kennedy's 1980 single, Holiday in Cambodia.
From Laos we flew to Siem Reap to spent a few days visiting the largest religious site in the world, Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat means City of Temples. When it was built in the early part of the 12th century, Angkor was the largest city in the world. The temple is so important that it is on the Cambodian flag.
King Suryavarman II commissioned Angkor Wat as a Hindu mausoleum for himself and dedicated it to the god Vishnu. The steep steps lead up to Mt Meru, the realm of the Hindu gods.
The numerous devatas, minor female deities, graced the walls as elegant carved reliefs.
When Angkor became Buddhist near the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat was converted into a Buddhist temple. Buddhist sculptures were added, like this one where the Buddha is being protected from the rain by snakes called nagas. Nagas are an important Buddhist symbol.
Originally all the statues were painted, but only traces remain.
in the middle of the 13th century, the temple reverted to Hinduism, only to recycle again to Buddhist at the end of the 13th century. So today what's left is a blend of Hindu and Buddhist elements.
We found the bas reliefs at Angkor Wat to be an impressive part of the temple. Covering 600 yards around the main complex and at a height of six feet, the stone carvings are Hindu and from the Ramayana and Mahabartha stories.
Particularly moving was this story about about churning the ocean of milk into the elixir of immortality. In the center is Vishnu and he is standing on a turtle, his avatar.
In this story, the gods and demons joined forces and used the body of the serpent king Vasuki to churn the ocean for 1,000 years. Here you see some of the hundred demons pulling the serpent's body.
This close up of the three gods shows how they held onto Vasuki.
At one end of the relief is Hanuman, the monkey king from the epic Ramayana. While he was not originally part of the story, the beloved monkey king was added because the Ramayana story was very popular.
This is a view of the bas reliefs' building with its numerous stone columns.
Angkor was the capital of the Khmer empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. There were 37 significant temples built during this time, and we visited nine of them. At Banteay Srei temple the rose colored sandstone carvings are some of the best preserved, due to the hardness of the stone.
The temple was built on a miniature scale. Almost every inch was covered with intricate reliefs.
Banteay Srei temple was Hindu and dedicated to Shiva. Here Shiva is dancing the world into existence in this Nataraj carving.
This is Garuda, a half human and half eagle creature that Vishnu rides. There are thousands of Garudas throughout the Hindu temples.
At Banteay Samre, the tall laterite walls show that it was a citadel. Laterite is clay that is high in iron. When exposed to the sun, the laterite bricks shrink and harden, leaving air holes.
Laterite is a strong material that was used throughout Angkor for temple foundations, walls and floors.
This is Ta Prahm, a Buddhist monastery that was built in the early 13th century. It has not been restored and nature has taken over in a powerful way.
This is a silk-cotton tree.
These trees with trunks like huge fingers are strangler figs.
We enjoyed riding bikes to go between temple complexes.
Elephants were used to build the temples and they moved the heavy stone blocks. At the Elephant Terrace, a government council building, we enjoyed these beautiful stone elephants on the walls.
This is the Bayon temple that was built at the beginning of the 13th century by the Buddhist King Jayavarman VII.
We loved the full lips on these Avalokitesvara sculptures. In looking at a statue of Jayavarman VII, it became clear that his own image was the model for Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion.
Also at Bayon were many carvings of devatas.
Another temple complex that is mainly unrestored and being slowly engulfed by the surrounding jungle is Preah Khan.
The temple entry gate is guarded by stone lions.
The layout includes a series of rectangular galleries that provide long views through ornate openings.
One of the galleries is known as the Hall of Dancers, which included these wonderful reliefs of apsaras over a doorway. Apsaras are celestial nymphs that are superb dancers.
As with so many of the temples here, the stone work was stunning.
Our favorite meal in Siem Reap was at the Mie Cafe. This green papaya salad had a perfectly cooked egg and a lightly fried river fish.
This is Paul, who was our wonderful chef and waiter. Like most Cambodians we have interacted with, his English was excellent.
We visited the L'Ecole D'Artisans where young people from throughout Cambodia are taught traditional arts, in an effort to foster cultural skills and provide a vocation for these young adults. Here two men carve a wooden statue, an effort that will take several months to complete.
We learned that some of these artisans were involved in a restoration project at Angkor Wat. This display shows how a stone sculpture is carved from a solid block.
We are happy that Cynthia was interested in being a guest blogger and writing about Phnom Pehn. The next section is her contribution to the blog.
With 17.5 percent of Cambodia's GDP coming from tourism, my experience here has been one of an outsider. This differs from my experience in Thailand and Lao. It's also been surprising that most Cambodians speak English proficiently and at least for tourists, the currency is American dollars.
We prepared for Phnom Penh by reading about the Khmer Rouge and the five different regimes that have held power here since the 60's. We were curious how mass genocide could happen and what made the people vulnerable. Years of civil unrest, poverty, and fear from the years of war in southeast Asia (including the American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail that runs through Cambodia), all seemed to have played a role.
We visited the Genocide Museum and the Cheung Ek Genocide Center (aka, the killing fields). During the 3 years and 8 months of the Khmer Rouge's rule, 2 to 3 million of Cambodia's 8 million citizens were tortured and killed. The Khmer Rouge started by burning the market, abolishing the monetary system, eliminating culture, destroying schools, hospitals, and monuments. While it seems impossible, genocide has happened many times and so we must ask ourselves... How strong is my will to live? What would I do in order to save the life of my child?
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was the prison in Phnom Penh where over 16,000 people were tortured and interrogated prior to being executed.
Before the Khmer Rouge took power, Toul Seng was a school, not a prison. The Khmer Rouge turned this swing into a torture device. Prisoners were hung upside down by their ankles and repeatedly dunked headfirst into water-filled urns.
Like the Nazis before them, the Khmer Rouge were incredibly thorough in documenting their victims, which included mugshots and brief biographies. What crime did these young boys commit in the eyes of their captors?
Fiendishly small cells and barbed wire were evident throughout the complex.
Here are the regulations prisoners were to follow.
Prisoners were transported at night to the village of Cheung Ek where they were beat to death then pushed into mass graves.
Loud music played from speakers hung to drown out the screaming. The killing tree was were children were killed and buried in a mass grave with their mothers. The Khmer Rouge was sure to kill all members of the family so no one could seek revenge in the future.
The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (killings fields) was hard to visit, but handled the matter with incredible compassion by way of audio tours with moving stories of those held by the Khmer Rouge. Not surprisingly, their pain is palpable more than 30 years later.
A Buddhist stupa was built in 1988 as a memorial to those that died at Killing Fields throughout Cambodia. It houses the skulls and femers of over 9,000 people. The other bones were left in the mass graves.
In 2010 (31 years later!) the UN War Crimes tribunal sentenced Duch, the man responsible for the prison and killing fields, to 35 years in prison.
The country has been successful in rebuilding their arts to keep the Khmer culture alive and we saw a moving opera called Mak Therng at the National museum. Lovely costumes.
Interestingly, we learned they changed the end of the story so that now the King acknowledges the prince's crime of stealing another man's wife and punishes him, as opposed to the original version in which the king took no action.
We also visited the Royal Palace, a huge compound that was well thought out and fortunately survived the Khmer Rouge.
The National Museum was home to many treasures that we found much easier to appreciate after having spent time touring Angkor Wat. It was designed and built by the French during the colonial period, but pays tribute to traditional Khmer architecture.
We enjoyed body scrubs and massages at the lovely La Rose Spa, Boutique and Restaurant that we've called home for the past few days. We enjoyed the hotel's door pulls.
In case you are curious, our blog title is a nod to a punk song from the 1980's. Here's a link to the lyrics of the Dead Kennedy's 1980 single, Holiday in Cambodia.
