Cambodia and Vietnam

So, I’m back on the ship after Vietnam, but I spent most of my time in Cambodia. Going to Cambodia on a SAS trip was my only opportunity to visit a country not on the itinerary. I was debating about it, because I knew that Vietnam would be an interesting experience for five days. By going to Cambodia, I got a taste of two countries, but not as in depth a stay in either one. My trip left for Cambodia on the day of our arrival, we got in a bus to the airport, for a very short flight across the border. We landed in Phnom Penh in the late afternoon, and went to the National Museum. It is primarily a collection of historic art, arranged by medium. The museum is a square building with an open courtyard, and each of the four parts of it hold either wood, stone, bronze, or precious metals. The entire place was fairly small, and reminded me of the art portion of the National Museum of Thailand in Bangkok. Our next stop was a boat ride on the Mekong River at sunset. They gave us Angkor Beer, one of only two beers made in Cambodia. They are nothing to write home about, but here I am doing just that. The day was cloudy, so the sunset was not spectacular, but the things we saw from the river were very interesting. We passed by numerous temples and pagodas on one side, and fairly undeveloped land on the other side of the river. The coolest thing we saw was a floating village, a collection of forty or fifty house-boats that all travel together, and when they anchor, tie to each other. People then walk freely between them, and use smaller boats to go into Phnom Penh, or wherever else they happen to go. After that, we went to an orphanage. I’ve never been one that would choose to volunteer at an orphanage, but it turned out to be fun. The Palm Tree Orphanage receives funds from an organization that was started by two people that went on Semester at Sea back a few decades ago. Two guys that went on SAS Spring ’07 were back in Cambodia, to work there. Several of the guys from our trip played soccer with a lot of the kids. They pretty much showed us up, but it was a good time, and we had to leave way too early. Once we left, we went to a very late dinner, which was pretty good. The food we had in Cambodia was like most Asian food: noodles, rice, and vegetables. However, it is predominantly seafood, and also soups are very common. Then we went to our hotel, which was far too nice for my tastes. The two hotels that I stayed at in Cambodia were the nicest hotel rooms I have ever been in. If I have a bed and a roof I’m happy, but Semester at Sea provides top of the line hotels. Their reasoning is that they stay at places that will have clean drinking water. I’m glad that this will be my only trip that will be staying in hotels arranged through the ship.
The second day in Cambodia, we started our day at Tuol Sleng, an important site in the Khmer Rouge’s genocide. It was once a high school, but became a prison and torture facility. Most of the facility had been left they way it was in the late 1970s. Blood still stains the floor in most cells. One building has been made into a museum, with row upon row of photos of the victims. Instruments of torture, as well as photos of their results, are shown. There was once a map of Cambodia, made out of human skulls, but after Buddhist monks requested a proper cremation, it was dismantled. A photograph of it still hangs on the wall, as the last thing you see before leaving. From there, the trip got even grimmer. We visited the Killing Fields themselves, were more than a million people were slaughtered and dumped into mass graves as part of the Khmer Rouge’s crackdown on anyone who was not a peasant capable of working the rice fields. Some of the “crimes” they were guilty of included going to a library, or being educated. A pagoda stands as a memorial to the victims. It is filled from floor to ceiling with skulls. The mass graves have had their victims removed, but still stand open, a reminder of what mankind is capable of.
Once we left, we moved on to less depressing visits. We went to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, and the nearby Silver Pagoda. It is not actually silver, but is named that because of its silver tiled floor. You have to walk on rugs, but an area is left open to see the original flooring. We then ate lunch, and had some free time in a nearby market. We took another flight to Siam Reap in the afternoon. The town of Siam Reap is very small, and is only famous for being the closest city to Angkor Wat. It is predominantly very nice hotels. The government knows that people are coming to see Angkor Wat, and need rooms, so they only allow nicer hotels to be built, and thus generate lots of revenue. We went to the main gate of Angkor Wat for sunset that night, but did not actually go into the complex. The next day, we had to option of getting up at five, to see the sunrise from the same place. I didn’t go all the way to Cambodia to miss something like that, so of course I got up. Like many ancient buildings, Angkor Wat is built so that is aligned with the cardinal directions, and the angles of the sun. On the equinoxes, the sun rises directly behind the main tower. We were there only two days after the equinox, so by stepping about ten feet to one side, I got the exact same effect. Breakfast was served back at our hotel, and we quickly left again, to go to another part of the temple complex. This next area is even more in the rain forest that the main buildings. Gigantic trees, as well as strangler vines, are growing all around, and through the ruins. It gives the place a very mysterious feeling. With the exception of some buildings in danger of collapse, you are generally given freedom to explore the ruins. Darting through dark passageways, in a nearly thousand year old structure, was a dream come true. I hope I’m not wearing out this phrase in my blog, but Angkor Wat was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. We left this area, and went back to the main complex, but entered through the opposite gate, and had several hours to look around. Being inside the temple that we had seen at sunrise was awesome. It is incredibly intricate, and every surface you look at is covered with sculptures, carvings, or writing. The massive towers force you to look nearly straight up to take them in. It was one of the most absolutely breathtaking things I have seen. After lunch, we went to another series of temples and palaces that are all very close to one another. The first one we saw was the most impressive of these; its towers are adorned with massive stone faces on all four sides. There are dozens of towers in all, so that wherever you turn, a monolithic face is staring down at you. This temple was one of the most accessible; you could climb up into the highest parts of it. From there we saw a few more temples, and then had to finally leave the site. We drove back to the Siam Reap airport, and flew back to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. That night, everyone was exhausted, so we went out for pizza and beer, and then I was asleep well before eleven.
The forth day of the ship being in Vietnam was actually my first day of experiencing the country. I went on a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of 250 kilometers of tunnels and rooms used by the Vietcong during the war. The buses took us to the primary temple of the Cao Dai Religion, a religion found only in Vietnam. To me, it’s a cult. It was founded in the 1920s, all of its members wear white robes, live in the same gated complex, and work in the same clothes factories that support the facility. They worship a gigantic eye, and one of their saints is Victor Hugo. I walked away shaking my head. The rest of the afternoon we spent at the tunnels, which was the reason I signed up to go on this trip. After watching a blatant propaganda film, labeled as history, we walked through the jungle, past several small openings of the tunnels. They also showed us numerous traps used by the Vietcong. We came to an area that had a small opening, one by two feet at most. It had a wooden lid, that could be closed and camouflaged with leaves. I fit down in it, but several people could not. We then went into a section of tunnel, that we could crawl through for a long distance. A tiny staircase led down into the them, and then the tunnel runs all the way to Ho Chi Minh City. In the area we were, entrances are fairly common, so we only ventured sixty meters through them. However, that short time was enough that I got a feel of them. They are not nearly large enough to walk through, a sort of crouching walk is required. The heat is also very intense. I was never very uncomfortable in Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam, since the weather was similar to August in Tennessee, but the tunnels were very hot.
My last day in Vietnam, I spent exploring Ho Chi Minh City. Just crossing the street is an adventure, having to dodge hundred of mopeds, bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles. The guide on my tunnels trip said that there are four million of them in the city. We went to the market in the morning, then walked past many parks, and through lots of side streets. We saw, but did not go into, the Reunification Palace. It was the administrative building of South Vietnam, so it was a major victory when the North Vietnamese captured it. I also saw the Post Office, a leftover from the French Colonial Days. It was designed by the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower. After lunch, we went to the War Remnants Museum. As recent as 1995, it was known as the Museum of American War Crimes. Even after seeing Robben Island in South Africa, or the Killing Fields in Cambodia, this was the hardest thing to visit. The Vietnamese look at the war in a very different light, which was to be expected, and was fairly interesting, but there is a very strong bias that I have not witnessed elsewhere. The South Vietnamese are all labeled as puppets or henchmen of the United States. The images of American soldiers torturing North Vietnamese are juxtaposed with excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, in an attempt to show the hypocrisy of the U.S. Government. The displays are all very graphic, especially the section of Agent Orange birth defects. The mood in that building was grim, our hearts and minds heavy to a level I’ve never felt before. Yet, I feel as if we all should see these things, especially while on this trip. There’s still a feeling that we are young, and we will learn from the mistakes of past generations. There’s still hope.