Phnom Kulen NP ~ cambodia

after visiting the 12th century temples of angkor wat on day #1, we decided to see the holy mountains region Phnom Kulen in north western cambodia, the area where angkor begun. phnom kulen is sometimes written as phnom koulen and means the mountain of the lychees. of course it is a UNESCO world cultural heritage too.

• Preah Ang Thom ~ buddhist temple from 16th century 
• waterfalls 
• pol pot's communist regime's khmer rouge killing fields (close to or already part of siem reap)
• siem reap part 2 & 3 ~ the historical centre visited in the morning of our day 3 in cambodia

preah ang thom

 

 holy water with hindu carvings

waterfalls

 good-bye, phnom kulen

 killing fields, pol pot & khmer rouge murdered 3 millions out of 8 millions cambodians in the 70ties :-((

 

  

never ever killing fields ...

more pictures HERE

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angkor wat ~ cambodia

cambodia ~ khmer temple ruines area from 12th century of angkor wat (wikipedia). the originally hindu temples converted to buddhist sites over centuries ...

bayon temple in angkor tom

we have been to cambodia only two and half days and have seen / experienced unbelievable much, even a huge python snake in our guest house garden at night. you wouldn't believe, but our timetable was not too tight. we had enough time to visit a massage studio twice, for only 7 USD per hour. so now you can imagine how cheap cambodia is. or some other snapshot: a driver for a day costs (for short distances) 35 dollars, car + gas included ....

btw, if you asked me, you do not need to spend 3 or 4 days in angor wat to see the temples. we have seen 4 of them in very relaxed manner on day 1 and went next day to the hills of phnom kulen national park to experience some nature and the area where the angkor era begun (hills, waterfalls + the still active 16th century buddhist temple Preah Ang Thom :-).

• angkor wat complex ~ we have seen 4 temples
• #1 ta prohm = the jungle temple
• #2 in angkor tom ("Great City") the bayon temple with 214 big, big stone heads
• #3 baphuon temple was also in angor tom, only a 5 minutes walk from the main 214-heads bayon temple
• #4 the main angkor wat temple
• last but not least, for the really, really interested, here is a nice website angkor temple guide
• siem reap city 
• part 1: day + night, market, siem reap river, restaurant and pub streets
• part 2: next day visit few kilometers outside the city: pol pot's communist regime's khmer rouge killing fields and the market area again
• part 3: historical city centre with the modern buddhist temple Wat Preah Prom Rat (on day 3)
• tonle sap lake ~ fleeting villages 

... more coming soon or never :-)

enjoy few pictures first:

our nice + really familiar stay Channa's Angkor Homestay in siem reap

poor animal ... this python will probably not survive this night :-(  

ta prohm

bayon

 angkor wat ~ source: tourismcambodia.com

 source: unesco.org

could be in every village

apsara dancers

 tonle sap lake

catholic curch at the tonle sap lake

 

pol pot's khmer rouge's killing fields 

inside a modern buddhist temple

siem reap, the modern buddhist temple Wat Preah Prom Rat

more pictures HERE

album created by google (malaysia + cambodia) here
eof