Tourists Arrested For Taking Naked Photos Inside Cambodian Temples. This is the Second Time in 10 Days It’s Happened.

Two women from Arizona were convicted, sentenced, fined and deported from Cambodia after taking naked photos of their backsides in an ancient Siem Reap temple.

The Siem Reap provincial court said the sisters were each given a suspended term of six months in jail and fined 1 million riel ($315) for taking nude photos at Preah Khan temple inside the Angkor archaeological park.

They will not be allowed to return to Cambodia for four years.

This is, apparently, becoming a thing.

It is the second incident in less than 10 days, after the authority arrested three French male tourists for taking nude photos at another temple complex of Banteay Kdey.

Photos of a topless dancer at the sacred temples surfaced last month as well.

You’re not even supposed to ascend to the top level of Angkor Wat if you aren’t properly covered, so even shorts aren’t fully appropriate.

Oddly, though, in a nod towards modernity the locals refer to the Ta Prohm temple as “Angelina Jolie temple” because of its prominence in the film Tomb Raider.


    Entrance to Angkor Wat


    Angkor Thom. Please Don’t Show Your Willy Here.


    Angelina Jolie Temple

The two Arizona women confessed. Contra the article above though my currency conversion tells me their fine was ~ US$246. They were apparently let off easy because ‘they may not have realized it was a holy site.’

(HT: Milepoint)


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. The kardashians doing selfies of their backside and trying to break the internet again?

    Really, people have no respect for other cultures and sacre places. It’s disgusting.

  2. This is truly disgusting. Why would people this ignorant want to travel in the first place? I would have liked to see them jailed for a month or so.

  3. What? No link to the chase sapphire card (or is the most amazing IHG card) – since there would be no international transaction fees for using that in Cambodia?

  4. The “they didn’t know it was a holy site” is bullshit – the word “Temple” in the name of the site doesn’t give that away?

    Having a few of these incidents well publicized and having the morons spend a couple of days in a Cambodian prison might get the word out that this isn’t necessarily something you want to do…

  5. Those facebook, social media, “selfie” jerks. All smartphones should be banned and labeled as munitions. Those jerks knew, they were being pricks.

  6. And to think they want to let the Seppo’s loose in Cuba, god forgive us. Can you imagine it? The thought is horrifying.

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