Cambodia
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Wed 12 Feb 2025 05:06
For all the bad press that social media gets, sometimes John and I celebrate how incredibly helpful it can be. We’d decided that we would travel overland from Bangkok in Thailand to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We could have travelled by plane but local cars are relatively cheap here and give the opportunity to see the countryside. We’d befriended a great private car driver in Thailand, so booked him to take us to the border, but what to do about a driver to pick us up once we’d cleared border controls into Cambodia? Enter Facebook and the many groups you can join to share information on travel plans. We came across a Mr Pheak, offering private cars from the border to Siem Reap, and after a quick WhatsApp chat we were sorted. Mr Pheak would send someone to collect us. True to his word, Mr Pheak’s man was there when we emerged from the depths of border control, blinking in the sunshine as we entered Cambodia. He didn’t speak any English but with the help of Google Translate, set to English/Khmer, we were able to communicate the need for coffee and a toilet!! Travelling through Cambodia it’s hard to come to terms with the horrors of its recent past. It’s such a gentle, peaceful country and the people are so welcoming and smiley, yet for four years between 1975 and 1979 Cambodian people were systematically persecuted and murdered under the leadership of their Prime Minister, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Nearly 25% of the population died, many having been tortured before they died. The two tour guides who showed us around Siem Reap and Phnom Penh had been children aged 5 and 10 (respectively)at the time of the genocide. Listening to their personal stories about what happened to them, and to their families and friends, was very moving. Connecting their stories to the television news programmes we’d seen as teenagers brought home that this was very recent history. The aftermath of war is also evident from the number of amputees seen in the streets. Landmines were placed across the whole of the country and, whilst many have been cleared, it’s estimated that as many as 4-6 million landmines have still to be found. It was clear that Cambodian people have a soft spot for Angelina Jolie. She credits visiting Cambodia for the filming of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 with opening her eyes to the existence of ‘forgotten emergencies’, places where media attention has moved on from a crisis but people on the ground are still living with the consequences. Her involvement in humanitarian missions began soon afterwards. When asked what she hoped to achieve, she said “Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived” and that feels very appropriate. It’s remarkable that Cambodia has emerged from the trauma and has made the progress it has.  Ta Prohm - the ’Tomb Raider’ temple where the movie was filmed Whilst landmines were laid to prevent people moving freely around Cambodia, they were also used to protect their archaeological legacy. A ring of landmines planted around an ancient temple prevented looting and removal of artefacts. Nowadays it's an added complication for the archaeologists excavating and restoring their heritage, as well as for the tourist industry chiefs wanting to invite the world to see Cambodia’s rich history.  Banteay Srei Temple - completed in 967AD  Banteay Srei The Khmer people are one of the oldest ethnic groups in SE Asia and comprise more than 95% of Cambodia’s people. They have historical and cultural ties to India and the Khmer language is first recorded in South India in the 7th century. Thai is based on Khmer, which would explain why I had no more success learning any Khmer than I’d had learning any Thai!  Khmer inscription on a door frame at Banteay Srei - these inscriptions enabled Khmer history to be passed down the centuries as they contain details about the building and purpose of the temple. The Khmer Empire dominated SE Asia from 802 to 1431 and we saw many temples and palaces that were testament to its wealth and power at its height. Angkor Wat is the most well known of these, and is considered to be one of the world’s largest religious structures. Watching the sun rise over the temples is one of the tourist ‘must do’s’, so we did it twice! We were underwhelmed on both occasions! Particularly as we had to get up at 4.30 am on consecutive mornings to do it. We concluded that watching the sun rise whilst at sea is definitely better, and it’s much more atmospheric if you’re not standing amongst a couple of thousand people waiting for an hour to catch those elusive first few rays.  A wishy-washy sunrise at Angkor Wat We spent three days touring temples around Siem Reap, and also on the drive to Phnom Penh, and were very impressed by the scale of the structures, their intricate carvings and the religious imagery that was so important in their construction. The man (and elephant) power needed to build these structures must have been colossal. The carvings given an indication of what life was like at the time. Having bemoaned the fact that the Aboriginal people of Australia had missed a trick by not inventing the wheel, John was very pleased to find evidence that the Khmer people definitely had wheels!  Look! A wheel!  Huge Brahman faces at Bayon Temple On our way to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap we visited Sambor Prei Kuk, the capital of the Chenia Empire that flourished in the late 6th/early 7th centuries AD. The architecture here inspired the building of the later temples we had already visited. As well as having landmines to contend with, archaeologists also have to extract the ruins from the strangler trees that grow here in the jungle. These earlier ruins had been constructed out of brick as there were no stone quarries close enough. The red brick made them look surprisingly recent. It was hard to believe they’d been constructed 1,300 years ago.  Strangler tree - Sambor Prei Kuk   Brick construction at Sambor Prei Kuk Phnom Penh was our last stop in Cambodia and from there we boarded a fast ferry to the border with Vietnam. Our next adventure would be a cruise on the Mekong River - you can’t keep us off a boat for too long! Our route from Bangkok to the border between Cambodia and Vietnam |