Cambodia Cultural Museum (Cambodia)

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Siem Reap, Cambodia

I have spent a lot of time in Cambodia and Siem Reap is my favorite city in the country so far. But, I still have not seen all I want to see here. I decided the Cambodian Cultural Village would be something the 3 of us, Villa, Samnang and myself would enjoy. So, we got a tuk tuk and went for the day.

It turned out this is a combination of a museum, theme park and entertainment center

Cambodia Cultural Museum, Siem Reap

. There are exhibits and recreated villages depicting the life of the Cambodian people starting from the 1st century up to the present day.

We went through the wax museum first since the 1st show didn't start until an hour later. It was a really interesting museum with figures and displays of tools and village life in Cambodia. Villa and Samnang spent a lot of time at each exhibit. They found them really interesting since they understood the culture and knew the history behind the figures and displays.

We wondered around the rest of the park once we left the wax museum. There was a 'millionaire house' that was an ancient style of Cambodian construction. It's built from wood and there are performances of the days of a Cambodian wedding.

Cambodia weddings are 3 day events and each day is for a specific purpose. Day one is for the family and close friends to bring gifts and the parents participate in certain rituals

Cambodia Cultural Museum, Siem Reap

. The show for each day was done at a different time, so we kept coming back to this house during the day to see the entire wedding performed.

We spent the day walking around through recreated farm villages. There are 11 villages, each representing the cultural history of 19 different peoples. One was depicting the Cambodian farmers and how they live and work their rice fields. The animals they use and the crops they grow were recreated, along with the style of houses they live in.

Chinese people moved to Cambodia more than a thousand years ago, so there is a Chinese village you can walk through, also.

There was even a small village with a church in it. This village represented the lifestyles of Cambodian people that left the country and now live abroad. The village had a Christian Church building and western style houses like they live in in places like America or Europe. The church buildings are an oddity to the local people here, just like their Wats are to me.

There is an area with miniature famous and historical buildings and cities, including a miniature Royal Palace and bridge.

I'm not sure what the area of 101 dalmatian dogs has to do with the Cambodians, but there it was. A large area of all sizes of dalmatians.

The first part of the day we had the park almost to ourselves, which was good for photo taking, but by noon the tour busses started arriving and the park got very crowded and the shows started all over the park. They were very well performed shows and each depicted some cultural aspect of the Cambodian life.

There were shows of the Cambodian wedding, Apsara Dancing, circus, Peacock dancing, acrobats, boxing, and even a show depicting taking a shower! We spent the entire day watching the shows and walking the grounds.

The one thing I kept wanting to go through and never got to do was the tunnel of judgement and horror. Maybe next time!

It was a fun day spent with my two Cambodian friends, the day before I say goodbye and fly out of the country!

Note: Photos of the Museum are in this entry but I put all the videos of the shows in the next entry.

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