Nyan Thomas L's Blog

We’ve said before that one of the great things about living in Singapore is that it’s easy to jet away to all sorts of spectacular places. In late April, we did just that with a weekend trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to the famous Angkor Wat and other thousand-year-old temples deep in the jungle.

Most famous is Angkor Wat itsslef, a UNESCO World Heritage site and, in fact, the largest religious monument in the world. It’s 162 hectares — thanks, Wikipedia! — and comprises a moat and numerous stone buildings, plus lots of open space.

This video gives a hint at the size:

And that’s just one small section of the place, just outside the main temple.

Here are a bunch of photos from in and around Angkor Wat. Click on any photo to enlarge it – and trust us, it’s worth it! A very photogenic place.

Just up the road is Angkor Thom, an ancient walled city with numerous old temples and monuments inside. It was the capital of the Khmer empire and established around 900 years ago.

This was our second stop on the day, and to be honest, we were a little worried that Nyan’s attention would quickly lag. There wasn’t a lot to actually *do* at these places besides walk around and ooh and ahh and be amazed at the sculptures and architecture. But Nyan was a trooper and was really into it! Here we are exploring around Angkor Thom, including a few shots of the moat outside the wall and the wall itself.

As awesome as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were, Ta Prohm was definitely Daddy’s favorite temple. Unlike the other two, officials have made a conscious choice not to do much if any restoration work here, so there are tumbled-down stones everywhere and, most stunningly, huge jungle trees and vines crawling all over everything. So beautiful.

The trip wasn’t all temple trekking though. We also spent some time in our hotel’s very nice swimming pool.

And maybe the highlight of the trip, for Nyan at least, was the tuk-tuk rides we took around town.

Finally, random shots from the trip. Including one of Nyan, before the flight, wearing a toy crown he had made at school. He slapped it on and took to calling himself the “King of Cambodia.” Alright then.

In early March, Nyan and Mommy joined Phwa Phwa and Uncle Nyi-Nyi for a short visit to Yangon, Myanmar. It was definitely a trip they will never forget, since both Mommy and Nyan caught some sort of stomach bug and spent a fair amount of time convalescing in their hotel room!

Still, they managed to see some temples — including the famous Shwedagon Pagoda — and hang out with various aunties and cousins, including Nyan’s favorite Kiki.

Some of the temples:

Nyan was really into the bells:

And the incense too:

And just hanging out with his young cousin Htun Htun:

And finally some random shots from around Yangon:

So you can see, they managed to have a good time in spite of the sickness. Next time we will all stay healthy and see more of the country!