christmas in cambodia

Click on any picture to enlarge.

We flew into Siem Reap Airport in the late afternoon and, after a quick check-in, we grabbed a Tuk Tuk and headed into the town of Siem Reap to check out the local market.

Dec 25 - Christmas in the Temples

There are few more atmospheric places to spend Christmas morning than Ankor Wat - the grand-daddy of all of the Khmer civilizations' monuments.

Next stop was Bayon temple within the walls of Ankor Thom.

Then, on to the intricately carved Banteay Srei.

Finally, we stopped off at Ta Prohm - the jungle-enveloped temple where some of Tomb Raider was filmed.  Very cool.

We left early on Boxing Day to fly to Phnom Phen - the capital city of Cambodia and the home of their monarchy and royal palaces.  Phnom Phen has a very rich and sometimes chilling history.  It still contains many reminders of it's French colonial past (including great boulangeries and patiseries) as well as the scars that chronicle the terror and insanity of the rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot.

We visited the National Museum, the Royal Palaces (including the Silver Pagoda whose floor is covered with silver tiles) and the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes which is the actual site where the Khmer Rouge carried out much of the torture and genocide that took place during their rule in the 1970's.

The afternoon and next morning were ours to explore Phnom Phen - here are a few of the delights we discovered - culinary and otherwise. Mmmm insects....