Cambodia - Phnom Penh

We saw the best of Cambodia with the Angkor temples. We also saw the worst of the country: the former Security office 21 (S-21) in Phnom Penh where about 17.000 people were tortured and murdered during the bloody Khmer Rouge regime, from April 1975 until January 1979. The buildings in S-21 were formarly used for a primary school and an high school.

Those years changed fundamentally the country. Millions of urban people were sent to the countryside to live in condition close to slavery with forced labour. A couple of million have been suspected to be CIA/KGB agents and were killed by the regime. Their paranoia was so absurd that even their own followers - who sometimes were working in the prisons and carrying out the tortures – ended up as well in prison and tortured!

A lot of families have been destroyed. And the Khmer Rouge also tried to erase every sign of culture and arts in the country. Artists, intellectuals, teachers, monks, etc. were persecuted. The trial to judge former Kmer Rouge leaders is still in progress (the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials, UNAKRT) whereas the head of the revolution, Pol Pot, died as a free man from mysterious natural causes in 1998.

Identity pictures of S-21 prisonners

Torture room

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In the last decades Cambodia has known a renaissance of its craftsmanship. In Siem Reap, we visited a Cambodian mixed company called Artisans d'Angkor which promotes local producers of traditional crafts. The company organized high-skilled training for young rural population and established rural workshops. It has significantly helped to slow down rural depopulation in the region.

Stone carving workshop

Wood carving workshop

Silk farm

Silk farm

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We really liked Cambodian general atmosphere. Here are some aspects of the local life:

Traditional house

Another kind of traditional houses along an under construction highway

Grocery store along a national road

Hairdresser on the sidewalk of the capital

Stall in the street...

... and its delicious rice and beans cooked in a sugarcane!

Petrol station

In the country we spent long hours on the road and were amazed by the local art of pilling the most diverse marchandise up on two-wheels, tractors and trucks.

And we checked, the pigs were alive!!

Cambodia - Angkor

Yes. We know. Some of you want to see pictures of people in this blog and not only monuments. But if there is a place which deserves an article to its magnificence – for sure – it is ANGKOR!

In fact, due to the archeological park dimensions, we had to rent a tuk tuk and its driver for three entire days and spent an average of eight hours per day sightseeing!

What remains of the ancient capital of the Khmer powerful empire are the religious temples. Habitations were made of perishable materials and did not last until our modern days. Khmers ruled most of Southeast Asia from the end of the 8^th century until the beginning of the 14^th century. Each king had to build a temple to honor his predecessor. Also, different Khmer rulers wanted their own state temple. So the centre of the city was displaced a few kilometres further. That explains the dimension of the actual sight: most of the temples are concentrated in an area of 24 kilometres east to west and 8 kilometres north to south – like the two most important : Angkor Wat and the complex of Angkor Thom - but some sites are located 48 kilometres away!

The biggest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat, 8,5 hectares (St Peter's Basilca in Rome, 3,3 ha)

 Bayon in Angkor Thom with its enigmatic faces

With a population that reached 3 million people, Khmers knew the importance of water for their prosperity and built several massive water reservoirs. The largest one, West Baray, is covering an area of 1,760 hectares with an average depth of 7 metres, for a capacity of over 123 million litres and is still in use today!

Among the famous builder kings, Jayavarman VII is still a national icon and gives his name to hospitals, etc. He is the first one who adopted Buddhism as official religion whereas his predecessors and immediate sucessors were pious Hindus. Under his reign was launched the most important construction and renovation program ever seen.

Buddha in Angkor Thom

Dancing apsaras on the Bayon, Angkor Thom

Except for some low relief and Buddha statues, the interior of the temples are pretty empty. It is the structure and the external decoration of the temples which deserve attention.

Pre Rup

Banteav Srei, famous for its decorated carvings in sandstone

The most stricking feature of Angkor is the symbiosis with nature. During many centuries, the temples were abandonned to the elements. Mother Nature regained her duties. And with the helpful tropical climate, a dense forest soon covered the temples. Still nowadays trees are emerging from the temples. A bit like the story of the egg and the chicken, it is difficult to imagine which one came first..

Views of Ta Prohm. Where is Luis?? ;)
 

This gives to some temples a romantic athmosphere and to us some sensations of adventure. We felt like Indiana Jones, climbing some rocks to enter temples almost collapsed.

Beng Melea

Beng Melea

Banteay Kdei

Outside Angkor park, in the Kulen Hills, climbing one and half kilometres to reach the "River of a Thousand Lingas" is fully worth the effort. In the middle of the forest, on a 150 metres stretch, one can see Hindu divinities sculpted in the river bed. The fields of lingas (representation of the Hindu deity Shiva) are indeed striking. And we felt a kind of magic walking through this tropical forest where the roots of the trees are visible and some lianas got tangled in suspension. 

Laos - Pakse/Kong Island

From Vang Vieng we headed to the south: there is a Unesco World Heritage temple 40 kilometres away from the city of Pakse. Once in Pakse, we looked for a guesthouse to spend the night. When we asked some questions about this temple, the owner of the guesthouse told us that it would be easier to stay at Champasak, the closest village to the temple. So we took a bus for fourty minutes that left us in front of a river. At that point, we understood we had to cross the river. We asked a fisherman for a ride. And there we were in Champasak.. not quite! The centre of the village was three kilometres away and to the temple eight kilometres more!

Champasak boat cross

Not much remains of the Wat Phu temple, the first capital of the Khmers. The incredible thing is that the temple is located in the middle of nowhere! It was also a tiny introduction to what expects us in Angkor, the later Khmer capital.

One can see at the site the international involvement in Laos development: there are three different excavation projects next to each other in the complex, financed by three different countries: India, France and Italy. 

Wat Phu Complex

Wat Phu Sanctuary

View from the top of Wat Phu Complex

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Our last stop in Laos, right next to the border with Cambodia: the 4.000 Islands! We chose to stay in the biggest island, Kong Island. On this huge island (for the region) of eighteen kilometers length and eight kilometres width are located four small villages, one in each direction. Kong Island is covered with rice fields:

The one kilometre long village of Muang Khong with its dozen of guesthouses and hotels seems to live only thanks to tourism. Here life takes a very slow path! The charm of rural life! The funny thing of this village is that there are no restaurants. Every guesthouse and hotel offers a terrace over the Mekong River and more or less the same menu with only small variations of prices...

Muang Khong

To enjoy this peaceful place, we took a boat to leave the island...;) A day trip on the Mekong to explore the 4.000 Islands! Most of them are only tiny bushes:

We went for a boat trip with the six other tourists staying in the village at the moment! ;) It is pretty amazing. Nature here looks so untouched by Mankind.

Big meeting point at Don Det (island)

Don Khon (island) riverside

The boat stopped so that we could go and see the biggest waterfall in Southeast Asia: Khone Pha Pheng waterfall. For Lao and Thais this waterfall has a spiritual significance: they believe it acts as a spirit trap.

In Laos we saw people eating a strange fruit that we called between ourselves "the hairy litchy". So we bought some to try and it does not taste like litchi at all! And the pit which looks like an almond is not actually eatable...

Like in the other countries we crossed, we tried some of the typical Lao dishes. Well, Luis tried them because vegetarian food is not widespread here. The two main dishes one have to try when visiting Laos:

Pad Thai (fried noodles with vegetables, peanuts and lemon) with chicken

Steamed fish in a banana leaf
The estimated time for preparation of this plate is one hour and a half!

After openning the banana leaf

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Lao bus. Look at the luggages in the top of the bus, indeed there are some scooters... 

And they take them up by hand!!