Cambodia

Place to Visit in Siem Reap

The reason most people come to Siem Reap is to visit Angkor Archaeological Park, which is thoroughly covered in its own article. The town itself boasts quite a number of beautiful modern Buddhist temples which are attractions in their own right.

Piles of mines, Landmine Museum

• Angkor National Museum. 1,000 Buddhas. The museum also shows the history of the Angkor complex as well as Khmer culture and clothing using high tech displays and video screens. $12. 

• Landmine Museum, (6 km south of Banteay Srey, 31 km from Siem Reap). This tiny museum was set up by local deminer Aki Ra to educate locals and tourists about the dangers of land mines. Piles of defused mines and UXO lie around the site and the guides are mostly teenagers who were orphaned or injured by mines, many of whom live onsite. This is a very worthwhile attraction that brings home the scale of the problem and shows you a slice of real Cambodia. The museum moved in 2007, so make sure your motodop doesn't try to take you to the old location in a village near Angkor Wat. You can possibly combine the visit with a visit to Banteay Srey Butterfly Center which is a few kilometers south -  entrance fee to Landmine Museum $2.00. 

• Wat Thmei Temple & Stupa Memorial to the Killing Fields Near Siem Reap, (short distance outside of the city center). There are some cheaters standing at the temple entrance or on the graves on the right side. After a short introduction they will ask you to give them directly donations/tips for their school in the temple. In fact they are not from the school and are trying to cheat on tourists. Free, donations welcome.  

• Kampong Phluk Floating Village, (off the Highway to Phnom Penh). This mangrove forest offers a much more authentic 'floating village experience' than the one close to the Tonlé Sap ferry harbour. This fascinating village on stilts can be reached by tuk-tuk from Siem Reap.It takes about 1 hour to reach the village, depending on the road conditions and water level. Depending on where you buy your tour, your haggling techniques and your initiative to book a tuk-tuk and boat ride yourself the price varies between $7,- and $60,- per person for a round trip.  

• Cultural Village, (National Road #6). features small tributes to all the cultures of Cambodia. A wax museum highlights major figures in Cambodian history, and there are miniatures of many national buildings and monuments throughout the gardens. Witness local dancing or a Khmer wedding ceremony at various stages throughout the park. Guides are not necessary but will add a lot of significant insight to the displays. $12; Guide: an extra $5.. 

Kampong Phluck

• Silk Worm Farm, Catch a free tour of the silk farm and have the opportunity to buy silk products. Free 20 min shuttle bus leaves twice daily. (See website for details)  
• 1000 lingas and reclining Buddha, (50 Kilometers from siem reap). Shiva lingas are supposed to be kept wetted all the time with running water. Normally it is done by installing a pot top of the lingas with drip thread. 1000 lingas is a fantastic idea, as one can see the 1000's of lingas on river bed, with clean fresh running water 6-12" overheads. Close to it is reclingin budha statue. A priest here can read your fate with a traditional style fortune telling yantra. close to it is also a fascinating water fall. Enchanting Khmer dresses available at $5 for upto 5 photographs in woods and waterfalls. 100's of tourist can be seen spending hours at these spots. additional $10 with day tour on car or $ 35.
• Cello Concert,  The free "Beatocello" concert is held each Saturday night at the Kantha Bopha children's hospital in Siem Reap. Concert runs from 7.15 - approx. 8.30pm, features Dr Beat Richter playing his cello, shows a film about his work in Cambodia and speaks on the medical issues affecting children in Cambodia. Donations encouraged.  
• War Museum, (head towards the airpot on #6 and you will see a sign, follow the sign downt he road and it is on your left hand side). A government run museum. It has many machines from the wars. Out front, and most impressive, are the Russian Helicopter and Chinese airplane. Inside are many tanks, guns, land mines, and other war vehicles and artillery. There is one man who speaks English very well and can give you a tour. He is very knowledgeable about the history of Cambodia and has his own story to tell. The museum is also a place where landmine victims stay, so donations are encouraged. $3 or 12500 reils. 
• Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre, Sanday Village (3km before the Landmine Museum on the road to Banteay Srey temple), ☎ (+855) 0978 527 852, 9am - 5pm. Banteay Srey Butterfly Centre is a community development project and tourist destination just down the road from the Landmine Museum and Banteay Srey temple. Revenue from admissions is used to pay families in remote villages who are farming butterflies for the exhibit. The project makes a real difference to the farmers' livelihoods and provides a wonderful experience for visitors as they can see spectacular local butterfly species flying close at hand in a beautiful tropical garden. $4 Adults, $2 Children (under 12). 

History of Cambodia

Khmer Empire

Map of South-east Asia circa 900 CE, showing the Khmer Empire in red, Champa in yellow and Haripunjaya in light Green plus additional surrounding states.

The golden age of Khmer civilization, however, was the period from the 9th to the 13th centuries, when Khmer Empire, which gave Kampuchea, or Cambodia, its name, ruled large territories from its capital in the region of Angkor in western Cambodia.

Legend has it that in 802 CE, Jayavarman II, king of the Khmers, first came to the Kuhlen hills, the future site of Angkor Wat. Later, under Jayavarman VII (1181–ca. 1218), Khmer reached its zenith of political power and cultural creativity. Jayavarman VII gained power and territory in a series of successful wars. Khmer conquests were almost unstoppable as they raided home cities of powerful seafaring Chams. However, territorial expansion stopped after a defeat by Dai Viet. The battle also witnessed Suryavarman II's death. Following Jayavarman VII's death, Khmer experienced a gradual decline. Important factors were the aggressiveness of neighboring peoples (especially the Thai, or Siamese), chronic interdynastic strife, and the gradual deterioration of the complex irrigation system that had ensured rice surpluses. The Angkorian monarchy survived until 1431, when the Thai captured Angkor Thom and the Cambodian king fled to the southern part of the country.

Siem Reap, Battambang & Preah Vihear received by King Sisowath, 1907.

The name Siem Reap means the 'Defeat of Siam' —today’s Thailand —and refers to a century-old bloodbath, commemorated in stone in the celebrated bas relief carvings of the monuments. The name has also been translated as 'The Brilliance of Siam', as, for nearly 500 years, before the massacre, it was one of the main border crossings from Ancient Cambodia into Siam.

The Wat and the river

The Town is a cluster of small villages along the Siem Reap River. These villages were originally developed around Buddhist pagodas (Wat) which are almost evenly spaced along the river from Wat Preah En Kau Sei in the north to Wat Phnom Krom in the south, where the Siem Reap River meets the great Tonle Sap Lake.

The main town is concentrated around Sivutha Street and the Psar Chas area (Old Market area) where there are old colonial buildings, shopping and commercial districts. The Wat Bo area is now full of guesthouses and restaurants while the Psar Leu area is often crowded with jewellery and handicraft shops, selling from ruby to woodcarving. Other fast developing areas are the airport road and main road to Angkor where a number of large hotels and resorts can be found.

Economy

Siem Reap International Airport

Businesses centered around tourism have flourished thanks to the tourism boom. There is a wide range of hotels, ranging from several 5-star hotels and chic resorts to hundreds of budget guesthouses. A large selection of restaurants offer many kinds of food, including Italian, Indian, French, German, Russian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Burmese. Plenty of shopping opportunities exist around the Psar Chas area while the nightlife is often vibrant with a number of western-styled pubs and bars.

History of Angkor

King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat

Henri Mouhot popularised the temple in the west in the mid 19th-century

Angkor Wat lies 5.5 km north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was Antonio da Magdalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of". However, the temple was popularised in the West only in the mid-19th century on the publication of Henri Mouhot's travel notes. The French explorer wrote of it: 

Facade of Angkor Wat, a drawing by Henri Mouhot

"One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site.

There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.

The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with its neighbour Thailand, France and the United States. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.

The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Thai control since the Thai invasion of 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.

During the midst of the Vietnam War, Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk hosted Jacqueline Kennedy in Cambodia to fulfill her "lifelong dream of seeing Angkor Wat."

In January 2003 riots erupted in Phnom Penh when a false rumour circulated that a Thai soap opera actress had claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.

Angkor Thom

 

Face-tower of the South Gate, showing Avalokiteshvara.

Angkor Thom ( literally: "Great City") was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. It was established in the late twelfth century by king Jayavarman VII. It covers an area of 9 km², within which are located several monuments from earlier eras as well as those established by Jayavarman and his successors. At the centre of the city is Jayavarman's state temple, the Bayon, with the other major sites clustered around the Victory Square immediately to the north.

Angkor Thom was established as the capital of Jayavarman VII's empire, and was the centre of his massive building programme. One inscription found in the city refers to Jayavarman as the groom and the city as his bride. (Higham, 121)

Angkor Thom seems not to be the first Khmer capital on the site, however. Yasodharapura, dating from three centuries earlier, was centred slightly further northwest, and Angkor Thom overlapped parts of it. The most notable earlier temples within the city are the former state temple of Baphuon, and Phimeanakas, which was incorporated into the Royal Palace. The Khmers did not draw any clear distinctions between Angkor Thom and Yashodharapura: even in the fourteenth century an inscription used the earlier name. (Higham 138) The name of Angkor Thom — great city — was in use from the 16th century.

Bayon temple, Angkor Thom

The last temple known to have been constructed in Angkor Thom was Mangalartha, which was dedicated in 1295. Thereafter the existing structures continued to be modified from time to time, but any new creations were in perishable materials and have not survived. In the following centuries Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom in decline until it was abandoned some time prior to 1609, when an early western visitor wrote of an uninhabited city, "as fantastic as the Atlantis of Plato" which some thought to have been built by the Roman emperor Trajan. (Higham 140) It is believed to have sustained a population of 80,000-150,000 people.

Shining Angkor Boutique
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