Cambodia

From Vietnam I travelled to Cambodia, which was a beautiful country. I visited many temples around the city of Siem Reap, where I was staying. The main temple is called Angkor Watt and was part of a massive imperial complex that included palaces as well as temples on their grounds. There was also another temple that I visited that had trees that had latched onto the walls of the temple. Unfortunately, these incredible architectural wonders are not the only reminders of Cambodia’s past. Not too long ago Cambodia was overtaken by a strict communist group called the Khmer Rouge. They wanted to create a more perfect nation and so they killed large numbers of people as part of this campaign to cleanse the country. They killed people who they thought were not perfect for their new society. They used fear tactics and murder to scare people into following their ideas. One of the killing fields where this genocide occurred is Phnom Penh. Thankfully, the Cambodian government is much less extremist today. In fact the country is officially called the Kingdom of Cambodia and is a constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial king and a prime minister democratically appointed. Cambodians were a very friendly people and they were also extremely proud  of their cultural heritage.