When first arriving in Cambodia, I didn’t think that there was a whole lot of difference from Thailand but I was wrong….
Most of our transportation was in Tuk-tuks, personally I love riding around in them!!!
The day we were able to spend in Siem Reap a number of us went to the temples and how can you pass up a chance to see Angkor Wat at either sun rise or sunset? Well as we all know I wasn’t awake to go to sunrise but I was able to see it at sunset.
Addison and I spent most of the day together exploring, taking pictures and taking pictures of each other 😀
and yes this happened too….
Addison being her wonderful outgoing self. LeShon met some monks while at the Face Temple
Although the temples were crumbling, the rooms with the idols were kept up…
Oh and you know me, I had to take a minute to monkey around lol….
Addison, Allison, Vallory, Bethany, Adam, LaShon, and of course yours truly.
In Kampong Cham where our team was for ministry, Rachna took us for a tour of the city so we would have an idea of how to get around but also so we could have a little knowledge of its history. Cambodia has its elaborate temples and crypts, when they are introduced to a new religion they don’t give up what they were doing before, the add the new one to the old, so you will see people who worship buddha but are also Muslim.
Like most temples that I have seen on this trip, it is surrounded by poverty.
At the Temple there are many statues of animals, and people worshiping buddha among the many crypts.
The next thing we did on our tour was ride out to Boy and Girl mountain where there are two more temples, and a story that they tell. “In the beginning the woman had to pursue the men, and ask them for their hand in marriage but the women wanted a change so they agreed that whoever could build the tallest mountain before the sun rose would be the pursued. So the women derived this plan to raise a lantern and make the men think that the sun was coming up early and managed a few more hours to work, thus giving them the bigger mountain.” Although the story of the mountain is not true there was a time early in Cambodia’s history that the women asked the men.
That being said at Boy Mountain you find lots of monkeys, these just happen to be getting rid of lice….
There is a short walk, a few Crypts, lots of statues, a few cows, and building with hammocks before you arrive at Girl mountain…
There is a little climb up the mountain that has baggers on the steps up to the top then many more statues. The mountain overlooks the killing fields and mass burial tomb from the time of the Khmer Rouge, the devastating resent history that still haunts much of the land, and is effects are still coming out in the current generation.
