Cultural Heritage Village, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Another place we visited on our first day in Angkor was a Cultural Heritage Village.














After visiting the Floating Village, our tour guide made arrangement for us to visit the Culture Heritage Village.












 After being in Phnom Penh for a little while, it was to get away from the big city and be at a quieter town with a slower pace.

The quiet and green setting of the Cultural Village was what we needed!







We got to the Cultural Village in the afternoon and it was not too busy at all.  Our first stop was the wax and history museum which did not take too long, about 20 - 30 minutes depending how much you want to read all the writings about the exhibits. We learned about the various ethnic groups in Cambodia - including, Khmer, Indian and Chinese.

Afterwards, we followed the performance schedule and watched a series of shows consisted of dancing, a traditional Khmer wedding, acrobatic and other performances.

At each dance performance, little language was spoken. For example at the first dancing show we watched, we knew that a couple's courting was not approved by the girl's parents and they were going through some struggles.

Excellent dancing at the Cultural Heritage Village!

The dancing was excellent and the music had a mix of classical and modern  music in it. I loved every minute of it!

A traditional Khmer wedding ceremony being perofrmed

We also watched a Khmer traditional wedding ceremony. Though Khmer was spoken, we understood some of the context by observing the body language of all the actors on stage.

 The schedule was pretty tight and we were able to watch the performance one after the other

At the Chinese Village, we watched one of our favorite shows, which was an acrobatic performance by two girls.

The two girls performed synchronized acrobatic movement demonstrating their extreme flexibility and athletic skills.













The girls seemed to be able to bend their bodies in whatever shape and direction they chose to.

They appeared to have complete control of everyone of their bones and muscles. It was amazing to watch what they could do!

The last show we watched was just a comedy. Again, no language was spoken and we only watched the body movements of each actor. actress.












We understood the story and had a good laugh.











I liked the fact that the producer was trying to be inclusive of Cambodia's main ethnic groups by including the main ethnic characters in the play.

Off course, you have to include audience participation! A young man was called up to play one of the characters and he was a good sport. He cooperated and followed along and did a great job!

After watching the performances at the Heritage Village, we enjoyed a buffet dinner in the dining room.

We noticed that there were a lot of tour buses with busloads of Korean tourists. I did not realize that Cambodia is such a favorite tourist destination for Koreans.

There were free entertainment during dinner time with dancers in colourful costumes.

It was a great day with lots to see and do here at Angkor!

R.T.
Angkor, Siem Reap
Cambodia