Siem Reap - Angkor National Museum Part 1

 

Next we walked to Angkor National Museum. It was maybe a 20mins walk from Wat Bo? Along the river? Hahaha. We got a bit lost along the way, but we did enjoyed the river walk. I will post that separately. Google map asked us to walk thru a small road that was being repaired, so we spend some time walking up and down a segment of the road trying to see how we can get to the other side. We walked pass a group of workers a few times that some of them smile at me seeing how lost we were. That warms my heart somewhat, that they too see the comical side of things and could share a laugh with me.  We finally made it to the museum. The facade looked impressive. I was hoping it would be air conditioned! 

Some sign just next to the ticket counter. I'm just gonna say it, the price was totally not worth it. It was over 10USD to get in. And we got pretty confused over the layout of the exhibition hall. Plus, although the halls were air con, it was so low that it made it even harder to breath inside. If you are on a budget, or short on time, skip this place all together. Go straight to Angkor Wat instead.

But since it was on my to-do list, and after getting over the shocked of paying, I decided to just spend more time here. That was my thought before I actually found out how bad the air con was. They do have some water features around the ground floor of the museum. I guess that could keep the temperate down?

From some hall to the next, the connecting corridors were open aired. It was spacious here. It was easier to breath here than inside some of the halls!

One of the cooler exhibition hall was the hall of a thousand Buddhas. When you walked in, it was just amazing. Gold glow from some of the gold statue. And so many Buddhas all in one place. 

The walls all contained a small space to house individual Buddhas too. I though that was so cool! But I doubt any of these statue were meant for praying too. It was more of a Buddhist Art exhibit. 

When I went in, I was rather impressed with the walls and the Buddha it contained. But get this, when I was in Beijing 1 month later, I saw a similar wall inside the Forbidden City, and it was more impressive because all the different Buddhas were of similar size. So it kinda looked neater.....lol. Just saying.

The other cool thing was a fortune telling stick outside the hall of the thousand Buddha. I think I've never actually done this stick fortune before. This was probably my first time doing. Since there was nobody around, and since after paying such a high price to enter this museum, I might as well get my fortune told!

Here you go! My fortune for 2024. I'm still waiting for that rich widow! Lol.

Moving on, there was also a cool audio visual display of Angkor Wat sunrise and sunset. No, I didn't get to see either of them in real life. Maybe I'm not meant to watch any religious sunset and sunset in 2024? It didn't happen in Thailand, and it didn't happen here either. But every morning, I get the most beautiful sunrise right from my bedroom in Penang :) 

Oh yeah, an explanation of what I saw in Banteay Srei temple, the lion head guardians....