After our dinner at Square 24 we went to the Night Market in Siem Reap, which was all neon and people and bars and selling — seems like it’s like that all the time. We appreciated having a dedicated tuk tuk driver so we didn’t have to navigate that part of life.
On Monday we had a leisurely morning and then had our trusty tuk tuk guy take us to the History Museum in Siem Reap for several hours before heading to the airport. It’s a wonderful museum; very well laid out, and very comprehensive in its depiction of Cambodian history through artifacts and ancient texts.
The area of SE Asia that is now Cambodia, Thailand and Laos and part of Vietnam are recorded as having a culture and political organization as early as the 5th Century, as was noted in Chinese texts. It noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west. The Khmer empire was established in the 9th Century and a succession of powerful sovereigns reigned in the Hindu tradition until the 11th Century. Buddhism was introduced and the royal chronology ended about the 14th Century. By the 15th century the powers to the west and the east recognized the value of the lower Mekong Basin and various conflicts and power struggles for land ensued, culminating centuries later by the European incursion in the area. And in the end, the vast Khmer empire had shrunk considerably, as Thailand and Laos and Vietnam expanded borders.
So, the museum tells this story, but also shows, through the various artifacts and descriptions of the temples at Angkor Wat and Thom how the kingdom flourished for so many centuries, and ultimately held onto the ancient historical and cultural sites important to the people. It was quite awe-inspiring to see the long history of a kingdom and how in the end, it’s the culture that define a nation.
Then to the airport for our short flight to Hanoi. And a small lovely hotel in the Old Quarter that was hopping even at 9PM on a Monday.
I think you should start a Tuk Tuk business in LA.