People are just like books. People contain much various knowledge, talents, and ingredients of life. People, through the aging, involving series of action experienced, has then made them the wisest among all creations living on the earth. Each experience and stage of people life is a page or chapter of life similarly to a book that contains pages and chapters.

Just like any books, require readers to read through, starting from the front cover thoroughly to the back cover, in order to know the hold contents of the book, before the readers can draw the correct conclusion of the book as such. Similarly, in order to understand and draw a succinct and sincere conclusion of a particular group of people, one must take special time to collaboratively learn, study, and be with the audiences, giving enough time to find out about them not just focusing his or her attention on the present¸ but the past caused: passive cause and active cause. Passive cause due to past actions others had caused these people to live and behave at the present. Active cause due to what these people had taken a wrong action that affects them until the present time.

Combining the first criteria: experience the world to add interesting page of life to our diary, and the second criteria: to draw the sincere or fair conclusion about the particular group of people.  Focusing on these two elements, have then given us a much more interesting idea to explore, discover, and learn as much as we can about people across cultures and nationalities throughout the world. Doing so will enable us not to pass judgment on others solely on our opinion, and easily draw a wrong conclusion about others.

Cambodia has been judged by many as violent a nation. This is not a positive image and can be completely misrepresent the whole nation. The word proclaimed can impair the nation from reaching its full capacity in serving the world through tourist and traveling services. I disagree with the violent word. People’s attentions are so focusing on the contemporary history caused by the Khmer Rouge.

However, they forget to dig deeper than the caused, or focus on the present in the positive perspective in comparison to those people who live surrounding Cambodia parameter. If they chose to study those who living surround Cambodia, then they may appreciate what Cambodia is able to serve them at the present. To avoid the judgment by the cover, one must take time to careful read the whole book.

Similarly, Cambodia can be read by you. Come and dig deep into the pages and chapters of Cambodia historical lifestyle, culture, architecture, and other beautiful things. You will benefit from both the past and the present real life.  At the present, Cambodia welcomes you to explore, discover, and experience her full service, starting from the airport to the hotel and out of the hotel into your exciting journey based on your choice whether to visit first the ancient city of Angkor Wat or swim in the blue ocean at the beach of Sihinoukville.

Come and help us reveal true image of Cambodia to the world. The gentle and generous people who have been throughout history embraced the world.

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Image via Wikipedia

Angkor Wat became a significant religious centre since it was founded.  The temple is in the high classical style of Khmer architecture. Angkor Wat itself become the symbol of Cambodia and one of the country’s prime attractions for visiting tourist.(godaddy ssl coupon)

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According to the experts, Angkor Wat combines with two basic architectural plans of Khmer temple architecture; the temple mountain and the galleried temple.

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The Angkor Wat was designed to represent Mount Meru. In the Hindu mythology, Mount Meru is the home of the Divas . There are three rectangular galleries which are raised above the next within a moat and an outer wall of 3.6 kilometers or 2.2 miles long. A quincunx of tower stands at the center of the temple.

The Ankor Wat was being admired for its architecture’s grandeur and harmony, for its extensive bas-relief and for its devatas or guardians spirits adorning the walls.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The name Angkor Wat means “City Temple”. The term Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor. It comes from the Sanskrit word nagara which means capital. The word Wat is the Khmer word which means temple. The Angkor Wat was also known as Preah Pisnulok, this term was given after the posthumous title of its founder Suryavarman II.

Angkor Wat

Built in Cambodia in the 12th century for King Suryavarman II. At first it was Hindu (honoring the god Vishnu), then becoming a Buddhist place of worship. It consists of a temple encompassing the mythic Mt. Meru. Its five inter-nested walls and moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic oceans. The city became uninhabited in the 1400’s when it was sacked.

It became a lost wonder, only to be happened upon by Buddhist monks. Legends circulated about the mysterious city built by the gods of ancient time. Eventually the legends reached the “outside” world, and restoration efforts began to rebuild the lost city. Archaeologists once believed that Angkor Wat was the resting place of kings. But the kings were the ones who built this sacred place as a world of worship.

Taktshang

Located in Bhutan is nestled a monastery on the cliffs of a mountain (nearly 10,000 feet up). The name means tiger’s nest, apparently derived from the legend of one of Bhutan’s Buddhists. He flew to the valley on the back of a tigress before resting in one of the caves located on the top of the mountain. Here he meditated for three months, where the monastery now resides.

Khajuraho Temple

This temple has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Known as the Temples of Love, the temple itself is stunning, and it contains erotica sculptures, which is sure to raise an eyebrow. It is one of the top tourist destinations in India, and one can certainly see why. Built between 950-1050 A.D., there were originally 85 temples constructed of sandstone. Only 22 survive.

Shikoku Temples

Zentsuji (Number 77 of the 88, and the largest)

The Shikoku pilgrimage is comprised of 88 temples throughout Shikoku (the smallest of Japan’s islands). The Buddhist monk Kobo Dashi created the temples in 815 A.D. The temples were made to protect people from misfortunes.

It can usually take a month to traverse all the temples by foot. The pilgrims are known as henro, and they usually work in a clockwise circle around Shikoku. And if you’re looking for a heart-felt journey to self-discovery, then traveling by foot is the way to go. Otherwise, most people travel the circuit by car or bike.

Banteay Srei

Set in an almost surreal surrounding is a small temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Its meaning loosely translates to citadel of the women. It was built by a Brahmin counselor under the King Rajendravarman.

It is located in Angkor, Cambodia. Built of red sandstone, the walls of the building are intricately carved. Because of its diminutive size, it is known as the precious gem amongst tourists.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple (Srirangam)

It is the largest temple in India, and one of the largest religious complexes in the entire world. It is surrounded by 7 concentric walls with 21 towers called Gopurams. The temple was purportedly built more than 2,000 years ago, although archaeologists are still unsure of its exact origins.

Legend says that Sri Ranganatha was flown across the sky by the sage Vibhisana. While resting, he set a statue of Vishnu upon the ground, but once rested, he could not remove the idol. A temple was built around the statue, and building continued for hundreds of years.

Brihadeeshavra Temple

Located at Thanjavur, this temple is an example of Chola architecture. It was built by Rajaraja Chola, the first king of India. The ancient Hindu temple was built around the 10th century, with later editions in the 16th century. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is one of India’s most prized sites.

Cambodia, it turns out, is vastly different from Thailand. The Thai tourist industry is highly developed, equipped to host thousands of westerners with pockets full of strong currency. And Thailand had a fairly placid political history in the second half of the twentieth century, while Cambodia was the target of U.S. aggression during the Vietnam War. In its more recent past, Cambodia suffered the crippling effects of the Khmer Rouge regime. That government perpetrated genocide against its own people.

So while Cambodia serves up the same steaming coconut curries as Thailand, and is also well equipped to accommodate its privileged white guests, the poverty I encountered there remains unspeakable in my memory.

Siem Reap is a modest city that has blossomed into the bustling tourist center servicing Angkor Wat, that famous compound of Buddhist and Hindu temples. Throngs of westerners truck through every day, leaving behind their $40 temple entrance fee and the cost of a hotel room and some Khmer food. Most visitors also leave behind many U.S. dollars-the currency used in Cambodia since their own legal tender bottomed out at 4,000 to one dollar- in the hands of begging children.

The streets of Siem Reap are packed with them: they are small and dirty, and the four year olds carry one-year-old siblings on their backs. They beg for themselves and for their families, as well as for the amputee adults who employ them. In Cambodia, an untold number of people are landmine victims. It is impossible to walk through city streets without encountering someone missing a leg or sometimes two, or an arm, just a hand, both arms, or, occasionally, both arms and both legs.

We spent one afternoon at the landmine museum- an internationally known site, despite it being just a hut with newspaper clippings and piles of disabled explosives. Beside the museum were bunkhouses in which twenty or thirty children-most of them landmine victims-lived together. In a field across the way, many of the children were playing soccer, and after reading the newspaper articles and learning about the international movement to ban landmines, I wandered over to watch them. Many played without arms, and a few played with just one leg. Much smaller children, not landmine victims themselves but probably orphans, were also afoot, thrilled at the very presence of a westerner. They held onto my legs and demonstrated their knowledge of English-numbers one through ten-for my benefit.

And so I struggled, wondering, To whom do I give? And how much do I give? What story do I tell myself to make it okay, so that I can eat lovely meals and snap pictures of their temples, and throw the starving children a dollar before I return to my wealthy life in our inconceivably wealthy country? Don’t we have a responsibility to do something?

I was often moved to tears by the begging in Cambodia, but found no easy solution in simply offering money. When I did open my pockets to them, I found myself mobbed by small children thrusting forward their open hands or tugging at my clothes. If I didn’t give, I walked by with my lips pressed tightly together, ashamed of myself. How could I have so much and give nothing to this hungry one, or that one missing a hand, or the one carrying her baby sister? How could I walk by knowing that the circumstances and wealth with which I have been blessed are the godliest riches to these children? What is a dollar to me, after all, when in Cambodia it can feed a whole family for a day or two?

On my last morning in Siem Reap, I ate with my mom and brother on the patio of a restaurant with a sign boasting its western breakfast. After we ordered-omelets and toast, coffee and mango milkshakes-a woman carrying her son on her back and her tiny daughter in her arms stepped onto the patio and stretched out her hands to us. My mom had determined her own generous policy about begging on our first day in Southeast Asia, when she had marched into the bank to draw out stacks of one-dollar bills. Faced with this mother begging on behalf of her two children, mom reached into her pocket for several dollars. The woman nodded gratefully. And then we watched from our patio dining table as she went to an adjacent food stall and fed her children.

Tears poured from my mother’s eyes. To face another mother in this way was too much for her. She saw herself in this woman, and each of them was mothering her own in the best way she could. Yet my mom had pockets full of dollars, and this woman struggled to feed her babies.

Can we ever give or do enough so that we can hold up our heads, even as we board airplanes back to our First World opulence? What about the starving girl to whom I gave nothing because I had no small bills? And the man missing both his legs who I walked right by, pretending not to see? Is it enough to bring money to their country by visiting, by staying in their hotels, eating in their restaurants, visiting the temples and museums? Is it enough to give a few coins here and a dollar there? After I’ve left, is it okay to forget about the masses of Cambodian children and the endless landmine victims if I gave to them while I was there? What is enough? When can I let it go and know that I did what I could?

I can hope that it was a hungry child’s mother who sold me the baskets, the carved spoons, the bundles of spices and teas. I can hope that having visited, and having given a little here and some there, that that was enough. Or I can let it inform the path I choose in my life. We all have an opportunity to do something; there’s no end to the ways we might use our good fortune to improve the lives of those who are not so blessed. Giving to charities is one way, and volunteering time and energy to causes that we believe in is another, often very effective and fulfilling, way of making a difference. Will that make it easier to look into the eyes of a little boy carrying his littler sister? That, of course, will continue to be heartbreaking. But perhaps I would leave Cambodia feeling a little lighter if I knew it wasn’t just a crumpled dollar bill I had given, but a commitment to work toward a better future.