Cambodia 2: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Angkor Wat

The second and final post on Cambodia features temples, temples and more temples! Seriously, they were everywhere. These were all near the city of Siem Reap, in the north.

The temples we saw had an incredible charm as they had been abandoned for many years before opening to the public. This lead many to end up like this...

This beauty was used in the Tomb Raider film. You can see why!

The most famous temple in Cambodia (so famous it is on their flag) is Angkor Wat, meaning 'City of Temples'. Currently the largest religious monument in the world, this temple was a Hindu one and later changed to Buddhist. We had the 'privilege' of seeing it at 4.30 in the morning...

But as the sun came up, it was the perfect place to get a photo of the reflection pool.

Ankor Wat is a marvel, and has been heralded by Cambodians as a key part of their culture and history. The temple is a complex of buildings, all intricately carved with Hindu and Buddhist imagery:

The temple complex began in the 12th Century, which is hard to believe when you look at the design:

The next temple? Bayon, complete with serene looking faces guarding the towers:

I tried to join in, with great success:

Bayon was by far my favourite! The evening was followed by some traditional Cambodian dancing, very similar to Thai dance:

Our next stop was the best part of my whole three-week trip. Just outside of Siem Reap there is a little village where poverty is very rife, but a wonderful project is taking place to provide free medical care and education; New Hope.

The project recently built a new surgery, school and training restaurant, but the old school building is now used as housing for local families. The kids there were so happy, it made you forget all worries from back home about silly things:

The new surgery, funded by donations and companies like Gadventures:

One of our party even did her ice bucket challenge during assembly!

Sot Kemsour, the founder of New Hope on the right!

The project takes on volunteers from all around the world, and the money goes directly to the Cambodian school rather than admin or UK staff wages.  I definitely want to come back here!

So, as you can imagine I was sad to leave Cambodia as it was incredible. I cannot recommend visiting it enough!

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