All the riches of Cambodia

We visited the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh which was built around 1860 and where the present king resides (sometimes).

The Silver Pagoda is the main attraction in the palace - it has Italian marble staircases, silver floor tiles (which are mostly covered, the uncovered ones are all tarnished black - except where tourists have surreptitiosly rubbed the tiles with their bare feet) and a huge collection of Buddhas. There were wooden Buddhas, stone Buddhas, copper Buddhas, silver Buddhas, gold Buddhas, even a jade Buddha (which may actually be Bakelite).

The palace grounds were well maintained and it was very peaceful there. However, it was slightly surreal walking around there in such an opulent setting, after having visited the killing fields and encountered beggers and children selling water and photocopied books in the streets. Admission to the palace was also relatively expensive, which makes me wonder if ordinary Cambodian people are able to visit there. Though I'm sure that, like most things in SEA, there is a tourist price and a local price.

A mural on the palace wall.

One of the palace gates.

A work in progress.

One of the stupas in the palace grounds.

A Buddha statue and an absolutely bizarre flower in the palace grounds.

Rolous Group

The Rolous Group are the oldest surviving temples in the Siem Reap area. The group is made up of three temples - Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei. It was really interesting to see the different architectural styles of the temples and how the designs kept getting bigger and more ornate - eventually culminating in Angkor Wat.

I suspect that I am boring everyone with all these temple photos, after all there is nothing worse than being forced to view someone else's holiday photos (well, actually there probably are worse things - like being eaten by a shark or finding an unexpected durian filling in your otherwise delightful lunchtime pastry - but you can't think of these things when you are actually being forced to see boring holiday pics).

Anyway, if you are bored with the photos, too bad! Because I still haven't gotten around to downloading the Angkor Wat photos off Dan's camera. But I promise that they will be the last set of ancient temple photos I post on here. For a while, anyway.

Lolei Temple - ruined statue, renovations and chin-wagging.

Lolei Temple - a crazed looking demon...

Lolei Temple.

Carvings and windows at the Bakong Temple.

Nose-less elephants guarding the Bakong Temple.

Statue ruins at Bakong Temple.

Khmer Rouge trials

The UN-backed Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal today handed down a 35-year prison sentence to Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the former head of the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison. This is a historic day for Cambodia as Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge member to be tried for the atrocities committed during 1975-79.

Click here to read an article about the trial and verdict. Alternatively, the BBC has a series of articles about the trial, the verdict and stories from survivers of the S-21 and of the Khmer Rouge era.

Stick Village

We visited a poor fishing community situated on the currently-dry bed of the Tonle Sap Lake. I can not remember the name of the village but our driver (a very friendly man from our guesthouse who told us all kinds of useful and informative stories, such as why cows sound like they are saying "more" and "no more", why dogs lift a leg when doing their business and why dogs sleep in the streets....trust me, you don't want to know!) said it was known as stick village - due to the houses all being built on high stilts. Each year, at the end of the wet season, the the Mekong River floods and the Tonle Sap Lake fills up, flooding the village. 

The houses have been built so high up to prevent them being flooded, but the inhabitants are effectively flooded into their homes for about three months a year. If anyone wants to go anywhere they have to row, including to the local pagoda and primary school. The villagers are all very poor, they make a subsistence living off fishing and growing crops in the lake bed when the water is low. Some of the houses are very sparse, even missing entire exterior walls. It was sad to see people living such a tough life, yet the villagers all smiled and waved at us and the kids, especially, were so excited to see us and came over to give us high fives and hold our hands.

A typical house in Stick Village.

A local woman. Checkered scarves are worn on the heads or around the necks of many Cambodian people as a kind of unofficial symbol of ethnicity or nationality.

Looking out over Stick Village. All of the grassy area will be under water later this year.

Stuck in the mud in Stick Village.

The Valley of 1000 Lingas

Older than Angkor Wat, Kbal Spean (also known as the Valley of 1000 Lingas) is a collection of Hindu and phallic images carved into a riverbed. To get there, we had to travel about 40km out of town then trek 1.5km through the jungle and up a mountain (on a very well maintained and well trodden track).

The trek through the jungle alone was spectacular, occasionally there would be a break in the trees, offering a fantastic view out over the surrounding jungle, valleys and mountains. There were thousands of different butterflies flitting around and, if we stood still long enough, landing on us. We could also hear different birds calls and, possibly, monkey cries (though that could also have been some kind of owl, hooting away to try and confuse the tourists).

The riverbed carvings were unbelievable. The surrounding jungle is so dense and the site seems to remote, it is incredible to think that people were up there over a thousand years ago, carving images into the rocks, just to show their devotion to their gods and to pray for successful crops.

We were in Siem Reap during the wet season. Trekking through the jungle in high humidity was very hot and sweaty.

I don't know what these carvings of people represent, but they don't look over 1000 years old!

The river washes over the carved lingas. Animals are carved into the big rock.

The river runs through the carvings of lingas and Hindu legends. 

Not Angkor Wat

Unfortunately my camera battery died just as we arrived at Angkor Wat. So I won't be posting any photos of Angkor Wat til I can get my hands on Dan's camera. I know you're craving more ancient temple ruins pics so, in order to satisfy you (you demanding lot!) I'll allow you to admire this picture of me bravely climbing the steep, narrow and often slippery steps of an Angkor-era temple...

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is a beautiful temple complex a couple of kilometres out of Siem Reap. It was built in the 10th century and, although it is smaller than most of the other temple complexes we saw, I thought it was just as spectacular, if not more-so. The temple is covered in thousands of intricate carvings which are set off by the stunning reds and oranges of the stone. Some guidebooks say that it is called the Citadel of Women and that the carvings are believed to have been done by women - because they are too fine to have been done by men. However, an information sign at Banteay Srei said this could be a mis-translation of the name. Regardless, the temple is absolutely stunning and it is set in a beautiful countryside area.

Carvings above a doorway at Banteay Srei.