Cui Chi Video

Saigon pictures

2/16/20 Saigon

Air b n b has no hot water, nice place but byetween the water and terrible wifi.....well.  Out early with our guide to head to Tunnels of Cu Chi.  Stopped around the corner for a Vietnamese coffee for the road.  It was about 2 1.2 hours out to the tunnels, and we made one stop at a Handicaped Handicraft place to purchase some handcrafted souvenirs.  Pretty fascinating lacquer work using eggshells and laminated rosewood.  Pretty stuff.  

On the way out to the tunnels, it was a chance to really escape the city, and its scooter over congestion and observe the countryside.  

Our guide was a 20 year old kid named Oui, who was very outgoing and pleasant.  He answered a lot of our questions, and would really like to go into IT in America (thats what the Vietnamese call the US). Mark K had some good advice to give.

The tunnels were widely visited by many tour groups.  Our first stop was a movie which had to be a propaganda movie from the War.  It used the terms “kill Americans” so many times, it almost became comical.  Interestingly, when asked, Oui said there was no animosity towards Americans.

That propaganda film had to be the most heavily biased media we have seen here against Americans. along with the War Remnants museum, and Hanoi Hilton.  I do not have the greatest tolerance for that however.

We saw the tiny circumference tunnels that the VC lived in, and were amazed.  in all there was 125 miles of tunnels at the wars height, and thousands of VC living in and around Cu Chi.

Went to the Great Temple of Cau Dai, the combination religion from the 1930s and beyond.  

Saw some rubber tree groves with the slashes in the trees and 

falling asleep.......zzzzz

2/17. Leaving Vietnam for Cambodia

2/17/2020

I am in Siem Reap tonight, home of Angor Wat, Cambodia tonight.  We spent our last day in Saigon this morning, and flew out in the afternoon.  The day’s activity was first coffee around the corner from the house, then a cab ride through the harrowing scooter traffic to the Ben Wat Market.  A large market with everything from fish to flowers and all clothing in between.  Drove a couple of hard bargains to the level of pissing off the vendors, and was able to get an OK deal on a jacket for Reb.

Flew out this afternoon, and landed in Siem Reap, where the people are beyond nice.  Customer service is at a whole new level here, and the prices are also at a whole new (low) level.  It is a pretty dusty, impoverished place, but we’re staying at the Khmer Mansion Hotel which is VERY nice, and the Pub Street is across the way.  Pub Street is a carnival like atmosphere combining the Atlantic City boardwalk, Vegas, and the streets of Olongapo, PI from the 80s into one.  Ready for a good nights sleep, and then Mark K and I are going to run around town tomorrow.  

Cambodia 2/18/2020

2/18/20

I met Mark for a jog this morning, and we ran up the street parallel to Pub Street, down two lights and then turned right towards the Royal Palace.  It was a nicer area of town for experiencing the local vibe vs the tourist trap that Pub Street was last night.  It is a dry, dusty dry season day here in Cambodia, so getting this run out in a pleasant temp was crucial

We hit the river and turned right, by the old market along the Siem Reap River, which was established in this tourist Provience in about 1920 (as our tour guide, Bahn said!)

The Khmer Mansion provided us with a really nice breakfast this morning, and I had a traditional Cambodian soup, which was peanutty and coconut milky, it was so good, I actually felt like I should be bathing in it.  Ha ha.  

Our guide picked us up at 0800, and we were off to the temples.  The first stop was a tourist pass area where we had to purchase our passes, pretty official with a photo!

We were to hit 4 temples: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, and Boynan.  Ta Prohm was the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed, and it has large trees growing out of the blocks of the ancient temple.

Most of these temples were built in the 11th and 12 century, where as Bahn reminds us, Cambodia was kind of the center of civilization.  He is a proud Cambodian, whose dad is a Buddhist monk after serving in the military, grandparents disappeared during the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge, and when he went to college he lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with 4 other students who were working and going to school full time.  

Bahn would give us a little personal insight into the Kingdom and what the politics in this Communist nation are like, and what his thoughts were on it.   Candid.

The temples were pretty spectacular, being ranked on the UNESCO top 7 wonders list, like Ha Lon bay was.  Additionally, it is the largest Hindu temple in the world, and its profile is on the Cambodian currency.  We were ok wearing shorts, since they came down to the knees.  Lots of pretty inscriptions, and he explained how this country transitioned from a Hindu country to a Buddhist one.  Most of the statues heads were missing, a victim of looting from centuries past.  This temple complex was lost to the jungle, and only renovated after the French came to imperial power in the late 19th century.  

In the temple, I received a blessing from a Buddhist monk who splashed water on me and chanted in Pali, the Buddhist prayer language.  The first step was to put an orange string of yarn around my right wrist.   Khmer is the official language of Cambodia.

The king who built these temples took only 37 years, and the temples were for Vishnu, the Hindu god with 8 arms in 8 directions.  

Siam Reap means Siam defeated which occurred in the 16th century.  Cambodia has a rich past with Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and China.  Not always a peaceful and/or harmonious.  

He also gave us a pretty grim insight to the Khmer Rouge rule.

It was a long dusty day, and the hotel served a grand BBQ,poolside. And it was nice until the political chatter took up, and the mosquitos began to bite.  Since I was tired from a day of mini van travel, I turned in, and could only imagine how the cyclists feel who are on a bike tour of this place.  And, there are a lot of them.  

Cambodia. 2/19/20

2/19/20

Mosquito stories going to bed, and mosquito story waking up.  I was getting bit up pretty bad in my room, and didn’t sleep so well.  The other guys were hearing the booming bass beat from the bars of Pub Street most of the night, so not much good sleep all around.  Just as I was getting into a good sleep, at oh about 4, my alarm went off for our sunrise foray.  When I related my story of mosquito to Kurt, he asked, “Malaria or dengue mosquito”. Funny guy.

At 0500, we met to have the van driver take us to Angkor Wat for the sunrise.  The traffic was like the road to Kennedy Space Center for a shuttle launch.  Bike groups, walkers, vans, tuk tuks and charter buses all lined up for the sunrise.

We staked out a strategic location due West of the temple spires on the ancient moat, lending itself to the silhouetted spires with the rising sun and a beautiful reflection off the lotus surfaced moat.  

The sunrise event seemed kind of pretty, and we had walked away, only to realize that the rising orange orb hadn’t peeked over the treeline yet.  We literally ran back to snap a few more photos, and it was very worthwhile.  

At breakfast at the hotel, I raved so much about the Cambodian “laska” that everyone else ordered.  It was equally good this morning. 

Rick and Mark S. Said good bye since they were staying in Cambodia and were going on a tour.  Kurt and I were off to a couple of local sites.  Both turned out to be very cool.

We took our first tuk tuk ride, and it proved to be most pleasant.  The morning temps were nice, and we were shaded with a breeze coming into the seating area.  A real ground level view of Siam Reep.

Our first spot was Apopo, an international agency which trains rats and then find land mines and unexplored ordnance.  

They checked our temperature with a digital thermometer, the first of any scrutiny over possible coronavirus as traveler.

Just some facts and figures learned on the tour:

After the “Khmer Civil War” and Vietnam war there were 6 million remaining mines/bombs in Cambodia has had 19000 deaths and 51000 injuries since, half being children

It is no wonder that this country needed some assistance in their mine finding.

One of the answers is an African giant pouched rat, which has been used successfully in many countries previously.  These highly trained animals can sense one trillionth of a gram of TNT, and has been trained to scratch the ground to indicate the hazardous explosive.  The rat we saw on demo was named Karmel. 

Each rat can cover a tennis court sized patch in 30 minutes, much more efficient and safely than a man with a mine detector.  To date, these animals have cleared 1 million square meters in Cambodia.  The rats are never in danger and are treated as highly regarded pets. 

Our tuk tuk driver waited for us and brought us to a pagoda (Buddhist monastery) that is also home to a small “killing fields” museum, displaying the horrific deeds of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, the 1.7 million deaths, and the nightmare that his regime created.  

The message was displayed in Cambodian art work and showed the rape, torture and brutality that was the trademark of the Khmer Rouge.  It is amazing that these acts of horror actually occurred in my lifetime.  

Skulls and bones from the local excavation were on display to illustrate the grisly brutality of the Khmer Rouge.  

Not only were 1.7 million people executed, because of these deaths and family separations, 200000 children were left orphaned in 1979 after the fall of the regime.  

The staff at the Khmer Mansion were so friendly, courteous and polite that it was almost sad to leave.  They made such a big deal out of our departure, and we even took a parting photo with them.  Cambodians are a truly warm and gentle people, and their customer service skills are fantastic.