Cambodia – HurricaneMaine

Khmer cooking class

There are many things to do in Siem Reap but i needed to give my knee a break and many other activities required biking or more walking. I was happy to find a cooking class on Trip featuring two dishes i have ordered frequently in Cambodia: Fish Amok and green mango salad. A tuktuk picked me up at my hotel (a guarantee people arrive on time….) And a quick stop down the alley.

Tuk tuks are the way to travel. They zip in and out, are not expensive, and use less fuel.

Narong is my chef and she works for a restaurant owned by a French gentleman who has been here for 13 years.

He owns the restaurant and the cooking school which also sells many of the ingredients. Helpful since I want to make it when I return home.

We started with a tour of the old market. Many items i already know from China wet markets. But we discussed different things useful to cook here differences in produce.

I have seen these peppercorns in many places.

Lots of vegetables including baby corn and tamarind.

These are two different types of eggplant.

We started by chopping all of the ingredients. The cooking takes little time but the preparation is much longer as all of the ingredients are fresh. The recipes can be found at www.khmergourmetcookingclass.com

The ingredients used for the sauce of the Fish Amok are minced small and then pounded in a mortar until it becomes a paste.

The paste made in the mortar is in the bottom left.

And now it is time to cook. I even made dessert. Glutinous rice balls with a palm sugar filling. They are boiled in hot water then cooled in cook water.

Cooking the shrimp for the green mango salad.

And then it was time to eat. Lots of food so some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Asking with a great Angkor beer, a wonderful lunch.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is actually a temple complex located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is the largest religious monument in the world and one of the seven wonders. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. It was later converted into a Buddhist temple in the 13th century.

First views are breathtaking before we even see the full view of the Angkor temple. This is one of many temples inside this whole complex.

In front of the temple created in the 12th century.

Angkor Wat is a vast complex of buildings and monuments, covering an area of over 400 acres. The temple itself is built on a rectangular plan, with a moat and an outer wall surrounding the central complex. The tallest of the towers inside is 65 meters high.

These are an inside portion of the temple. I am already on the second floor of the structure. This goes to the third. On full moon days, only religious people can enter that floor. There are different stairs to climb as these are too dangerous.

Around the temple are platforms for ceremonies and small buildings which were libraries.

On the second and third floor are pools. From the central tower that would be quite a sight when filled. They represented the different elements.

Angkor Wat is a masterpiece of Khmer architecture. Ancient volcanoes left large amounts of volcanic stone which are used as the base of the buildings. The tops are made of sandstone which allows them to be carved. The temple is decorated with intricate carvings and sculptures, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. The temple is also known for its intricate system of canals and reservoirs, which once provided water for the temple and its inhabitants.

I did see a few monks as it is a holy day.

Most of the scenes are from Hinduism that depicts good reigning over evil.

Most of the statues of Buddha are the body but without a head. During invasions, armies would take everything of value but the statues were too heavy. Instead they took the heads off. The heads of most of the statues have not been found.

This depicts the prince and demons holding Naga.

The head of Naga rises alongside the stairs. The railings along the walkway in the courtyard are the body of the 7 headed snake.

Leaving the complex you pass by the reflection pool.

I have so many pictures but shared just the best ones. It is an impressive place to visit. Also, it was amazing to see some of the reconstruction and cleaning of the stones. From the Angkor Temple we continued along the complex to Bayon temple.

The Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism at Angkor. It was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII. It is at the centre of the king’s capital, Angkor Thom.

The Bayon is best known for its 54 towers, each of which has at the top a four-faced head. The faces are believed to represent Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. (Bodhisattva are awaiting their reincarnation as Buddha). The faces are all slightly different, and they are said to represent the different aspects of Avalokiteśvara’s personality.

You can see a few of the faces more clearly.

The Bayon temple is also decorated with intricate carvings called bas-reliefs, which depict scenes from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The bas-reliefs are some of the most famous examples of Khmer art. I haven’t seen other art, but I’ll take their opinion. They are amazing and depict scenes of daily life, good vs. evil stories, etc.

The base of the temple is lava stone with
sandstone used for the carvings.

The depiction of elephants used for daily tasks and even for fighting in wars.

We then traveled to another temple in the complex. Ta Prohm was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and was originally called Rajavihara. It is one of the most popular temples at Angkor, partly because it was featured in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The guide said that Angkor Wat was largely unknown by the world until then.

Amazing. In the complex many of the walls have fallen and you can see which being to the roof and which blocks belong to the walls.

This roof has been replaced. They are the original blocks but now held together by mortar. Countries have pledged and taken over the reconstruction of the various temples in Angkor Wat.

A headless Buddha. Many of the rooms had gold buried and jewels in the walls but those have been removed and are long gone.

We were there when wedding photographs were taken. They take the pictures before the wedding and of course they have more than one dress.

Ta Prohm is known for its intricate stone carvings, which are often hidden by the roots of the trees that have grown around the temple. The temple is also home to a variety of wildlife, including monkeys, snakes, and birds.

This is the tree from the Tomb Raider movie. Angelina Jolie i am not …

These are fig trees and in particular this is a strangler fig which can grow around a tree and surround it until it dies.

Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple located in the Angkor complex. We passed by it walking up the hill where we were to watch the sunset. It is dedicated to Shiva and used to hold a golden image of him.

The temple is named after a mythical bird that is said to have protected the city of Angkor from attack. The bird is said to have spread its wings over the city, and to have sheltered the people from harm.

We waited for the sunset and literally melted wherever we rested. It had been nearly 40 C which is 100 F with high humidity. I was grateful for the rest considering I needed to rest my knee from time to time. The slow ascent made it easier to get to the top of the hill.

From the hill you can see the Angkor temple. We are still in the Angkor Wat complex from this point.

The sunset was okay as there were clouds in the horizon.

Our tour guide Sarak shared some other pictures he had taken during sunrises and sunsets.

You can see the highlights in one day but if you have the time and energy then two days would be great.

Killing fields and genocide museum

The Killing Fields are a series of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than one million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. The mass killings were part of a broad state-sponsored genocide.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist regime led by Pol Pot that ruled Cambodia during those years. The regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 million people (some from starvation), or about a quarter of the Cambodian population. The Khmer Rouge was known for its brutality and its radical policies, which included the forced relocation of the entire population of Cambodia to the countryside.

Once in the countryside, they were forced to be farmers. They eliminated all forms of religion and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. Workers in the country were then asked if they had been a professional. They believed they were going back to their jobs. Instead they were interrogated as potential spies and foreign agents and imprisoned and brutalized. Many “confessed” and were asked for family and friends names. There was more than one prison but the one I toured was S21. It is the site of a high school turned into a prison.

The bottom floor of that building held important prisoners who could give information. They were shackled to beds.

When the liberators came, they found 14 bodies still chained to the beds who had been killed.

The regime fled without leaving anyone alive.

The 14 were buried here as a reminder. A gallows made from a school climbing structure and barrels of water for torture were found at the other end.

If one member of the family was suspected of being a traitor, the whole family was tortured and sent to the killing fields. His regime kept meticulous records and pictures of everyone interrogated and killed.

All the photographs were on display. I kept thinking that these children would normally be in school. The sheer inhumanity is unfathomable.

Other prisoners were not as important and chained in a one meter by two meter cell.

The box was used as a toilet. The tiles you normally see in a school made this all the more striking.

If they survived starvation, torture, and hard labor, they were trucked to the killing fields. They were not imprisoned there, but one by one taken off of the trucks and killed.

The most well-known Killing Field is Choeung Ek, located just 10 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh. Choeung Ek was used as an execution site for the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. It is estimated that over 17,000 people were killed at Choeung Ek, including men, women, children, and the elderly. A farmer found the site days after the fall of the regime and pits had not even been covered at the time the regime fled.

In the site are Cambodian palms. The edges of the young leaf have serrations. These were used to cut people’s throats. We were able to touch them and it felt like a metal serrated saw blade.

The location was originally a Chinese grave yard. Many markers still exist.

Pol Pot’s paranoia meant that even his own soldiers could be executed for nothing more than suspicion. Here they were killed and their heads
removed from the bodies.

Bones still evident in some areas. Not all bodies were excavated. Many felt that their souls should be left in peace with no further excavation.

The execution tree at Choeung Ek was a site where the Khmer Rouge executed children. The tree was a large Chankiri tree, and the Khmer Rouge would use it to bash the heads of children against the trunk of the tree. The children were often killed in front of their parents, and the parents were forced to watch as their children were killed. The execution tree was a symbol of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, and it is a reminder of the horrors that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the people of Cambodia.

This tree when found days after the downfall of the regime had blood, hair, and brain matter on it.

This tree was used to broadcast other noises to not hear any of those being killed. They would be blindfolded and asked to kneel. Then they would be hit from behind until they fell into the pit where a second person slit their throat and belly. The latter prevented body bloat. The bodies were also covered in DDT to stop smell and kill anyone surviving.

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge. The Buddhist stupa contains the remains of over 8,000 victims.

Those excavated were organized by age and sex.

They also can be identified by how they died. No bullets were used and a hoe was a preferred tool.

These are a few of the remains in the stupa.

Visiting the Killing Fields was a sobering experience. It is a reminder of the horrors of genocide and the importance of remembering the victims. It is also a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, as evidenced by the fact that Cambodia has emerged from this dark period and is now a thriving democracy. Three survivors were at the genocide museum the day I went.

He is 94. He survived as he was an artist and painted for the soldiers. His painting of Pol Pot could be mistaken for an actual photograph.

Here is a picture of him and his wife, who was killed at the prison.

This man was a bit at the time of the regime. The rest of his family was killed.

When the prison was found by liberators, only 7 survived. 2 of these men are alive today.

Finally, it is important to remember that the Killing Fields are just one part of Cambodia’s history. The country has come a long way since the Khmer Rouge, and there is much to see and do in Cambodia today.

Here are a few things those of us on the tour talked about (we had people from S. Africa, Australia, and many European countries). The Khmer Rouge regime and people denying past slavery in the west are similar in a number of ways. Both groups have sought to erase or deny a dark chapter in their history. Both groups have used violence and intimidation to silence dissent. And both groups have been met with resistance from those who seek to remember and learn from the past.

One of the Khmer Rouge’s most heinous crimes was its attempt to erase the country’s history. The regime destroyed libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions. It also killed or imprisoned intellectuals, artists, and anyone else who it perceived as a threat to its power. The Khmer Rouge sought to create a new society, one that was free from the taint of the past.

People who deny past slavery in the west are also seeking to erase a dark chapter in history. These people often claim that slavery was not as bad as it is often portrayed, or that it was a necessary evil. They may also argue that the victims of slavery were not really slaves, or that they were somehow complicit in their own enslavement.

Like the Khmer Rouge, people who deny past slavery are often motivated by a desire to create a new society, one that is free from the taint of the past. They may also be motivated by a desire to protect their own privilege. By denying the existence of slavery, they can avoid having to confront the uncomfortable truth about their own history.

By erasing the truth, they make it easier to repeat the same mistakes in the future. It is important to remember and learn from the past, so that we can prevent such atrocities from happening again.

It is also important to remember that the victims of the Khmer Rouge and of slavery are real people. They deserve to be remembered and honored. We should not let the perpetrators of these crimes get away with erasing their victims from history.

I am also aware that those of us on the tour are privileged and our governments have done horrible things. But we are also a portion of our countries who learn to understand and make a difference rather than ignore it.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I have not been to Cambodia and finally had a chance to do so!

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is definitely a city of contrasts. It is an always busy metropolis with a rich history and culture. The city is home to ancient temples, French colonial architecture, and modern skyscrapers. Phnom Penh is also a city of poverty and hardship. You can be in a very luxurious area and then within a few steps into a different type of world within the same neighborhood). The scars of the Khmer Rouge regime are still evident in the city, and many people live in poverty. There are still many who lived through and know the stories.

Despite its challenges, Phnom Penh is a vibrant and exciting city. The people are friendly and welcoming, and there is always something to do. Whether you are interested in history, culture, food, or nightlife, Phnom Penh has something to offer. The hospitality of people here remind me of Thailand. It is walkable but very cheap to go around by tuk tuks.

I chose the Plantation Urban Resort and Spa particularly for the pools and what the hotel looked like. I planned for no more than three hours of exploring each day and the rest of the time for just relaxing.

There are quite a few markets. The one for the locals is the Old Market. It was interesting to see people coming together for food, entertainment, and buying goods. I met up with my friends Darcie and Habib for dinner and to tour the market.

Always some interesting things at the markets.

The next day I spent most of the day in and by the pool. Great for rehab. I walked to Wat Phnom which is a Buddhist temple (wat). Some of the sights along the way:

This is actually the top of a government building.

Phnom Wat is the oldest religious monument in the city and is considered to be the spiritual heart of Phnom Penh. The temple is located on a small hill, hence the name “Wat Phnom” which means “Hill Temple” in Khmer.

The temple was built in 1372 by a woman named Penh who found four Buddha statues floating in the Mekong River. She built a small shrine to house the statues on the hill, and over time the shrine grew into a temple. The temple was closed (stairs are not my thing right now anyway).