TANKS Travel Tales - a travelogue.......

Visiting sites of ancient and past civilisations is a fascinating journey into the history of humankind. From these sites and the artefacts found there, we gained insights into how people of the past lived and worked.  In the ancient ruins of Angkor Thom, I came face-to-face, literally, with hundreds of smiling stone faces. Said by some to represent the bodhisattva of compassion Avalokitesvara (or Lokesvara), the 216 stone faces engraved onto the towers of Bayon stood smiling serenely, as they had for more than 700 years, silent witness to the history of humankind. Bayon was built as the Buddhist temple of the Khmer at Angkor Thom. Located near present-day Siem Reap, Angkor Thom was the capital of King Jayavarman VII.  Infused with both historical and mythological wonder, Angkor Thom is one of the most visited sites for visitors to Siem Reap. And when one mentions Angkor Thom, the images of Bayon will undoubtedly flashed through the minds of almost everyone who had visited this ancient

The Tonl é  Sap is a huge freshwater lake that connects to the Mekong River via the Tonl é  Sap River. The Tonl é  Sap is unique in that its size varies widely throughout the year as the rainy and dry seasons come and go. The lake is at its largest size typically during the months of September and October due to the southwest monsoon. Conversely, it is generally at its smallest size at the end of the dry season in the month of April. The difference in the lake's size between these two extremes can be as much as six times. Life on the lake,  Tonl é  Sap, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2015) The lake is home to many people. These folks live on floating houses, studied in floating schools, shop at floating platforms and travel on small boats. The lake is their life and their lives centred around the lake and the Tonl é  Sap River.  This article showcase the lives of the people who called the Tonl é  Sap home. As the old saying "a picture tells a thousand words" goes, I will let these

September 2015 has been a busy month at work for me. Because of this, I had not been writing much. Thus, I missed my self-set quota of publishing one travel article every two weeks on this blog. Now that things have cleared up a bit at work, I hope to be blogging more regularly. In this month, I managed to find some time to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The purpose of this trip is to visit the world famous archeological temple sites that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing of Angkor. As a keen student of history and archaeology in my free time, I had read and researched much on Angkorean history. However, no photographs or research can match the feeling of personally standing in the midst of these magnificent temples. While what remain today of these temples are but a shadow of the grandeur of the original buildings in their heydays; standing on what was and is still considered holy temple grounds and walking the hallways of the temples that were built and crafted