Cambodia Travel Guide: Nice To Know Facts About Cambodia. Interesting Facts.

People believe that the two main things that a tourist must visit while in Cambodia are the Angkor Wat and the “Killing Fields.” Although they depict the extremes of humanity as one shows pure architectural genius while the other depicts the inhumane depths to which humanity has gone, it will be very enriching and worthwhile to visit them. As Cambodia’s dark past generates a lot of curiosity among tourists, it obviously has become a big attraction and business.

Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is a tourist attraction despite being both horrifying and fascinating. The English film called “Killing Fields” made in 1984 narrates the true story of Dith Pran, a photojournalist who escaped the Khmer Rouge death camps. Basically, the Killing Fields comprises sites where huge numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge during its 1975 to 1979 regime. The total number of deaths during the Khmer Rouge regime was estimated at around 2 million. The Khmer Rouge regime ended when communist Vietnam invaded Cambodia and brought down the government in 1979.

An analysis of over 19,000 mass gravesites by a Yale University mapping program indicate that there were at least 1.4 million victims. This huge area that contains the killing fields is surrounded by farm areas and nooses were placed in the bordering trees for hangings. Victims were killed with many makeshift weapons and small children’s heads were smashed against trees prior to throwing them into large gravesites.

The high security prison (S-21) was a famed torture and execution center. The prisoners included people from various nationalities and backgrounds. Civilians were mainly intellectuals and older people and of course politicians. They obtained a confession from these people, and then sent to S-21 to be exterminated within two or four months. They also took photographs of the victims prior to executing them. It was pure genocide. The torture tools used and the photographs reflect stories of shock, horror, resignation and even defiance all appear eerie. It is a bleak place that sends a chill down any one’s spine. The bone fragments and the sight of over 8,000 skulls shock the stunned visitors. Outside, where cattle usually graze, human bones sometimes come unearthed after heavy rains. Visiting the Museum of Genocide is a harrowing experience likely to distress anyone of a sensitive disposition as it combines an image of a living hell.

Angkor Wat and Siem Reap

The Khmer empire had one of the world’s most glorious traditions in sculpture and architecture. As one of the most powerful empires during the Middle Ages in Southeast Asia, it not only had great power, but it also had immense wealth, with its greatest legacy left in Angkor. The many Hindu and Buddhist temples at Angkor and throughout Cambodia are a manifestation of that and also reflect the strong influence of the culture and religions of India.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, covering an area of over 400 kilometers. While some of the temples have been destroyed by nature and by looters, they are still a testament to the wealth and religious beliefs that prevailed during its succession of rulers – Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism and back to Hinduism before Theravada Buddhism finally prevailed. Angkor Wat is not an experience to be missed in a lifetime, as there is history and mystery intertwined in each brick. This massive temple is located deep in the woods. Angkor Wat was virtually discovered from the wilderness by Henri Mohout, a Frenchman, sometime during the 19th century.

The temples at Angkor Wat, done in sandstone were patterned after Mount Meru, a Hindu mythical mountain with five peaks and said to be the home of the devas, thus the structures were called temple-mountains, with surrounding moats. Angkor Wat has its characteristic Hindu structures, motifs and elements. The Angkorian architects drew inspiration from religion. Buddhist and Hindu mythological creatures were carved on pillars and walls and as a result, their sculptors created temples that mapped the cosmic world in motifs. Temples had a basic layout that had a central main shrine, a courtyard and surrounding walls that represent small mountain ranges while the moat was meant to represent the seas.

Angkor Wat literally means City Temple. It was built during the 12th century by the then king Suryavarman ll, in dedication to the Hindu God Vishnu. What he started way back during the 12th century was definitely a work of genius, but it went on to become a fusion between devotion and ambition. In other words, each King who succeeded him added their mark onto the structure by building something new which resulted in Angkor Wat going on to become the world’s largest religious monument.

Angkor Wat stands as a testament to the mighty empire that Khmer once was. The architecture is no less than the likes of Taj Mahal or Macchu Picchu or the pyramids of Giza. It underlines the enormous cultural impact of the Khmer rule, which stretched from Laos in the North to Myanmar in the West and Vietnam in the East. The sheer magnitude of the place is amazing, comprising hundreds of stone monuments and temples, each in turn filled with statues and sculptures and other relics, which have stood the test of time.

Siem Reap, which means ‘the defeat of Siam’ is the gateway to where the magnificent ancient temple, Angkor Wat, is located. It was named as such by King An Chan of Cambodia when they defeated the Thais and killed Prince Ong.

While one of the first Europeans to see the Angkor Wat was a Portuguese monk, Antonio da Madalena around 1586, it was the travel stories penned by French explorer Henri Mahout that exposed the magnificent temple to the Western world in the middle of the 19th century. Siem Reap was a small village that grew when the French acquired Angkor in 1907. Although Siem Reap is relatively a big town that is built around the monument, Angkor Wat makes Siem Reap a flourishing tourist spot. Siem Reap has grown in leaps and bounds, with hotels, bars, restaurants and all other tourist facilities springing up. As there are no lodgings available at Angkor, Siem Reap, the closest neighbor of Angkor is where travelers can find accommodation, places to eat and a bustling nightlife.

Siem Reap boasts of many temples. The Beng Mealea or The Jungle Temple is one of them. It is located 77 kilometers from Siem Reap and part of the Angkor Wat complex. If you are a movie buff, this is where the film Tomb Raider was shot. Cool and covered with giant trees growing all over it, it was only recently cleared of landmines and opened to the public. In addition to Angkor Wat, a few other Buddhist Pagodas such as Wat Bo and its large collection of Buddha statues, or Wat Keseram (the pagoda of cornflower petals), built in the early 1970s and contains a detailed collection of Buddha’s life are located in Siem Reap and are worth visiting.

If visiting the temples tire you out, then there are a number of tourist spots and luxury spas and massage parlors in Siem Reap that will revitalize you. You can choose different methods to explore Angkor Wat. Hire a bicycle, tuk-tuk, car, take an elephant ride, or fly in a helicopter or hot air balloon; whatever methods you adopt the magnificence and beauty of Angkor Wat will not fail to amaze you. Don’t ever miss it.

The Cambodian National Flag

The Angkor Wat certainly occupies a place in the hearts of all Cambodians and this is clearly reflected by its place in the national flag. The Cambodian national flag depicts Angkor Wat on a red background in the center with blue borders on its top and bottom. This has been the flag for Cambodia since it gained independence in 1948, except for a period from 1970 to 1993 during the Lon Nol reign and Khmer Rouge takeover. Red and blue featured on the flag are Cambodia’s traditional colors.

The Cambodian flag has the peculiar distinction of having a building featured on it. The other country that has this feature is Afghanistan. The famous 12th century temple of Angkor Wat has always found a place in all the different versions of the flag that have been adopted from 1948 onwards though the depiction of the structure varied.

Tonlé Sap

Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater inland lake in Southeast Asia and located in Siem Reap. UNESCO declared the lake a biosphere reserve in 1997. Tonlé Sap has some interesting characteristics, as it changes its directional flow twice a year. The lake also expands and shrinks depending on the season. Its normal size is only 2,700 square kilometers. However, when the monsoon season starts around June, the lake expands its surface area to cover six times its normal size, which becomes roughly about 16,000 square kilometers. When it is dry season in Cambodia, which falls from November to May, the Tonlé Sap drains into the Mekong River but when the monsoon rains begin, the water from the Mekong flows into the lake, thus its size increases. It not only increases in size, but its normal depth of one meter also rises to a depth of nine meters. This regular occurrence makes the Tonlé Sap a very rich breeding ground for fish, providing around 60% of the protein source of more than three million Cambodians and 75% of the inland fishing catch of the country. And when the lake increases in size, it also becomes a very large wetland and home and breeding ground of various plants, reptiles, birds, mammals and others wetland denizens, some of which are considered either endangered or already rare.