The Angkor Temples | Treasure of Cambodia

Dear Friends

We know it’s been a while that we blogged and we feel really bad about it. But we got several good excuses: First of all we were pretty busy during the last days in Cambodia. Second, after crossing the boarder to Laos the quantity of wifi was as good as we have expected it before we left back home. Now and than an Internet cafe with very very slow connections but expensive.

Right now we are in the Capital of Laos, in Vientiane. We stay in a relatively expensive hotel (25$/night which is 5 times more than usually) to enjoy a very very clean room and bathroom with warm water and quiet stable Wifi. But now, let’s catch up with the last days in beautiful Cambodia with some pictures and stories.

Siem reap is the place where people stay to explore the historical treasure of the Angkor temples. We spent three days for the temples, where two would have been enough because the “ladies temple” is very far away and if you are not discovering every stone out there it’s maybe not worth it. This is just our personal optinion, but what makes it worth is a stop on the way there at the official “Cambodia Landmine Museum” run by Aki Ra, who is recently named one of the CNN top 10 Heroes 2010. His story is unbelievable, tragical and heroical! Check out the website for more about him and the museum as well as the most important part: the help to disabled children! He indeed is a hero, not just 2010. Be sure you watch the show today.

Siem Reap itself is sure very touristic and the night life reminds you to crowded party places back home. Western food on every corner and lots of people seem to visit this place just to party, run through the temples and fly back to Bangkok. Even-though we enjoyed a massage almost every day, the real Cambodia is somewhere else. We also spent the last evenings in Cambodia with our Dutch friends again. We had the pleasure to photograph them eating huge black spiders. Thanks guys for this one.
(Btw the short film is still in production and we hope to release it next week. Not easy with these internet connections to review and exchange data ;-) )

But the Angkor temples are truly an amazing and fascinating heritage and it is unbelievable how people could build this huge buildings without cranes and other modern construction tools. The stones are really big and the technique to place them for thousands of years is just phenomenal.

But a lot of problems around here could bring this all to an end, faster than we think. The huge hotels in Siem Reap are using a lot of ground water which brings the temples construction in danger. Furthermore the roots from the massive and impressive trees destroy the buildings too. As much as they are part of the whole area, people have to decide how much trees they are allowing to grow.
Another issue is looting. Since the wats are cleared from mines people use the historical treasure to get tons of money from collectors. Even-though it’s forbidden to import statues in most of the countries in the western world, it seems to be a serious problem and you clearly see missing faces and statues in the temples these days.

Generally speaking, if you want to see the temples once in your life, you better come and do it tomorrow ;-)

We fall in love with Cambodia and we sure want to come back to this beautiful country soon. A 13h trip brought us to the next stage on our trip. Laos! Another story, again so close but again so different. Did you know, that Laos is the most bombed country in the world? More to come soon.

Love from Vientiane
Carmen & Ingo

tuktuk drive during the Angkor temple visit…

a shower once a week should be enough :-)

the trees are just amazing, all of them are just BIG!

it does not look real, but it is that steep!! this strairs are locked now. the build better, wodden stairs for tourists.

the place where everyone goes (every tuktuk driver takes you there) for sunset. as if they would have never seen one before and it was not good either.

just walk of the tourist path, go at sunset places for sunrise and you are by your self! we passed the place at Angkor Wat where everyone goes for sunrise. 10000000+ people.

ingo enjoys shooting at 5am :-)

carmen is enjoying the sunrise…

Angkor Wat at sunrise

the staires are very steep, and even more at 6 am

same same?

we went out to cycle around the other day and pumped into a herd of ducks coming home from the field. this was just an amazing experience, funny noises and footprints :-)

they stopped going their way because of us, needed to run after that picture :-)

chewing tobacco, but how to chew without teeth? :-)

big trees, small trees… lotsa trees…

only the cravings in the entire area must have taken age to create

normaly monks are not allowed to own or buy anything, we saw a lot of them equiped with modern gadgets, could not find out why this works for them

the monks are mostly equiped with modern gadgets

“Tomb Raider” Temple Ta Prohm

“Tomb Raider” Temple Ta Prohm

“Tomb Raider” Temple Ta Prohm

the entrance of the museum is guided by cluster bombs. they are all over the place too. sharp!

Aki Ra is named to be top ten hero of 2010 by CNN, do not forget to watch the show 25th November (day of post) 8PM ET

right picture, a spot on a few mines he demined in the years.