An Amazing Experience Visiting Angkor Wat - theb7th Wonder of the World!

A lily flower in bloom in the front garden of our hotel

We stayed overnight at the Khemara Angkor Hotel - a hotel near Angkor Wat.

 The hotel was a very nice place that served a good breakfast with a variety of ethnic food. We even had breakfast on the patio, something we rarely did since we landed in Cambodia due to its high temperature.

Our tour guide explaining the ticket ID process for us.

Visitors going into the park

Our tour guide came right at 8 a.m. and picked us up at the hotel. We were going to visit Angkor Wat - the 7th Wonder of the World finally! I was very excited!

Visitors to Angkor Wat could choose to purchase one of the following tickets:

1 day ( US$ 20.00), 3 day pass, or 1 week pass.

Our guide purchased our tickets, US$ 20.00 per person and we had our pictures taken, printed on our admission ticket.










Surprisingly, this process did not take long at all.  Since the latest technology was used in this ID verification process, the whole thing was very efficient. When there's a will, there's a way!









There were a number of ways of getting to the temples. Some could hire and ride the tuk tuk - a commonly used motorized vehicle, riding in a van or in a tour bus.

There are many ways going into the temple. Riding on an elephant is an option

There was another way - for US $20.00 per person, one could ride on an elephant and went through the gate to this nine hundred year old monument.

The entrance to this ancient monument site is impressive.
Two long rows of stone statues lining the entrance to Angkor Wat which is surrounded bu a moat.

Huge ancient stone statues guarding the entrance to Angkor Wat

Magnificent grounds and scenery!

Angkor was the capital city of the ancient Khmer empire.

Now, it has become the most popular place to visit in Cambodia for tourists from all over the world.

It has good reasons.

Built in the twelve century, Angkor Wat is a complex series of buildings
and the world's largest religious monument.

The temple ground occupies a huge area of about four hundred acres which are decently well kept.
The scenery is spectacular!

There are many temples, status all over the place.

When we were walking among the ruins, it reminded me of our trip to Rome where ancient ruins and
columns abound.











 Cambodians are so proud of their national monument that they put their most famous Angkor Wat image on their national flag to represent their country.

There are a lot to see and it is a big place to visit and explore.

We stayed overnight here but I wish we had more time to take in all that history at a more leisurely pace.

Stairs leading to the Elephant Terrace - notice the trucks

Since we only had a day, we did as much as could, walking almost non stop to all the important parts of this ancient temple.

The Elephant Terrace. Angkor Wat

It was exhausting walking in this heat. Drenched in beady sweat rolling down on our back constantly, we had to pace ourselves and take numerous rest stops.

The platform where the king used to watch the elephant fight

An interesting place we came to was the Elephant Terrace where the Khmer king used to sit and watch elephants dueling it out.

The winner of this elephant fight supposed to be the strongest and the best among its kinds, therefore it earned the honour of serving the king and ridden by him.

Carvings on the ancient walls at Angkor Wat

 There are tons to see, Angkor Wat is full of history,  abundance in cultural and historical events depicted and recorded down on wall carvings. sculptures and statues.

There were twelve small stone temporary prisons across from the Elephant Terrace

One of the things we learned about this ancient Angkor Empire was its justice system. There were twelve little small prisons opposite the Elephant Terrace and they were used to house the accused temporarily.

Would be criminals were kept int one of these buildings without provision for 3 days

Each small stone building was named after an animal just like the Chinese who used twelve animals to represent each year on their calendar. The accused people were put into one of these small prisons according to their birth year's animal. If you were born in the year of snake, you would be put in the little prison named after Snake.

Once there, the accused person would not be given food nor water for three days and nights. If the accused person could survive after three days without food or water, then you had proven yourself to be innocent of the crime you had been accused of, you would be set free. Otherwise, if you got sick or something, you were proven guilty of the crime of which you had been accused. Interesting system?

There are numerous gigantic stone status

 With so many magnificent scenery, photographers, both novice and experienced, wannabe photographers would be delighted to be here.

We saw a lot, for some reason, a few places stood out for me during our visit.

A. Smile of Cambodia - of all the faces and statues carved in Angkor Wat, the smile on this face was said to be the brightest, therefore chosen to represent the smiles and friendliness of the Cambodian people.

Roots have grown into the building

2. Ancient roots that melt in with the buildings

We were awed by the ages and the size of some of the roots exposed, grown and blended into some part of the temple buildings.

Ancient roots have grown and blended in with the building

Looking at the ages of these trees ( some are as old as four hundred to six hundred years old!),   I am humbled by how long this place and the vegetation have been in existence here.

The spot where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raiders

 We saw the spot where Angelina Jolie filmed in her movie - Tomb Raiders - where she ran into the cave with gigantic roots covering and dangling part of the entrance.

This scene brought the spectacular scenery of Angkor Wat to its current fame.

There was a constant stream of visitors lining up to see it and taking pictures. It was difficult trying to get a shot without people standing in front of it having their pictures taken.

Another thing I and two other members of our team did was climbing up to the top level of the temple tower.

Though exhausted from a whole day of walking,  I thought if I could climb up Mt. Fuji, I had no problem climbing up a few steps though they looked a little steep from where I was.

View from top of  temple of Angkor Wat

There were three levels at the temple. The traditional belief was that the third tier of the Angkor Wat temple represented heaven.

 I wanted to know what the heaven like top of the temple looked like, therefore, nothing was going to stop me climbing.

Spacious and open squares on the top floor of the temple

The ground and lower floors of Angkor Wat temples were consisted mainly of galleries of wall carvings, status and endless long narrow walkways that led from one to the next.The top floor was quite different. It has lookout points at every corner where people could pause and admire the scenery below.

Surrounded by stone walkway on four comers, there was an open, spacious square in the middle where people could gather together for various purposes. 

The sweetest and cutest moment came when Sabrina, one of our team members, newly married but traveling without her new husband, pulled out two little toy people from her purse and placed them atop a surface wherever she came upon a beautiful scenery.

Lovingly and with surgical precision, Sabrina took pictures of these two little people ( representing her and her husband being at the same beautiful spot!)

This happened quite a few time on this trip.

How sweet and romantic was that!!!

R.T.
Angkor Wat
Siem Reap Province
Cambodia

Floating Villages, Kompong Khleang, Cambodia

Docking area where we boarded a boat in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Because we traveled on a domestic flight from Phnom Penh to Angkor Wat, we did not have to go through any customs nor red tape at all.

Our Cambodian host booked and made arrangement for us for a two day visit here in Angkor Wat.


We were met by a very polite tour guide with a van waiting for us outside the airport.

A nice cool and comfortable ride to the Floating Village!

There are a number of Floating Villages in Siem Reap Province.

Our first destination in Siem Reap was visiting one of those Floating Villages. It was about half an hour car ride from the airport.

Our  guide explaining to us about the floating village

We got into a van and our tour guide took us to a dock where we boarded a boat.

We were on our way to visit a floating village around the Kompong Khleang area.

A few thousand people live in the Floating Village

Considering the high temperature in Cambodia, a ride in a clean comfortable covered boat was a treat for us as we felt the breeze washing over our faces.

 We sailed past by many houses floating on the water. We even saw a couple houses decorated with flower pots in the  front of the floating house.

We visited a Vietnamese Floating Village

The population of ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia is around 600, 000 people ( about 5 % of the population).

Students of the Floating Village school

The floating village we visited was a Vietnamese Floating Village with a few thousand people residing permanently on water.

A floating school for young children

The Vietnamese Floating Village is certainly a thriving community with its own school.

From the look of the outside of one boat, it looked like a kindergarten school for young children

Our guide explained to us where the animals and natural resources were located in the area

A floating restaurant and shop

Our guide was excellent! He explained to us in detail the history of the Vietnamese people in Cambodia therefore we learned a good history lesson and a few other things about Cambodia.

A floating school

The houses of the Floating Villages  are built on floating objects, therefore they move along on the river, sometimes up to the lake, according to the season.















He was also very professional, he told us exactly what we were going to see and do and there was no surprise for us.

A floating store where residents could do their shopping

We sailed by people's houses, shops etc. However, we were not taken to see any poor children or school where we felt we had to buy rice for any starving children like so many horror stories I read about from other tourists on Trip Advisor.

A floating church

Even a church on water at this Floating Village!

We would love to attend a service there!

We stopped at this shop for pictures and souvenirs

It was a very nice, pleasant ride for us, cruising around the village, stopping by a shop to look at some crafts and souvenirs.

There was no pressure to buy anything. We could look around, linger. ask questions and take pictures as long as we wished.

It is amazing how people can spend their entire lives living on water! We have seen it with our own eyes.

My friends and I learned a lot about the inhabitants on water and enjoyed our visit to the Floating Village thoroughly!

R.T.
Floating Village
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Getting to Angkor Wat by Plane, Bus or Boat from Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We boarded a domestic flight from Phnom Penh to Angkor, Siem Reap

Five members from our team took a side trip to visit Angkor Wat, a UNESCO site, also the 7th Wonder of the World.

W said good bye to the other team members who were heading to Burma while we took a domestic flight to Angkor Wat.

We learned that there were three ways from which people could choose to get to Angkor Wat in one of the following ways:


 

Waiting for our plane to Angkor Wat - Lounge at Phnom Penh Airport

1. Bus - it would take about eight  hours, cost around US$15.00
2. Boat - about 5 hours, around US $25.00
3. Plane - 45 minutes, around US $210.00

Since we did not have a lot of time in Cambodia, we chose to fly to Angkor Wat and stay overnight there so that we would have time to visit and learn about this world famous site.

Siem Reap International Airport

The 45 minute plane ride was uneventful. It felt like we hardly buckled up our safety belts and we were descending on the Siem Reap International Airport.

We look forward to a couple of days away from the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh and the experience of visiting another province and the country side of Cambodia

R.T.
Siem Reap
Cambodia

A Missionary Couple Dedicated to the Cambodian People

We passed by many interesting buildings

Our mission team visited Rita and Matthew in a remote village about an hour and half outside of Phnom Penh.

We were up pretty early and headed out right after breakfast at 8a.m. We passed by many interesting buildings.

 Cambodia obviously is in a building boom. Everywhere we turned, there were new buildings being built.

Individual farming plots neatly laid out

We had some difficulty locating the missionary couple's village as the landscape looked so different from before.

 What looked to us liked some wasted land two years ago have been turned into small plots of farmland neatly marked out and being farmed.

We were warmly welcome by students with songs

Rita and Matthew welcome us warmly into their village school and some of the children performed a few songs for us.















The couple sold everything they had, leaving their comfortable life in Canada and went to Cambodia for missionary work almost ten years ago.

Older students leading the younger ones in songs

Without a proper school site, they started
teaching the village kids by the river side in this remote place.

 Using their own money, they purchased a piece of land and constructed a building using it as a school for children in this village.









However, not every one appreciated their efforts.
Some parents allowed their children to attend Rita and Matthew's school while some forbid
their children to do so.

Some of the students we met at the village school

 We met a young man who was our interpreter and he spoke perfect English. He told us that he didn't know a word of English until he started attending the classes taught by Rita at the school.

The children who came to the meeting at the village school

At the beginning of the meeting, there were only a few kids. Rita told us the parents were quite resistant sending the kids to the Christian school for anything even though it was free.

 Then suddenly, kids started coming on their bikes, groups of uniformed students arrived. We had about forty kids!

We taught the kids some bible song, played a couple of games with them, did a craft and Pastor Teresa shared the gospel message with them.

Rita & Matthew - a missionary couple in Cambodia

It's not easy committing ten years of your life to helping other people in a foreign country. I admire Rita and Matthew who are willing to do so. They have so much strength and determination in doing what they are passionate about.

May God bless them, their work and their families!
We are glad that we had the opportunity of visiting them and letting them know that we support their ministry in this village.


R.T.
A Remote Village
Cambodia

Visiting a Rural School in Cambodia

We have a number of places to visit and programs to run while our Short Term Mission team is in Cambodia.

We went to the Bechan area  and visited a rural school.













This school is organized and run by a local Christian church and charged each student a nominal fee of $5.00 a month.

Children in Cambodia attend a half day school taught in Khmer. Many parents want their children to learn English and would send them to private schools in the afternoon to learn English or Mandarin.
(Though less than 4% of the population, Chinese wield a strong influence here economically.)

.

Parents in this village can send their children to this church run school without paying hefty tuition fees charged by the private schools here in Cambodia


On the day we visited the school, we observed a class with students of various age groups and learning abilities.

Dedicated young Christian teachers living in the school and teaching the kids

The teachers are dedicated young teachers of Christian faith.

They displayed great enthusiasm and a loving caring attitude towards their students.

The most touching moment came for me when our team played a group game called " The big Wind Blows...." together with the students.

Kids loved the games we taught them

Following the rules of the game, all the children got up from their seat, ran around trying to get back to their seats.

 There was always one seat less than the number of children, therefore someone would be left out without a seat and became the It.

The It then stood in the middle of circle, yielded out a new command for the others to follow.

That was when we discovered that the new It student was a mute who could not call out the new command. The teacher went and quickly jumped to the student rescue.

I was very surprised that this student with special needs fit in so well with the rest of his classmates!

 He took part in all the activities and we could not tell that he was any different from the others!

Later on, Pastor Teresa gave a brief message about salvation and asked the students to bow down for a prayer. All the children did!


After giving each child a small souvenir, it was time for the students to go home for lunch.

Parents picking up their kids from school on their motorcycles

They lined up quickly, got dismissed and were picked up by their parents. Some students rode home on their bikes.  

Kids riding bikes to go home

It was an enjoyable visit and a nice time interacting with Cambodian students and teachers and watching them in action!



R.T.
Bechan Area
Cambodia