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Cambodia Country Highlights
The capital city of Phnom Penh is rich in cultural highlights that visitors will find unforgettable. The floor of the Silver Pagoda, located within the Palace grounds, is covered with over 5,000 silver tiles. The pagoda has a superb collection of varied Buddha statues, and artifacts from the royal collection. The central statue is made of pure gold, and encrusted with precious jewels. In the courtyard are four large stupas built by the Norodom family. Nearby is the National Museum , built as an annexe to the Ecole de Beaux Arts in 1917. The museum houses a priceless collection of original Khmer sculpture. To fully appreciate the work at Angkor, a visit to the museum is a must. The nearby School of Fine Arts trains students in traditional Khmer painting and sculpture.
Perched on a hill, Wat Phnom was built in 1372 by a powerful local woman named Phnom. The temple is popular amongst local people, and is elaborately decorated with frescoes. The city's most important wat, Wat Ounalom , is the center of Cambodia's Buddhist culture. Before 1975, over 500 monks lived here. Today, approximately 50 monks live, work, and study here. The beautiful, Art Deco style Central Market is a vast building teeming with gold, silver and jewelry merchants; exquisite and inexpensive silverwork is available, as well as fine silks. The Russian Market is a popular place for clothes, jewelry, and souvenirs. On the grounds of Wat Than , prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation classes are offered for amputees. Many NGO's are based here, including Handicap International, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Visitors are welcome to visit the wat, and browse in the gift shop which features clothing, wooden items and handicrafts made by amputees disabled by land mines.
Formerly a high school, Tuol Sleng is now a museum dedicated to the memory of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. The high school was a detention and interrogation center. Today, the museum is an excellent, if painful, education into the experience of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge. On the outskirts of the city, Choeung Ek , the Killing Fields nearest to Phnom Penh, also serve as a testimonial to the suffering of the Cambodians. Distressing as these two sites can be, many visitors feel that seeing them gives them a deeper understanding of Cambodia's recent history.
 A visit to Angkor is the reason most people go to Cambodia. The remains of this once massive kingdom are amongst the finest archaeological sites in the world. Depending on your timeframe, We can compile an itinerary where you will be privately guided by experts throughout the many sites of the region. To fully appreciate the magnificence, and cosmological significance of the elaborate bas reliefs, a guide is necessary: the statues depict elaborate Hindu myths in a similar way to early Christian cathedrals' frescoes illustrating Biblical tales. The Royal City of Angkor Thom is massive: it includes the magnificent Bayon , one of Angkor's most magnificent sites. Its pyramidical temple is topped by four gigantic carved heads, depicting Jayavarman VII as Avoliketsvara, the Buddhist deity embodying compassion.
Angkor Thom also houses many fine statuary arrays, including the Terrace of the Elephants , also known as the Royal Terrace. Decorated with elephants, hunting scenes and kings, the terrace illustrates Angkor's daily life, and celestial cosmlogy. The Terrace of the Leper King gained its unfortunate name as a result of the lichen which give a leprous appearance to some of the statuary. Second in size to the Bayon is the Baphuon , with its bas reliefs depicting Hindu epics. South of Angkor Thom is Bakheng , on a hill with spectacular views of sunrise and sunset over Angkor Wat , the most famous site of Angkor. The temple complex covers over 30 acres; it is an architectural allegory, with layer upon layer of Hindu mythology represented in its alignment, its architecture, and its sculpures and bas reliefs. The sublime depictions of heavenly apsaras are world renowned. Other temples in the region include Ta Phrom , with gigantic fig trees and creepers growing along, over, and through the buildings; it is one of Angkorís most evocative temples. The 12-thcentury complex of Preah Khan included a vast dance hall, and a two story pavillion.
For those with more time, and a hunger to see all of Angkor's glory, the Roluos group of temples are worth visiting. Built of brick, with sandstone doorways and niches, the temples are covered in human figures, fully utilising this aesthetic development which flourished at the end of the 9-thcentury. The temples of Banteay Srei are considered by many experts to be the most sublime of all Angkor's remains: delicately worked in pink sandstone, the carvings and ornamentation are exceptional.
Unfortunately, due to political instability, it is not always possible to visit Banteay Srei. |
