Soo-a s-day Cambodia: facts and history

Fast facts:

- Capital: Phnom Penh

- Population:12 million

- Language: Khmer

- Currency: Riel (R)

- Main religion: Theravada Buddhism

- Climate: Tropical currency

- Flag: three horizontal bands of blue and red with Angkor wat in the centre

Hello Cambodia, which is officially known as the 'Kingdom of Cambodia' and with a population of circa 12 million it ranks as the 69th most populous country on the planet. Cambodianwas once known as the Khmer Empire, a Hindu-Buddhist Kingdom, which stretched across xxx.

The official religion, Theravada Buddhism, is practiced by 95% of the population, with Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and various hill tribes making up the remaining 5%. Cambodia is now a constitutional Monarchy, with a monarch chosen to be the head of state.

The Khmer Empire ruled Cambodia for over 600 years and built the monumental temple ruins at Angkor to honour the King's family, with the most famous, Angkor Wat, built by the king as his resting place. Since the 15th century Cambodia has been ruled by a variety of its neighbours and, more recently, the French as part of its Indochina empire.

Cambodia became independent in 1953 but became embroiled in the Vietnam war, which allowed the murderous Khmer Rouge regime to sweep into power in 1975 and force communism on their compatriots. Between 1975 and 1979 they drove the country back to the Stone Age and carried out a genocide of the population that was responsible for over a million deaths. Thankfully the Khmer Rouge were only in power for four years and were ousted by the Vietnamese in 1979 which led to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War between 1979 and 1991. I packed my Vietnamese cap at the bottom of my backpack after reading this...

Since the  peace treaty of '91 it was briefly governed by the United Nations (91-93), before being handed back to the people as part of democratic elections in '93 but there was a political coup by the Cambodian People's Party in '97. Since 2997 the country has been run as a 'vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian regime and a superficial democracy'.

I am sure I will include some more history and facts about Cambodia in my posts that cover our time in the country. As we are still following a gruelling itinerary round South East Asia, we only have four days in the country split 50:50, with two days in Phnom Penh and two days in Siem Reap/Angkor.

Before signing of this post that serves as an introduction to Cambodia, I have two corrections and one decision to inform readers:

1) Corrections: 

a) I actually omitted the most obvious communist country from the post covering history and facts of Vietnam, North Korea, so there are actually five rather than four communist states left in the world; and

2) The exchange rate between Vietnamese Dong and pound sterling is roughly 30,000:1 VND:GBP.

2) Decisions:

I am going to restrict my Lord of the Rings references with one of the books dedicated to each subsequent continent. Book One, The Fellowship of the Ring, will cover Asia; Book Two, The Two Towers, will serve Australasia; and references from Book Three, Return of the King, will be utilised in South America. References from the Hobbit will feature in posts in North America, the journey home and the post-traveling wrap up. 

Lee-a howy