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Cambodia Travel Guides

Cambodia – The land of Angkor for over five hundred years, Angkor was at the core of one of humankind's greatest civilizations. The mighty “Devaraja” or God-kings ruled vast swathes of what is now Southeast Asia from their heartland in the northern plains of Cambodia. They built immense and dazzling cities and temples decorated with intricate stone carvings to honor both their gods and themselves.

CAMBODIA TRAVEL HIGHLIGHTS

Phnom Penh – Cambodia Capital
When planning a Cambodia tours, you shouldn’t exclude its Capital---Phnom penh. As the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is fairly young, only rising to the role in 1866, but it is still a city steeped in tradition and history, offering several cultural and historical sites. Phnom Penh is a port or a trading village and occasional capital city in the post-Angkorian period. The city came under French colonial control from 1863-1953, flourished in independence in the late 1950s through the 60s, was besieged and then evacuated by the Khmer Rouge in the mid and late 70s, repopulated in the 80s, revitalized in the 90s and now undergoing rapid change and development. The two main attractions in Phnom Penh are Royal Palace and National Museum, which can enrich your Cambodia holiday. Both of them were built during the French period. Most of important Angkorian artifacts and rare pieces from the whole country are displayed in the above two buildings. Phnom Penh is also a gateway to Cambodia. Siem Reap in the west, Sihanouk Ville on along the southern coast, the minority people, jungles and wildlife of the northeast provinces, and a wide-open, unspoiled countryside of rice paddies, villages and lost temples across the country. Phnom Penh can always provide you a way to be there. As the most important travel destination of Cambodia, Phnom Penh has different hotels and restaurants. Hotels along the river bank allow you to walk and access good restaurants Phnom Penh’s tour attractions include Independence Monument; Wat Phnom; National Museum, River Cruises; Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda; Architecture of Phnom Penh; Genocide Museum, Killing Fields. Find a professional Cambodia tour operator to make you a personal itinerary. We are the one.

Siem Reap
One of your reasons to have your Cambodia tours must be the Temples of Angkor. Gateway to the Temples of Angkor Nestled between rice paddies and stretched along the Siem Reap River, the provincial capital of Siem Reap City serves as the gateway to the millennium-old ruins of the Angkorian-era Khmer Empire. Designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Angkor Archaeological Park encompasses dozens of temple ruins including Bayon, Ta Prohm and the legendary Angkor Wat whose artistic and archaeological significance and visual impact put it in a class with the Pyramids, Machu Pichu and the Taj Mahal. And thought the major temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park are very well touristed these days, it is still possible to get away from the crowds with us as your professional Cambodia tour operator, explore the area and discover the ancient temples of Angkor. Siem Reap Town is where you will probably stay during your visit. The area has been receiving foreign visitors to the temples for over 100 year. The town is actually a cluster of old villages, which originally developed around individual pagodas, and was later overlain with a French colonial-era center. Take note of the colonial style architecture heavy European colonial style structures and modified “Chinese shophouses” – in the Old French Quarter and around the Old Market. Nowadays, Siem Reap offers a wide range of hotels, including several 4 and 5-star hotels, dozens of mid-range places as well as an amazing variety of restaurants, lots of shopping opportunities and a vibrant nightlife. Often missed are the many opportunities to experience traditional Cambodia: boat trips on the great Tonle Sap Lake to fishing villages and the Prek Toal bird sanctuary, craft shops and silk farms, road tours through rice-paddy countryside to distant temples and beyond. This is the place for most of your Cambodia tour memories.

Angkor Temples
If you've come this far to the region, you will not want to miss the "Prize of Southeast Asia" — the Temples of Angkor which are short one-hour flight from Saigon or Bangkok.

Angkor wat? Many people have heard of the main temple Angkor Wat, but what they may realize that Angkor consists of over 70 discovered ruins spread over 200 square kilometers. Angkor Wat itself is a kilometer-wide and the greatest Buddhist monument ever constructed. There are astounding structures of equal impact surrounding it. This density of ruins is unparalleled anywhere else in the world, and has been aptly called the "Nile Valley of Asia."

Siem Reap, our launching off point is only a short flight from Saigon and a couple of miles from Angkor itself. Lodging at the magnificent 5-star Grand Hotel d'Angkor, a beautifully restored French Colonial gem. We also recommend the Amansara for privacy and La Residence as a more intimate option.

The Splendors of Angkor Thom
You've heard a lot about Angkor Wat, but what of its close neighbor, Angkor Thom? And the incredible stone structure of the Bayon? French archaeologist Henri Marchal says to visit the Bayon is to visit a "temple in another world, built by an alien people, whose conceptions are entirely unfamiliar."

Angkor Thom is a ruined citadel several kilometers north of Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom encloses a rectangular area of nine square kilometers, and at its peak may have held a population of over 100,000, living in tiled or thatched houses. The building of the citadel dates to around the year 1200. Angkor Thom enclosed the Royal Palace (now vanished) and a handful of major temples; the complex was bounded by walls and a moat (now mostly dry) and pierced by five gates. The city was surrounded with rice fields, which provided food; these were irrigated with reservoirs, which also supplied drinking water.

While Angkor Wat is Hindu in inspiration, Angkor Thom resonates with sculpted images expressing the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of Lokesvara (compassion), Prajnaparamita (wisdom), and the Buddha (enlightenment). Although still incorporating Hindu elements, Angkor Thom is a three-dimensional representation of Buddhist cosmology. Temple ground plans reveal a mandala-like base, with radiating symmetrical forms. At the exact centre of Angkor Thom lies the Bayon.

The Bayon - Cosmic Architecture
If Angkor Wat is classic and grand, the Bayon is wild and erratic. Who could've conjured this fantastic structure, and then--even more incredible -- fashioned it from stone? Like Stonehenge or the Pyramids, the bizarre Bayon baffles with its design, its mysterious structure, its aura. The structure is simply amazing. What at first appears to be a random pile of masonry actually consists of massive stones shaped into fluid sculptures, without apparent use of cement or mortar.

The Bayon was once even more elaborate, the central tower apparently covered in gold leaf. Zhou Daguan described it in the 13th century: "At the center of the Kingdom rises a Golden Tower flanked by more than twenty lesser towers and several hundred stone chambers. On the eastern side is a golden bridge guarded by two lions of gold, one on each side, with eight golden Buddhas spaced along the stone chambers." Oddly enough, Zhou Daguan failed to mention the massive heads on the Bayon towers.

The importance of the Bayon was not realized until early this century, when French archaeologists cleared 10 square km of land at Angkor Thom. This made it possible to sketch accurate maps for the first time, and it was discovered that the Bayon lay at the exact center of Angkor Thom. French archaeologists surmised the Bayon was built over the foundations of an earlier structure, resulting in dark galleries, deep courtyards, and towers crowded next to one another. Some parts were walled over, the original sculptures left intact within. Hidden below the upper terrace, Henri Parmentier in 1924 discovered a fine pediment of Lokesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. This indicated the Bayon was Buddhist, and not, as previously thought, Hindu. The discovery of a large Buddha statue within the central sanctuary of the Bayon confirmed this.

Disorder in the construction of the Bayon is reflected in the numerous architectural changes. It seems that after the Cham sacked Angkor in 1177, Jayavarman VII decided the Hindu deities had failed, so he switched allegiance to Mahayana Buddhism. However, he made no attempt to alter existing Hindu elements. The Bayon was caught in the middle -- the foundations are Hindu, but the superstructure is Buddhist. It is estimated that the Bayon took 20 years to build. Jayavarman VII's son and grandson reverted the use of the temple to Hindu (Shivaist) worship, with Brahmans from India gaining great influence over the Angkor court. Heads and faces on statues were destroyed and replaced with Hindu gods.

A Japanese government team working on restoration at the Bayon estimates that more than 200,000 blocks of stone were used for the building. Some of the larger blocks weigh 300 kg. and must be moved by crane in the Japanese project. For the original construction, it would have been possible for four men to carry a piece like this with a sling, but that would not explain how such blocks reached the heights of the central tower. Reassembling pieces left behind by French archeologists is proving a giant jigsaw puzzle for the Japanese--it took the Japanese group four years just to restore a small library building at the Bayon (restoration can only proceed six months of the year because of the rainy season).

The ancient Khmer way of life is written in stone: captured in stunning bas-reliefs on the outer and inner walls of the Bayon. Running the length of the outer and inner gallery-walls, these bas-reliefs depict historical events and mythical stories, and offer rare glimpses into daily life at Angkor Thom. Many of the bas-reliefs are in bad shape, but enough remain to give us insights. Panels show the Khmer battling their enemy, the Cham (from what is today Vietnam): on land, elephants are deployed like tanks; in the water, on Lake Tonle Sap, corpses are thrown to the crocodiles. Other vignettes portray a fisherman casting his net, a man climbing a coconut tree, cock-fighting, scenes of temple construction, princesses partying with their suitors, and even performers from a Khmer circus--jugglers and wrestlers.

Battambang
Sitting on the Sangker River just southwest of the Tonle Sap Lake, Battambang town is at the heart of Cambodia’s “rice bowl”, and even though it is the country’s second biggest town, it still has a very local, less-traveled, provincial atmosphere. Much of the architecture is French colonial and traditional shop houses along quaint narrow lanes. Unlike more touristic towns, the local economy is truly local-based firmly in rice, wood, sapphires and food crops – and is reflected in the character of the town. As you leave Battambang by road, the scene quickly becomes one of small villages and rice paddies, offering an excellent opportunity for the visitor to see a bit of “unspoiled” rural Cambodia. The nearby countryside also harbors several old pagodas, Angkorian era ruins, caves, waterfalls, and even Khmer Rouge period killing field. Battambang means disappearing stick, from the legend of a powerful staff wielded by the legendary ruler Ta Dambang to achieve and maintain power in the area. A statue of Ta Dambang and the stick stand imposingly at the eastern entrance to the town on Route #5. Battambang City is absolutely full of wonderful colonial era architecture and historic old pagodas, and the surrounding countryside harbors not only Angkorian-era ruins and historic pagodas but also offers some of the most picturesque rice paddy and village scenery in the country. Take a boat trip to Battambang from Siem Reap, you will enjoy the most picturesque Tonle Sap water trip in Cambodia. Battambang awaits you to discover its unique beauty.