SIEM REAP

Siem Reap is an amazing place! I wish I had more time to travel in Cambodia but, unfortunately, this was our last destination of our honeymoon trip in Australia and South East Asia. We spent more time in Vietnam  so we had only 5 days left in Cambodia.

I wanted to see Angkor Wat and that's the main reason we decided to fly to Siem Reap from Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. We knew that we would not be able to see much in five days but it is enough time to visit Angkor Wat and the other temples nearby.

How glad I was we did decide to go. It was the highlight of our trip! I absolutely LOVE Siem Reap and the people there. What a fantastic country with people who's heart is on the right place. After all that Cambodians went through in the past, they truly are remarkable people.

We met a very nice guy called Samisok who took us around the Angkor Wat and who did a day trip with us to different villages around Siem Reap. Sami, that's what we called him, also took us to the Cambodia Land Mine Museum.

John and I met Aki Ra, the founder of the 'Cambodia Landmine Museum Relief Fund' and a former Khmer Rouge child soldier who is raising money with this project in order to help land mine victims in Cambodia.
Aki teaches volunteers how to dismantle land mines as there are still tens of thousands of land mines all over Cambodia and accidents still happen on a daily basis where people, especially children, loose arms and legs while playing in the fields.

CLMRF is a great organisation and if you want to help, visit their website to find out more about this project. Also, Aki's story is very interesting although heartbreaking and sad. For general information about Cambodia's history, click here.


On a more positive note - when we visited different villages outside Siem Reap, we had some great opportunities to talk to the local people.

Once we were invited to visit their houses and they showed us what they do for a living. As mentioned before, people there were lovely and very friendly and they openly talked to us about their lives. Luckily, our driver spoke English and translated the conversation for us as we wouldn't had understood a word :-)

That day a family in one of the villages was making sugar out of palm juice. It was interesting to watch how they did it.

It's hard work but it pays off eventually as the people make sweets (tablets) out of it and wrap it nicely in leaves and then sell it to passers by next to the main road.

In my next Siem Reap post I am going to tell you about our visit to Ankor Wat, the most beautiful ancient site I've ever seen.

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Happy reading!

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