Going Places Jotter: Cambodia

Introduction

Officially, the name of the country in English is the "Kingdom of Cambodia", but is often shortened to just Cambodia. It is a Southeast Asian nation bordering Vietnam (to the east), Laos (to the north), and Thailand (northwest and southwest).

History:

The Khmer Empire was once wealthy, militarized, and a major force in the region, where it stretched to encompass parts of modern day Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.

It’s glorious days being under Jayavarman VII (1181-ca. 1218), where the Empire made significant territorial gains from the Vietnamese and Cham.

However, ever since the fall of Angkor in 1431, the once mighty Khmer Empire has been plundered by all its neighbors. It was colonized by the French in the 19th century, and during the 1970s, was bombed heavily by the USA. After a false dawn of independence in 1953, Cambodia swiftly fell back into the horrors of civil war in 1970 to suffer the Khmer Rough’s extremely brutal reign of terror. It was only after UN-sponsored elections in 1993, did the country begin to stagger back onto its feet.

I first visited Cambodia in January 2012, during the Chinese New Year Holidays. It was a short 5 days 4 nights trip to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The weather was generally hot and humid. But prior research about the Khmer Empire and the Khmer Rouge made me very excited about this trip. We spent the first two days in Phnom Penh, and traveled to Siem Reap by coach on the third day.

For information on Phnom Penh & Siem Reap, stay tuned for their respective blog posts in this site.

Places we visited/Activities we did in Phnom Penh: