Monday 2nd September – Tuesday 3rd September 2024

After my epic Temple visit on Sunday, on my return I did treat myself to a rather fabulous foot and leg massage here at the hotel. It was amazing and miraculously stopped my feet from hurting. I’m sure that’s why I had such I good nights sleep. 💤 

I also realised after posting my blog that I hadn’t put the website in for Tamara the artist. I did go back and edit the post but not sure that worked, so here it is:

http://www.tamaravenn.com

Let me apologise here for the length of this blog! So much to tell you! So many amazing things to report! 😍❤️

For my non temple day I opted to visit the small Killing Fields Museum and then to visit a Gallery that Tamara recommended. 

The lovely Mr Rattana was my driver for the morning. 👍

The Killing Fields Museum is housed within a Buddhist temple complex. It was a very sombre and moving experience. 

Here is a very brief history of Cambodia since WW2.

The Japanese left Cambodia at the end of WW2, the King, Norodom Sihanouk, proclaimed the Kingdom of Kampuchea. The French, the colonial rulers agreed to hand over power in 1953.

During the Vietnam War the (1955-1975) the North Vietnamese Army had bases over the border in Cambodia. US forces bombed them heavily in 1969. The king objected to the bombing, wanting to stay neutral. During this time forces were building in opposition to the king, led by the Communist Party of Kampuchea, King Sihanouk called them the Khmer Rouge. 

In 1966 General Lon Nol was elected and formed a new right-wing government, neither the government or the army were happy with the Kings rule. 

General Lon Nol led a military coup in 1970 and ousted Sihanouk. This ended the monarchy and the country was renamed the Khmer Republic. They told the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) to leave Cambodia.

The army under General Lol Non were helped by the US, this was extremely unpopular with both the NVA & the Khmer Rouge, who attacked the new regime. 

The NVA were successful in taking over large parts of Cambodia east of Phnom Penh, they then gave this territory to the Khmer Rouge. The US retaliated with increased bombing in Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge were gradually gaining strength and taking more territory, the elected government were only able to hold onto power in the larger cities.

In 1975 the Khmer Rouge conquered Phnom Penh. They installed their own government under the leadership of Pol Pot, real name Saloth Sar. Pol Pot means Original Cambodian. 

The Khmer Rouge era lasted from 1975 – 1979. The Khmer Rouges extreme communist ideals forced millions of urban dwellers out into the rural areas to work in the rice fields and on collective farms. During this period Cambodias professional and Technical classes were exterminated, and Pol Pots  brutal social & agricultural policies resulted in the torture and deaths from starvation of up to 2 million Cambodians. 

In 1979 Vietnamese forces, who had broken with the Khmer Rouge soon after their victory in 1975, invaded and took over the country. They established the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. 

The Khmer Rouge retreated but kept fighting with other resistance groups. This Civil War continued for many years and led to many more deaths and displaced huge numbers of Cambodians. 

A peace settlement was signed in 1991 but the last Khmer Rouge fighters didn’t surrender until 1998. 

OK, sorry for the history lesson, but I feel it’s important to understand the country’s recent history. It also helps me to understand what happened. 

I feel the devastating results of these conflicts will be bought home much more when I’m in Phnom Penh.

Feeling very sad I left the museum to visit the gallery called Theam’s Gallery.  

The gallery showcases the work of a Master Artist, Lim Muy Theam. 

Theam’s work and his teaching embodies forgiveness, reconciliation, integration and community. He has worked hard to restore Cambodian culture in old and new ways. 

The gallery was beyond anything I had imagined. It’s a completely immersive experience. There are so many different sorts of art and ancient crafts on display in a series of beautiful rooms and courtyards. Every where you look there is something beautiful to see, feel, smell, hear. 

The whole place is lush and green, there are fish, birds, butterflies and lots of cats everywhere! Built over a large pond are a group of mini houses, which look great but I then realised they are for the cats!! 

It was stunning and the perfect place to visit after the museum, showing there is still beauty and hope in the world. 

If I have time I will definitely return, I’m sure I didn’t see everything and I just loved the calm, peaceful atmosphere. 

http://www.theamsgallery.com

After the wonderful Theam’s experience Mr Rattana dropped me off in town, where I grabbed a delicious coffee back at Little Red Fox, and had a good catch up with my gorgeous Georgia. ❤️❤️

Oh and I also bought myself a fab silver & Labradorite ring. 🥰 I’d seen some beautiful bracelets in a a crystal shop in Bangkok, but the colours weren’t right. This ring was in a fabulous little independent shop, everything is made in Cambodia, and the price was really good. Labradorite is considered to be a powerful protector. (handy 😍)

In the evening I visited a great little Cafè/restaurant called, Wild. Wild specialise in Spring Rolls, one of my favourites. It was a cute little place, my chicken spring rolls and Mojito were very tasty! 

My second day visiting temples started at a much more civilised time of 10am 😄 The plan for today was to visit 6 temples and watch the sunset at the last one. 

We set off for our fist stop, Praset Preah Khan. This is quite a big temple and I was lucky enough to find a very helpful security guard who gave me lots of info and also showed me some of the statues which I would have missed. This temple also had rooms that would have held statues with precious stones lighting up the room. There was also rooms that act as echo chambers, if you stand with your back against the wall, breathe in then thump your upper chest it vibrates and echos, which you can hear and feel! Very clever. Although I’m not quite sure what the purpose was! 

I saw statues of the kings 2 wives, his first wife died and she asked the king to marry her older sister which he did. The 2nd wife started a university within the temple in the building that housed the kings sacred sword, impressive. There was a statue of the queen holding a mirror and apparently applying lipstick!! It definitely felt like these Queens were powerful and important within the culture. 

This temple was also alive with so many butterflies!! 🦋 

The next Temple, Neak Prean, was very small but impressive because it was built on an island surrounded by a huge mand made lake! 

I loved walking across the lake and seeing all the beautiful lotus flowers. 

I also saw a massive spider and some tiny colourful birds. 

We then visited another couple of smallish temples that were tucked away inside the jungle. 

After this it was a long, 25k ride to the next temple, Banteay Srey or the Pink Temple. 

The route to this temple took us through real rural parts of the area, well away from the tourists sites. It was brilliant. Just driving past rural traditional places. 

There were people living their lives, sleeping in hammocks, feeding chickens, children playing, stalls selling various fruits and vegetables, chickens, cows, water buffalo and dogs everywhere! Paddy fields stretching across the landscape in the most incredible vivid green. 💚

This temple felt very different to the others I’d seen. I think because it was a completely different colour, red stone and red earth. It was also in a clearing, not right up against the jungle. The details on the carvings were fabulous. It wasn’t very big, and it was along way to come to see it, but definitely worth it! 🧡❤️

After this we stopped for a much needed drink and some food. I wasn’t especially hungry but I was thirsty and needed something sugary. I ended up having my usual, vegetable fried rice and an ice cold Fanta! 

When I came out of the restaurant it had started to rain pretty heavily. 

This isn’t an issue for me, as I’m under cover but Mr Rattana would have got soaked. We had a chat and I said I was happy to sit and chill in the Tuk Tuk and read, while he continued his rest in a very comfy looking hammock!! 😍❤️ The rain got really heavy for around 45mins then stopped and off we went. 

The last Temple of the day was, Pre Roup or the Sunset Temple. We had arrived around 5 and sunset was at 6.15. 

Mr Rattana explained that to get to the top there were some wooden stairs round to the right side, which might be better for me to use. I’m so grateful he told me this. I walked round to the side and yes there were the stairs, quite steep but wooden with a handrail. I climbed to the top and the views were fantastic. The most amazing thing is that there are other temples in the jungle surrounding us but you can’t see them at all! 

As I walked around I saw the stairs I could have used 😳 Stone, differing heights, really steep and no rail! As I looked at them it gave me a real tummy turning moment and then set off my acrophobia!! I began to feel anxious about being up here and the thought of being up here at sunset with lots more people and then trying to get down when it’s dark was too much! I decided that as lovely as it may have been (and TBF, the guard said the sunset was likely to be a non event due to cloud) I would rather end my day on a positive note rather than by tumbling down a vertical flight of stairs!! 😳😂 As I descended said stairs I realised I had made the correct choice, doing this in the dark would have been horrid.

All in all it was another incredible day. 

I adore being around the temples. The peace and quiet, the greenery, the butterflies. It makes me feel incredibly privileged to be able to experience such beauty and tranquility. 

After getting back to the hotel I showered then went to visit another recommendation, Miss Wongs Cocktail Bar! 

Wow! It is stunning and the cocktails were first class! I chose a special which was cherry based (my absolute favourite) it had smoke in which was added at the table! Very theatrical ❤️

If you’re ever in Siem Reap, I highly recommend having a cocktail here. 

That’s it for today!! 

Have a great day guys.

Love & miss everyone

Books read

From the Cradle. Louise Voss & Mark Edwards. A thriller. It was OK.

In a dark dark wood. Ruth Ware. Ok, a little predictable.