Adventures in Asia: April 2005

The crazy traffic in Saigon, Vietnam...no stop lights by the way!

Us crossing the border from Cambodia to Chou Doc, Vietnam...looks very safe, huh?

Vickie and I in the sunset in Sihanoukville.

Sihanoukville...a cute little beach town in Southern Cambodia.

Khmer New Year having fun powdering the little children that are selling books and postcards on the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The memorial monument that was full of skulls from the victims. This was the least full level as there were over 20 levels like this filled with skulls.

A disturbing grave mark with bones of the victims.

The Killing Fields. All of the dips in the ground were mass graves that they uncovered.

Some of the mugshots from the S-21 victims. There were at least 20 rooms full of these rooms and only half could fit in this picture.

Isn't life comfortable on 12 hour bus trips??? Ha Ha!

A Cambodia monk that we talked with briefly. He is trying to start a school for the poor children and wanted us as English teachers...

Another massive tree holding a temple up. Te top has four faces guarding Siem Reap. But, sorry, the faces aren't in the picture!

Khao San Road, the famous backpacker's street in Bangkok, Thailand.

Ta Phrom Temple in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The roots of the trees are actually holding the temple up now.

Cambodia leads to Saigon surprises!

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote. We were in Sihanoukville and decided that we wanted to see one more place before we carried on to Vietnam. Amy (Tynee), Vickie and I decided to go to a little town called Kampot for a few days while the others went on to Vietnam. Amy D. only has a few more days before she has to go to Japan for a job so she wanted to get Vietnam in before she had to leave. We took an interesting taxi with some Cambodian men. We had broken English conversations with the cutest old man in the world. He had a great set of teeth for a Cambodian! We got to Kampot and got a room with a TV, it was great to watch TV again. We only had HBO, but still it was something to watch. We wandered around the town for a bit. It's a little French built town and it's very run down, but with a little work, it would be gorgeous again. The people weren't as friendly as other places, but it was still fine. There was a cute river through the town so we wandered around there and then decided to go back to our room and watch TV...Yah! The next day we took a pick-up truck to Bokor Mountains. We were in the back and it was a very bumpy ride. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to the top on a really bumpy dirt road winding around the mountain. It was fun at first to be bouncing around, but then it got tiring. We finally stopped to look at the old abandoned French buildings. The mountain was an old French hill station. Then we went jungle trekkin for 2 hours through dense jungle. The path was so small and we were getting slapped by trees and bushes. It was very wet and dewy...It looked like an actual jungle and was very cool. We didn't see any wildlife though. Our guide was making weird noises the whole time so maybe he was scaring them off?? We finally got the end and saw a dried out waterfall. It would have been really cool with some water. Then we took the truck to the hill station and wandered around all the abandoned buildings. It was like a ghost town and pretty cool. An old casino/hotel was the highlight. Very spooky! Then we took the long journey back and had to withstand the bouncing around again. It was painful and my back hurt the next day!

The next day started our Saigon Surprises journey. It was very crazy. We took a taxi to the border called Chao Doc. It took a few hours again on a bumpy dirt road. We were going through some really small towns that were shocked to see 3 white girls. Our taxi was dodging cows and pigs the whole way and accidentally hit a pig that was trying to cross the road. It got up and walked away, but still it was one of those things that make you realize where you are. Where else would you hit a pig? We got dropped off on the Cambodian side and had to go through customs and immigrations that consisted of wooden and metal shacks. I felt very safe! Ha Ha! We walked over to the Vietnamese side and right when you step into the country, you know you are somewhere else entirely. Vietnam is crazy. The customs and immigration took so long and no one was very nice to us. They all looked quite serious and scary. When we finally passed the paper work, they told us to walk. We needed to find a bus that would take us to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We met about 20 motorbike taxis that were trying to scam us into paying an absurd amount of money. We finally go the price down to a reasonable number and hopped on the bikes and off we went into Vietnam and into the traffic for 30 minutes. One thing we know about Vietnam is that most people are trying to scam you for more money. We have to be very strong footed and never let your guard down. It's very exhausting...Even the children try to scam you for a few cents. The motorbikes ended up taking us to their friend's bus service that wanted $10 per person. We insisted that we needed to get back on the bikes and go to the real bus station. So, finally they agreed and took us. We got bombarded at the bus station and finally got a bus ticket for $3. We didn't know what we were in for! A crazy woman was attacking us with water and telling us to get on the bus. The bus wasn't leaving for an hour, but we had to sit there in the hot bus while she ran around getting water and seating people. Another really crazy girl got on the bus and immediately made friends with Vickie. She kept coughing, so now we are worried we were in contact with TB or the Bird Flu or something. Not really, but there is a chance! She was babbling on to Vickie in Vietnamese and writing notes to her. A drunk man stumbled in and began fighting with the crazy girl for about 2 hours of our journey. He finally passed out and stopped the yelling. Those are the times I wish I knew what they were saying. I wonder what the drunk man would have to say to the crazy girl! Another woman/man (not sure) came in and undressed in the back and proceeded to strap about 100 packs of cigarettes to her body with rubberbands. She wrapped them all over her legs and waist and then passed them to another man for him to strap on. We figured out that these people had something to do with the bus. The woman/man was taking money for tickets and seating people, so she apparently ran the bus. When the bus finally started on it's way there was a whole system of things going on. Another woman sat in the back and told orders to the man who was hanging out of the door for 6 hours. He occasionally screamed out the door and took money from someone on the street while the woman/man through things out the window at the people on the street. Sometimes the bus would stop and pick up a whole load of things and put them in the aisle or on top and an hour later stop and throw them down at someone on the street. We are thinking there is something weird going on, like smuggling or something...You think?? The woman/man finally got rid of all her cigarettes and would strap more on...Who knows what was going on. We finally made it to Saigon in the end and found a hotel. This one has a TV also, how cool is that!

Saigon is full of surprises. Every corner you turn is interesting. Every few minutes you see something weird and it registers and then you say, "Oh, look at that!" and shrug it off. The traffic is crazy and crossing the street is hazardous to your health. Motorbikes are everywhere and traffic lights are few and far between. You just have to walk slowly and hope for the best. The bikes will go around you, but you have to stay at the same pace or else they will misjudge and hit you. The city is also full of "great" smells. Every few minutes you get a smell of something that makes you gag...It's fun!

We went to the War Museum yesterday. It was impressive with tons of pictures from the war. It had pictures of children effected by the Agent Orange that the US used on the forests. The children are so badly deformed. It's really sad. They had deformed fetuses in a jar on display, not so nice to look at.

We ran into 20 yellow men that were running around on a scavenger hunt for one of their friend's bahelor parties. They came from Hong Kong and it was quite amusing. They all had yellow suits on like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. We ended up running into them at night while we were sitting outside a bar. They had a whole entourage with them at that point. They ended up getting kicked out of the bar, but it was amusing fo rhte time they were there.

The Vietnamese so far have been very different from other cultures. I don't trust them at all. I'm sure they are not all money scamming people, but it seems that way. They won't give you right change until you figure it out and then go, "Oh! Sorry!" even the kids to this. Oh well, just keep my guard up I guess. Things are really cheap though, so that's good for my budget.

Tomorrow I think we are headed for Nha Trang. We are traveling north until Hanoi and then over to Laos. Nha Trang is a great beach place we hear. We can only spend short amounts of time away from the beach, so we need it now after all this craziness. I'm sure there will be many more Surprises to come in this country.

"You'll always remember your night in...Uh...Where are we?"
A quote by Vickie Bunny one night in Kampot, Cambodia

Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihonoukeville....

OK, let's try this again. You would never believe what happened! I wrote a piece of work the other day on this blog...It was so good! I even used big words and I think they were spelled correctly. I was so proud of myself as you know my brain is not working as well as it was a few months ago. We have to make math everyday to stimulate the brain these days! Ha Ha! Anyways, I wrote so much about wonderful Cambodia and when I was almost finished, the computer decided to turn off. I guess I blew a fuse with my creativeness, but it was frustrating. I guess that sort of stuff happens in a third world country like Cambodia. Anyways, so let's try it again.

We started in Siem Reap which I briefly explain Angkor Wat. I was very tired and hot that night, so it was hard to type a lot. Siem Reap is a small country town in the Northwestern Province of Cambodia. This town has grown so much of the last 10 years. It's gotten very developed with guesthouses and fancy and expensive hotels for the rich people, unlike us, who decide to venture out to see Angkor Wat. I can't even imagine how much that town will change in the next 10 years as I'm sure it changes year by year. Angkor Wat is a huge area that consists of many temples. It's about 10 minutes in a car to get to the main entrance. The road is a cute, little paved road that's shared with motorbikes, bicycles, cows, buffalo, sheep and people. We spent 2 full days exploring Angkor and playing with the children. The Cambodian children are so friendly and unbelievably smart. They don't go to "real" school, but they are so intelligent. I can actually sit down and have full conversations with them in English and I was never able to do that with my students in Korea. The children know so many languages also. They are so cute and affectionate. Always hugging and kissing you. They do try to sell you their goods, but they are smiling about it.

After Siem Reap, we took a very amusing bus ride to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. We wanted to make it to Phnom Penh before they started the Khmer New Year which lasts for 3 days plus the weekend. The bus was on a dirt rode most the time and the bus driver was beeping the horn at everything that moved, so sleeping was out of the question most of the time. We had to detour a big hole in the rode and almost hit another car while trying not to tip over. Fun stuff, huh? We finally got there after 7 hours or so and found a cute little guesthouse on the lake for $1 a bed. We just chilled out there for the day since we were so tired from being very active in Siem Reap. We watched movies and talked with the family who ran the guesthouse. The next day was our tourist day. This is the hard part to write about.

30 years ago, in 1975, a crazy man called Pol Pot decided that he was going to create the perfect country. He lead the Khmer Rouge to kill Cambodians who were educated in order to teach all the non-educated ones his ways of life. Khmer Rouge (KR) took over the country when the US bombed the borders during the Vietnam War and it was easy to over take the Lon Nol government. Basically, KR forced families out of their homes and forced them to work camps and then started killing them all. From the years 1975-1979, thousands if not millions were massacred for no apparent reason besides their families or education. Teachers, monks, scholars, doctors, ect. and their families were attacked and eventually killed.

First, Tanya and I got on some motorbikes and the others got on a tuk-tuk to get to S-21. A tuk-tuk is a cart that's attached to a motorbike. It can fit more people than a regular motorbike. S-21 is Pol Pot's secret prison. Tuol Sleng is the other name of the torture chamber. Here, the interrogated and tortured thousands of people.
S-21 used to be a high school until the KR came into power and banned all education, money, and books. They barb wired the outside and made cells and torture chambers in the classrooms. It was so sad going through this genocide museum. The first building that was used for interrogation and torture showed us the metal beds and pictures of the torture. The second building was dedicated to the prisoners mug shots and death shots. The KR documented everything that went on in the prison. They have pictures of everything that they did and most of the people that they killed. Walking through the classrooms and seeing the mug shots of these poor lost souls was bvery heartbreaking. There were men, woman, grandparents, children and babies. Each mugshot showed different expressions though. Some people looked so scared, some looked so angry, some looked lost, and some look as if they had already given up. We saw lots of gruesome pictures of the deaths of some of these people. I can't believe that it's possible for someone to be this cruel. The next building consisted of the cells that the prisoners we held. Some were held with 30 others on a pole with their feet chained together. Some were held in small, closet sized cells that were made with bricks in the rooms. It was very disturbing. An eary silence and feeling was with us the whole time. One room was dedicated to some of the KR soldiers that were found and said they were forced to be aq soldier or they would be killed as well. So, who knows if the soldiers wanted to kill or were saving their own lives. I'm reading a book on the who tragedy now, it's very interesting. Some survival stories are amazing.

After the depressing hours we walked around S-21, we get back on the motor bikes thinking how sad everything was and head for The Killing Fields. Then, a wake up call...It's Khmer New Years! Road blocks were in effect and they would cover us with baby powder and let us go. It was so much fun. All the kids were out with their powder and stopping every car or bike that went by just to powder them and let them go past. The road to the Killing Fields, a major tourist attraction, is just a bumpy dirt road going through a little village. It's about 20K outside of Phnom Penh, so it took awhile to get there. After being covered in powder we all walk through the fields. The Killing Fields is where most of the prisoners from S-21 were killed as well as thousands of other people were killed and buried in mass graves. It's not a big field, but there are huge holes everywhere that mass graves were dug up and remains were excavated. One hole was a mass grave that held over 500 people. Others were smaller or held just women and children. There are still bones and clothing from 25 years ago littering the ground as you walk through. It didn't have that eary feeling like S-21 did. It was very tranquil and animals were roaming around. A man was chanting in the corner of the field most of the time. I don't know why he was chanting, but I know that Cambodians believe if one does not have a proper burial, they roam the earth as a ghost until a proper burial is given. Maybe he was trying to find a lost soul??? In the middle of the field stands a monument about 3-4 stories high. When you squeeze your way through the little entrance way and look up, skulls are stacked from the floor to the ceiling. There must be thousands or skulls that they found in the fields and placed in the memorial.

After that, we decided we need some fun. We got dropped off by the river front and had some lunch and powder fighting with the little kids that sell books, powder, postcards and anything else. We sat for hours with these kids and it was so fun. By the end of the night I was covered in powder. My hair looked like it turned gray. They also water fight, but that night we just got powdered!

We went to the palace the next day...blah blah...I am not cultural enough for this! Then we walked to the river front again where we got bombarded with water balloons. Phnom Penh is a great little city. It's not what I expected. I really enjoyed myself there. The people are so fantastic around this country and just a few years ago it was in a guerilla state. Also, something to mention. US currency is more widely used that Cambodian currency, the Riel. It's very stange to be using US dollars again. Or, sometimes we will have to pay with half Riel and half dollar, now that's making math.

The next day, we got up and took the bus to Sihonoukeville. It was a horrible ride for me since I came down with a bit of food poisoning or something like that. But, we made it and this little town is so cute. It's a beach town on the southern tip of Cambodia. The beach is very different than most beaches. It almost feels like it was made for backpackers. Drugs are very open here and "happy shakes" are offered everywhere. One crazy Italian guy is running around in his speedos offering people free joints and telling us he poops in the sea. It's very refreshing to go swimiming now! Ha Ha! We will be here for a few more days I think. I had to postpone my birthday this year, I was too sick yesterday to recognize it, so it may be today to tomorrow. I feel better today, but not too sure yet. We'll be heading to Vietnam next, I'm really excited for that, but I love Cambodia so much!

This was not as good as the first masterpiece I wrote. Sorry about that, I tried to capture the moment. I guess you will never be able to read my masterpiece...It is lost somewhere in internet land. Ha Ha!

Ping Pongs in Bangkok...Temples in Angkor!

We left Ko Phangan...Finally! No, it was great, but I was ready to move on. We took a 4 hour ferry to the mainland and then a night bus up to Bangkok where we got dropped off in the middle of the street at 4am not knowing where to go. We eventually found a place to stay, but couldn't check in until 7am so that was a nightmare sitting in the lobby watching all the drunk people stroll in! We had a day of naps and shopping and went out for the night. We stayed on Kho San Road where we bumped into a friend, Rik, that we met in Phuket and Phi Phi. Later we went to Pat Pong which is an area famous for it's sex shows. That is where we went to see the "man show"if you remember that! We went into a lady show and discovered that after buying a beer at 100 baht, we were scammed into paying 300 more baht. We stormed out and began to protest that ping pong show. It was quite funny to see 5 girls and a guy sitting outside turning customers away from this place. They finally said we can go in with no charge, but we were stubborn and proceeded to protest. We sent Rik off to find us another show and he did. It was quite impressive what these girls could do, but we didn't think we would be involved with the show. We were handed balloons and were told to hold them over our heads so they could pop them. Use your imagination on how they were popped! Sorry for the details, but it's just normal in Bangkok. We were also shot at with ping pongs and Tynee was actually sitting on one in the end...gross! Anyways, our Bangkok night came to an end and we headed for Cambodia.

We got to Siem Reap and walked around for a bit and found some transport to go visit Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is an ancient Cambodian city from the 9th and 10th centuries that is set in the jungle. It was rediscovered in the 1920's and has since been known as one of the great wonders of the world. If you have watched Lara Croft's Tomb Raider, some of it was filmed here at Angkor. It is really amazing, but I just wish I was more culturally sound. Us 5 walked around and enjoyed it and took many funny pictures, but we get bored quickly. It was amazing, but no life altering experiences here. I will post pictures when I get a disk. We saw the sights for 2 long days. Of course we come to Angkor at the hottest and busiest time of the year. It is the Khmer New Year tomorrow and that lasts for 3 days. It is also so bloody hot. Right now it is 10:17pm and it is 34 C. That is almost 100 degrees!!!!! It's really hot, especially walking up and down old temples all day!

Tomorrow we head to Phenom Pen to celebrate the new year. It should be fun!