Exploring Ancient Angkor

Thursday morning we had asked our tuktuk drivers, Homm and Pall to pick us up at 8:00am. Unfortunately, our drivers did not yet know us very well, so at 8:00am they were sitting downstairs waiting for us. We were scrambling to get ready, and by about 8:20, we made it downstairs but asked them if they could give us another 10 minutes to grab a bite to eat. They of course obliged, and told us to take our time. We quickly grabbed a bunch of items from the complimentary buffet at our hotel, and then went out to meet our drivers. We were now on our way to Angkor Wat, something that Natalie and I had talked about visiting for years, and of course had spent a lifetime seeing pictures of this mysterious far away wonder.


As inexpensive as Cambodia is to visit, the Angkor archeological park is actually fairly expensive for those that are not residents of Cambodia. $20 will get you in for one day, $40 for 3 days, or $60 for seven day passes. This is strictly monitored at most of the temples and you are given a photo ID card indicating the length of your admission privileges. Fortunately, Kalyssa is under 12 (by a few months) and is free. Unfortunately, as we pulled up to the ticketing booth, we didn’t realize that for a free under 12 child, you need a passport with you to prove that she is under 12. The guards at the checkpoint to the archaeological park said they would let her through, however, each temple has guards that check tickets, and it wasn’t certain that all of them would let us through. Our drivers suggested, that given that the temples were 15-20 minutes away and the hotel was currently 10 minutes away in the other direction, it would be best to return to pickup the passport and have it handy. I went ahead and did this with Pall, while, Natalie and the girls waited with Homm at the checkpoint.

When Pall and I were half way back to the checkpoint, he turned around while driving and handed me his cell phone and said “It’s your wife.” This struck me as just a little bit unexpected, but then my first thought was this couldn’t be good. She asked where the SD card was for her camara. Oooh, I know this one…its in the room, in my laptop….as I was using it while blogging last night…..sorry, would be happy to pick that up for you.

When we got to the hotel, I ran in and grabbed both items, and let Pall know what the purpose of the unusual call was for, and showed him the chip (without which my wife’s camera won’t function, and without which, I may leave Angkor without a wife…. As we pulled away, Pall asked me “Did you get the passport?” “Yes, I chuckled and responded.”

20 minutes later or so, we returned to the checkpoint, and we were finally on our way. We were driving along what appeared to be a very wide river. As we got to a bend in it, I realized the bend was a perfect 90 degree angle, and suddenly realized this wasn’t a river, this was the massive moat around Angkor Wat. This tremendous and perfectly square moat was created almost 1,000 years ago. While it would have been a feat today, what makes it more impressive is that it was built prior to the inventions of modern machinery. We continued around the moat, though we did not enter Angkor Wat, instead we started with Angor Thom.

Angor Thom’s primary characteristics are the dozens and dozens of Khmer faces on each of the towers. Walking through this temple as well as all of the other complexes was truly awe enspiring, to see the dramatic engineering feats of almost a millennium ago.

Upon first arriving, Natalie and Kalyssa took an elephant ride around the complex, while Allie and I did some early exploring. We then met up with them, and spent a good hour and a half walking around the complex and exploring the various halls and rooms of the complex before returning to our drivers under the increasingly hot Cambodian sky.

Our next stop was Ta Phrom, however, our drivers seemed to almost intentionally stop the Tuktuk directly infront of a couple Cambodian girls selling all sorts of trinkets. We listened to the script that would be repeated throughout the day: “For you, I discount, one dollah, sir please, just one dollaaa, I have post cards, very nice.” Of the two girls hawiking their souvenirs, the one, wearing an “NYPD” baseball cap, seemed somewhat bored with the routine, but carried on nonetheless. The other, was a little more self conscious, and would occasionally break character and giggle. After declining repeatedly, we ultimately gave in and ended up buying a few miscellaneous items.

After this episode, we continued to Ta Phrom. We made it through the courtyard and into the main structure when (names eliminated to preserve dignity…but thought its worth sharing for the humor of the story….) one of our group suddenly said… “Oooh….oooh…. I need a bathroom. Now. Really now….” Given the number of areas and locales of the countries we were visiting it seemed likely that this would happen at some point, and now was go time. (“Pun somewhat intended”). The bad news was we had just left our drivers, and they were circling the complex to meet us when we exited on the other side. We were only about one third into the complex however, and it made much more sense to back track. We did, and when we exited, we inquired of a young local girl of late teens/earlier twenties, selling items if there was a “toilet” (Bathroom is a western word…). She responded very kindly “No toilet, you can use the forest”. We explained we kind of neeeeded a toilet and she said, OK, its 3 kilometers that way. Ugh. So we found a tuktuk driver and headed out to the toilet. Aside from some temporary physical discomfort, we survived the ordeal, and a couple immodium later, were back in action siteseeing in Ta Phrom.





"Tomb Raider" Door



Ta Prohm

This site made famous, not only for many famous historical photos, but also for scenes from Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie. These ruins are buried in the jungle, and many of the trees are actually growing directly out of the roof of the structure. This adds to the clear impression that this is an ancient structure, as the trees have amazingly wide trunks. Less restoration has been done on this temple, and many of the hallways are blocked by cave ins of the stone blocks.

After this temple, everyone was fairly hot and tired. Homm suggested a place for us to have lunch, that had air conditioning (a rare commodity in Cambodia) and we headed over there. The menus offered primarily Chinese dishes with a few western and Khmer twists here and there. Our meal was good, and we went out to talk to the drivers. Natalie and the girls were hot and tired and wanted to go to the pool. I on the other hand was interested in seeing more, and headed out with Pall to another temple.

Natalie and the kids headed back to the hotel with the intention of hitting the pool. However, the girls were exhausted and decided to take a nap instead. Our drivers had suggested a dinner show which included traditional Khmer music and dancing. This was at 7:00, so we planned on that, and Natalie took a shower and spent some time reading a book.

In the mean time, I headed out to one more temple. This one appeared very small, and as I walked in I got surrounded by the throng of touts selling postcards, keychains, flutes, and paintings. One young woman began talking to me as I walked, trying to sell her paintings, and hoping to get rid of some American quarters she had picked up. (In Cambodia, US dollars are the primary currency, and Cambodian riel are generally used in place of change (4000 Riel = $1) and coins are not used at all. I told her I would come back on the way out (as she appeared to have some pretty cool paintings. Shortly after entering the temple, which ended up being a very long and narrow set of ruins, a girl approached and asked me where I was from. When I said “America”, she recited the capital, current approximate population, president’s name, vice president’s name, and several other facts about the US. She then asked where I was from. I was quite surprised by the amount of American trivia the girl had memorized, and she continued to walk with me through the ruins. She asked me quite a few questions about me and my family, and where they were, and had a tremendous amount of knowledge about the structures (ie, many Buddhas are missing heads because of a Hindu regime that controlled the area around the 1200s that came in and cut off many of the heads. Each section of the temple I walked through she was able to explain the meanings of the carvings, and the history behind the temple. She explained that she really enjoyed hanging around the temple and practicing her English with tourists, and learning about different countries from them.

This girl was only 14, but had a very strong grasp of the English language and just a tremendous amount of knowledge about Khmer history, and the world. She said she was planning on coming to the US in 2017 and hoped to study teaching, so that she could become an English teacher. As we were walking, we walked past a man who had set up some wood carvings in a room in the temple, and was selling them. He began following for a while showing off his goods, against my persistent “no thank you’s”. At one point he showed me a wood carving of Apsara (a mythological nymph) which I thought would be rather nice. So I engaged him. The girl that was walking with me says “You do know that you do not have to pay his price. He will come down.”

As I neared the edge of the temple, I offered a couple dollars in return for all her assistance, (and realized I only had a five, so I gave her that. She was extremely grateful, and in return gave me some free keychains she had to pass along to my girls. (though she then did show me some of her art which she offered “at the same price she’d offer her friends.” This would normally be a common thing to say, though from the prices she asked, I think she was being honest. She said she was using the money to save for school, and from everything she shared over the last 45 minutes, she clearly was an extremely diligent student, so I did buy a couple items.



Outside the inner complex, I once again met up with the woman I talked to on the way in. I kept true to my promise to come look at her wares, although she clearly noticed I was holding a bunch of stuff that I bought in the temple, and expressed disappointment that the wood carved Apsara I was holding was very similar to several that she had. I negotiated hard on a painting that I only kind of wanted, (and spent 20 minutes or so doing so). Once we agreed on a price, she immediately snapped out of “sell mode” and we talked for another 15 minutes or so about me, my family, her background, etc. She was happy I had bought something as she said I was the first to buy anything, and it was already late afternoon. She had thrown in a can of coke with my purchase and I sipped that as I sat and enjoyed another opportunity to learn a little more about life in Cambodia.

After this, I headed back to my driver, and went back to the hotel. After a shower and some clean clothes, we all went out for a very nice dinner, wine, and a show. Our tuktuk drivers had suggested it, and accompanied Natalie to make the reservations while I was out exploring the temple. When the venue offered her a seating location, our driver told them, no that is not close enough to the stage, and got them to give us a front row seat. The food was pretty good, and though Kalyssa and Allie were exhausted and were falling asleep at the table, we all still enjoyed the show, and we headed back to the hotel to turn in early.

On the Road Again

Wednesday morning we had the fun task of repacking all of our belongings into our 6 suitcases and preparing for the taxi van to return to pick us up. Once everything was packed, we spent some time having our final conversations with Mach, Siphen, and their extended family whom we were lucky enough to meet as well while on the trip. Unfortunately, Penh’s niece had some additional aggravation of her condition (and I believe it sounds like now they think it may not be Dengue fever and he again had to make the two hour drive back to Phnom Penh, leaving shortly before we did.


I found Alexandra lounging in a hammock, and I went over to see how she was doing. She kind of half-smiled, and said “I’m gonna kind of miss this place. Its so nice and quiet, and relaxing just sitting here enjoying everything.” Siphen again apologized for the added chaos of her family being in town, and so many other guests at the homestay. We again reassured her that this truly did add to the trip, and that it was great to meet some of them as well and that we had great time with the Americans and Rein too. Kalyssa came over and said goodbye to Siphen, with the parting words “I’m reeeally going to miss your food. It was all really good!” This comment made Siphen’s eyes lighten like you wouldn’t believe.

Though its not the typical vacation for Americans, for anyone that would be interested in a trip to Cambodia, I can't recommend strongly enough, the Meas Family Homestay

Siphen, Mach, and Us

We jumped on our taxi (same car and driver as 2 days earlier) and made excellent time to Phnom Penh, in roughly an hour and a half. Our driver, who didn’t speak a single word of English, but with an extremely jolly smile that we’d become accustomed to gave us an enthusiastic wave that clearly said “Goodbye and good luck on the rest of your journey.”

Our Ride to and From Phnom Penh

While waiting at the bus stop (which was a pristinely clean and modern looking office with nice comfortable leather chairs to wait, Kalyssa had to go to the bathroom, which was outside and around the corner of the building. Natalie had already been in once and said it was spotless, clean, and was not a squat toilet, so we sent Kalyssa on her own. She came back and said there was a Khmer woman in the bathroom, who saw her walked inand looked in amazement at her, and gently reached out to touch her white skin. Siphen had told us that this would likely happen while we’re here…. That in the Khmer culture the white skin is considered an element of beauty and education, and that many locals who may not often see westerners will react in this way and want to touch.

Waiting for the Bus

I recently read an article about the psychology of race that talked about this as being a very common thing throughout the world. Its an idea that makes me fairly uncomfortable, and I honestly wasn’t quite sure how to react. Though I wanted to point out the irony of how many people in America spend a good percentage of the typical Khmer annual salary to make their skin darker through artificial light.

Since we got to the bus depot early, me, Allie, and Kalyssa went for a walk down Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh to see if we could find some food. Natalie stayed back and read her nook in the comfort of the air conditioned office watching our bags. Unfortunately the bus stop was a mile or so from the touristy part of Phnom Penh, so most of the shops and cafes were very local in nature and it didn’t seem there was a good place for a quick and cautionary meal (due to the length and constant travel, we are trying to be extremely cautionary in our food. We did however find a very small local mart that had some bottles of alcohol, cases of beer, and a couple packages of snacks. They had Mr. Potato Head chips (local rip off of Pringles. Pringles is also available widely here, but not at this establishment). The first can I picked up, upon inspection the seal was opened, so I tried the second which was still closed. I also grapped two liter bottles of Evian water and checked out. The girl quoted me a total of $5 and change, which was an utter ripoff for Cambodia standards, and I probably could have gotten it for $2-$3 (which is still a ripoff for local standards) if I haggled, but it was hot, and it honestly didn’t seem worth the time. (though I probably succeeded in making myself look like an idiot.

Walking back we had a brief lesson of travelling by foot in the third world. As we walked along the side of the road, an approaching car behind us beeped its horn. I think having become accustomed to the sound from within the car, her first situation outside she didn’t immediately realize that out here that sound means that you need to move to the right as a vehicle is about to overtake you. Fortunately traffic was slow, and it was just a motor bike, so I watched to let the bike whizzing by give her a bit of a start before reminding her that she needs to specifically listen for that sound while walking to know when to make sure to hug the side of the road.

When we got back, the previously empty office was now full of travelers. We boarded our bus, and started our 6 hour journey to siem reap. The trip afforded us lots of images of the Cambodian countryside and villages along the road, and some time to relax in a relatively cool environment. Kalyssa slept, Alexandra watched the country fly by, and I blogged.

Along the way, we had one brief 20 minutes top in Kampong Thom. The rest of the time was a bit of a harrowing ride, as our huge bus barreled down the highway like a 15 ton skier darting around motorcycles, trucks and carts, spending almost as much time on the wrong side of the road as we did on the right side.



Not sure what these are but they're everywhere



Once we arrived at Siem Reap, we needed to figure out how to get to our hotel which was 4 kilometers from the but stop. When we began asking around at the depot, they said there were no Taxis, only tuk-tuks. There was no way all our luggage would fit on one, along with us. The drivers were completely flummoxed on how to transport us and all of our stuff. Finally they decided that two of them could accompany us. We split up the luggage, and split up ourseves, with Kalyssa and I in one tuktuk, and Alexandra in the other, and raced to the hotel.

Upon getting to our hotel, the drivers began trying to sell their services for driving us around Angkor tomorrow. Do to the tremendously larger area that Angkor Wat takes up, one needs to have transportation, and most preferably, captive transportation. Allie and Natalie really liked their driver quite a bit, and wanted to use him.  (Kalyssa and mine wasn't all that exciting.)  I believe the trouble was, since two tuk tuks brought us here, they both wanted our business. Therefore they offered us a joint deal. Two tuktuks for two days. I talked about which sites we wanted to see at Angkor wat, and the driver said we can provide this package for you for $1,000. At this quote, I nearly lept out of my seat, and uncontrollably burst out in shock with a bit of “are you completely insane” laughter. Granted coming into the discussion, I didn’t have a good idea what the exact market rate was, but I know that $1000 was more than ten times what the fee should have been. Ultimately, we got him down to a price that was reasonable.

After scheduling an 8:00am meeting with him, we headed to the room, checked in, and spent a bit of time in the air-conditioned room. We were in need of getting some laundry done, so we called the front desk, and they asked us to fill out the form, and they would send someone up. The person arrived at our room far too quickly for us to be ready, and helped us go through our 2 large bags of dirty clothes to count the articles of clothing. I will say its rather disconcerting having a complete stranger sifting through your dirty, sweaty, laundry right in front of you….


Hotel Lobby


After a bit of debate on what we should actually do next, we headed down the street to the Angkor Night Market, found some dinner, did a brief bit of shopping, and returned back to the hotel to get some rest.



Dinner at Angkor Night Market



Teaching While Being Taught

Tuesday morning started abruptly with the sound of a rooster directly behind our bathroom windows crowing at about 6:00 am. It was clear that attempting to sleep through the sound would be of no use and since the night before we went to bed around 9:00, which was the earlier we had yet on the trip, so we woke up. Outside, I heard Siphen calling my name. I went out, and she asked if we were going to accompany them to the school where she teaches today, as they were leaving in a few hours. “Certainly.” So we all began rushing to get ready.

The guest houses here were all built by the family that lives here. The house that we are living in is a somewhat typical Khmer style building, though just a bedroom, and the bathroom. The bathroom, is a single tile room a little larger than a decent sized shower stall will the toilet, the sink, and the shower sharing the same room with a drain in the floor. The “shower” was a hand held sprayer hanging on the wall and a valve with an option to use the sprayer or a knee-high spout. There was also a bucket and a pan available which Natalie realized later were meant for filling the bucket, and using the pan to rinse. Natalie quickly noted that there appeared to be only one option for temperature: On.

While I was putting my contacts in, she went outside and realized, that that was of course because the shower was fed by a roughly 100 gallon barrel mounted about 10 feet of the ground to which all the downspouts on the roof led.

 

Rambutan



After we were all freshened up, we headed over to the communal dining area (outdoors under a grass thatched roof in the center of the residential section of the property. And there was a huge breakfast spread in front of us. Toast with mango jam (made from the mangos on the property. Niño bananas, a pancake shaped thing made from scrambled eggs and spices,, and some exotic fruits called rambutans and mangosteens…They were they super sweet and really yummy.



After breakfast, the four of us, Siphen, and Rein, (a 27 year old girl from Iceland also staying at the homestay) jumped in a CRV and headed for the school. Four of us in the backseat (Kalyssa on my lap) and Siphen and Rein in the frontseat. (Insert quote from Dept. of State notes: “While in Cambodia, you may encounter road conditions that differ significantly from those in the United States….roads leading to rural areas are often poor…Cambodian drivers routinely ignore traffic laws…vehicles are often overloaded”).

School in Cambodia is a total of 5 hours a day, split into two periods split by a 3 hour lunch break. The school was made up of several long, very basic brick/stucco buildings on raised foundation of about 18 inches. The buildings formed the perimeter of a square with a very large open courtyard, in the middle of which stood a Buddha. Siphen brought us into the first classroom, which had extremely quiet and shy high schoolers that struggled with their English quite a bit. We introduced ourselves and broke up into groups.



School

 My group had 3 girls and 1 boy. I tried to ask very basic questions, but had a very difficult time getting them to understand what I was asking. We got through names, though each time I tried to pronounce one of their names, they would giggle. (They all had Khmer names). The boy was the most bold, though he was still very shy, he would try to answer some questions, and sometimes interpret my questions for the other girls. One girl didn’t seem thrilled to be there, and looked at me like I had 3 eyes everytime I asked her a question. The girl next to her would giggle in embarrassment and would block her face with her notebook and say something to the first girl every time I’d ask something. The third girl would try a little bit but was still very shy. Finally we got to my specialty, numbers. We worked through English numbers, and they taught me Khmer numbers one through ten: moi, baiy, beey, bwon, pfram, pfram-moi, pfram-baiy, pfram-beey, pfram-bwon, nam. At one point as I struggled remembering them, the boy who had been starting to enjoy me on the hotseat, rather sternly stopped me mid word and said “No, that’s wrong.” And pronounced it correctly. Then he somewhat recoiled from his own sudden burst of confidence, and we all laughed a bit. At this point Siphen, informed us it was time to move along to the next class. I told her I wasn’t finished learning my numbers yet, but alas, it was time to move on regardless. 



The next room had much more outgoing students who had a much stronger grasp of English. Siphen asked Kalyssa to be the teacher, and had her go to the board and explain and write down where we were from. With some coaxing, this class asked some questions as a large group about where we were from and a few other basic questions. After our family talked for quite a bit to the class, Rein talked a bit about herself, Iceland, and Vikings. The kids who were all around 17, had never heard of Vikings, and none of them had ever seen snow. Rein, whom I would have sworn was a teacher herself, with her tremendous skills with the kids, fascinated them with the stories of the solstices in Iceland where there is either 24 hours of daylight or 24 hours of darkness.



We then broke into groups again, and had another brief discussion. This time we were able to talk a lot more. This class had quite a few students with western names. There was an Elizabeth, a Phillip, and an Andrew (I’m not 100% sure these where their given names, or if they had selected English names for English conversations.) Partway through this class, it came out that I enjoy music and play guitar. Siphen then went and got a guitar for me, a drum for Kalyssa, and we took a brief field trip to the library where there was a piano, and we had a little concert. The piano was electric and worked decently. The guitar was a crude non-branded acoustic with a useless second fret. Unfortunately, neither Allie or I were quite prepared for this, and couldn’t think of anything that we could do together. So Allie stumbled through a song, I stumbled through a song, but we did receive lots of applause anyway for our efforts. After this, it was time to head back to Siphen’s house.

Kalyssa's Group

On the way back, we started talking about how different it was in Cambodia vs. Hong Kong where we had just come from, for example the immigrations officer smiling and greeting Kalyssa. Siphen shared her own stories of travelling through America and how unfriendly everyone seemed in the airport. She had been in Atlanta once and was trying to figure out what gate her flight was departing from, and asked someone who curtly responded: “Check the screens” and walked away. She had been through LAX once as well and had similar experiences. I agreed , that our airports are probably the worst (especially O’hare) for unfriendly officials and employees, not to mention some of the travelers going through them.



At this point, we were all very hot as it was 88 and extremely humid (and we hadn’t seen air conditioning since we got off the plane. Natalie was feeling quite bad from all the heat, and so on the way back home Siphen stopped at a Tela Mart so we could get some icecream, and sit in an airconditioned room for a few minutes. Coincidentally, while we were there, the other family staying at the homestay from New York (though their daughter Diana who was also with them lives in Cambodia teaching for the Peace Corps) had taken a rickshaw to the same place for snacks.

Once we got back I had a little bit of time to wander the outskirts of the property. Allie, and Kally and I took a walk through the rice paddies which were still dry. They continued as far as you could see in most directions with a few other homes visible in the distance. There was a lone cow tethered in the middle of one of them, and Kalyssa went to pet it. 10 minutes later, a girl about Kalyssas age came and untethered it and took it away. When we got back to the homestay lunch was ready. We had some sort of breaded fish, fried rice, watermelon and mangos. Once again, everything was excellent, and everyone loved it.



At lunch, we talked with Rein about how little we knew about Cambodia, Pol Pot, and Khmer Rouge. She made a very interesting comment that has stuck in my mind for awhile. “I think in America, there are some things they don’t want you to know. Maybe that is why they did not teach more about it. In Iceland, all of our school textbooks said “Not allowed for distribution in the USA.” I don’t know what it is that is in them that is not allowed though. That certainly makes you ponder our education system here, and the more I’ve thought about it since the conversation, the more it has made me uneasy…



I mentioned that Siphen had told me I should talk to her brother, Penh, about how he had escaped from the Khmer Rouge. Rein was sitting with us and said she had heard the story earlier on the day that Natalie and I and the girls arrived. Though she said she didn’t want to spoil it for us, she explained that he was in Phnom Penh and had some sort of official job. He knew that something was going on that didn’t seem right when all the citizens were being told to evacuate from the city because of the alleged impending onslaught of bombs. He ended up fleeing, and narrowly escaped capture from the Khmer Rouge on two separate occasions. He decided his best chance to survive was to flee towards Thailand and did so on foot (this is a several hundred mile journey). After walking approximately 60 kilometers his shoes had entirely fallen apart, and he had to continue barefoot. At one point some of the Khmer Rouge soldiers had found him and started spraying the jungle with AK-47s attempting to kill him. He ran zig zig away from them, and literally was getting pelted with dirt from the bullets hitting the ground around him.

As he continued onward he needed to eat, but did not know what was edible and what was poisonous while in the jungle. So he bagan to track the monkeys, and watch what they were eating, and would only eat the fruits and leaves that he saw them eating. For 36 days, he continued his journey until he finally made it to the border of Thailand and ultimately to a refugee camp. During the same time, unfortunately, their brother Poong did not fare as well. He was captured and killed by S21 and was dumped in a mass grave. The family was never able to recover his remains.

Today, Penh lives in the Midwestern US (though he’s now visiting Cambodia for a few weeks) and works in a major teaching hospital . Truly an amazing story.



After lunch, Kalyssa found a couple girls her age, that were going out to cut the grass (done with an 8 inch curved hand knife. ) She disappeared off with them and helped for awhile- or so she says she did . After they did their work, one of them grabbed her hand and brought her back to the house to sit at a small table off behind the residences. She pulled out a magazine, and began pointing at objects, and looking at Kalyssa. Kalyssa would say the word in English. The girl would then repeat in English. Then the girl would say the word in Khmer, and the Kalyssa would repeat it in Khmer. This is unfortunately a priceless moment that I did not see in person. However, the fact that this was an experience that she had completely on her own likely increases the effectiveness of it on her.

While this was going on, Diana (the Peace Corps girl from New York) and Rein each had Ukuleles with them. Siphen and Mach had an electric piano, which Diana’s brother played, and I had the guitar that Siphen had brought with from the school. We had an hour long jam session through some pop songs from the last couple decades that Rein had chord charts for. One of the elder women at one point came over very animated motioning to me and talking to Diana in Khmer (Diana speaks Khmer fluently) I thought perhaps I was annoying her, or she didn’t like American music or something. Afterwards I asked Diana what that was all about and she said, that she simply was complaining that she couldn’t hear me well enough.

Late afternoon was once again filled with Siphen’s afterschool English classes (which she is highly selective about who is able to attend, based on how much effort and interest they show in learning English). These are done at the home in small open-air school house built in the front of their property. Diana led much of the classes, and Rein led the music and games. Diana gave a lesson on the lyrics of “I can see clearly now” and then we all played the song and sang it with the kids. They we also did “Baby” by Justin Beiber which they all knew very well. This was followed by one of the student’s performing a very choreographed dance to the entirety of “Bring the Boys Out” which was pretty entertaining.

Siphen's Afterschool English Class

Dinner provided 3 main dishes, one veggie dish, mini grilled ribs, and fish curry, and Mach walked around providing cans of Angkor beer (warm of course). I’ve never tried fish curry. Though I love curry, fish didn’t seem like something that would go good in it. I’ve never been more wrong in my life. I think I ate just about the entire bowl. Afterwards we played some Uno with the Americans (Natalie won), and then had a story from Siphen who talked a little about the Khmer Rouge and her family, and a little about the history of the home stay.

Unfortunately for me, Penh’s niece is in the hospital with what they think is Dengue fever, and he spent most of the day 2 hours away in Phnom Penh. He did arrive back for dinner, but of course was spending time with his family, as much of his trip has been spent at the hospital, so I never did get to hear his story first hand.

Dishwashing

The Outdoor Kitchen



Cambodia: Phoenix Rising from the Bloody Ashes

Day 3 of our trip has just passed, and I think if I returned tonight, I could do so satisfied that we’ve achieved what we were hoping to through this trip. If it wasn’t simply enough that I’m currently sitting on a porch in the rural countryside of Cambodia listening to dogs barking in the distance and a chorus of crickets, bullfrogs, lizards and various other night creatures, while typing out a blog, I’ve also been able to see my daughters, turn into intellectual sponges, soaking up the sights, sounds, history and culture of the Khmer in Cambodia as they live through a hands-on crash-course lesson of one of modern history’s worst episodes of political tyranny and human tragedy, and can see what is still an early but clear return from the ashes.


Our day started with a hectic race against the clock to pack up our 6 suitcases and several carry-on bags in time for our 6:00am cab ride to the airport. We bid farewell to David and Jing, and wished them well on their move to Shanghai (occurring only a few days after we left), and thanked them again for dealing with 4 cranky jet lagged people over the last couple days.

Luggage Train

We reflected on our experience while we snaked our way through the hundreds of towering apartment complexes. Things we enjoyed, things we didn’t. The girls had a certain level of apprehension as we boarded a plan for a new foreign land. Juxtaposing the cosmopolitan cities, high end shopping, and luxury cars of Hong Kong, they knew we were headed for, what we in the west call, a “third world country.”

The US Dept. of State’s travel notes, provides many descriptions that give one pause before planning a trip here:

• “a developing country”

• “Land mines and unexploded ordnance are found in rural areas throughout Cambodia”

• “Medical Facilities in Cambodia do not meet international standards. “

On top of that as the girls have been saying for rmonths, “’Our crazy dad wants us to sleep in some Khmer house with a family out in the middle of the country where we will die from some crazy disease.” For awhile everyone had said they refused to go if that was part of the plan. After some discussion, and sharing some of my research with them, they dropped the argument without ever quite agreeing to the idea.

Before continuing, let me share a brief fact with you. You’ve probably heard of Pol Pot, and you probably know he and the Khmer Rouge were bad guys (you might have even know he led the group). Did you know that his forces murdered 2 million Cambodians when the entire population was only 8 million around 1979. That’s 25% of the country. One out of four. Can you imagine that. Take a look at your grade-school class picture. Now imagine a quarter of them being brutally murdered. Take a look at your family pictures from Christmas. Imagine one fourth being dumped in a mass grave. 2 million. If this piques your interest I encourage you to do at least a few moments of internet searching on the Khmer Rouge.

I knew that we’d be getting a chance to get to know some Khmer people due to the nature of our lodging, and I thought it important that the girls understand the extent of this atrocity to truly understand the people here. (As did I, myself, need this, not knowing much of any of this history until we began planning this trip.) Therefore, when we landed in Phnom Penh, we found our car and driver (Cambodia driving is similar to India in the level of relative “chaos” to what westerners are used to ,and therefore a driver is a necessity when renting a car) and quickly jumped into my to do list for Phnom Penh before heading to our homestay a couple hours away in Takeo.

Riding here in a car, is somewhat a “lite” version of riding in India. Minimal traffic rules, and the roads are cohabitated by a multitude of vehicles, including tons of motorcycles carrying 1-4 riders (often toddlers on the laps of mothers seated behind the father. Proper lane usage is a suggestion as opposed to a rule. When we pulled out of the aiport parking lot, their mouths all instantaneously dropped open and stayed that way. This was quite a shock for all three girls for quite a period of time, as dozens of vehicles weaved in and around us constantly.

We hit a couple basic tourist sites, unfortunately the King’s Royal Palace was closed due meetings related to an ASEAN conference occurring while we are here, and on top of that it started raining as soon as we started wandering.

Royal Palace-Phnom Penh

Wat Ounalom

After these sites, we headed to two key locations central to the story of the Khmer Rouge:

• Tuol Sleng: A school turned prison/processing center/torture chamber for the Khmer Rouge

• And Cheoung Ek, the final resting place of thousands killed by the brutal regime.



Tuol Sleng

Pictures taken by Khmer Rouge before Execution

Tuol Sleng in particular provided a graphic lesson in the torture that occurred, and the human aspect of the period through hundreds of pictures of the victims-most from shortly before they were executed, but some from afterwards. The girls took this all in, reading many of the signs and Kalyssa had quite a few questions. To further reinforce how fresh all these scars still are, someone had placed a sprig of flowers on one of the pictures-clearly a relative.

           

Cheoung Ek Memorial at "The Killing Fields" filled with Skulls of Victims

After this immersion in brutality, we headed through the country side to a place a few miles outside of Takeo, Cambodia, and turned down a looooong dirt road to a series of houses. When we arrived at the Meas Family Homestay we were immediately greeted by Mach and Siphen who welcomed us, provided some snacks and some tea, and gave us a brief overview. The Homestay is their “second” job, and usually has only a few visitors now and then. This week however, they had some family that surprised them and a few additional guests that booked after we did. So they said it has suddenly become a very busy few days for them.

Our Home for 2 Days (Bomb Crater Pond in front)

Siphen pointed out her brother Peng was here who has lived in the US for 40 years in Cleveland, and plans to soon retire back to the Meas family plot of land. (It is cultulrally normal that a family will build their houses all near to each other and live together on the same land. Through some of the discussions, we asked about her and her husband’s family, and who lived on the ranch/community (struggling to find the appropriate term for the several homes occupied by the family members). I caught on to the way she referred to the size of her family. It was extremely subtle, but gave me goosebumps: “After the Khmer Rouge my mother had two sons.” Clearly the way it was stated was not unusual for people in this country---a similar marker in everyone’s life timeline that immediately reduced the branches in the family tree. I later found that indeed, Siphen had a 3rd brother who was executed by the Rouge.

At one point in the evening, I met the brother from Cleveland. I found that he works in Healthcare (as do I) and talked for 10-15 minutes or so. As I got up, relishing the new connection on the other side of the planet, I walked over and noticed Kalyssa as well had already started building her own relationships. She was standing in a circle with about 20 Khmer school kids around her age, playing games to help them learn English. Soon Allie came over and was playing as well. All of them laughing and playing as if they’d all known each other for years. At one point they were playing the Telephone game, in English. When it came to Allie and Kalyssa’s turn, the girl next to them said to make it harder for them, they’d change one word from English to Khmer, so they would also have the challenge. Afterwards, Kalyssa raved about how awesome all the kids were, and Alexandra as well came back to the house beaming from all the fun she just had. I sat and watched the entire interaction, took some pictures and video, and just sat in astonishment as the purpose of this trip played out before me, better than I could have ever hoped.

Games with English Students

Shortly after I headed back to our house, Peng wandered over and talked for a bit more. Directly in front of our house is a large square pond. The Meas family did not need to dig out this pond. An American B52 took care of that for them with a bomb meant for a missile launcher or something that was placed a couple hundred feet away in the woods during the Vietnam war. No one in the Meas family had been injured as they had evacuated earlier to Phnom Penh. After the war was over, they decided to turn the B52 crater into a pond. As we discussed a little more about the Khmer Rouge, Siphen recommended that I talk more to her brother about his experience. She explained that he had been captured by the Rouge, and made a “one in a million” chance escape. She recommended that, if I have the time, that I spend it with Peng tomorrow and hear the story, as it will give me the perspective that no written account of the story can.

I said that I would appreciate that more than anything….

Dinner

Later in the evening, dinner was served by Siphen and Mach and included several dishes buffet style chicken dishes, fish, shrimp, eggrolls and a veggie dish, and a desert which I don’t even know how to explain. It was always very good. We returned to our house, and retired for the evening with a small oscillating fan keeping us cool overhead, and a lizard that snuck in and was watching us from the ceiling ensuring that any mosquitoes that came in with us in don’t bother us.

A Final Day in Hong Kong: Two Sides, One City

As a family, our spirituality has always played a big role in our lives.  I've been heavily involved with music ministry in the Lutheran Church for 12 years or so now.  The church has always been our second family and we've developed many close relationships with our brother's and sister's in the faith. This was certainly the case living in the Chicago area, and we see many of those same roots developing in Nashville.  I wanted to ensure that such an epic family vacation we are taking this year, did not exclude this aspect of our family life.  Therefore, where possible, we've identified local churches for us to worship at in the various countries we are visiting. 

Today was our first such opportunity.  When planning the trip, I was shocked to find that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod had a congregation in Hong Kong, fairly close to my brother-in-law's house: Church of All Nations Lutheran Church.  The church was formed to cater to the many Lutheran expatriate workers in Hong Kong.  Therefore something that makes it very unique, I would imagine, is that its a fairly transient congregation.  People join for a few years while they are working here, and then move on.  This is somthing pretty unusual for a church where there are 100-year-old congregations in the US that still have members that are descendants of founding members. (There's an old joke in the Lutheran Church: How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer:  Change? What's that?).  We came early for breakfast, bible study and the church service.  We were welcomed with open arms, and struck up conversations with many people.  In addition to people from America, the UK, the Phillipines, and even Myanmar, we learned the Bible study leader's mother is from Dundee, IL, and he has family in Crystal Lake, IL, which were only 15-25 miles or so from our house before we moved to Tennessee.  We met a woman that goes on frequent mission trips to Cambodia, and just got back..  We learned that a former member/musician from that church just moved to Nashville and is a  musician at his new church.  All this reafirrmed what a truly small world it is, that we can have so many close connections on the other side of the globe. 

The service incorporated Amazing Love which is one of my favorite praise songs and even reprised it as a sending song.  Goosebumps.  Those who are involved in a church likely know the close relationships that you develop with your "brothers and sisters" in the congregation, and its really a cool feeling to travel 15,000 miles, and find "extended family" that have so much in common with you. Unfortunately, this feeling created a bit of a stark contrast to our experience out in the city the rest of the day.

After church we headed back to David and Jing's, and shared their final lunch at the clubhouse in their housing development, as later this week they begin a new chapter in their lives by moving to Shanghai.

The remainder of the afternoon, we all began to suffer a bit as our hectic schedules and jet lag begain to quickly catch up with us.  We headed downtown to take a tram to "the Peak" which is one of the highest points in Hong Kong, that offers a phenomenal 360 degree view of the city.  Perhaps exaggerated by our exhaustion, the character of the city began to grate on us, and we each noticed it. 



View from The Peak



Two Rare Zondas in the Parking Garage

Hong Kong is a city of somewhere around 7 million people, packed into a very tiny space, where just about everyone lives in a high rise of 30-50 floors or more.  In and among these, are many highrise old abandoned factories which have gone dark as the "Made in Hong Kong" label over the years has been replaced with the "Made in China" label.  At the same time, there is a TREMENDOUS amount of wealth in the city, and it is truly remarkable how every car that drives by is a Mercedes, BMW, Audi, with the occasional Ferrari, Porsche or Masaratti peppered in.The people have a very fast paced way of life, and are very focussed on their objectives.  Courtesies that we're used to in the US such as holding doors open for other people, and above and beyond customer service are not the norm.  When standing in a line, if you do not keep it extremely tight, people will begin to cut directly in front of you.  Our awareness of this was probably heighted by our recent move to Nashville, which is the exact opposite.  Nashville is known widely for being extremely friendly and nice.  By late afternoon, we were quickly tiring of the crowds, and watching, and being involved in the mobs of people trying to get through a line, disregarding personal space and right of way.  All this began to overshadow the things about the city we enjoyed, and we decided to try and make it an early evening, grabbed some dinner in a very familiar environment at a Chicago themed restaurant ("Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill) and headed back to pack up our stuff and get ready for an early flight.  Kalyssa however, made it all of about 3 minutes before falling completely asleep at the table.



Dinner at Dan Ryan's (Kalyssa asleep in foreground)



We did at least get to enjoy the sights of some of the modern, brightly lit skyscrapers downtown, before heading back.  Tommorrow, though we have an early start, should provide us a much less physically exhausting day.  However, if we are able to stick to our itinerary, it may proove to be a very emotionally exhausting one....




Bank of China Building