Category: Cambodia

We took a side trip to Cambodia during our time in Thailand. I mainly wanted to go to Cambodia to see The Killing Fields (yes, I am that fun) but added Angkor Wat because that is what you do if you are going to Cambodia.

I had seen the sunrise photo of Angkor Wat that everyone takes (above is Matthew’s version), and frankly, I wasn’t that impressed. I was not exactly looking forward to touring lots of rocks in the heat… but I was wrong. These rocks are amazing.

We visited Angkor Wat (12th century AD) and nine other surrounding temples from the Khmer Empire built during 9th to 12th century AD.

A Buddhist monk puts a bracelet on Ethan after blessing him at Angkor Wat.

The temples had intact, intricate Hindu and Buddhist carvings. The religion changed with the ruler, so many ruins had elements of both. Our private tour guide told us the stories depicted in the carvings. I would have preferred to hear more about the architecture, so I was surprised at the end of the day to learn Logan loved the stories. Perhaps it is because her ‘very interested’ and ‘almost asleep’ face is oddly similar.

We visited ten sites in two days. If I had written this post the week after our visit, I probably would have grouped the photos and correctly labeled each. But a lot of time has passed, and we are now in China (relevant because the internet is slow and I don’t remember which name goes with which photo anymore). So… here are some photos.

The photos were all taken at one of the sites below.

Day One:

If you don’t want your “daily dose of depression” (as Ethan and Logan say), you might want to skip this post.

I read “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” when it was published in 2000. It stayed with me in a way that few other books have. In preparation for our trip to Cambodia, Logan and Ethan read it too. Logan read it first, back when we were in Ecuador. I remember this vividly because that is when she was sobbing on the sofa.

During our Cambodia trip, we visited The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and S21 prison. Both had excellent audio guides that allowed us to pass through the sites at our own pace while listening to survivors tell their stories.

Close to two million out of eight million Cambodians died during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Before visiting, we stressed to the kids that everyone in the country our age or older would remember this period. However, we did not appreciate how present the atrocities would still feel, nor how much fighting and displacement continued after Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 and removed the Khmer Rouge from power.

Our Angkor Wat tour guide mentioned that he did not know if he was 32 or 33 years old because he was born on the way to a Thai refugee camp. Three of his older siblings died before he was born. His family stayed in the camp until he was around ten years old but was never able to get resettled. They returned to Cambodia where his father fought in the military against the remaining Khmer Rouge fighters. He was shot five times and survived.

On another day we got in a taxi and asked the driver how he was doing. He remarked that he was good now since no one was shooting at him anymore.

The above sign reads, “THE TREE WAS USED AS A TOOL TO HANG A LOUDSPEAKER WHICH MAKE SOUND LOUDER TO AVOID THE MOAN OF THE VICTIMS WHILE THEY WERE BEING EXECUTED”

We did not take photos at S21 prison. It is not a place you want to remember vividly, and I won’t repeat the stories we were told there.

If you do want more information:

“First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”

http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html