Cambodia

Hello Room 1.

It has been a while. Recently I went to Cambodia. It is a lovely country and the people are very kind and gentle.

Cambodia is famous for its beautiful temples. This one is called Angkor Wat - it is about 900 years old. I got up very early so I could see the sun come up over it. Fantastic!

Here I am outside one of the many other temples. One of the spectacular things about the temples is the very detailed carvings. The carvings all tell a story.

This is me outside one of the gates that lead into the temple grounds.

The Temples are huge and have walls around them and many buildings in the temple grounds. These two buildings in the grounds were once libraries hundreds of years ago. Outside these walls is a huge moat.

Here I am in the grounds of a temple. The grounds and temples are World Heritage Sites which means they have to be protected because they are so special.

Inside the walls are all carved. This one tells a battle story with horses and chariots.

The buildings are very old and the trees have grown up through them.

This entrance with the tree growing over it was used in an Indiana Jones movie. Do you recognise it? Many of the temples were found this way and have now been preserved to prevent further damage by nature. Other things that destroy the temples are war, termites, rain and people stealing. This temple is called Ta Prohm.

Here is one way to get around the temples....

Around the villages of Siem Reap (a big town in Cambodia), goods are transported on the back of three wheeled motor bikes with the rider sitting up very high on top of the goods.

Around the towns I travelled in a Tuk Tuk. Here I am with one of the guys who drove me from my hotel to dinner. Can you see me?

This is a picture of a typical village home. Most houses have one cow.

This is a farmers house with his 'tractor' out the front.

Cambodia was recently in a war. This lady hand paints beautiful paintings. The people who work here like this lady are deaf and dumb as a result of no medicine available when they were children.

This is a man in the same place doing a carving. He only has the use of one arm as a result of a land mine injury. Many people suffer as a result of land mines left over from the war.

Here is a typical market place selling chicken, fish and vegetables. It was a bit smelly!

A lot of the food is dried food as it keeps better in the high temperatures. This is mostly dried sea food.

The thing that struck me the most about Cambodia was the lovely, kind people. The country is poor and has been invaded many times by other countries, but the people are gracious and welcoming. This man is wearing traditional clothes. It reminds us how lucky we are to live in Rotorua.