Model of Angkor Wat

Angkor National Museum

APOPO Visitor Center

APOPO is the organization that trains HeroRATs. Giant African pouched rats, specifically, trained to detect landmines and unexploded ordinance by smell. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries on earth —(more about that below) It has a legacy of decades of war, the Khmer Rouge, and various other conflicts layering on top of each other. People are still being killed and maimed by ordnance that's been in the ground since the 1970s and 80s.

The Lady's Temple (It's Pink)

But first, some sweets!!

Our driver took us to a roadside shop. 

A palm sugar sweet treat

These little pods of palm sugar milk are cut out of each palm nut and then cooked. 

Our driver pretended to cook it for us. 

They also had some hand-woven goods. 

I guess our driver got tired from cooking the palm sugar.  

Banteay Srei Temple

It is considered the Citadel of Women because they say that 

men could not have made the intricate designs on the temple. 

It was looted by a French guy in 1923. He got caught, tried, and convicted, and then became France’s Minister of Cultural Affairs.

This was an amazing temple, and it was the last on our Siem Reap adventure. We were supposed to see some phallic river stones, "River of a Thousand Lingas", in a waterfall, but we were too tired. The end is near. 

Phnom Penh

We made it to Phnom Penh. We took the Giant Ibis luxury bus from Siem Reap, and it took about 5 hours. It was supposed to take 6 hours, but our bus driver was like a Formula 1 driver. 

Think lots of honking, and swerving lanes on a two-lane road that was made into three lanes because of this Giant IBIS. 

barreling down the middle. The carriage of the bus is gently swaying back and forth, rocking us to sleep. 

Nightmares...

The other two directions of traffic are on either side of the bus. Scooters on one side and cars on the other at times because that was all that could fit. Honk .... honk!.... It was actually pretty pleasant considering all that. 

We made it to Phnom Penh!

The skyline at night. 

A Stupa at the Royal Palace of Cambodia Palace

I don't know, can you see the French influence? 

We found a Peruvian/Japanese restaurant!

The National Museum of Cambodia

A lot of the pieces in this museum were much more interesting than the ones we've seen in the others. We guess this is because a lot of these were looted from the sites, and why would you steal something boring? They have been returned to Cambodia by the many different countries who bought the looted items. 

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

At the museum, we heard an amazingly depressing story about the early 70s in Cambodia that, not surprisingly, the US contributed to. The US bombed (more bombs than were used in WWII in a relatively small place) the supply lines to Vietnam in a secret mission that was not explained to Congress. This was in rural Cambodia. Almost 500,000 were killed or displaced. 

So you have a rural population that has been bombed into trauma, displacement, and rage. Their villages are destroyed. They watched their families die from American ordnance. And here comes the Khmer Rouge recruiting from exactly that population, telling them the cities are the enemy, intellectuals are the enemy, everything modern is the enemy. They willfully destroyed their economy. 

The museum is a former school, which was a little weird for me because all the cells were in the classrooms, which looked just like where I worked in Honduras except for the brick and wooden cells. The walls were broken in between the classrooms to make doorways so that the guards could see all the cells. It was torture and killing, and if you haven't read about it, you should.

The line that struck me most is when questioned about the random arrests, and what happens if we take someone who isn't guilty, the response was we would rather make some wrong arrests than miss someone and let them eat us from the inside. I think and hope you can see the parallels.

After that downer, it was time for some rest. 

Our place has jacuzzi pool upstairs that creates a waterfall into this pool. 

Skyline view from The Juniper Gin Bar 

A Walk Street

Happy St Patrick's Day 

See you in Milwaukee for a bit o' fun!! 

(signing off from our SE Asia Extravaganza)

Phare Circus

We went to the Phare Circus which has several different shows. We chose the heaviest which covered the Khmer Rouge period till now and it was amazing. It would bring you to an emotional edge and then pull you away with some acrobatics. 

In the background you can see the American bombs falling. Later the Rouge erases the Buddha with a giant black X and then just paints it black to paint a happier scene. 

The Phare also supports a school that teaches children the arts. We saw a Aspara Dance before the show performed by some of the students. 

Giant Circuit of Temples

We did the giant loop which is an outer loop of temples in the Anghor area. I will show a name and the a couple of pictures from each. We were more organized for this loop. 

A big thing about this temple is a two story part which wasn't done in temple building. 

A temple in the middle of a lake with four pools surrounding it. Many with lotus lilies. 

Another beautiful temple.

Elephants on each corner; Kerry staring one down.  

A little temple in the middle of the lake.

This is the bigger temple on the land that was somehow connected to the lake one. 

And our last one of the day. Two more to go on Monday. 

And now for some of the entertainment. 

Along the entry to many of the more popular temples, musicians busk for donations. They are the musicians who have lost a limb due to the unexploded ordinances left by either the Americans, Khmer Rouge, or the Vietnamese Army. The U.S. has contributed about $3 million a year to cleanup efforts. We spent over $2 million a day dropping the bombs. 

I only did the sound on the walk up so you could get a feel for the music. 

Kerry and I have been analyzing this trip extensively because of the significant role the US has played in the region. We’ve also been struck by the incredible kindness and resilience of the people we’ve met. Despite the past atrocities and questionable actions they’ve endured, they remain incredibly friendly, humorous, and simply pleasant. 

I hope that todays attacks on places across the globe come to an end soon. Nobody but those that are profiting want this.