Hello Vietnam

We jumped the border and landed in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). The city is loud, crazy and full of people and motorbikes. We'll be here for a few days before we start heading north. After we found a place to stay for the night, we headed straight for our first bowl of pho.

Cambodia

This country has obviously had a rough past, especially with the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Although the sadness and wounds are still fresh and apparent and Cambodia still has a long way to go, this country is beautiful with some of the friendliest people we've encountered so far.

Last night, we saw an example of the locals at least trying to use humor to deal with the past.

Graves at Tuol Sleng

14 people are buried at the prison. These are the only bodies found on the site when it was liberated in 1979. They were all high ranking members of the Khmer Rouge who were suspected of treason and tortured to death.

Our guide

Our guide at Tuol Sleng was herself a victim of the Khmer Rouge. She was 10 years old in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over. She and her family were, like all residents of Phnom Penh, forced to leave the city, which remained empty for 45 months. Her family fled to Vietnam. Before they could reach the border, three members of her family were killed (including her father). In this picture, she was showing us on the map what route they took when they fled.

Gallows

The Khmer Rouge turned the school's exercise bar into a brutal gallow to hang and torture prisoners. When the prisoners would pass out from the pain, the guards would put their heads into the jugs of dirty water to revive them and continue questioning.

VIP Prison cells

High ranking prisoners (including former officers of the Khmer Rouge) were kept in their own cells. Pictured are two with photos on the wall of the bodies when they were discovered in 1979 when the Vietnamese liberated the prison. Both bodies were badly tortured.

Barbed wire

The Khmer Rouge sealed the prison buildings in barbed wire so people would not jump from the building to commit suicide. A dead prisoner could not give them any more information.

Tuol Sleng prison cells

The prisoners were shackled to the floor in tiny cells. Doorways on the walls between classrooms were made to create one big cell block on each floor.

Tuol Sleng Prison

In Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge took over a high school and turned it into a prison known as Security Prison 21, one of the most lethal torture chambers in the country. It is now a museum to tell the story.

Brutality

More horrible examples of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge in the killing fields. They were especially brutal to children for a couple of reasons: one was to force their parents to give up information and another was to make sure that the children didn't grow up and seek revenge.

Unexhumed area

43 of the 129 communal graves have been left untouched. Pictured is a large area of unexhumed communal graves.

Mass graves

Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women, children and infants were brought to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek to be executed. Most were bludgeoned to death to save bullets. The remains of approximately 8,985 people were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves. Pictured are a couple of the marked mass graves in the area, one containing 450 people and another containing 100 headless bodies. Also pictured are unmarked communal graves.

Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

This morning we went to the Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek, one of the over 400 killing fields throughout Cambodia. These killing fields were used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 to exterminate anyone who did not fall in line with their ideology and those who were unable to contribute to the labor force.

This stupa was built to honor those killed at Cheoung Ek. The close up pictures show the contents of the stupa. As you can see, the remains of hundreds of people exhumed at this location are housed within. In most cases, the skulls are categorized by gender, age, etc.

Phnom Penh

Last night, we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and are staying for only one full day before we head to Vietnam. Today, we spent a couple of hours touring the extensive Russian Market. We bought some cheap goods and very cheap clothes. This market is where all the western clothing (Gap, Old Navy, Columbia, etc.) made in garment factories around Cambodia end up, so there are good deals to be had.

Wonderful break

We received a great gift from one of Whitney's friends that enabled us to spend a night at Le Meridian in Siem Reap. A wonderful departure from our everyday grind. After our welcome drink, we spent the hot afternoon cooling down in the pool.

Thanks, Rachel!!!

If anyone is interested in topping Rachel's generosity, please let us know. Kidding. Sort of.

Siem Reap Children's Hospital

Siem Reap has a hospital that is free for all Cambodian children. The hospital is on the way to the temples from town, so we passed by twice a day. There was a large crowd everyday waiting for treatment. Many poor people from the country side bring their children here.

Cambodian BBQ

We had a great bbq lunch yesterday consisting of beef, chicken, snake (boa constrictor), crocodile and squid. It was cooked on a bbq on the table. We conducted a secret ballot and ranked them as follows (best to worst):

Whitney (snake, squid, beef, croc, chicken)
Mike (snake, squid, chicken, croc, beef)

Thanksgiving dinner

Last night, on the way back from sunset at Phnom Bakheng, Sey offered to drive us for free to and from dinner as a thank you for hiring him for two days. We asked him to take us to a real Khmer restaurant where locals eat. He agreed. Something, however, was obviously lost in translation because he proceeded to take us to by far the most touristy setting you could imagine (which is not how we are going about this trip). Think super Hawaiian luau buffet on steroids. We didn't want to offend his choice, so we made the best of it. It was his only miss over the two days.

After the tourist buffet, we needed to wash that experience out of our minds and salvage our Thanksgiving. Nothing can turn a bad night around quite like a couple of scoops of ice cream.

Thanksgiving 2009 will be a memorable one.

Our driver/guide

This is Sey, our driver/guide for the two days of touring the temples. He was randomly our taxi driver from the airport when we arrived in Siem Reap and we made a deal with him for the next two days. He picked us up each morning and took us around to the temples. Great guy.

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng

We spent sunset at a hilltop temple called Phnom Bakheng... with about a thousand other tourists. It was well worth it, however, for the beautiful view of the sun setting on the Cambodian horizon.

Ta Prohm

When Ta Prohm was discovered by French explorers in the 19th century, it had been completely consumed by the jungle. Since then, the jungle has been trimmed back so people can view the temple grounds, but overall it is left in its "natural state". Some of the roots and trunks are so big they have obviously been growing inside the temple structure for thousands of years.