Damnnnnn... It's been a while since I blogged. Sorry, folks. I know you all have been waking up everyday at 6am to run to your computers to breathlessly check if I'd blogged, saying a short prayer beforehand, then moaning in dismay when you discover there is no entry. How many keyboards have you mutilated, loyal readers of mine? No matter, here goes.
Gee whiz, 11 days is alot to catch up on. The last time I blogged, I was supposed to go to the Chi Cui Tunnels but alas, I woke up the next day with stinky liquids spewing from both of my respective orfices and ended up in bed all day doubled up in a fetal position while Day and Bren went cavorting in the Chi Cui Tunnels. Damnation! They said it was quite interesting. In any case, Phnom Penh was our next stop. The second we stepped out of the bus (6hrs), we were overrun by taxi drivers - most of whom were working in conjunction with guesthouses for comission - literally screaming and hollering for our fares. They surrounded us at all sides and shoved pictures of their guesthouses in our faces. We fnally selected one Tuk Tuk and off we went to the "backpacker road," that is so common in every city we've been in. The highlights of the Phnom Penh visit, although 'highlight,' seems almost insulting and paradoxical, were the Killing Fields of Choe ung Ek and the S-21 prision. For those of you not familiar with Cambodian (Kampuchean) history, in 1975 (I think), the Khmer Rouge won the civil war against the [aaiiee... forgot the name.. Thon something) army who had itself recently overthrown the Prince, saying his government was corrupt and catered to the rich. In any case, in 1975 the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot (Cambodia's version of Hitler, I guess), sought to implement a communist and classless society which, in contradiction, actually had classes with the Khmer who were darker skinned and with thicker lips enjoying the advantages and with the military assuming almost total power. To do this, the K.R. forced everyone to evacuate every city - Phnom Penh was almost empty for 3 years. This was to bring more hands to the farmfields to grow more rice for this supposedly utopian classless agarian society. They also proceeded to close every school and university, then began killing people. Anyone who wasn't full Khmer, educated, doctors, lawyers - anyone who had the slightest possibility of being a threat. Even people who wore glasses, because this was a sign of intellect. The Killing Fields was one of these mass excution sites. People were bludgeoned to death to save bullets and put into mass grave pits and sprinkled with the pesticide DDT to stave off the smell in addition to ensuring that those who were still alive died from the chemicals. Here, the Khmer Rouge killed 17,000 of the 850,000 to 3 million (numbers aren't definite) Cambodians. There is a monument of skulls dug up by historians after the fact, the pits where the open graves were and a tree where children were stripped nude and beaten to death not to mention a tree where a loudspeaker blared music to mask the sound of the death moans of the dying so the neighbors would remain unawares. It is a truly chilling place. The Japanese bought the place and is now managing it as a tourist attraction and this upsets many Cambodians, although citizens of the country get free admission.
This picture needs no words.
The S-21 prision was a large converted high school that housed at times thousands of prisoners who were chained to metal rods, starved, tortured, made to eat their own shit and all kinds of deplorable things were done to them. It was just so wretched. At the end of the day, we were so depressed and melancholy.
Oh also, we went to the shooting range and I squeezed off 15 rounds from an AK-47. WOW. Goddamn loud, man. It only made me respect the true power and fury of guns, designed specifically to end the life of other human beings.
Phnom Penh
Have more stories to tell about Phnom Penh, but ask me in person. :) After 2 or 3 days in Phnom Penh, we headed north to Siem Reap. The city's name actually means, "Siam Defeated," pretty insulting to the Thai only a few hours away! Seems alot of the guesthoues are owned by european - the ower of ours was Austrian and we ran to him after an even more aggressive horde of taxi drivers assaulted us upon disembarking from the bus. In any case, the purpose of our visit was to see Angkor Wat (wikipedia has this to say: "Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre — first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist — since its foundation. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmerarchitecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat) I'm telling you, we were BLOWN away. The man-made moat is the largest in the world and is as wide as the freaking Potomac River in Washington DC! The Temples cover an area of 25 miles and it is stupendous. EVERY inch of the walls, ceilings is covered with relief carvings chiseled into the stone. Huge Buddha heads everywhere. I cannot describe it. It is a MUST see. I'm glad we decided to go to Cambodia for this one reason. Cambodia, however, probably contributed to the week-long bout with diahhrea that ensued afterwards. Pure liquid streaming from between my cheeks almost every hour - it was horrible. At least I wasn't really sick in the sense of the word, I just got tired of sitting on the toilet.
Angkor WatOther temple, overrun by jungle.
Angkor Wat - check out the size of the moat! These palm trees in front are TALL, fyi, to give you an idea of the sheer size of the structure.
Then it was off to Bangkok. Day elected to fly straight to Bangkok and then Ko Samui. Bren and I took a bus to Bnagkok were we met up with Jay Bunnag and stayed with him for 3 days. We joined him to a deaf gathering and met some Deaf Thais as well as Noah Beckman who is in Thailand working at a deaf school for 2 months. The next day we paid a depressing visit to an orphanage for 'disabled,' people with some deaf children there. It was pretty decent in the sense of accomodations but oh boy, the staff just sits there and does nothing. It was just sad. Noah Beckman was shocked to see that the teachers at his school don't assign homework, there are no organized after-school activities nor sports teams. After dinner the girls stay in the dorm while the boys mill around outside and play. The girls clean everything in the school. I repeat, no homework. No tests. Aiieee. We'll visit the school on our way back, and I'll report more then. It was great seeing Jay and his girlfriend, they are doing great. I did get sick one whole day when the diahhrea took a turn for the worse and my stomach started cramping and missed a visit to Jay's wealthy aunt. Not again *groans* heh.
Then we headed south, a overnight bus ride then a boat ride to meet Day at Ko Phangan. This is were we have been for the last few days. It is a small beach with a dive center right next door. We went for a warm-up beach entry dive three days ago which was alot of fun... Simple dive. Yesterday, however, was amazng. We took a 1 hour boat ride boat to a dive site called Sail Rock. Pictures below. I am hooked to scuba diving, so I am gonna see if I can dive more before going back to Bangkok. It was simply amazing. I sumberged and was met with an explosion of brillant blue water with a reef that grew on a rock thats about 20m wide.. Fish everywhere in every imaginable color. Clownfish, Angelfish, Triggerfish, etc etc etc. Impossibly multicolored shrimp and lobsters. First dive was 38 mins. second, 34 mins. 15 meters depth ( 45 feet). It was such a rush. If I did this everyday Id never be in a bad mood. On the boat, the divemaster joked, spreading his hands expansively indicating his environs, "How do you like my office aquarium?" The divemaster said I should get training to become a divemaster and come work for him next summer. It might be a fun thing after I graduate in May.
Sail Rock
Sunset I'm about to see. Haad Yao
I think that's enough for now, folks. Sunset now and I m gonna drink a beer and watch the sunset.
Looks like our trip just got more educational. Unable to find a cheap
air fare to Thailand from here (apparently it is expensive to fly out
of Vietnam for reasons that are probably corrupt or at the very least,
machiavellian), we are going the overland route through Cambodia,
or "Cam pu chia," as it says on the map on the wall in front of me.
So it is off to Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a 7 hour jaunt on the
bus. There, we'll see the famous killing fields and the war museum as
well as the fascinating mix of past and present in this cultural center
of Cam pu chia. Then after a day or two, it is north to Siem Reap, a
town of 10,000 but with nearly 10% of the population being of foreign
origin. Expatriates? The exiled? Just people escaping the western world?
Perhaps we'll find out. There, we will see Angkor Wat. Then it is a
12 hour bus trip to Bangkok, and a short flight or a long train ride
(with sleeper berths) to Southern Thailand. The road between Siem Reap
and Bangkok is supposed to be incredibly bumpy. This is because,
according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, airlines rain bribes on
officials to delay upgrading the roads so that people will opt to fly
from Siem Reap to Bangkok.
Tomorrow, we see the Chi Cui Tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the
war. We will actually crawl inside them. Should be interesting.
Since leaving Hoi An, we went to this sleepy beach called Mui Ne. It was nice, a string of resorts, but not crowded. Our guest house was right at the beach. There was a sandy courtyard in the middle of all the doors leading to our rooms, and there hung hammocks hooked up to thick, coconut bearing palm trees. You'd order a coconut juice, and the guy would climb up a bamboo ladder, use a bamboo stick-device to remove a coconut, and come back with a straw protruding from it. Slurp. We booked a 2-hour tour where we sat on the back of motorbikes and they took us to a fishing village, some red sand canyons caused by rainwater and then to some huge yellow sand dunes.
It was low tide at the village and Bren and I were roped into playing some barefoot soccer with the locals. Fun. The sand dunes had sand sledding where you board a thin plastic sheet and sled down the dunes. However, dozens of kids would swarm around you pestering you to rent their sleds. I ended up paying four kids 5,000 dong each - because they all played a part. One packed sand on my sled, two pushed me down and so on. We played around with the cheeky bastards (I guess kids in America sell lemonade and the kids in Mui Ne pester tourists to rent their sleds. I know it's not that simple because they're certainly not renting them from a stand on lush grassy green front lawns, but still, they seemed to be having fun) for a while and returned to our guest house literally encrusted with sand. After two days, it was off to Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon has a palatable energy. The roads are busy with motorbikes, it is about 70% motorbikes on the roads here. We have been partying a lot the last two nights, meeting other backpackers and so on. yesterday we went to one of the most depressing places on earth, the "American War Remnants Museum," formerly called the, "American War Crimes Museum." Here are a few excerpts that Bren sent to his family and I couldn't say it better:
"The museum wasn't
necessarily well-organized but it succeeded in the same way the US tried to win
the war: overkill without concern
to human dignity. disturbing pictures were everywhere, from deformed
children with three fingers for an arm because they were exposed to agent orange
to mutilated children/senior citizens from a
village murdered by former senator Kerrey (a navy SEAL during the war; he finally acknowledged the
atrocities but several years ago) to confused civilians running
around with tragic burns from napalm. I am
somewhat glad the museum changed its name because 'American War Crimes Museum,' would have implied
that war is not a crime in itself, which would be terribly misleading."
More in my next deafdc blog on this, but it was an incredibly depressing experience. They had on display the dazzling array of weaponry we used to inflict damage on the Vietnamese during the war and it just makes me sad; What kind of race are we in which we continually pour so much energy and money into devising new ways to kill, blow up and maim each other? Take the average US soldier in Iraq today - I read somewhere that each soldier walks around carrying$200,000 (or something) worth of equipment. Sigh.
Soon, we book our bus tickets to Cambodia, the half day tour to tomorrow's Cui Cui Tunnels and then grab some dinner. Tomorrow I will definitely ride a cyclo (kind of like bicycle powered rickshaws - will explain more about the interesting history behind the drivers of these cyclos in my deadfc blog) which is an unique way to experience Saigon. Off I go, fellas.
Peace upon you,
Jesse
Below is a picture - similiar to what I see out of my hotel window of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Motorbikes everywhere! The guy with the blue shirt in the forefront on the right is pedaling a cyclo.
After Luang Prabang, we took an overnight bus to Vienevane, the biggest city in Laos. At first, we didn't like it because it was under heavy construction, there was a lot of dust and grime, plus the heat had started to become really heavy. I think I mentioned this in my last blog so forgive me for being repetitive. In any case, like I said, we met a deaf Japanese traveler and some deaf women, which made our trip to this particular town really fun.
The next morning after we met them by chance, they showed up at our hotel - three smiling Laotian deaf women aged 22, 31 and 32 - astride scooters. We got on behind them and off we went zooming around the city of Vienevane. They took us to the Buddha Park, an about 40 minute ride, and it was well worth it. It was nice to have them around because they explained to us things we wouldn't have otherwise known. For instance, the statues at Buddha Park are donated statues from, and representing their distinctive styles, various southeastern Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Mynamar and Thailand. The one with the gaping mouth and a crown of skulls was from Cambodia and so on. There are pictures on David's gallery for those of you who subscribe to that.
They then took us to a deaf school. It was a little sad. Poor conditions. Indifferent hearing teachers. After we visited with about 10 schoolchildren, took pictures and met again with the girls ( the girls wouldn't enter but elected to wait at a nearby cafe. From what I could gather, they either didn't want any part of the deaf school, or it wasn't allowed or perhaps both. ) There, we asked about the indifferent hearing teacher who simply assigned a student to show us around and disappeared back into her office again. The girls rolled their eyes and one of them made a dismissive wave of her hand. After some questioning, it seems the school does have two deaf teachers and not surprisingly these two are the best ones and were their favorites. So, in summary, Laos' deaf schools seems to have the same problems as American ones do, only amplified by poverty.
That night we went out for drinks. I think we were very exciting for them, as they were to us. The girl who motorbiked me around's name was Andoulay, and she forced me to promise I wouldn't forget her. She seemed to wish they could join us in our travels - she'd never been out of Vienevane and her middle class family prohibited her to work since she was so useful being the family nanny - doting after her various nieces, nephews and cousins. "I can't work," she said, betraying her obvious intelligence and wit. "You DO work," I coaxed her, "Taking care of babies IS work." She smiled and nodded her assent. Sigh.
The next day, we boarded a bus for a 24 hour ride from Vienevane to Da Nang, Vietnam. Only the two-thirds of the bus in the front consisted of seats. The back was boxes and boxes of fruit and God knows what else - burlap sacks of concrete mix, rice and everything under the sun. it was a crazy ride - the bus was basically a cargo bus that happened
to carry people. rice bags under our feet, boxed fruit in the back,
etc. people were sitting on the aisiles, on top of each other, reclining
between each other's legs. We didn't see another foreigner for the
whole two days. We arrived at the Vietnam border at 3am and the border
opens at 7am! It was in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and
everyone spilled out of the bus and slept wherever they could for a
while. Then it took us three hours just to enter Vietnam. The Vietnamese military searched the holds and I saw all kinds of things - spark
plugs, fuses, ignitions, car tires, barrels, plastic tubs, lumber, you
name it. That bus carried everything you could possibly imagine - and
humans as well. through the whole thing these incredibly poor
hardworking Vietnamese were so amazing - they slept leaning on each other, cradling each other between their legs and on top of each other in
impossible piles on the aisles and on top of the cargo in the back.
At one point I woke up and realized I had my head rested against someone's ankle - I looked back (I was on the last row) and saw a guy sprawled on top of some burlap sacks and his ankle had spilled over the top of my seat and he had not objected when my head ended up on his ankle. Thankfully, his bare feet didn't seem too filthy. They offered us food and cigarettes and even their toothbrushes. It
was quite an cultural experience, let me tell you. David has a nice short description on his latest blog, xanga.com/misterdayjr
After one night at sleepy China Beach, the site where American soldiers would take their R & R and have American style picnics on the beach before heading back inland for more combat, we headed for Hoi An. It is a gorgeous town and you would
absolutely love it. The food is amazing, the town is quaint - French, Chinese and Japanese influence - and the artwork and crafts for sale is
all original and beautiful. Yesterday we were mulling over whether to eat at a sidewalk cafe and the woman convinced David by simply using her chopsticks to take a piece of pork off someone's plate and shoving it in David's mouth! The Vietnamese people are something else, I tell ya.
Thats enough for now, I think. This afternoon, we head for Mui Ne, a beach with giant sand dunes, then it is to Saigon. Then we will sadly skip Cambodia and fly straight to Southern Thailand from Saigon to spend quality time there and to slow down since we have been rushing along a little too much. I am looking forward to some serious scuba diving.
