The things you can accomplish in one day.

We only had one day in Phnom Penh before we were going to meet up with my family in Siem Reap, so we had a lot of ground to cover.

Be prepared, this is kinda a long blog.

Here was how our day went.
8:30am Cheung Euk Killing Fields
10:00am Teul Sleng Museum (school where the Khmer Rouge tortured people)
11:00am Walk around Phnom Penh
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Wat Ounalom
1:30pm Wat Phnom (and rode an elephant! yay!)
2:00pm Royal Palace
4:00pm National Museum
6:00pm Hotel
8:00pm Cambodian Traditional Dance show
9:30pm Dinner
10:30pm Sleep

You already saw the pictures from the Killing Fields and Teul Sleng.

Wat Ounalom


it started to rain....watch this vid.

are you ready for this???? I've reached the mecca, or I guess Cambodia is Buddhist and Hindu, so i've reached Nirvana...

are you ready for it?

Sambo was an amazing elephant. She took us all around the temple (the traditional way to view a temple)...and she was really umm...on a mission to get us back, and she didn't care which trees, leaves and people we were going to trample over to get there, she just wanted to get it over with.

it was actually a little scary.

Despite our amazing experience riding Sambo the elephant, there were a lot of beggars at this temple, and it was really difficult for me to see young children selling things and begging. I prefer not to give a beggar money, so Dave and I bought some food for them. Some kids sold the food back to the vendor and some ate their food. One little girl was trying to sell us some food and began to cry, that made me a little angry because she was preying on me. Thats when we decided to leave.

Oh wait, one more annecdote...when Dave was holding the food for the children, a monkey came running towards him and LEAPED ON HIM to grab at the food. I freaked and stepped out of the way. Dave laughed. HE HASN'T BEEN BITTEN BY A MONKEY....I HAVE!

Royal Palace
its considered holy or sacred so they made me wear a skirt that covered my knees. I didn't mind, i thought it looked nice with the yellow building.






We met a monk at the palace that seemed to like us. I forgot his name, but we talked to him for a while. He told me that school got out early for him and whenever he has a free afternoon, he goes to the Royal Palace and sometimes to the National Museum...he explained that monks get in free everywhere.
He said he has been trying to go to the USA to be with his mother but they wont grant him a visa because monks don't make that much money so he was a threat (illegal immigrant).

National Museum
the great thing about this museum is that they house many of the artifacts from Cambodian temples. I read a notice that said that the Cambodian government and the International Council of Museums actually fought so that many of their own items be returned to them.

This picture goes out to everyone in Dr. Brown's Survey of Southeast Asian Art History class....gotta lustrate those lingums, circumambulate them temples and do a little shakti.


And lastly, the traditional dance.

check out this video.



phew.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

Dave and I separated from the group for a day and flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia while everyone else went straight to Siem Reap to the north of Cambodia. I really only have a minute to blog, but i'll go further into the deep impact that Cambodia has made on me.

All these images were taken from Cheung Euk killing fields and the Teul Sleng Museum, both of which are actual locations where the attrocities commited by Pol Pot and his Khemer Rouge killing machine regime.

We in the United States often forget that other peoples suffered genocide. This reality punched me in the face after going to Vietnam and seeing the results of the Vietnam war, and then going to Cambodia and seeign this. I thought about how lucky i was that the Philippines never went through that kind of trauma.


teeth and clothing that are still burried in the earth.

Fun in Vietnam

our hotel had a karaoke room. dave was pretty good singing madonna songs. raf wasn't bad either.


do i look vietnamese?

the whole group!

Cu Chi Tunnel

Despite the humorous name, the Cu Chi Tunnels were actually pretty ingenious and sad at the same time. The Viet Minh (people from the non-communist South Vietnam) built these tunnels to hide from the French, but eventually, these tunnels became very usefull when the Vietnam war started.

Its an incredible circuit of tunnels with rooms and chambers and trap doors. Think of an ant farm, but much more complex and big enough to barely fit you. The tunnels allowed the people to disappear and reappear in a totally different location.

I think American soldiers during the war said something like, the Vietnamese are nowhere and everywhere at the same time.


the entrances were really small and hidden partially to keep the "fat americans" out (yes, that is a direct quote from our tour guide).

Dave is not a fat american.




i however, am a nervous Asian. i took one look at Dave inside that hole, saw absolutely nothing, PITCH black, and i said, mmmm i'll walk on the mainland.

I did brave some tunnels!



trenches.

my cousin raf.

Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh is ruled by mopeds, they're ALL OVER THE STREEET!!! Ho Chi Minh, in the South of Vietnam, was formerly known as Saigon...there are tons of street vendors selling street food.


this particular man kept running after us to buy his stuff, but we weren't into it. he offered to have his photograph taken (which of course means you have to pay him!) so dave took his picture and gave him a little dong (currency in Vietnam).



food is really good!