It's no surprise that Cambodia is most known by it's biggest historical treasure - the temples of Angkor.
Dating back almost to a time before time, those magnificent temples represent a stunning architectural achievement and reflect the golden age of a former Cambodian kingdom - the culture of Khmers, that once covered vast parts of South-East asia, including current Laos, most of Thailand, some Myanmar (Burma) and parts of current Vietnam. Now Cambodia is collapsed into a fairly small country and was in danger of being completely wiped off the map just recently, but those awe inspiring temples really do tell the tale about their glorious past:
Crossing the Angkor Thom's northern gate.
Click to enlarge the panoramas:
The most famous one - Angkor Wat or the City Temple.
Details of Preah Ko temple's walls. These are one of the earlier temples of the Khmer empire, built before Angkor was even planned. In fact, those temples were built in the ancient capitals that contained much more buildings. However, temples are the only buildings that have survived the flow of times, as it was believed that no human shall live in stone buildings - they were reserved for the gods.
Detail of Bakong temple.
Panoramas of Bakong (click to enlarge).
Stairs to the tower.
Phom Bok temple, and a tree grown into it.
Phom Bok panorama (click to enlarge).
A newer temple aside Phom Bok hill (click to enlarge).
Views from Phnom Bok's hill to the plains of Cambodia (click to enlarge panorama).
Our trusty horse in front of Ta Keo temple.
A strong tree grown over Ta Prohm temple.
Dancing apsaras on the wall.
Figure on the Bayon's temple.
The four faces of Bayon tower.
Most of the Angkor is very touristy place - Japanese doing elephant tours with their hi-tec cameras.
Nun calling me for a prayer to Buddha.
Lighting up the incenses.
One of the temples in Angkor Thom complex.
Leper King's terrace details.
A tree over Ta Prohm temple.
Ta Keo.
Kariina climbing up the steep stairs of the temples. The temples were designed to represent the heavens or the Hindu sacred Mt Meru - where the gods live. Thus, the steeper the steps, the faster can one reach heaven The jokes put aside - the temples were not meant to be gathering places for the masses, as it is in Islam and Christianism - they are rather just religious monuments, and do not have to be ergonomic.
In front of Leper King's terrace.
Preah Khan temple with a tree inside it (click to enlarge the panorama)
Preah Khan from inside (click to enlarge the panroama)
Local Cambodian boy in a temple.
After becoming tired of watching the rocks of Angkor for 3 days in a row it was time to free our GS'es butterflies, inject some fuel and air into our trusty torquey boxer engine's combustion room and let it wrench us into the open spaces again - to the hot plains of Cambodia, where man has decided to stay true to the old ways of living.
Our route towards the shores of Gulf of Thailand in the south of Cambodia took us through some decent landscape plotted with rivers. Indeed, for Cambodian people, Tonle Sap and Mekong river system have been the main source for food - fish, for many centuries. Originally, the Khmers are not farmers but dominantly fishermen - sweet water fishermen.
Bringing raw material to the village market.
Tamarinds on the market.
Selling lotus seeds.
Lotus seed - tastes very good.
Trail riding on Cambodian plains.
Cambodian style gates in the beginnings of the small dirt roads.
Palmy landscapes.
Cambodian dirt road panorama (click to enlarge)
Cambodian landscape panorama (click to enlarge)
Curious village boys with their toys on sandy river delta in Kampot.
Muslim girls.
Crowd checking out our GS.
Trying it out.
Family checking their nets for catch.
Ships in muslim community in Kampot.
In the delta.
Muslim village in Kampot.
Salt production in Kampot, near the ocean.
Transporting salt.
Cambodian farmer.
Children.
Man checking out or GS - never seen such a bike in his life.
Cambodian man who joined us to see the sunset with us.
Sunset in Kampot's salt fields (Click to enlarge).
Dawn (click to enlarge).
After Kampot we headed back to Phnom Penh - the capital of Cambodia. It had a nice chaotic Asian atmosphere to it.
Traffic in Phnom Penh.
Woman making pastries for us.
Bringing stuff for sale to the market.
Chatting with a tuk-tuk (3-wheeler) driver.
Monks leave their temples every morning in search of food, going from one home to another, from one business to another. The monks are not supported by the state, so they must rely on the kindness on people to get provisions for the day. In return, the donors receive a prayer and a prospect of a better position in the afterlife. Thus it does not seem to have anything in common with charity.
One of Cambodian delights - ice coffee with condensed milk - tastes superb!
One of the very sad parts in history of Cambodia was a communist movement of Khmer Rouge that murdered over 2 million Cambodians in the 1970's and later the leaders were elected to UN to represent Cambodia till 1990's, meaning the murderers represented their victims till 1990s! And still the court hasn't worked out the final solution while the murderers have started to die of their old age, so there's little hope they will recieve any real justice. To not let those things to happen again Cambodians have opened a genocide museum in Phnom Pehn, in a former assasination camp where over 20 000 people were tortured and then murdered by communists.
Prisoners' cages.
Beds where the victims were hooked, then body parts/limbs cut off and other brutal methods used to "gain-the-information-that-never-existed-in-the-first-place". Pieces of body were put in the metal ammo box seen on the bed.
A picture above the same bed where a body had been drained of blood.
Horrified picture of one of the victims before going to be murdered.
Victims.
...we left Phnom Penh with scary feelings... Especially coming from one of the countries that also vastly suffered under communist repression.
We headed to Kratie and the heat was killing us - every day it hit more than +32C since Phnom Penh.
Mid-day sleep in Kratie heat.
Young monks on the move.
Drinking sugar cane juice and watching sunset over Mekong river.
And a sum-up video I compiled about riding in Cambodia:
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Dating back almost to a time before time, those magnificent temples represent a stunning architectural achievement and reflect the golden age of a former Cambodian kingdom - the culture of Khmers, that once covered vast parts of South-East asia, including current Laos, most of Thailand, some Myanmar (Burma) and parts of current Vietnam. Now Cambodia is collapsed into a fairly small country and was in danger of being completely wiped off the map just recently, but those awe inspiring temples really do tell the tale about their glorious past:
Crossing the Angkor Thom's northern gate.
Click to enlarge the panoramas:
The most famous one - Angkor Wat or the City Temple.
Details of Preah Ko temple's walls. These are one of the earlier temples of the Khmer empire, built before Angkor was even planned. In fact, those temples were built in the ancient capitals that contained much more buildings. However, temples are the only buildings that have survived the flow of times, as it was believed that no human shall live in stone buildings - they were reserved for the gods.
Detail of Bakong temple.
Panoramas of Bakong (click to enlarge).
Stairs to the tower.
Phom Bok temple, and a tree grown into it.
Phom Bok panorama (click to enlarge).
A newer temple aside Phom Bok hill (click to enlarge).
Views from Phnom Bok's hill to the plains of Cambodia (click to enlarge panorama).
Our trusty horse in front of Ta Keo temple.
A strong tree grown over Ta Prohm temple.
Dancing apsaras on the wall.
Figure on the Bayon's temple.
The four faces of Bayon tower.
Most of the Angkor is very touristy place - Japanese doing elephant tours with their hi-tec cameras.
Nun calling me for a prayer to Buddha.
Lighting up the incenses.
One of the temples in Angkor Thom complex.
Leper King's terrace details.
A tree over Ta Prohm temple.
Ta Keo.
Kariina climbing up the steep stairs of the temples. The temples were designed to represent the heavens or the Hindu sacred Mt Meru - where the gods live. Thus, the steeper the steps, the faster can one reach heaven The jokes put aside - the temples were not meant to be gathering places for the masses, as it is in Islam and Christianism - they are rather just religious monuments, and do not have to be ergonomic.
In front of Leper King's terrace.
Preah Khan temple with a tree inside it (click to enlarge the panorama)
Preah Khan from inside (click to enlarge the panroama)
Local Cambodian boy in a temple.
After becoming tired of watching the rocks of Angkor for 3 days in a row it was time to free our GS'es butterflies, inject some fuel and air into our trusty torquey boxer engine's combustion room and let it wrench us into the open spaces again - to the hot plains of Cambodia, where man has decided to stay true to the old ways of living.
Our route towards the shores of Gulf of Thailand in the south of Cambodia took us through some decent landscape plotted with rivers. Indeed, for Cambodian people, Tonle Sap and Mekong river system have been the main source for food - fish, for many centuries. Originally, the Khmers are not farmers but dominantly fishermen - sweet water fishermen.
Bringing raw material to the village market.
Tamarinds on the market.
Selling lotus seeds.
Lotus seed - tastes very good.
Trail riding on Cambodian plains.
Cambodian style gates in the beginnings of the small dirt roads.
Palmy landscapes.
Cambodian dirt road panorama (click to enlarge)
Cambodian landscape panorama (click to enlarge)
Curious village boys with their toys on sandy river delta in Kampot.
Muslim girls.
Crowd checking out our GS.
Trying it out.
Family checking their nets for catch.
Ships in muslim community in Kampot.
In the delta.
Muslim village in Kampot.
Salt production in Kampot, near the ocean.
Transporting salt.
Cambodian farmer.
Children.
Man checking out or GS - never seen such a bike in his life.
Cambodian man who joined us to see the sunset with us.
Sunset in Kampot's salt fields (Click to enlarge).
Dawn (click to enlarge).
After Kampot we headed back to Phnom Penh - the capital of Cambodia. It had a nice chaotic Asian atmosphere to it.
Traffic in Phnom Penh.
Woman making pastries for us.
Bringing stuff for sale to the market.
Chatting with a tuk-tuk (3-wheeler) driver.
Monks leave their temples every morning in search of food, going from one home to another, from one business to another. The monks are not supported by the state, so they must rely on the kindness on people to get provisions for the day. In return, the donors receive a prayer and a prospect of a better position in the afterlife. Thus it does not seem to have anything in common with charity.
One of Cambodian delights - ice coffee with condensed milk - tastes superb!
One of the very sad parts in history of Cambodia was a communist movement of Khmer Rouge that murdered over 2 million Cambodians in the 1970's and later the leaders were elected to UN to represent Cambodia till 1990's, meaning the murderers represented their victims till 1990s! And still the court hasn't worked out the final solution while the murderers have started to die of their old age, so there's little hope they will recieve any real justice. To not let those things to happen again Cambodians have opened a genocide museum in Phnom Pehn, in a former assasination camp where over 20 000 people were tortured and then murdered by communists.
Prisoners' cages.
Beds where the victims were hooked, then body parts/limbs cut off and other brutal methods used to "gain-the-information-that-never-existed-in-the-first-place". Pieces of body were put in the metal ammo box seen on the bed.
A picture above the same bed where a body had been drained of blood.
Horrified picture of one of the victims before going to be murdered.
Victims.
...we left Phnom Penh with scary feelings... Especially coming from one of the countries that also vastly suffered under communist repression.
We headed to Kratie and the heat was killing us - every day it hit more than +32C since Phnom Penh.
Mid-day sleep in Kratie heat.
Young monks on the move.
Drinking sugar cane juice and watching sunset over Mekong river.
And a sum-up video I compiled about riding in Cambodia:
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Margus