Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is a very special place for me and one I've wanted to visit  for as long as I can remember. It's a large Hindu temple built in a square design and approached along a wide, ornate causeway across a lake. It has an impressive stone entrance and a central temple constructed on many levels, and is instantly recognisable by it's five distinctive towers. Again, I won't spend too long describing it but it is absolutely amazing and I feel incredibly lucky to have been there. Sally was also fascinated and amazed by it.

Sadly, it was occupied and used as a military base by the Khmer Rouge when they took power Cambodia between 1974 and 1979 and has been damaged in the fighting - we saw artillery damage, bullet holes (with bullets still embedded) and hand grenade damage.

This period has had a devastating effect on Cambodia. In these few years 2.3 million people died in this small country; many were killed just for being well educated. The father of our local guide was killed simply because he was a mathematics teacher. Today you see very few old people here as so many were killed.

This evening we went to downtown Siem Reap again and this time we did eat, or at least I did. I had a Cambodian Barbecue; you cook your own meat and vegetables on a small barbecue in the middle of your table and I had chicken, beef, squid, crocodile and snake (yum!). 

Angkor Wat is a very special place for me and one I've wanted to visit  for as long as I can remember. It's a large Hindu temple built in a square design and approached along a wide, ornate causeway across a lake. It has an impressive stone entrance and a central temple constructed on many levels, and is instantly recognisable by it's five distinctive towers. Again, I won't spend too long describing it but it is absolutely amazing and I feel incredibly lucky to have been there. Sally was also fascinated and amazed by it.

Sadly, it was occupied and used as a military base by the Khmer Rouge when they took power Cambodia between 1974 and 1979 and has been damaged in the fighting - we saw artillery damage, bullet holes (with bullets still embedded) and hand grenade damage.

This period has had a devastating effect on Cambodia. In these few years 2.3 million people died in this small country; many were killed just for being well educated. The father of our local guide was killed simply because he was a mathematics teacher. Today you see very few old people here as so many were killed.

Location:Angkor Wat, Cambodia