Clutter
Early in the morning my cousin Vichheka whizzed me through Kampong Cham, over the Japanese bridge (Speak Kizuna) towards the newly renovated French Watch Tower (Pom Tonlebet). Back in its day during French occupation of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (also known as French Indochina), these watch towers were used to keep an eye on invaders. The reason for the mention in this entry is because the tower has just been recently renovated and repainted earlier this year, where as on my previous trips it was in a state of decay.
As I headed back across the bridge, I decided to pop into the local market (Psar Kampong Cham). As per usual Psar Kampong Cham and almost every other psar in Cambodia are cluttered. Whilst walking pass each of the stalls, every stall owner desperately seek out to make a sale.
After about half an hour of browsing, we returned to our grandparents home is Poum Aka. Along the way we popped into Wat Dei Dos, which housed 2 newly constructed buddha statues within the temple gardens. Within this temple compound, housed many chedi's (burial sites), one of them being my grandparents which was constructed a while ago. Some of the chedi's have seen better days, as many were destroyed in one way or another during the Khmer Rouge. After taking a few photo's we quickly jetted back to my grandparents home through the cluttered streets which were full of mini outdoor stalls selling groceries, fish and poultry.
We didnt get to rest for long, as we arrived at our grandparents home, my other cousin Bun Chhoeun arrived with his wife, and we quickly set off again to visit the 10th Century ruin of Phnom Bachey (also known as Wat Nokor), this ruin complex has an incredible atmosphere as there is a beautiful contrast between old and new. A modern temple has been constructed within the central shrine which has incredible painted bas reliefs all over the poles and roof. I've already visited this prasat in my previous trip, but decided to pay a visit because its worth the effort. We didn't stay for long as my cousin wanted to take me to the newly constructed memorial site at the base of Phnom Pros.
During the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Pros vicinity was turned into a mass grave, and till this day you can see remnants of clothing scattered across the field. The newly constructed garden, house many decently oversized buddha statues, painted in gold. At the top of Phnom Pros were a group of small monkeys sat there eagerly to accept banana's, however we decided to give this a miss as my dad on his previous trip was bitten by one of the scoundrels.
Even though I have visited these sites numerous times, I will have to revisit them once more to both record a GPS reading of the sites and also to take some family group photo's. Anyhoo it's getting late and I havent had dinner yet, so Ciao for now.
-allan-
As I headed back across the bridge, I decided to pop into the local market (Psar Kampong Cham). As per usual Psar Kampong Cham and almost every other psar in Cambodia are cluttered. Whilst walking pass each of the stalls, every stall owner desperately seek out to make a sale.
After about half an hour of browsing, we returned to our grandparents home is Poum Aka. Along the way we popped into Wat Dei Dos, which housed 2 newly constructed buddha statues within the temple gardens. Within this temple compound, housed many chedi's (burial sites), one of them being my grandparents which was constructed a while ago. Some of the chedi's have seen better days, as many were destroyed in one way or another during the Khmer Rouge. After taking a few photo's we quickly jetted back to my grandparents home through the cluttered streets which were full of mini outdoor stalls selling groceries, fish and poultry.
We didnt get to rest for long, as we arrived at our grandparents home, my other cousin Bun Chhoeun arrived with his wife, and we quickly set off again to visit the 10th Century ruin of Phnom Bachey (also known as Wat Nokor), this ruin complex has an incredible atmosphere as there is a beautiful contrast between old and new. A modern temple has been constructed within the central shrine which has incredible painted bas reliefs all over the poles and roof. I've already visited this prasat in my previous trip, but decided to pay a visit because its worth the effort. We didn't stay for long as my cousin wanted to take me to the newly constructed memorial site at the base of Phnom Pros.
During the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Pros vicinity was turned into a mass grave, and till this day you can see remnants of clothing scattered across the field. The newly constructed garden, house many decently oversized buddha statues, painted in gold. At the top of Phnom Pros were a group of small monkeys sat there eagerly to accept banana's, however we decided to give this a miss as my dad on his previous trip was bitten by one of the scoundrels.
Even though I have visited these sites numerous times, I will have to revisit them once more to both record a GPS reading of the sites and also to take some family group photo's. Anyhoo it's getting late and I havent had dinner yet, so Ciao for now.
-allan-
posted by - allan - at
9:56 PM
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