Submitted by Kerry Snyder on the 2013 winter session program in Cambodia and Vietnam sponsored by the Department of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology…
A visit to a Buddhist temple in Sen Monorom provided an opportunity for us to find out more about the lives of Buddhist monks. We gave an offering of food and money to the group as they were eating lunch. Monks give up a family life and do not earn an income, so making these offerings is very important. It was incredible to listen to the blessing given by the monk in charge at the temple when the offering was given.
The Elephant Valley Project is an NGO based in Sen Monorom that works to rehabilitate elephants that have worked in captivity. We loved being able to see these majestic animals up close. Some of us even got the chance to wash them!
One especially striking Buddhist temple that we visited was located on the top of a mountain near Kratie. The artwork surrounding the religious site was fantastic and the view was incredible. Inside the temple, artwork depicted the story of Buddha.
Our stay in Siem Reap began on January 17th, and our first activity in town was visiting the night market. Hundreds of vendors are consolidated in this area and work hard to sell their wares. Seeing all the products available for purchase made our heads spin! Other tourist attractions available in town are cheap massages and “pedicures” in which small fish eat dead skin off of the consumer’s feet.
Siem Reap is home to the magnificent Angkor complex. This ancient city used to be the capital of Cambodia before it was moved to Phnom Penh. In addition to visiting the famous Angkor Wat, we saw the Ta Prohm, Bayon, and Banteay Srei temples. Ta Phrom is widely known as a site where scenes of the movie Tomb Raider were filmed. Trees can be found growing all over the walls here. The most striking features of the Bayon temple are the many faces carved into its structures. These were created to serve the purpose of watching over the capital in case an enemy approached. Banteay Srei was constructed with pink sandstone and is known as the “citadel of women” because it contains many female figures in its artwork. Throughout the entire complex we found areas where statues were stolen in order to sell on the black market.
