Thursday, June 6 Angkor Wat

 Today we had a really early start at 5am to make it to Angkor Wat to enjoy a beautiful sunrise. Sadly, we were a little late and missed the first half of the sunrise; still, we got to see the second half and take breathtaking pictures. Then, we sat down and had a yummy breakfast while dodging adamant sellers. We heard a spiel from our tour guide about the significance and history of the temple. We got to explore the temple on our own for a while. Some fun facts about the temple are that the king employed 20,000 people to build it, and it took 37 years to build. Also, the shadow of the pillars form the shape of Angkor Wat, and the temple is aligned to the compass. After exploring Angkor Wat, we took the tuk tuks to the Ta Prohm temple. This temple has giant ancient trees growing through its structure. It was really cool to see the temple blend into the jungle scenery. The last temple we visited was a state temple built by a king in order to make a Buddhist state (the time of Angkor Wat practiced Hinduism). The structure was symmetrical on all sides, and walking through it felt like a maze. although this temple is younger than Angkor Wat, the structure had broken down more than that of the other temple, because the stones used were recycled. Some of us encountered monkeys around the temple and the trees. 


We had a lot of fun exploring the scenic landscape and architecture of this ancient landmark, and also taking aesthetic photos with our friends! Then we went on to the Bayan temple with its four king faces of Buddha towers. After a delicious lunch of Khmer fish noodles, spring rolls, and refreshing drinks, we tuk tuked back to our retreat center for a well anticipated hour of rest. 


In the afternoon, we visited a land mine museum to learn about the efforts of Cambodian locals and the UN to remove the millions of bombs planted between the Thai and Khmer border. These land mines were planted by the Khmer Rouge when they escaped, in order to protect themselves from being caught and punished from their atrocities. We experienced the museum with Hak, who himself lost a leg, and his brother and sister’s lives, to a land mine. We learned that there are still 3.6 million land mines planted along the border today, and every day people are brutally injured or killed by them. This was a very shocking but inspirational visit. We had a Q&A session with Mr. Aki Ra, who has dedicated his life to digging up and finding landmines. He alone already found 50,000 landmines. His story moved us a lot and taught us how valuable it is to persist despite extreme hardships. 


After the busy, inspiring, and exciting day, we got to enjoy a dinner at a food court  and the Phare circus of Cambodia! We are sad that our trip is coming to an end, but excited to see our families again and share our amazing experiences with you all!


  • The Sophies













Popular posts from this blog

Thursday, May23 - Chambok

Image
We woke up at 5am, played poker and enjoyed the Chambok morning. We started with a Sok Sabai -a form of daily wellness check in. We used an Iron Cow (see below), a common mode of transportation, to get to breakfast. First, we filled our stomachs with eggs, fried rice and toast. Then, we had our 2 hour long orientation in which set some ground rules and learned about Cambodian culture. Following the orientation, we had Pum class (a vocabulary lesson by one of our guides) in which we learned common Khmer phrases such as Hello , Bye , What’s your name ? My name is __, Good morning, and Good Night.  For lunch, we had soup, vegetables and rice. We had the chance to listen to Mr. Cham-our local guide-who told us his experience with growing up in a struggling Cambodian country.  His stories were violent and gory, but still they were necessary to capture the true essence of Cambodian history. We walked to the local temple and participated in a water blessing with a monk. We learned ...
Read more

Saturday, May 25 to Phnom Penh

Image
  We started our day with our final breakfast and final iron cow ride in Chambok. We had a special breakfast with donuts and other Cambodian pastries. Before leaving, we had another Khmer lesson learning phrases like “how much?” and Khmer numbers 1-29 (which we learned in just 2 minutes!) which proved to be very useful in the market later on! We said goodbye to our favorite Chambok guide, Mr. Cham before setting off on a 2 hr bus ride to Phnom Penh. We were glad to be back with our modern amenities and air conditioning but sad to leave the Chambok community. We checked into the hotel quickly upon arrival then immediately went to lunch, our first meal in Phnom Penh, at a local cafe.   We ate staples such as morning glory curry and ginger chicken. Then we traveled by tuk tuk and paired up in random teams of four to complete a market challenge. Each team had two hours to answer questions like “how much is 1 kilo of rice?” (2500 reils) and “What is the color of a Cambodian orange?...
Read more

Tuesday, May 28 to Koh Pdao

Image
Today we finished the second half of our journey to Koh Pdao, the community we would be calling home for the next seven days. The morning started off with a popular western breakfast: star shaped pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, butter, and toast. Menlo students are usually grateful but you’ve never seen gratitude until you keep boys away from their bacon. In the hotel, we reviewed our Khmer (pronounced k-mai) language for the homestays as the families who would be hosting us did not speak English. Pum taught us the words for family members (mother = “madai,” sister = “srai”) so we could affectionately greet our new families. Then, we embarked for Koh Pdao. After an hour bus ride, we stepped foot into the ‘Hundred Pillar Wat.’ The complex was beautiful with gorgeous gardens     marvelous murals (detailing the stories of Buddhism), and amazing architecture. Then we set sail for the highly anticipated boat ride. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. The nausea was palp...
Read more