The Horrors and Wonders of Vietnam and Cambodia

We flew from Bali to Vietnam with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur. Air Asia has pretty cheap flights and when the plane was delayed they bought everyone McDonald's chicken sandwiches (that would never happen in the States). We found a place to stay in Saigon - renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the war. Our first stop was the Independence Palace which was the South Vietnamese capitol building and the headquarters for American military leaders during the war. When the North Vietnamese crashed through the gates in April 1975 the war was over. It was then named the Reunification Hall for a unified communist Vietnam.

I thought the map room was interesting and I could imagine the military leaders planning strategy here during the war.Then we walked over to the War Remnants Museum. I realize that it was probably a biased viewpoint, but by the end of the museum I felt ashamed of the things America had put this country through. The displays on the effects of Agent Orange and napalm were especially disturbing. Towards the end there was a whole room dedicated to those who opposed the war - including American protesters. It was an interesting museum and made me think hard about the reasons a country should or should not go to war and to what extent a country should go in trying to win.The next day we took a tour out to the Cu Chi tunnels - a section of land outside the city where tons of tunnels had been dug to fight the French. They were also used during the American war to hide and set up booby traps to capture American troops. They were extremely smart in camouflaging their tunnel entrances.Here is Sally Schoolgirl and her friend talking about how many Americans they have killed (they were just wax figures but the film we watched did seem a little boastful). As Americans, we felt a little bit self-conscious but it was too interesting to care. The next day we booked a tour to the Mekong river delta. The Mekong river is the largest in Southeast Asia and the delta region covers a lot of land in southern Vietnam. It is also where many natural resources and industry come from. It was a fun tour and we got to see them make coconut candy and honey. (We got to eat it, too.) Aren't we touristy . . . . .

The next day we took a long bus ride to Phnom Penh - the capitol of Cambodia. This was my second time to Cambodia but the first time to this city. I was surprised to see that Cambodia is even more poor than Vietnam. They have had a terrible recent history, though. The Khmer Rouge took over in 1975 and it all went downhill from there. The Cambodians let them take over out of fear of a Vietnamese invasion and the Khmer Rouge emptied out all the cities and forced people to be farmers in the new society. They disolved family units and made children soldiers. The Vietnamese did eventually invade in 1979 and the Khmer Rouge retreated into the jungles (where many of them are still hanging out today). In Phnom Penh there was an old high school that was turned into a prison and torture center called Tuol Sleng. The school/prison is now a genocide museum to show people what the Khmer Rouge was really like. We went and visited it but it was difficult. The sign on the wall is a picture of a man laughing with a big red X through it. They really wanted people to show respect for the thousands of people that were tortured and died here.Most of the rooms were like this with just a bed and a picture of the types of things that the room was used for.What affected me the most were the pictures of the people who died here. This board was all pictures of children.The difficulty didn't end there, though. For those who didn't die in the prison were put in trucks and taken out to Choeung Ek - one of the killing fields sites where mass grave sites were found after the Khmer Rouge retreated. None of us could stomach seeing both of these in one day so we came here the next day. This picture shows how close the mass graves were to each other. It is estimated that around 20,000 bodies were found here. So far they have excavated and buried around 9,000. What affected me at this site was that there are still remnants of clothing sticking out of the dirt. They are not old, either. This genocide was recent.Notice the bones and clothing next to the tree.While I was staring at a pile of clothing I actually found part of a person. It was extremely disturbing.Something I also found heartbreaking about Cambodia was the overall friendliness of the people and happy smiles of the children. It amazed me that a people with such a dark history could be so warm and welcoming. Little children would approach us and try to sell us things and then decide it would be more fun to start a game of hide-and-seek. After the two days of seeing these places we were in need of some spiritual nourishment. We found the church and they even had an international branch in English. It was refreshing to be in church again.We kept moving up the road to Siem Riep where the huge temples of Angkor Wat are. On the way Clay decided to help the local economy and bought a fried tarantula. Ooh Yummy . . .In the end he couldn't eat it and we were relieved we didn't have to watch him eat it. We got to Siem Riep and found a place to stay and a tuk-tuk driver that would take us to the ruins each day. We bought the three day ticket because the last time I was here in 2005 I didn't feel like I had enough time in one day. The ruins were just as beautiful as I remember them. They were also just as big as I remember them.We saw some temples that had extremely intricate carvings: But my favorite were the ones that were overgrown by the surrounding jungle.

Clay thought it would be fun to play a game of paintball here. I wanted to make a sequel to my other film Run Lana Run . . .

One of the kings who contributed to the site was a little egotistical and put his face all over the walls. It probably didn't help his ego to get kissed by two women at the same time:

We had some fun here. Watching the sunset, playing with the kids,and I tried looking for some nice young men with high standards.We loved Angkor Wat and I think it is one of those places that everyone should try to see in their lifetime. Time is running short for Clay and Trista and I'm fighting off the feeling of separation anxiety that is starting to come on. Clay and Trista fly home in a couple days and I will stay and complete my teaching certification in January. But for now we are back in Thailand and we decided to spend the last few days of the trip on an island not too far from Bangkok. See you next time!