Jan 14

Silhouette of Angkor Wat

Ever since I had arrived in Bangkok for my studies, I had a dream to go to visit Cambodia, especially to see the Majestic Angkor Wat at Siem Reap and pain for the Cambodian people from the past “Choeung Ek Genocidal Center” also know as “The Killing Field” in Phnom Penh. Finally, on the eve of 2012 I could manage this trip.

It was my first trip traveling like backpackers without any Itinerary. Before going to Cambodia I did some research on the internet about traveling to Cambodia from Bangkok. Many said that train would be a better option. My friend Mr. Aimal Alam from Pakistan and I packed our bags for our new destination, Cambodia. We took a train this time.

Traveling through train in 3rd class was quite fun. It was an unforgettable journey for us as we met one American guy Mr. Gabriel Carbajal. He was traveling all alone outside United States for the first time. By the time we reach Thailand-Cambodia border Aryanprathet we had become good friends, and we travel together till seam reap. The train journey was quite amazing. We could see the real Thai life, farmers, students, monks, Cambodian workers going back home, and the crop fields. A different life style than Bangkok.

Thai Village

Green Fields Of Thailand, Aimal was saying it reminded him of his village in Pakistan

Local People inside train

At the border with friend from United State

At the border, since I already had an e-visa to Cambodia I had no problem, but it was hard for my Pakistani friend to get a visa. Finally, after he got the visa, we reserved a car from border city Poypet to Siem Reap, which was a 2 hour journey. It was amazing and easy for us that the Thai Bhat and US dollars are easily accepted everywhere in Cambodia (at least every place we went).

After reaching Siem Reap, we went to see Angkor Wat, it was really majestic. It has been well preserved and I think it is the main attraction of Cambodia to attract tourist from around the world. We spend 3 hours seeing around the temple premises. Now I realize that 3 hour was not enough, I felt we missed out many other places around seam reap. I think I should make another trip before I leave Bangkok after my studies.
We could see many monks and Buddha’s statue inside Angkor Wat but seeing at the wall of the temple we can say that it is dedicated to the Hindu god. As I went through Wikipedia, it says that it has been dedicated to Hindu god Vishnu. As we see the walls of the temple, we can see story of Ramayana imprinted on them. The area of Angkor Wat is very big; we could not go to other temple surrounding it in 3 hours time.

Majestic Angkor Wat

Sesh Naag

Ramayana Story imprinted on the walls of the temple

Actually when I asked a girl at a travel agency, she said if you have visited to Wat Angkor, there is nothing that attractive here besides going to floating village at the lake. She did not tell me about other temples surrounding the main Angkor Wat. Now I feel that I was not given the right information at that place, so I bought the morning bus ticket to Phnom Penh. Roaming around city of seam reap at night was really cool. I felt like I am around Thamel Area of Kathmandu, my home town. There were lots of pubs, restaurants and guess what else “Live Music” and the amazing part is that beer are cheaper than coke at these restaurants.

Our tuk tuk driver, sorry to say did not gave us good information 🙁

Future of Cambodia, returning from school

Green, No Pollution, Empty Roads I fell in love with Siem Reap

Cambodia’s Local Transport, Tuk Tuk from Honda

They are cheaper than coke, don’t believe try it when you visit to Siem Reap

Our next destination was the Capital city Phnom Penh. This time we traveled by bus. It was a journey which made me feel like I am traveling around the Terai area of Nepal; similar faces and way of life. The road was new so it was comfortable ride throughout. There were some places where it was not completed yet. When going through the under-construction road, it reminded me traveling from Kathmandu to My village Parasi in mid western Nepal before the Naryangarh – Butwal highway was build.
I did not find any major tourist destination in this city beside the Killing Field which was my main reason to visit there.  You really need to have a strong heart to visit this place. It was just 35 or 36 years ago that this place was a mass graveyard where they killed innocent people who were against the Khmer Rouge regime.

Village house in Combodia

Cambodia’s King Funeral preparation

Temple at Phonm Penh

Killing Field Memorial

Painful History of Cambodia

This was the tree used for killing children

You will get tears in your eye once you read the story of Khmer Rouge. How can people kill small babies by smashing their head on the tree?
River Side around the Royal Palace was another attractive destination in Phnom Penh. We could see lots of tourist around this area with many restaurants with international cuisine. The annoying part of this street is that lots of kids and young men come to you and ask if you want any marijuana, hashish or drugs. I’ve only taken drugs for medicinal purposes, in the form of CBD, from https://intrinsichemp.com/liposomal-cbd-300-mg/. At the evening time, it is the best place to be in Phnom Penh as locals also come to relax at the banks of the river Mekong. One of the interesting things over there was that we saw some Indian restaurants; but we found out that many of them are owned by Nepali. It was really surprising for me to see Nepalese doing business in Cambodia.

Want to capture the moment

Front View of wat angkor

Lots of Chinese tourist around

9 Responses to “My Journey to Land Of Khmer “Kingdom of Cambodia””

  1. purusotam dongol Says:


    the best thing you did bro….100000000000000000000 like for you .. cheers

  2. Dharma Maharjan Says:


    I love the story and the way u presented. You are such a good Artist.liked it .

  3. Aakar Says:


    Liked both the story and photos. It’s simply amazing. 🙂

  4. Neelu Says:


    good one!!!.

  5. Nasir Says:


    Excellent work Sangesh… I have been through all this journey but hardly remember. Tremendous efforts to put your memories and observations in a blog. keep it up.

  6. samirphotography.blogspot.com Says:


    Being a Photo Enthusiast, I liked all the Fotoz & the informations that you have given has made the photos extra live in their own stands. Thanks dude for sharing both the Fotoz & infoz. 😀

  7. Teddy Winward Says:


    i like this website

  8. Alton Henne Says:


    I am so thrilled I found your site. I really found you by mistake, while I was browsing on Bing for something else. Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a informative post and an all round enjoyable blog. (I also like the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the minute, but I have added your website to my favorites, so when I have time I will be back to read more. Please do keep up the awesome job!

  9. Traveling back to Siem Reap and country side of Thailand | sangesh.com.np Says:


    […] My last visit to Siem Reap was not quite satisfactory to me as I had missed visiting many monuments due to lack of proper information. This time around, I did not want to miss a single monument and capture them through my lens. I had heard about the sunrise at Angkor Wat was amazing to see. So, one of my main objective of this trip was to get there and capture and feel the early morning moment. […]

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