Our last day in Siam Reap and in Cambodia. In the morning we visited a school in a village near Siam Reap, sponsored by Viking River Cruises. It has a Canadian connection. Apparently the founder was a child in the village who was sponsored by a Canadian to attend school and university. He achieved some success in the tourism industry and set up this school in his home village. The village kids attend the public school a half day (am or pm) and then receive E...

The heat and humidity continues. It isn't stopping us from touring but we enjoy getting back to the air conditioned bus and hotel. This morning we toured Banteay Srei. It is a 10th century Hindu temple and is reasonably well-preserved. It is not large but it is made of a pink sandstone and contains many intricate carvings. The afternoon may well have been the highlight of our stay in Siam Reap. We visited Ta Prohm, another of the Angkor complex of temples. ...

The Angkor area around Siam Reap was the centre of the Khmer dynasty from the 9th to the 16th century. Its height was between 1100 and 1300AD. Several temples and city areas existed, each covering many sq. kms. The dynasty originated in Java (Indonesia) and occupied much of indochina in the years of its supremacy. Originally hindu, disputes arose between hindus and buddhists which led to internal conflicts and an effort by leaders to win over or at least acco...

I woke up feeling fine this morning. Disembarked the river cruise boat at 8:30 and were bused for 4 1/2 hours from Kampong Cham to Siam Reap, our base for the next 3 days while we explore the temples at Angkor. This was the centre of Khmer power from 800 to about 1400AD. There are several separate temple complexes in the area. The drive was quite interesting giving us a good perspective of the agriculture economy and rural life in Cambodia. Checked into a great h...

All day in Kampong Cham, a medium size city on the banks of the Mekong River. The boat pulls up to the shore and they lay down boards and mats to allow you to climb up the bank to the bus. Only place there has not been a regular dock. We went to another Buddha temple complex this morning. The picture shows the enormous size of the Buddha statues. There is an interesting comingling of Buddhism and Hinduism here. The picture shows Buddha and his students (gol...