Why You Need To Visit Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor Wat is the main attraction of visitors to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is one of the major cities in Cambodia with its main attraction is Angkor Wat. While not providing facilities like other major cities in Southeast Asia, it's urban development is actually quite impressive when compared to the situation which this country was just recovering from multiple crises that swept across Cambodia.

Given that development has just started here lots of things that you can learn from the way of life of local communities that are still strong encrusted with their original lifestyle. Flooded by tourists from around the world to see for themselves the magnificence of the buildings at Angkor, also help people here rebuild their lives through a variety of businesses in providing guests with the best service.

Wat Thmei, as a reminder of the history of old Cambodia.

Armed with old buildings that became the center of ancient government center, Siem Reap keep on visited by millions to see the remains of these historical remains. The visitors from diverse backgrounds and different purposes here reinstate the city as a center by the people such as how it was.

Despite not having attractions like any other big cities of other Southeast Asian cities, Siem Reap has a variety of interesting features that allow visitors to enjoy their vacation while they are here, important facilities such as transportation, food, markets/supermarket, and many recreational activities available here all at once and keep increasing over time.

Accommodation

Grand d'Angkor Hotel, the oldest hotel in Siem Reap.

Accommodation in the city includes the need for all the visitors of luxurious accommodation and hostel facilities and also the 'homestay'. Given that the tourism industry is booming here practically every hotels here has a relationship with leisure activities providers to help visitors make a reservation from their hotel respectively.

Transport

Among the peculiarities of this city is the transport system of its own. The flat land surface allowing the use of vehicles called “tuk-tuk” (motorcycle modified to carry more passengers comfortably). Transportation here is the same as any other cities with the domination by motorcycles on the main streets. But for the convenience of visitors, all forms of transport can be found here except train.

Food

The influx of tourists here allows various kinds of foods to be available for all people from around the world available here. It’s not only provided by the locals, but there are also restaurants runs by people from outside their own countries - perhaps they have become a permanent resident here!

Local food stalls can be found easily, while restaurants that serve customers with 'western foods' also found in most areas of the city. In fact, you might try exotic foods!

What make it easy for you to stays here is the “tuk-tuk” drivers and restaurant operators mostly can speak English well.

Activities

Visiting the silk farm, one of interesting thing to do.

Another majestic temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

You'll be happy if you get a chance to visit this temple.

Morning scene in front of the gate into the Bayon Temple complex.

While your main goal here is to visit Angkor Wat and the old temples around the area, Siem Reap provides a variety of other activities that you might not know. These activities includes land, water and air are all available at reasonable prices.

There are several museums that you need to visit to understand the history of ancient city of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. While a visit to the handicraft centers mainly silk farms definitely add a bit of your knowledge. Likewise, if you are interested in deepening down the streets with cycling, a visit to the ‘water village’ or you just want to join 'cruise' around the Tonle Sap Lake. Air activities are also available if you are interested.

So if you're on vacation here only for a short period, you will not be able to do all of these activities. Make sure you come back.

A lot of things you can learn from the life of the people here. Given the condition of this city in the development stage, many things are still in a state of natural that might disappear in the nearest future.

For the purpose of transportation in Siem Reap you can contact; Mr. Salim & Mr. Nasir at; (+855) 9857 1840 “whatsapp” (+855) 7090 2910 “whatsapp” Email: threebrothers41@gmail.com; limangkor@yahoo.com; seangkor2011@hotmail.com; angkorlim@gmail.com; sekongangkor1@hotmail.com

Unique location in Leshan China - Giant Buddha

Giant Buddha statue in Leshan, China.

As always proposed by MyRokan the places of interests to be visited are locations that provide values such as educational, motivation, cultures, and histories and so on. Although today we are making better progress in technology than people before us, but their determination to do something give us something to think about. That is why the remains of these monuments, still admired us to this day.

This time we will see another exciting remnant of a giant Buddha statue in Leshan, China. Sculpture that reaches a height of up to 71 meters (233 ft.) Is not built with ease but it took a very long time and have a sketched of histories. Indeed it is one of the most important places to visit and was listed as part of the "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO since 1996.

The history of its construction began in 713 led by a monk called Hai Tong, the construction of the Buddha statue that is expected to reduce the strong currents of the river flowing underneath. These jetted danger to ships using the route. His efforts, however, suffered a setback when the provision of the construction of the giant statue is not successful. Hai Tong said gouges his eyes as a sign of sacrifice to complete the statue. When he died, the construction work has been abandoned. Only 70 years later, his effort was refinanced again by jiedushi and construction projects were passed by the followers of Hai Tong in the year 803.

View from above.

Going down the stairs to the foot of the Giant Buddha.

View from the bottom.

Construction of the statue caused huge amount of rock and dirt to be thrown into the river in front of the statue which is also a clash of 3 rivers of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi makes it current calmer.

This giant statue is actually equipped with unique irrigation / drainage systems to avoid the effects of erosion from flowing rain water. The system still works to this day.

During the process of carving the statue, a 13-storey wood building built to protect it from rain and hot sun. This construction, however, destroyed by the Mongols during the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. So starting from that the statue was exposed as seen today.

Water flows in the river during the low season.

View of the Giant Buddha from the river cruise.

Picture from National Geographic.

Sure it is among some large constructions people interesting to watch. Although it may be a religious symbol for some people, but for others it became a symbol of determination, persistence, determination and confidence to do something. For those who like to visit here, the closest town to this location is Chengdu with a distance of less than 150 km.

7 Wonders Of The World

Machu Picchu has many unique features and wonders.

Wonders of the world are often questioned because it is the pride of civilization and even to the people in that particular country. There is no definitive list of the 7 wonders of the worlds, because it is based on the lists issued by various groups based on different criteria.

The first listing of 7 wonders of the world was done by Herodatus (484 - ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305-240 BC) at the Museum of Alexandria, their original texts unable to be saved but still remains as important reference.

The first listings of 7 wonders are;

• Great Pyramid of Giza
• Hanging gardens of Babylon
• Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
• Colossus of Rhodes
• Lighthouse of Alexandria

Cairo Citadel sebagai antara 7 pilihan klasik.

Out of this list only one that still remains to this day is the 'Great Pyramid of Giza’. And from this list, new listings made by various parties, various times and on various criteria.

Among these listings the popular objects come from the medieval era that still exist until today where the things still can be seen (or evidence of its history is still stored properly). The list is as follows;

• Stonehenge
• Colosseum
• Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
• Great Wall of China
• Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
• Hagia Sophia
• Leaning Tower of Pisa

Other list includes: -

• Taj Mahal
• Cairo Citadel
• Ely Cathedral
• Cluny Abbey

This list last longer, but the listing criteria is unclear because it is not organized by any professional body. The question is whether the definition of wonders about all of these objects?

In addition, there’s a listing of wonders objects in the construction of the 20th century has also been issued by the American Society of Engineers to showcase modern constructions. In this list of wonders, objects that listed are as follows;

• Channel Tunnel
• CN Tower
• Empire State Building
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Itaipu Dam
• Delta Works, Netherlands
• Panama Canal

While in 2001, an effort undertaken for new listings ‘wonders of the world’ was runs by a body known as the Swiss New7Wonders Foundation to choose from a list of 200 nominated objects, from this list, 21 of which are listed to the final stage were announced on January 1, 2006. The list of winners was announced on 7 July 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Petra, Jordan is absolutely unique.

The list is as follows;

• Great Wall of China, China
• Petra, Jordan
• Christ the Redeemer, Brazil
• Machu Picchu, Peru
• Chichen Itza, Mexico
• Colosseum, Italy
• Taj Mahal, India

** Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt (honor candidate)

List New7 wonders of the world.

In the method listing this time it is done by public vote via the web and sms. Many countries do vote campaign in their respective countries for several months through the media and so on. So this method will favor only those countries that have more population!

Following on from that, there are again some 7 listings of other things by various parties covering various ranges of subjects. Listings of 7 objects became the current trends and it is easier to get people’s attention.

Great Wall of China, still remains in the New7 wonders of the world.

So ‘7 wonder of the world’, is not a list that is adequate to represent wonders objects in the world. This is because there are lots of marvelous objects, old or new construction with various values not only in terms of construction, the function and also the technologies used during its construction. Then it should be given a wider scope to ensure that the main purposes of the listing.

While recognizing objects of ‘wonders of world’ the more important list to know is the list of 'World Heritage' as issued by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in identifying cultural heritage or natural areas that have value to human civilization. These lists are important because it can give you lots of useful information.

So it is up to you to make a judgment about the 7 things of wonders as it may be different for each individual.

Little India, Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur

Little India, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.

Little India is the small part in Kuala Lumpur that is interesting as its representing Indian people who live in this area. The area fills with decorations with local Indian cultural motifs that can be seen everywhere here. Other than highly decorated house of worship, there are many merchants selling goods for Indian and visitors needs.

A visit to Little India will allow you to know more about how Malaysian Indian cultures that influenced by the Malaysian ways of lives. All over the area are decorated nicely with Indian’s motif arts from the pedestrian walkway, the gate, water fountain, sculpture and many other decorative found all over this place. It’s a short visit to India while you are here in Kuala Lumpur.

Gateway to Little India.

There are pigeons around the street in Brickfields.

Wreaths for sale.

Although the area full with Indian cultural decoration motifs, many facilities available to suite different kind of visitors need. There are many restaurants to provide visitors with savoring foods not only for Indian visitors but also for all Malaysian or tourist include popular fast food restaurant. There also many shops selling goods from clothes to souvenirs and also wreaths can easily be seen here.

Located close to the main transport hub of KL Sentral, Little India can be visited by walking from there. You can take the LRT or monorail and walk down the road to Brickfields. Among the interesting structure that you can see at Little India are attractive street decorations, fountains and unique sculptures. You may also have the opportunity to feed the pigeons that can be found in this area.

Indians houses of worship in Brickfields.

Beautiful water fountain at Little India.

Swiftlet With Edible Nest

Aerodramus fuciphagus one of the species that produce the edible nest.

Swallow is absolutely unique, where some species from this family known of swiftlets has an edible nest (as a medicine). The higher price of swiftlets nest make it important source of income. Hence people build buildings for their nest instead of traditionally hunt them in caves.

The swiftlets nests are popular among the Chinese and gain popularity every year for its health benefits (especially for the skin). This kind of nest had been used in China since 400 years ago an prepared as bird’s nest soup.

Swiftlets nests are classified into two major classes derived from the place where the nest had been obtained (in the building) and also the nest from the caves. Nests derived from building are more easily processed and have a first-class grade. While nests collected from caves contain foreign materials such as feathers and other mainly grass. So, this bird's nest should undergo a cleaning process before being marketed.

Swallows nest in the cave wall.

Ready to use bird's nest.

Nests in boxes for sale.

Type swiftlet that produce edible bird's nest is from the type (Cistothorus platensis) which is mostly found in Southeast Asia. These swiftlets are smaller in size with the size around 11 to 12 cm and weighing 15 to 18 grams. These birds have dark brown color and color is paler on the underside. The tail is slightly forked, with long wings and small. Muzzle and legs are black.

There are six (6) sub-species of swiftlets whose nests of this kind, namely;

• A. f. platensis - sub species found in Java, Bali and western parts of the Lesser Sunda Islands.
• A. f. inexpectatus - found in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, sometimes in Burma.
• A. f. dammermani - Flores Islands, known by only one specimen.
• A. f. micans - in the Lesser Sunda Islands (Sumba, Savu and Timor).
• A. f. vestitus - Sumatra and Borneo, and sometimes treated as different species Aerodramus vestitus.
• A. f. perplexus - Maratua Archipelago in the East of Borneo.

Although formerly the swiftlets nest were collected primarily from caves, now people start to build a nest’s house to facilitate the process of collecting the nest (besides it is more clean - because the bird’s nest containing less foreign material). Sometimes these buildings built in the center of small town that can be somehow disturbing for public.

What makes the price nest swiftlets expensive are the needs to be put everything in right conditions because the building used as home nest should meet the needs of swifts such as; lighting, humidity and temperature are equal as conditions in the cave. So the conditions in the building need to be a little bit dark, with humidity between 89% to 90% and a temperature between 28 ° C to 30 ° C.

Swiftlet's nest soup.

Bird's nests has been cleared.

Nest's building at Baan Laem, Phetchaburi, Thailand.

Since these swiftlets are species native to Southeast Asia, the countries producing the famous bird's nest is Indonesia, known as higher quality producer. Thailand produced a relatively thick nest and requires longer soaking or cooking time. Malaysia also produce nests containing more feathers (Feather Prime swiflet) and has a slightly lower price, but it is used for food industries. Vietnam produces the best bird's nest but have a very limited supply.

So it is a little bit about the swiftlets that produce edible nest. As this article merely provides basic information only, you’re encouraged to visit the swiftlets farms or attending any courses on the swiftlets farming techniques.