Vietnam/ Cambodia

Saturday March 19, 2011

I woke up early to watch the sun rise as we drove down the Mekong Delta towards Vietnam. It was beautiful! After some french-toast I took a quick nap before we were released from the ship around 10:30am.

Liz, Colleen, Joellen, Daniel, Andrew and I caught a shuttle bus to the Rex hotel and then walked towards the Ben Than market. The market was PACKED with stalls of clothes, trinkets, and food. We shopped around for a couple of hours only stopping to try the Pho in the market which was delicious and so cheap! Pho is a traditional noodle soup that is a staple in Vietnamese cuisine. It is EVERYWHERE. Pho on the side of the road, pho in the markets, pho for breakfast lunch and dinner. Pho Pho Pho.   

After filling our book bags with goodies from the market we walked across the street to get a manicure and pedicure for $5. How could you say no to a $5 mani/pedi? As we sat in the folding chairs, I looked at my friend and asked her how sanitary she thought the equipment was. Two second later I felt a sharp pain in my heal as the lady sliced my foot open with her pedicure tool. Grrrrrreat. The heal is defiantly not the best place to have a deep cut, especially when you are walking around the street of Vietnam. I feel like I have read horror stories about pedicures and foot fungal diseases… let’s hope I don’t become one of them!

We headed back to the boat to shower for dinner. My friend Katie’s dad came to visit Vietnam and took us to the most delicious restaurant called “The Vietnam house.” We tried so many amazing foods (1/2 of which we didn’t know the name). It was a blast!

The rest of the night was not such a blast. It basically consisted of my getting my phone stolen at a place called Apocalypse Now (yeah with a name like that I should have known better- I know, I know). I don't even want to write about it because it is so upsetting. 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I woke up early to try and find my phone. Probably not the brightest idea I have ever had. After riding on the back of a moped with a Vietnamese man who spoke slight English I decided heck I really don't want to waste a good day looking for a phone! This is when I look at the kind man who has been carting me around all day and ask- "how far away are the chu chi tunnels?" He says about an hour. I say let's go. 

1 hour into the ride, I didn’t feel so great about the moped idea. 2 hours into the ride, my rear end was so numb I didn’t even care. We finally arrived at the Chu chi tunnels via moped and I wobbled over to the entrance to buy tickets. Fortunately for my life, I ran into some fellow shipmates who were also visited the Chu Chi tunnels. Whew. 

The Chu Chi tunnels are an elaborate network of underground tunnels that were used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. They were a key part of the guerilla warfare and were used to defend against American soliders. The tunnel complex was amazing. At the time of fighting, the underground system included living spaces, kitchens, and clinics.

We took turns climbing into the small narrow spaces that made up the entrance to the tunnels. The tunnels were made extremely small to make it difficult for the larger American soldiers to enter. They have been enlarged today to accommodate visitors, they are still a tight squeeze.

The coolest part about visiting the tunnels was that they let you shoot guns! You can pick from a variety of guns, everything from an AK-47 to a machine gun. I shot the M-16. Pretty exciting I must say!

It was really strange to see a glimpse into the guerilla warfare that went on during the Vietnam war. Prior to landing in Vietnam, I attended a panel on the Vietnam war that was held on the ship. I’ll be honest- Prior to this voyage, my knowledge of the Vietnam war was limited. I knew that terrible things went on, but that was about it. One of the women on the panel, was a Vietnamse women who had been 1 year old when her family fled from Vietnam. Another lady was an older African American lady whose brother had fought on the American side. She said he spent his time loading plans with a substance that he was never able to identify. When he returned from fighting he learned that he had been loading Agent Orange into aircraft vessels and was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 25. A few of my friends visited Agent Orange Orphanages where they saw severely deformed and mentally disabled children.  

Unfortunately, our moped drivers had patiently waited for us which meant we got to ride mopeds allllll the way back to Chennai. yay. 

We ate sushi for dinner.

Later that night as we were about to get back onto the ship ( I could literally see the boat), a man on a moped drove by and grabbed my purse, physically ripping it from my body. I am lucky that the purse was old because it was draped across my body and if the straps had not ripped off I could have been easily drug down the street. Luckily for me, I had no money in my purse, my phone had already been stolen so it wasn’t in my purse, and I didn’t have my camera with me. 

It would be accurate to say that I had experienced my fair share of Vietnam. 

Monday, March 21, 2011

The next morning I left the Saigon port for my trip to Cambodia. I enjoyed my time in Vietnam, but I was a bit relieved to be leaving after the terrible luck I had experienced with my belongings. With my money belt on ( I am never taking it off again) , I made up my mind to not lose a single more valuable item. fingers crossed. 

We flew to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia where our first stop was the National Museum. Many cool artifacts and statues.

We then took a cruise down a Mekong river where we observed many villages planted along the river. It was fascinating the see people literally living on rafts in the water.

Next, we visited the Palm Tree Orphanage where I met a girl named Soraya. She was so beautiful and wants to be a doctor when she grows up! She has one sister who is also at the orphanage with her. We decided to trade bracelets. 

I was really really sad when it was time to leave the orphanage. I want to know what happens to Soraya and if she fulfills her dream of becoming a doctor. Those kids really broke my heart. I hope that I get to see her again someday. 

We ate Dinner at Khmer Surin Restaurant and then checked into our hotel for the evening.

Sunway Hotel

Dessert by the river

Heart of Darkness

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

We woke up at 6:00am for breakfast and visited the silver pagoda and royal palace of the king.

Our first visit was the Toul Sleng Genocide Meseum. It was the sight of one of the prisons used by Pol Pot during his reign over Cambodia. Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge which was the ruling party of Cambodia from 1975-1979. During just a short period of time the Khmer Rouge committed one of the worst acts of genocide in history during what their refer to as “social engineering” and their attempt to create a pure agrarian-based communist society. 

As we stood in a cell of the prison I was overcome with nausea as I saw dried blood on the floor and the recently of the genocide hit me in the stomach hard. On the wall was a picture of a murdered victim lying on the floor of the very cell we were standing. I became very hot and found it difficult to breath. What happened to these people became very real to me and I kept repeating the question “why? Why?” over and over in my head.  

We entered the next room where hundreds and hundreds of pictures were hanging on the wall of the victims who had died. Their faces are imprinted in my mind. I saw one girl who was strikingly beautiful and looked to be about my age.

I cannot comprehend why this happened to her. What did she do to deserve this?

The Khmer Rouge targeted the educational and intellectual elite. I overheard a guide talking about how parents would be brought in and if found “guilty” of being intellectuals they would return to their homes to bring their children to the prison to be murdered as well. I come from a country where education is something that is highly valued. In Cambodia, 35 years ago, people were tortured and murdered for it.

There was a board in the middle of the courtyard of the prison that read the “Security of Regulation.” It had been translated to English.

After leaving the genocide museum, we visited the Killing Fields.

The Killing fields were unlike anything I have ever seen or ever imagined. I assumed they would be roped off, marked by a plaque of some sort. They weren’t. We were walking through them before I realized it. I was walking along with my guide not really sure where I was standing when he pointed down and showed me the clothes of one of the victims. He then took me over to a tree where the teeth remained of a victim. It was sickening. There were clothes scattered everywhere along with bits and pieces of tooth and bone.

There was a tree that was labeled “the magic tree.” The description read, “The tree was used as a tool to hand a loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed.” 

Our guide also told us that the Khmer Rogue and the Pol Pot regime are things that his children are never taught in school. The government doesn’t want its people to distrust it, so they don’t even talk about it. Everyone was, and continues to be, affected by the mass cleansing that took place under Pol Pot.

My visit to the prison and the killing fields was by far the most horrifying and disturbing thing I have seen during this entire voyage. It was SO recent. Frighteningly recent. Most of the people who committed these atrocities have still not been convicted. How does this happen? How do people like Pol pot get away with it?? Why does no one help? There was a book that had been signed by many of the visitors to the prison and one of the entries really struck me. It said, “What happened here some time ago happens today. 2011.”

This statement is so sad to see, and I don’t want to believe it, but something I have learned during this past semester is that it is true and I have to believe it. I live in an imaginary bubble that is so sheltered to what is really happening in the world. People are suffering. People are hurting.   

My visit to the Killing Fields and the prison opened my eyes to a form of evil and hatred I have never seen before One man and his followers committed the murder, torture and starvation of over 2 million people in just a few years- one of the worst acts of genocide in all of history. And for what??

That afternoon we flew to Siem Reap, the location of the famous Angkor what temples.

Kullen II restaurant with cultural dance show. 

Allson Angkor Paradise hotel

Angkor What?!

Wednesday March 23, 2011

We woke up early, early in the morning for a sunrise tour at Angkor Wat. Angkor was once the capitol of the great Khmer Empire. Angkor wat is the single largest religious complex in the world it literally means “city which is a temple.”

After breakfast we returned to Angkor wat temple for a little more exploring.

  

We visited the Ta Prohm temple next which is a fasinating temple that literally looks like it has trees growing out of it. Several scenes of tomb raider were filmed at this temple. The silk cotton or kapok trees cover many sections of this temple giving it a mysterious look.

We next visited the ancient city Angkor Thom. At the center of the city is the Bayon which I found to be one of my favorite temples I have visited. It rises 3 levels with 54 towers with each of the 4 sides of each tower bearing a gigantic smiling stone face. All of the faces are different and here are more than 200!

Sad that our trip to Cambodia was over, we headed to the airport and  our flight back to Vietnam where we boarded to boat that evening a bit after midnight.