Sarah in Korea & Cambodia (Sarah Altier) : The Ancient Capital of Kampuchea

The next morning we were greeted in the lobby by our local guide, Mr. Tin, and his driver. Mr. Tin, by the way, always wears a Tin-Tin t-shirt. If you're ever in Cambodia and need a guide look around for the guy in the Tin-Tin tee - he's awesome. We headed with Mr. Tin north out of Phnom Penh. As soon as we got out of the city the countryside started taking on a pattern of rice paddies, small village, elaborate temple, and then more rice paddies and so on. Mr. Tin did a great job of informing us about things along the wayside.

Soon we saw a huge temple complex up on a mountain, and Mr. Tin informed us that this was Udong, the ancient capital of Cambodia where many former Khmer kings are buried. We drove up to Udong and then walked up a huge set of stairs to the first stupa. There is a Buddha inside the stupa, and both the Buddha and the stupa itself was heavily damaged from shrapnel because the Khmer Rouge used this as a military vantage point during the 1970s. It’s not surprising that both the ancient kings and the Khmer Rouge were interested in the Udong site, as from the top of the mountain we could see for miles around – a breathtaking view of the Cambodian countryside. There were very few tourists at Udong, but as we walked from one stupa to the other – each more impressive than the last -we did see some young monks making a pilgrimage there, and there were a lot of beggars.

This Buddha at Udong is shrapnel damaged - battle scars from the Khmer Rouge

Udong temple complex

After we looked at each of the wats, we walked down the hill to where a modern temple is being constructed in the memory of a monk who was assassinated. I didn’t really get the whole story that Mr. Tin was relating to us about why the monk was assassinated, but it had to do with standing up to some political forces in Cambodia. The temple is huge and ornate, and in one of the outbuildings the monk’s preserved body is in a glass casket. Several monks (who looked like 13 year old boys to me – maybe they were) were kneeling on the floor in the casket room, and when Mr. Tin gave a donation they burst into a chant blessing him for his kindness.

We arrived at the provincial town of Kampong Chnang and checked into Sovann Phum Hotel, which was disturbingly located next to the leper hospital. Jeff and I walked down the road past several more hospitals – one for the victims of land mines, another for “the prevention of blindness”, another for AIDS. The blindness hospital seemed to be a children’s hospital, as there were many lying on cots on the outside of the building. Many had IVs hooked up to them and the IV bags were hanging from bamboo poles. Of course we knew before we came to Cambodia that there is a “mystery disease” here that is killing many children (evidently it’s similar to foot and mouth disease), but we don’t know if this hospital and these children had anything to do with that. All the schools in Cambodia have been closed to help prevent the spread of the virus.

After lunch Mr. Tin and driver picked us up and took us to some hillside villages that specialize in making pottery. We were only able to find one pottery center where the people were working, as it is the rainy season and the women who normally make the pottery are all needed in the rice paddies, but the one we did find was very interesting. These people were making little Khmer ovens which are filled with charcoal for cooking on top. It was quite interesting and as we have continued to travel around Cambodia we see these clay ovens in use so it’s become very meaningful that we saw how they were made. Mr. Tin also pointed out the many sugar palm trees in this area and showed us the bags on the trees collecting sap from which palm sugar and palm wine is made. After visiting another temple (more stair climbing!) we were dropped off in the Kampong Chnang where we wandered around looking for some clothing to help poor Jeff make up for his lost luggage. In the local market we were finally able to buy some underwear, which is hilarious because the waistband of these very brief briefs reads “YOU ARE THE MEN”. We had a lovely meal and a couple beers at a local restaurant near the city center’s park where Cambodian teenagers were playing badminton (with no net).