Land Tour – Khmer Rouge Kaleidoscope and Angkor Wat
Swasdi! (Thai for “hello”, pronounced “so-wah-dee”) and Suostei! (Khmer for “hello”, pronounced “so-stay”)
On April 19th, 2024, we leave the ship in Bangkok, Thailand, for a three-day land tour into Cambodia! As you can see from the title of this blog, we are venturing into the Khmer region. I anticipate the first part of this land tour being a dark tour as the subject is the reign of the Khmer Rouge and their eradication of anyone not joining the Communist Party, resulting in the area outside of Phnom Penh known as “the Killing Fields”! After this we travel to Siem Reap to visit the ancient site of Angkor Wat!
Let me warn you up front, if human bones make you queasy, do not read this blog. You’ll miss some beautiful architecture, but better safe than sorry.
Let me also warn you this blog is looooooonnggg! This land tour covered a lot of significant information and locations, so it is longer than any previous cruise tour post. For those of you who just like to scroll through the pictures, enjoy!
We gather in the cruise terminal and meet our tour director, Chon (pronounced “shawn”). He is a Bangkok resident. Our group is only nine! We have me and Joy, Martin and Janice, Steve and Kristi, John and Jane, and Aleks (Aleksandra).
Chon tells us Bangkok’s nickname is Gruntiep – City of the Angels. But then he tells us Bangkok is not even the city’s real name! He then sings the name song that children learn at school! Sorry, I can’t sing that for you. I’ll let him!
On our way to the airport, we pass this long, warehouse-like building. The sign coming up over the central entrance tells us it is a stainless-steel plant! The “journey” of giraffes along the length of the building is excellent!
Approaching the airport, we see the line of jets queued for the runway! Busy!
Then we see the terminal itself! Very interesting structure!
Chon shows us this shrine. We are asked to dip water from a bowl filled with water and rose petals and pour it over the Buddha. This is supposed to help us achieve inner peace and good fortune for a safe flight!
This is a Yaksha, a Guardian! In the Bangkok Airport he is a 20-ft-tall statue! There are several Yakshas around the check-in counters.
The terminal is dominated by this beautiful sculpture called “Churning the Ocean of Milk”. It features Vishnu, the Supreme Being with four arms on the right, dancing on Mount Mandara while the good gods, Devas, pulling the tail of Vasuki, the three-headed Naga, while the evil demons, Asuras, pull on the head-end of Vasuki, and they play tug-of-war. The Naga, wrapped around the mountain, churns the Ocean of Milk to create the nectar of immortality!
Here is a view of the Devas at the tail working against the Asuras to pull the Naga around Mount Meru and create the nectar of immortality!
Along the side of the terminal the glass wraps create a beautiful hall of light!
Soon we are on the plane and on our way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia!
In Phnom Penh we collect our luggage and head to our charter bus. I love the welcoming steps!
The bus has party lights! They can be the standard white, but they can also be multi-colored and scrolling colors! We meet Sam, our Cambodian tour guide, as the bus takes us to the hotel, but I’ll show you his photo tomorrow.
We arrive at the Rosewood Hotel in Phnom Penh for our first night. The room is fabulous!
I spend time at the window soaking up the beautiful night lights! A temple stands out in the yellow light!
The river reflects the lights, and the bridges create colorful ribbons of light!
I happily discover we are two blocks from the Hard Rock Cafe! I want my Phnom Penh city T-shirt! We head over with Janice and Martin, and the place is packed!
We learn we are there for a version of Cambodia’s Got Talent! There are TV cameras on the back wall, and a live band playing anything the singers want to sing. Singers come on stage, talk with the hosts, then sing and receive critiques from the three judges sitting in front of the stage! No, we don’t understand a word that was said, but we do understand the energy and applause! (And I got my shirt!)
Now it is the next morning, April 20th, 2024. I catch the sunrise and see what I was looking at the night before! There are two rivers! The temple is still quite visible in the trees! Now I can see that is the Wat Phnom Daun Penh tower in the middle of the park. We’ll get closer today!
Meet Sam! He joined us on the bus when we arrived at the airport last night, but I didn’t have a decent photo of him. He will be our fount of knowledge for the next two days!
On the bus, we take the road around the park. The temple I could see from our room is the building in the back. But more interesting to me is the Giant Clock! Plus, there is a gorgeous dragon up front!
Here is the Wat Ounalom Monastery. Not part of the tour – just a beautiful compound on the way!
We arrive at the Royal Palace compound! The first building we see is the Moonlight Pavilion.
Chon insists on getting our group photo here!
Heading to the entrance and ticket booth, I saw this interesting collection of three rooflines!
The blue spire is the top of a stupa by the Silver Pagoda, the central peak with the circular center motif is the peak of the ticket booth, and the peak on the right is part of the Silver Pagoda Gate! Beautiful architecture!
The upper section of the ticket booth tower features a panel honoring the late King Sihanouk. He passed away on Oct 22, 2022.
The first buildings we see inside the gate are the Preah Reach Damnakchan Pavilion, with the small Napoleon III Pavilion in front! The Napoleon III Pavilion demonstrates the French influence during their colonization of Cambodia.
To the right is the Throne Room! Some sort of military exercise is going on. We move closer!
They appear to be rehearsing for an event!
We get a good view of the Nagas and Lions guarding the staircase!
With the stunning blue sky, I really like these detail photos of the Throne Room! There are two different figures holding up the roof – most are a female figure, possibly Apsaras, and the male figure, seen on the corner on the far left, is likely a Garuda, or possibly a Yaksha guardian.
This shot is from a different angle, catching the four watchful faces of the Hindu Brahma, overseeing the four directions of the Universe. The four faces are thought to represent pity, charity, sympathy, and neutrality.
After the military leave, I’m able to snap this photo of the throne room! Thankfully, the light at the distant end turned on just before I took this picture! We can see the throne! But we aren’t allowed to go inside.
This is our first view of the Silver Pagoda! I’m not crazy about this backlit view.
The light is better on the other side! This is a stunning building! It is called the Silver Pagoda because the floor is covered with silver tiles. But it is also the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Sadly, we are not allowed to take photos inside. Yes, the tiles are silver! And yes, there is an emerald Buddha! But we’re told it’s not the original Emerald Buddha!
The Library next door has this wonderful mural! It has many details telling the stories we’ve seen in the Hindu world, concerning the battle of light over darkness, good over evil!
In this detail we see the Monkey King, Hanuman, helping Lord Rama’s army cross the river!
We pass a small band playing unique music. This is the most interesting instrument in the group!
It’s time to learn more about the Khmer Rouge as we head to the Killing Fields!
On the way we pass the Independence Monument! It commemorates Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953!
We get a glimpse of a wiring nightmare!
Allow me to give you a very short back history on this next site. We are visiting the Killing Fields.
Cambodian people are known as the Khmer. Pol Pot was a Cambodian who joined the Communist Party while studying in France. During the Vietnam war the Communist party, known as Khmer Rouge, took over control of the Cambodian government with the support of China and Russia. The Khmer Rouge began eliminating those who opposed the Communist Party. Schools were converted to prisons. People were transported by truck from the prisons to this location, where they were executed.
This part of the tour begins at the Killing Field Memorial Stupa. We each take a moment to say a prayer before we enter.
What do you see here?
Would you believe human skulls? Red dots indicate males, blue females.
The entire shelf is populated with bones. The jawbones accompanying the skulls are piled in the center.
The layers of skulls go up!
And up, and up!
The skulls of over 9,000 people are memorialized in the Stupa. Lotus flowers are available in front for the prayers, as symbols of purity and enlightenment.
Near the Stupa is this monument with a woman holding a child, calling out the atrocities committed from 1975 to 1979.
Looking for a better photo of the mother’s face, I found this composition with the spire of the Stupa in the background.
Thousands of victims were buried in mass graves. The earth sinks wherever a mass grave is located. Only 89 of more than 120 mass graves have been excavated and bodies removed.
We never walk on the graves. We walk above them and beside them. There are many victims still interred. It is estimated that over one million people lost their lives under Pol Pot due to forced labor, starvation, incarceration, torture, and execution. Even children were taught to kill by the Khmer Rouge, trying to start them early. But some children enjoyed killing too much, and the Khmer Rouge executed them, too.
The heavy rains cause bones and clothing to float to the surface.
These bones in the ground are left for display and are protected from the rains.
A loudspeaker was hung in this tree to play loud noises to mask the moans and screams of victims being executed.
Some of the more notable pits are protected with roofs. This was a mass grave of over 100 women and children with no clothes.
This was a mass grave with 166 bodies without heads.
This was a mass grave with 450 victims!
This was the most grotesque location. Children were killed by being swung by their feet and bashing their heads on this tree.
As we made our way to the end of this tour, there was a sign that identifies where the trucks unloaded prisoners. Most were executed the day they arrived from Tuol Sleng, the S-21 prison they were kept. Sometimes more than 300 prisoners arrived in a day, and it was not possible to execute all of them in a day. Another sign showed where a detention center existed to keep the excess prisoners until they could be taken for execution. Like I said at the start, this is a dark tour.
There were seven survivors of the prisons and executions. We will see the three remaining survivors.
We depart the Killing Fields Memorial and head to the next stop – the S-21 prison previously mentioned.
I found the wiring catastrophe winner!
We arrive at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This was the Tuol Sleng S-21 Prison. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is a map of Tuol Sleng. S-21 is one of 167 schools that were converted to prisons. In Khmer Rouge Cambodia, schools were not necessary because educated people were the enemy of the state.
This is Building B. It is set up with photos of the Khmer Rouge staff and many of the victims, and paintings of the atrocities conveyed upon the prisoners.
In this painting a child is being taken from a mother. The Khmer Rouge philosophy was to kill the children so there would not be any future generation growing up hating the Khmer Rouge. And knowing women who lost their children would hate the government, they would also be executed.
The prisoners would be tortured, two or three times a day.
Beatings were common.
Waterboarding was one of many tortures.
A waterboard table is on display!
This map of Cambodia summarizes this period well!
In the center of the quad in front of Building B is this statue. It shows a person appearing to be in the throes of anguish. But I never found a plaque explaining the piece.
This is Building C. It has been left with the barbed wire cage that was used during its prison days.
Building C still has the brick cells that were quickly built to incarcerate the prisoners.
Holes were knocked through the walls between classrooms to give guards easy access to the cell rooms.
The cell occupied by Chum Mey, one of the seven survivors, is labeled.
In the quad in front of Building C is a monument with the same inscription on the monument at the Killing Fields Museum. But there’s more!
Surrounding the memorial are sixteen slabs covered with names – over 800 names on each! These plaques commemorate over 12,000 people who were known to be incarcerated at S-21 and killed.
We then get to visit with one of the remaining survivors, Bou Meng. He was saved because he was an artist, and the Khmer Rouge Party Chief, Duch, like Bou Meng’s talent and asked him for portraits of Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Lenin, Karl Marx, and other Communist leaders.
Bou Meng is deaf in one ear from the electrocution torture he was subjected to in the 70’s. He comes here every day to make sure people do not forget what the Khmer Rouge did.
We get a group photo with Bou Meng!
This large billboard stands in the corner. It shows four children rescued from the prison. The two boys on the right are brothers. They are here, too!
We meet Norng Chanphal and Norng Chanly, the two boys. Like Bou Meng, they come here every day to make sure no one ever has to go through what the Khmer Rouge did again.
We move on to the Cambodia National Museum. I’ll be brief here!
Sam walked us through, and here is talking about the major Hindu deity, Vishnu.
But here is what I want to show. This is a Guiness Book of World Records winner – the world’s longest hand-knit scarf! It is 3,772 ft 3 inches (1,149.8 meters) long, created in 2018 by GoGoCambodia in Phnom Penh!
In the evening, we pass by the Independence Monument beautifully illuminated!
I love seeing familiar fast-food restaurants in foreign countries! I chuckle at the sign “WE OPEN”!
Now we see a new day! It is April 21st, 2024!
We have breakfast in the hotel before we check out, and I catch some stunning artwork on display!
The piece on the left is titled “A Sample of Tenacity”. The center is “The Lost Spirit”. The right image is “Spirit of Victory”! These are all painted by Nhem Sopheap.
This lovely, mystical piece is titled “The Lost Spirits” by Sou Kimsan.
We hop on the bus to begin our three-hour drive to Siem Reap.
As we head out of Phnom Penh, we pass the United States Embassy in Cambodia…
…then we pass the Yeay Penh statue, a monument to the founder of Phnom Penh.
When we arrive in the Siem Reap area, we go directly to the Angkor Wat site, and here is our first glimpse of the site!
We leave the bus and begin our long walk! Buddhist monks, or “bhikkhu”, are leaving the area. It’s a hot day! The bus said 38 deg C – that’s 100 deg F!
A family on their way to the temple stop to meet us and let us take their picture!
Joy befriends the ladies! I think this was supposed to be a heart.
We reach the entry to the Angkor Wat compound. It is guarded by lions (in desperate need of reconstruction) and seven-headed Nagas (restored!).
The detail in the Naga is worth admiring!
Chon captures a photo of us at the Naga!
Then we begin our long trek to the West Gate.
We arrive at the Angkor Wat West Gate. We have our first glimpse of the incredible artistry in the lintels and towers!
Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century, between 1113 and 1150 CE (Common Era, a.k.a. AD) by Khmer King Suryavarman II. It was a grand temple to the Hindu god Vishnu and it is believed it was intended to be King Suryavarman II’s funerary temple (but there is no evidence he was ever buried here).
This is the lintel over the West Gate entrance. The carvings are incredible works of art! Every lintel is a work of art!
Although Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple, in 1177 CE King Jayavarman VII felt the Hindu gods has failed him, so he dedicated Angkor Wat to Buddhism. Now we see Hindu artifacts, but the temple is maintained by Buddhist monks.
Just inside the Weste Gate is this fabulous statue! It is an eight-arm Vishnu named “Ta Reach”.
On the other side of the West Gate we can see the causeway into the compound. We have another long walk ahead of us!
We step off the causeway to the right, about half-way to the temple to take advantage of the view! We pull out our Sunday Today mugs!
Back on the causeway we find an artist looking for a client to draw, and several more bhikkhu on their way to the temple!
Joy catches up with the bhikkhu when we are near the libraries. I learned their orange robes are colored with tumeric!
There are two libraries halfway between the West Gate and the upcoming Terrace of Honor. This is the North Library. The building behind the bhikkhu in the previous picture is the South Library.
I catch a group of bhikkhu hanging out. The one in back is watching me!
This brings us to this picturesque site! We step off the causeway, to the left this time, to reach the Reflecting Pond. We take full advantage of it!
The central temple surrounded by four smaller temples are intended to symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru, the Hindu dwelling place of the gods.
First, we have Chon take our picture here!
Then we pull out our Sunday Today mugs again!
Chon then directs us to face away from each other and look up!
Back on the causeway we encounter a young bhikkhu who is having fun with us!
Another group shot, this time with Martin and Janice!
Walls are covered with detailed reliefs! This section shows an army with horses.
Columns are adorned with scenes of deities and apsaras.
Around the corner is a breezeway with a tremendous relief – this entire wall depicts the Battle of Lanka!
Joy and Aleks make it to the other end of the wall (I ran around the inner hall to catch them!).
Entering the compound, our first room is one of the four sacred ponds.
Walls are lined with dancers called Apsaras! These bas-relief carvings represent celestial nymphs!
Through a doorway I see one of the inner libraries.
We finally arrive at the central temple buildings! As I mentioned earlier at the Reflecting Pond, these classic buildings collectively represent the five peaks of Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu celestial deities! The steps you see lead to the Bakan level of the temple. I will be heading up there, but from the other side.
The Mount Meru temples are surrounded by galleries that give us all places to sit in the shade and take a break from the heat we are experiencing here!
I reach the stairs that allow us to access the Bakan level of the temple. Pretty steep!
Underneath the installed stairs the original temple steps are visible. They are the same pitch, but not necessarily the same height in steps. And they certainly did not have any handrails – no OSHA compliance required one thousand years ago!
I make it to the top of the stairs, the Bakan level! Looking down I can see everyone hanging out, either waiting for the energy to climb, or waiting for someone else to come down.
Chon catches me at the top of the stairs! (Check out this lintel! Wow!)
Inside the Bakan area I found this Buddha. It was originally a Vishnu, until Angkor Wat changed from Hinduism to Buddhism.
Looking past the Cruciform Galleries, I can see the West Gate and the North and South Libraries that we walked past earlier.
It’s time to come down! It’s harder than climbing up because of the pitch of the steps.
Soon we are leaving from the East Gate. Our bus picks us up here!
We have a little sunshine left, so we head over to nearby Ta Prohm Temple. This location was used in the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” movie! This tree had an abundance of will to live in rock!
Nearby is another structure with a similar tree that grew through it. Sadly, this tree appears to have finally succumbed to the poor nourishment it found in the building foundation.
From Ta Prohm we return to Siem Reap to check in to the hotel, the Borei Angkor Resort! After three false starts (the showers in all the rooms were covered in mold!) the manager upgraded us to this suite. I never heard if anyone else had problems with their rooms.
A few of us decide to head out to the night market in Siem Reap to find dinner and walk around. Chon orders up a tuk-tuk! We give baby heart signs for the photo!
The tuk-tuk drops us off at this bridge, and we walk across to get to the night market!
Lights strung across the river reflect in the water, creating a dazzling scene!
And here we are! Pub Street – the night market! it is noisy and busy!
It seems like everyone comes out at night, having stayed indoors all day to escape the heat.
We stop at the Fish Spa! Chon really wanted to try this so much he paid for all of us! He and Aleks were hilarious! they didn’t like the feel of the fish nibbling on their feet at first! I can’t post the videos because of the expletives.
Today is now April 22nd, 2024! Our land tour ends today, and we fly to meet Insignia in Singapore!
On our way to the airport Sam shares some information on the Khmer alphabet. First, the consonants:
Then there are two kinds of vowels – dependent:
And independent! Also, the numbers are here!
Soon we arrive at the Siem Reap Airport! Here we say goodbye to Sam. Wah!
Fast forward, we arrive and disembark in Singapore. Walking though the terminal I find the sweetest restroom signs!
We emerge in the main terminal to a huge forest, and even larger statues!
It’s time for us to say goodbye to Chon. <sniff!>
Chon walked us all of the way through the airport to the bus taking us to the ship. He’s been great and we’ll miss him! But we can stay in touch via WhatsApp!
A final wave goodbye, and our land tour is over.
We said goodbye to Thailand when we flew to Cambodia three days ago. We missed the port of Ko Samui, Thailand. That is Port 22 in the port-of-call lineup. We said goodbye to Cambodia when we flew to Singapore this morning. Now we say Greetings to Singapore!
Next port of call – Singapore!
