Recently I went to Cambodia
for a 3 day exploration near the town of Siem Reap. Cambodia is Vietnam’s
neighbor and therefore the ride there was really short. It is a kingdom with a
population of 14.8 million, that once upon a time constituted the mighty empire
of the Khmers. The remnants of that empire are exactly what brings many people to
explore this developing country. (The speed of development may be greatly enhanced by support from China, making the dispute over territories on the South-China Sea all the more complicated). Ancient Khmer cities like Angkor Wat and
Angkor Thom, built in the 12th century, have been restored to a
close resemblance with their ancient counterparts and offer a spetacular
experience. The language there is totally different from it\s close neighbor, Vietnam.
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| Mon-Khmer ( Cambodian) language |
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| Vietnamese. Compared to Cambodian, it is a tonal language |
What’s funny is that
my (14-hour) bus ride to Siem Reap was almost as shocking as the temples
themselves. To start with, the bus to Cambodia was one hour late (happens with
most travel buses here). The bus rode for some hours until it was 3 am and
stopped in the midst of pitch black darkness in an empty parking lot in the
middle of nowhere. The driver was nowhere to be found. The air conditioner was
working on full intensity and it was so cold inside that windows had condensed water
on them. Dreaming of better days, I dozed off for a few more hours and
discovered that we had made it to the Cambodian border. I felt lucky. After the
adventures on the border as well as mamy hours of rocky sleep were over, the
country started to unravel itsself:
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This image is taken by Stephanie Mausset. The houses we saw in little
Cambodian villages were much higher up in the air and looked
very dangerous indeed. |
- In
most of the villages that we passed, the houses were built on stilts as a
protection from flooding and wild animals, and they were metres high from the
ground. The entrance was connected to the
surrounding land with a bridge that looked veery fragile.
- When we drove in the evening, all the villages were in pitch black darkness – apparently the electricity was missing.
- Cows freely dwelled on the sides of the roads. They could move around as they pleased and sometimes cows would wander onto the road in the search of better grazing grounds.
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| Deer signs, like the ones in Estonia |
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- A man was praying in the middle of a road. Our bus driver didn’t seem particularly alerted by that and cunningly manoeuvered past him. I have to say the drivers are really good here, and at that day he was being helped by four other locals on the front seats who yelled loudly every time they saw something threatening on the road.
- Our
nights in Siem Reap were accompanied by an orchestra of geckoes. They emitted the
weirdest voice I had ever imagined an animal would do. I’m sorry I couldn’t find a
recording of a similar sound anywhere on the internet. Maybe Cambodian geckoes
are special.
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| Candles in a Cambodian pagoda |
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| The sandwich maker |
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| She sells sandwiches in a grim-looking room for motorbikes |
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| A local boy |
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The little bastard who tried to sell us a book for 20 dollars that actually
cost 6 dollars in the supermarket |
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The Khmer people. The difference in appearance between them and the Vietnamese is slight, but it's there.
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| Angkor Wat's central part |
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| Angkor Wat |
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There is a total of 600 metres of carvings in the central structure of Angkor Wat. This 51 metre panel displays the
Battle of Lanka from the Hindu epic Ramayana. |
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Little section of the 49 metre panel that displays the Battle of Kurukshetra. It shows the chariot of the army of
the Kaurava army. |
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The huge silk-cotton trees
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| A Saigon church with a huge rotating star and LCD tv on every pillar. |
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| Elephant terrace, Angkor Thom |
tomb raideri mängijate meka, nii et ma loodan, et tegid ikka parkuuri ka seal :)
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