feldmanlarry

The driving in Ho Chi Minh City was a major step crazier than Cambodia, which was already quite crazy. The driver was totally fearless. He did not stop at intersections. He commanded the road and demanded that others yield. Of course, the other drivers were the same way. Somehow it worked.

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City was much faster paced than Cambodia. It was also much more developed, more like America. We stayed at a classic French hotel with an amazing view of the Mekong from the breakfast terrace.

The morning excursion was to Cu Chi, a real site where villagers created tunnels to hide from the US forces. They were supporters of the National Liberation Front but acted friendly to the Americans in the day.

The hole in this mound is a camouflaged ventilation hole for a tunnel underneath.

An unlikely pairing — NLF women soldiers and US tourists.

Our guide explaining about the shells dropped in the area.

A map of the 4 levels of tunnels. At the far right the tunnel goes into the Mekong river.

I’m climbing out of the only tunnel I went in. This is just after bumping my head. I would not survive as a Vietnamese tunnel resident.

Showing us how they put leaves on top of the tunnel cover for camouflage before they climbed in the tunnel. Just a second later, he is below the leaves.

He reappeared at the other end of the tunnel.

Keith tried to go in that tunnel but this one is only for professionals.

A model of a trap. If you step on the grass, you fall into spikes. There were several other types of traps shown.

Keith is at the end of this tunnel. He went through half a dozen or so tunnels.

These tunnels were all over Vietnam. It shows how difficult it was for the US and its allies. The US had superior technology but the Vietnamese knew their land and how to use it for their advantage. It’s reminiscent of how the US used its knowledge of the land to defeat the superior British forces in the Revolutionary War.

After lunch we returned to Ho Chi Minh City to the Presidential Palace. I have seen pictures of this with the Vietnamese tanks mowing over the fence on the day that Saigon fell.

Elegant sitting rooms for the South Vietnamese government. The palace is now a museum.

Communications equipment in the bunker of the Presidential Palace.

This was a reconstructed jeep like the one that took the President of South Vietnam to his surrender speech on April 30, 1975.

US military equipment seized by the Vietnamese. I associate the Vietnam War with these US helicopters. By the way, in Vietnam, the war is called the American War.

A table showing the number of troops of the US and its allies each year.

• In 1964, there were 514,000 South Vietnamese and 23,310 US troops.
• In 1968, there were 820,000 South Vietnamese and 536,000 US troops.
• In 1972, there were 1,048,000 South Vietnamese and 24,000 US troops.
• By 1975, all the US troops were gone and the war was over.

Keith and I both really enjoyed the Museum of War Remnants, housed in the former U.S. Information Service building. It was filled with photos of the war and of protests from journalists around the world. Here is the famous picture of the girl running after being attacked by a napalm bomb.

The day was centered around the war from the Vietnamese point of view and how they fought against the US government and its allies. I’ll give my full point of view in another post.

We only had one full day in Saigon, which was not enough, but we needed to see Hanoi and Halong Bay before Keith left.

The day after Angkor Wat is bound to be a little bit of a letdown. It occurred to me that the categories of what people look for in traveling (in the order I appreciate them) is:

1. the world of humans interacting with each other
2. man-made wonders
3. scenic beauty
4. food
5. people-to-people exchanges
6. animals

I’m sure I’ve left out some categories. The top five are very close in my preferences. I’m not against seeing animals but it’s really not my thing. Today was mostly #1 but also #3, 4 and 5.

We drove out of Siem Reap to the fishing village with stilt houses called Kampong Khleang. On the way, our guide stopped to buy us some barbecued frogs. Keith ate his and enjoyed it more than me. I had just a taste and found the bones to be hard to swallow. Keith said the leg was the best part.

The town was dusty but full of the kind of life I appreciate.

The water level was very low now but in the wet season the lake rises to within 1 meter of the houses.

I got a little of a person-to person exchange with the boy who was helping with the boat. He was very good in math and had started school a year early. He was in seventh grade but they had not taught him signed numbers. He was good at multiplying two-digit numbers though. The guide was also very impressed with the boy.

It’s impossible to describe driving in SE Asia. Here’s a typical car.

Lunch was “Chicken Curry in Young Coconut (Simmered Potato, Carrot, Chicken, Coconut Cream, and Curry Sauce)” and “Fried Local Fish with Khmer Curry Sauce, Shallots, and Lime Leaves Dressing”

I almost bought this elephant piece. If it was later in the trip I would have bought it but the idea of lugging it around for the next 3 weeks was too much.

I was not expecting my luggage to be found by today so it was a pleasant surprise to find it at our hotel. It had been all over the place. I could finally get out of the jeans I came in and into shorts.

I wonder if Cambodian people came to Indiana, PA whether they would be amazed at the way we live. We assume that the US is the normal way to live and everyone else is strange; or worse, we think they are inferior. That boy is probably having a great life in this fishing village with houses on stilts.

This was a wonderful way to end our too-short visit to Cambodia. I am partially left haunted by the Killing Fields especially as told by our guide. I am also left with the joy of Angkor Wat. The thought of me growing up in the floating village was a good last call. We left for Ho Chi Minh City that evening.

I wanted to get to the most amazing structure on this trip first. How do you explain the brilliance of the people who created these magnificent structures without any modern machinery? How were they able to find artists, architects, engineers, and craftsmen at the same time to produce something that the world marvels at centuries later? Is there anything created ever in the US that will be marveled at centuries later like Angkor Wat?

The poll listed the 7 man-made wonders (in no order) as:

• Taj Mahal
• Great Wall of China
• Petra
• Roman Coliseum
• Chichen Itza
• Machu Picchu
• Christ the Redeemer Statue (in Rio de Janeiro)

I would replace the Christ Statue with Angkor Wat. The statue was really beautiful but it is not in the same category as Angkow Wat. The statue did have one of the most stunning locations in the world though, with a 360 degree view of the mountains, beaches, and cities of Rio. Now I can truly say that I’ve been to all seven of the man-made wonders of the world.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It started as a Hindu Temple and transformed into a Buddhist temple in the 12^th century. It is the symbol of Cambodia and is on the national flag, There is much more about Angkor Wat on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat) and elsewhere so I’ll skip it here.

We went to 4 different areas today of which Angkor Wat is just the most famous. The other three are Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, and Preah Khan.

At the entrance.

We spent a lot of time just marveling at the detail of the art work carved in the stones.

Sorry Margaret, I’ve got a new girlfriend.

I have so many pictures like this one.

This looks like the flame of a candle.

Lunch was Amok Chicken on the left and Sweet and Sour fish from the area.

Fascinating how trees were coexisting with the ancient structures

These were also functioning Buddhist temples.

Finally, the jewel of the crown, Angkor Wat.

See if you can figure out which person is the odd one out.

Four of the five towers.

Buddha

It’s not easy to get an angle that includes all five towers. The reflection makes this spot the most famous. Unfortunately, the view gets ruined by tourists like us.

The view from a tethered balloon ride we took.

I had walked over 11,000 steps today according to my Moves and over 13,000 according to my Apple Watch. This was significantly more than any other day for several weeks. My feet were hurting, especially with all the climbing. I’m not complaining though. Angkor Wat was a major reason for doing this trip. It did not disappoint.

This post is filled with very gruesome pictures of death in Cambodia so you may wish to skip it.

The day began with the high of driving through the craziness of Cambodian traffic. It felt so good to be in Asia and to see the King’s Palace with its stunning architecture. We had a tough trip getting here and the hot air felt great. Keith and I both love hot weather. It’s a joy to be on the road again, especially with Keith. We travelled together extremely well last year to Peru and there’s no reason to think it will be any different this time.

I was really excited about our guide’s telling the history of Cambodia. I’m reading a book called “The Embers of War”, which describes the background to the Vietnam War. It reads to me more like a novel than a history book. Cambodia’s history had much in parallel with Vietnam but some significant differences. Basically, the French came in and built roads and buildings but exploited resources for their own gains. The communists merged with the nationalists to fight France then the US. The colonial powers set up puppet governments that never got much traction among their people. In both Vietnam and Cambodia, the governments are leftist. In both cases millions died in wars and were left with destroyed fields and unexploited landmines. It seems like Vietnam may be doing better than Cambodia now economically.

Wow, that was a severely short telling of 30 years or so of complicated history.

We moved fairly quickly through the Royal Museum, which was worthy of much more time. Keith and I weren’t feeling it. We had been standing while the guide talked for long stretches and were ready to move on. Since my baggage didn’t make it, we went to the Central Market to buy some shirts and underwear. I was surprised that they had clothes that fit me since the typical Cambodian is very short and thin.

I saw durians being sold at the market, which is a fruit famous for emitting a foul smell but tasting good. I have been fascinated with durians for years and could not pass up the opportunity to buy one. This was a small item on my bucket list (I don’t have a bucket list). We both took a taste and it wasn’t bad. They put the rest in a box and after a while the taxi smelled a little foul. Later Keith’s backpack smelled a little disgusting. It turns out that there are two types of durians: wet and dry. We had managed to get the dry durians, which are not as foul smelling as the wet ones.

I loved this sign at our hotel – no smoking, no guns, and no durians. Amazing that durians merit the same status as smoking and guns.

The picture below shows the most dramatic moment of the day and perhaps of the trip. Our guide told us the story of how he saw his mother being raped and tortured as a 3 year old during the Killing Fields era of Cambodia (1975-1979). The Khmer Rouge decided to create a classless society by killing many of the educated people and city dwellers. About 3 million Cambodians died out of a population then of about 7 million. Hard to imagine.

We were at a former high school that had been converted to a torture center. It is now the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum and is truly scary. They tied prisoners’ hands behind their back then hung them upside down using the gallows below. When they lost consciousness, they put their heads in fertilizer water to wake them up. Prisoners could either give up names and have their family and friends be tortured before being tortured and killed themselves or not confess and be tortured and killed.

Our guide was obviously very passionate about explaining what happened here. To cheer us up, we went to the Choeunk Ek Killing Fields memorial out of town. These pictures give only a small sense of the massive stacks of skulls unearthed at this site. The first picture is the bottom layer for victims over 60 years old. The other picture show the rest of the 60+ skulls. There are also body parts stored in rows above.

There were several excavated areas, each with depressing stories. The sign for the picture below says “Mass grave of more than 100 victims children and women whose majority were naked.”

From here we had to head directly to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap where Angkor Wat is. This was a first full day in Asia and it was mind-boggling. It was dominated by the Cambodia tragedy of 1975-1979 but there was also the thrill of being in Asia after the long 16-hour flight (plus a flight before and a flight after). The architecture and the feel of Cambodia made it worth the pain.