Phnom Penh again

National Day in Vietnam falls on 2 September and commemorates the day in 1945 when Uncle Ho declared Vietnam to be independent of French rule. This year it fell on Thursday with many companies giving employees Friday off as well to make a long weekend. So ... I also took advantage of it by accompanying Bao and An on a 4-day trip to Phnom Penh.

The border crossing at Moc Bai-Ba Vet was very busy, and as there were a number of foreigners on our bus it also took some time to get Cambodian visas issued. Unfortunately it was so busy that the leader on our bus forgot to submit my passport and fee to the visa office! I thought something was different from the previous experience but it took 20+minutes of queuing to get to the immigration counter before I found out what it was. Luckily I found him straightaway and was in possession of the visa and entry stamp in about 10 minutes!

Expecting Phnom Penh to be very busy with Vietnamese holiday makers we had already booked a hotel, which turned out to be within walking distance of most points of attraction. So essentially we spent a weekend alternating between walking a lot and doing very little. As with my previous visit to Phnom Penh the heavens absolutely bucketed down on two occasions for several hours.

We spent some time on Friday morning at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Both are inside a large compound that includes the Throne Room and various other buildings. The actual royal residence is off-limits behind high walls, although visible. This is a peaceful sp0t to go and there are a number of exhibits detailing Cambodian culture and the political career of the King Father Sihanouk.

We also visited the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek which provide the counterpart to Tuol Sleng in commemmorating the terrible impacts of the Pol Pot era on Cambodia's people. While the classic image of Choueng Ek in the past was the wooden structures housing skulls and other bones of the people slaughtered here, they were actually replaced some years ago by a tall, elegant but sombre stupa. To date approximately half of the mass graves of more than 20,000 people have been excavated.

The graves were not dug deeply. With Cambodia's heavy rains bone fragments, teeth and even pieces of cloth continually emerge in the surface of the soil. In the small museum I was surprised to discover that at least one Australian had been killed and buried here - David Lloyd Scott. You can visit a couple of other blogs to learn something more about him: http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-6-in-phnom-penh-milestones.html and http://blog.andybrouwer.co.uk/2009/08/aussies-at-s-21.html. The records are a bit hazy on whether he and Ronald Keith Dean died at Tuol Sleng or at Choueng Ek, but they appear to have been at both infamous sites.

The legendary birthplace of Phnom Penh is Wat Phnom perched on the only hill in the city. This is the place to which Madame Penh brought some Buddha images she found floating in the river. There are a lot of cats here!

A little bit of shopping in the Russian Market rounded off our visit. Bao was keen to see the Independence Monument at night and also go to the Nagaland Casino/Hotel to help him recapture memories and photos from his tour in Cambodia last year. Unfortunately he had lost all the photos he took on that tour to Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. Gambling wasn't on anyone's list of things to do, but the casino decor is quite impressive. One large room is decorated as though it is actually outdoors, with a 3-storey ceiling painted with sky and clouds and brightly lit. Quite the opposite to the experience of Sydney's Star City or indeed most gambling dens in the average Australian club.

Museums: Cambodia

One of the recurring things I did on my holiday was to visit museums. David would have been extremely bored if he'd been compelled to come with me!

I've already written about Tuol Sleng, a place outstanding and memorable for non-conventional reasons. While in Phnom Penh I also visited the National Museum of Cambodia, and Royal Palace compound, including the Silver Pagoda, and Wat Phnom.

The National Museum focusses on the architecture and archaeological history of Cambodia. It includes some of the best examples of Angkorian sculpture, which has been removed from the Siem Reap temples and palaces for safe-keeping. The building itself is made up of a number of pavilions with a peaceful garden courtyard. Generally a quiet and restful place although there was a very large group of Korean students visiting while I was there.

This was my first post-lunch stop on my second - dry - day in Cambodia. In the morning I had taken a tuktuk to Wat Phnom and then started walking through Phnom Penh, basing my route on the walking tour in Lonely Planet. This is easy to do - if rather hot - because Phnom Penh is small geographically. I tried checking out the central market Psar Thmei but much of it was closed for renovations and what there was to see was exceedingly bland. I also found the architecture vastly over-rated, given the guidebook descriptions of it as resembling "a Babylonian ziggurat". Say what?! I think the alternative description of "a concrete custard pie" is much more like it!!

Wat Phnom is the hill-top pagoda from which the city traces it's origins. There has been a pagoda here since the 1300s, although like so much of Cambodia's religious heritage, it suffered badly during the Khmer Rouge government. It's still a community focal point, with many visitors in the park around the hill, hawkers, stalls and many beggars, especially children.

After the National Museum I still had time to tour the Royal Palace compound. This is the official residence of the king so not everything can be visited, but I had the chance to venture inside the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda. Photography is not allowed inside either, so the pictorial record is reduced to postcards bought from a disabled street vendor. Printed and copied so many times much of the vibrancy of the colours has been washed out . However, there is still plenty of colour to see of and from the exteriors. The Throne Hall central spire is topped by a most unusual sight, a face. I have no idea if it is a religious or royal representation. Maybe both?



In Siem Reap, aside from the massive museum that is the whole Angkorian collection, I visited the workshop/school of Les Chantiers Ecoles. The school teaches impoverished young people the techniques of carving wood and stone, as well as teaching deaf people silk painting, and a group of young men how to make silver-plated objects. The products are very high-end in quality - with prices to match - but the principle is also to return a fair-value to the craftsmen and to bringing more teenagers into the training program.

During the 2nd day of my journeys to the Angkor Wat temples we also stopped in at the Cambodia Land Mines Museum. The museum was established by Aki Ra, a DIY but expert de-miner. His own history tells you something of the torment and struggle to survive that the older generations of Cambodian people all had to face. He was removed from his family in the early days of the Khmer Rouge and became a soldier for them, before later defecting during the Vietnamese-backed administration. During his life he has had many names, now going by his adopted Japanese name. Initially his career as de-miner - trained by the UN - was outside the work of any agency. Now there is an NGO supporting the museum as well as the education facilities and dormitory that Aki Ra and his family provide for disadvantaged (often extremely impoverished) children in the area. See Ottawa Treaty for some information about the international cooperation needed to ban landmines.

Siem Reap itinerary (temples and ruins)

The temple and city complexes of the Khmer kings tend to get clumped together in public consciousness as Angkor Wat, though there is far more to see than just that famous behemoth. And seriously, although you will suffer temple fatigue after a while, there is a lot to be said for taking your time to explore the greater area beyond the Big (Grand) and Small (Petit) circuits of the central Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom complexes. And this means setting aside 3-5 days and forking out for a 3-day pass. Although my guide book says the days must run consecutively, I think that it is possible (perhaps with a higher cost) to buy a 3-day pass for non-consecutive days. A great way to enjoy "Angkor" to the maximum and be kind to your senses and feet!

Here is my itinerary with a glimpse of what I saw. The photos are all organised in a similar way on Shutterfly. The links here are to the Lonely Planet website. I used the tuk-tuk driver who took me from the bus drop-off in Siem Reap to the hotel. I didn't really haggle with him, so over the three days I paid $15, $30 (?) and $20. Maybe I could have got it cheaper, but he was reliable, friendly, and like so many Cambodians spoke English well. The lunch stops he took me to were well-priced and he was just happy to have the work.

Day 1:
Angkor Wat For a long time now I have wanted to come to Angkor Wat - meaning the gigantic temple complex of that name as well as having a more amorphous idea of other temples. Finally here I was, taking in the immensity of it all and feeling ... well, for some reason a little bit underwhelmed by it!

I'm not saying don't go, and I'm not saying you won't appreciate the architecture, art and scale of it. Angkor Wat really is top of the list. I think maybe it's just that I didn't find it to be breath-taking in the manner I had anticipated.

Bayon is where all those faces are looking down on you and out on the world. This was the second place on my itinerary and the start of a personal feeling of incredulity that we are permitted to tramp all over most of this irreplaceable heritage. Can you do that to other major architectural historical sites around the world?

Baphuon is a great example of how life can interrupt art. It was under a full-scale restoration, which had commenced by pulling the entire temple apart (the anastylosis method) and recording how each piece fitted together, when the civil war of the mid-1970s forced the team out of the country and led to all documentation being destroyed. Now, amazingly, the restoration is almost complete.


Thommanon, Waterwheel and Chau Say Tevada
Thommanon is a small temple, and is one of the places that I liked immediately. There are a few buildings with some fine stone carvings set in a grove of trees. Nearby is a large waterwheel. Chau Say Tevada is a companion temple to Thommanon although in worse repair.


Ta Keo is a very different structure to many of the Angkor temples because it was not finished, and so does not have the stone carvings found at most other temples. It is a steep but rewarding climb to the top to reach the central tower and has some good views over the land around.


Ta Prohm is different again because a lot of the jungle remains, although discreetly trimmed back . A great place to imagine you are re-discovering the temples! Ta Prohm also featured in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.



Banteay Kdei and Sra Srang. I came to Sra Srang twice: at the end of the first day and then again at about 5am the next morning to wait for the sunrise. A peaceful place and a good alternative to battling the crowds wanting to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, especially on a cloudy morning. The pool allowed for some fantastic reflections and amplifications of the light.

Day 2:
Kbal Spean is a unique piece of architecture because it is not a building, but instead a natural temple created by carving directly into the rock beds and boulders of a stream. A long trip from Siem Reap, I combined it with sunrise at Sra Srang and made it to Kbal Spean for breakfast at about 7.30am. We set out so early that I was the first visitor to arrive. From the parking and restaurant area it is an uphill walk for about 45 minutes to reach the carvings that start at a bridge across the stream and then work back down the stream to a waterfall.

Banteay Srei - another favourite place for the carvings and the use of pink sandstone, Banteay Srei is also unusual because it is all very low to the ground. There are no towers or enormous platforms supporting the structures here.

Cambodia Land Mines Museum (see Museums: Cambodia)






Eastern Mebon












Ta Som and Pre Rup













Day 3:
Preah Khan and Preah Neak Pean
Preah Khan was one of those places where I just kept taking photographs. It is one of the largest complexes - one reason for the photo-overdrive - but it also has many corridors and great carvings.

Nearby is Preah Neak Pean a small temple which consists mainly of five square pools. I was lucky enough to arrive when the water was still and again benefited from using the water as a mirror.

Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei are known as the Roulos group of temples and are some of the oldest large, permanent temples built by the Khmers. During my visit to Preah Ko and Bakong I met with a local man who works on the restoration of these temples. He showed me some of the work that he has been doing in replacing bricks and some carved stonework as well as the materials that are used to create the mortar, in the same fashion as was used originally.

Kompong Phhluk and Tonle Sap (see Water - in more than form!)