Catching up

I was informed today that I will now be teaching three more classes. There are 10 Senior 3s (Seniors by American standards) that are leaving in May for Singapore to go to college. So Fuat and I are splitting teaching them oral English five days a week. The goal is to get them as ready as possible for the English test they have to take once reaching Singapore. So now I have 17 classes a week and have to make 5 lesson plans. But I can't complain because the school is paying Fuat and I a bit extra for each Singapore class we teach.


Early that morning I got mom to the airport metro and said goodbye. I was really really glad she came, but I was exhausted and ready to get home and back to a normal schedule. That night we didn't have Chinese class so Cliff, Leah, Andrew, Greg and I went to dinner at Windows. This picture is showing off the Chinese custom of the tooth pick. On almost every dinner table at a restaurant there is a container of tooth picks and it is very common for every Chinese person to use one after their meal.


Mom had an early flight on Wednesday so Tuesday afternoon, after my classes, we took the ferry across to Hong Kong. It turned out the ferry doesn't run very often so we had to wait a few hours till it left.


This was the first day back to school. I had to teach four classes, three in the morning and one in the afternoon. So during lunch I went out and got Mom and she came to my afternoon class. The students loved it! During every activity, the two back rows just turned around and talked with her instead of paying attention, but that was fine. We stayed at school and I took her to the cafeteria for dinner. Strangely, that was her favorite Chinese meal of the trip. My cafeteria does serve good food, but I think she just had a biased view on the rest of Chinese food. That night I had book club with my students and Mom had brought us new books so I brought her along so the students could show their appreciation. They also really enjoyed having her there and getting to know her.


The hotel that Mom was staying at was really nice! It was right in the heart of Xili and just a bus ride away from my school so it was perfect. It was also super cheap by American standards. The staff was really sweet and a few of them spoke English so that was helpful. There was a nice banquet hall on the second floor so we decided to stay in and eat dinner there.


Today I took mom to the park in Nantou. That area also has one of the oldest sections of buildings left in Shenzhen. We wandered for a bit taking pictures. That night my contact teacher took us out to dinner. We got to meet his new wife, they just got married during the spring festival, and a few of his friends.


Mom still wasn't feeling great so we decided to take things slow. I took her to book city because she had finished the books she had brought with her. Other than that we walked around Xili a bit so I could show off my part of town. This picture is of my friend the guard. He was given every evening shift until school started. So the entire time my mother was visitng, every night that I got back home I ended up spending 30 minutes to an hour hanging out at the guard office. He doesn't know much English and I don't know much Chinese but we get by and have a good time. Plus we share food with each other.



Our first day in Shenzhen I had all sorts of site seeing planned out and had invited Andrew, Cliff, Marie, Jess and Ben to join. Mom and I started the day off with going to the top of the Emperor building. It was a pretty hazy day so unfortunately we couldn't see that far, but it was still neat seeing the city from up above. Then we met everyone in Dongmen. The night before, in Hong Kong, we had dinner at a random Chinese restaurant. Well the food did not settle right with Mom and at about this time she was really not feeling well. We decided to go back to the hotel to let her rest. I met up later with the group at the beer garden.


When we arrived in Guangzhou from our 23 day excursion around Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, we had to quickly find a bus back to Shenzhen. Upon reaching the city, I had to keep moving onto Hong Kong where I was picking up my Mom from the airport that evening. She was coming in for 8 days to see me and the life I live here. With her jet lag and my extreme exhaustion from the trip, we found out hotel, got some dinner and went to bed. On the 9th we went around Hong Kong seeing different parts of the city. She had been there before 19 years ago and had a couple of places she wanted to see again and some new sites to check out. We visited some markets, went to the top of Victoria's Peak and eventually traveled across the water to Shenzhen.

Vietnam motto - Walk slowly

February 2nd, 2011 - Day 17 of our adventure. After waking up to dragon practice in Cambodia, the trip across the border into Vietnam was uneventful and much easier than the border crossing into Cambodia. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and set out to look for a hostel in the backpacker district. Due to the upcoming new years celebrations most places were full but we finally found a four bed room for $8 a night. It was the most expensive hostel of our trip but was very nice and had a daily maid service just like a regular hotel. We needed to get some Vietnamese currency - Dong- and headed for the ATM. The exchange rate is drastic and we got out over a million dong for our stay. It is 20,000 Dong for 1 dollar, whereas Cambodia is 4000 Riel for 1 dollar and Thailand is 30 Baht for 1 dollar. Next we needed to go book our tours for later that week and found a nice company that Andrew had researched that would take us to the Vietcong tunnels and the Mekong Delta. By that time it was late afternoon and we decided to take the day easy. The following day was the lunar new years and our hostel owner said that there are always fireworks the night before. For dinner we set out for the waterfront so we could see the light show later in the evening. It was mass chaos. There were literally thousands of motorbikes and they moved in a swarm. Andrew had read that to cross the street in Vietnam you just started walking but went very slowly so that all the bike riders could see you and move around you. We quickly found out this was true. If you wanted to wait for an actual break in traffic you'd be there for the next four years so you just had to hold your breath and start walking. The bikes did in fact just swerve around you and we never had any accidents. After dinner we still had a few hours till the fireworks at midnight but we didn't know where else to go so we found a spot to sit among the crowd that was already forming. Cliff, Marie and I started playing cards to kill some time. There was a group of Vietnamese high school students sitting next to us and once the cards were pulled out they were very interested in our presence. They asked if we could teach them a game (only one knew English). So we taught them how to play spoons and uno. It was a great time, definitely the highlight of my evening. The kids were a lot of fun and the same age as my students so we were all having a good time. When the fireworks started the whole crowd stood up and crowded in. We weren't in a very good spot so I grabbed Marie's hand and weaved in and out of the crowd till we got to where we could see better. It was a good show and a great atmosphere. We were some of the only foreigners there so it was amazing to just be a part of the crowd and feel the same excitement all of the citizens of Vietnam were feeling as well. The show ended and the entire sea of people quickly turned and all started trying to get away from the waterfront at the same time. There was a road of traffic between us and the path everyone needed to get on so the crowd just overwhelmed the motorbikes until they were at a stand still and then basically climbed over each one to get to the other side. It would have been fine except this annoying white woman with an accent was behind me and understood personal space even less than the Chinese. Finally we got to an area where we could breath and the four of us started the walk home.

February 3rd - HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEARS! Since we had a late night Andrew (who was in charge of Vietnam) gave us all a free morning to either sleep in, go exploring, read, or whatever it was you wanted to do. Andrew and I, again the early risers, got up and went to breakfast. We wandered around the city, but most of it was shut down since this was the actual holiday. We decided to get a watermelon (they've been out of season in China for awhile) and sat down in the park and ate the entire thing. Getting back with the group, the four of us went to lunch and then set out to the Revolutionary Museum. This was one of the smaller museums of the city but had a range of information from the war, to agriculture, to current science explorations. Fun fact - On April 18, 2008 Vietnam sent it's first satellite into space becoming the 93rd country to do so. We got through and went in search of ice cream and coffee. Vietnam is a huge producer of coffee around the world and has a special way of making it - drip coffee. You receive a cup and a little metal holder that you set on top with coffee grounds and hot water in it. So it is very strong and intense - at one point a waitress seemed very concerned that Cliff didn't fully understand what he was getting into by ordering one. To celebrate the holiday we went back and joined the crowd again in the center of town. We quickly heard some dragon and lion music (loud tin drums) and went to see the show. It started out with a lion dance which consists of a couple pairs each performing their own lion dance. The lion costume is a two man job where the person in the back gets the short end of the stick because they have to bend over most of the time and if they aren't bending over they are usually holding the front guy in the air. Next was the dragon dance. This is a long thing dragon held up in the air by thick poles. About eight guys are needed to perform and each have their own stick. But it is heavy and the dance team was constantly switching in and out to keep the dragon moving quickly. The final part was crazy. The team brought in what looked like two rows of homemade thick poles with small round platforms at the top. The shortest was about three feet high and it went up to one that was at least seven or eight feet high. There was about two feet from one platform to the next. Once the contraption was deemed sturdy one lion pairing jumped up onto the poles and did a hole dance suspended in air. It included the back person lifting the front guy up in the air, running a couple platforms ahead and throwing him back down again. They had definitely practiced because it would not have been an easy performance. This part of the show was when it was traditional for children to come up and give lucky money to the lion. The lucky money is to bring the child luck for the year as well as the lion and to support the dance troop's performance. The show ended and we decided that the rest of the evening was probably going to be similar so we headed back to the backpacker district for a nice Indian food dinner.

By now we had become regulars at this restaurant down the street that had a menu the size of the bible. I think there were over 60 pages of options and it included some pretty good breakfast food. After filling our bellies we went to the War Remnants Museum - previously named the The Museum of American War Crimes. Again this was a pretty depressing day. You couldn't walk through this place and not feel a little bit ashamed at being American. The first section was a replica of a prison used for POWs. There were accounts from people who are currently living and survived the prison of the horrors that went on in those places. There were lists of different torture methods that the South Vietnamese and Americans used which went from pulling off finger nails to jamming nails in the bottoms of people's feet to different ways of water torture. 3 million Vietnamese died during the war - 2 million of those were civilians. The casualties of the war are also still continuing due to Agent Orange, the most deadly chemical substance known to man that was used by Americans as chemical warfare. The substance actually changes your DNA so you pass it on to your children. There was a room dedicated to pictures of little kids and adults that have suffered mental and physical disabilities. Not every child born from parents who were infected by Agent Orange are disabled so there are still members of the new generation who are going to possibly pass the disease on to the next. No one knows how many generations it will take to wipe out the effect that this has had on the Vietnamese population. There was also a large section about the massive amounts of people who were against the war. Beyond protests in our country, almost every single other major country had citizens up in arms against the US fighting in this battle...and yet we kept on going for 17 years. To round out the day we went to the Independence Palace - the site noted for ending the war on April 30, 1975. This is the place where the iconic tank 843 rammed through the gates of the palace to finalize the fall of Saigon. The building has been left how it was in 1975 and is now used for a tourist attraction, banquets and parties. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We went and saw the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, got dinner and some beers and went back to bed.

We had all learned about the Vietcong tunnels and seen pictures in the museums, and on February 5th we actually got to go see them. Hopping on a tour bus we left HCMC and went on our way. During the trip we passed over a road that our guide informed us was the same road that the famous picture was taken of the girl running down the street with all of her clothes burned off from the bombings. He said that she was now living in Toronto. The actual tour consisted first of a viewing of a Cao Dai noon church service. Cao Dai is a relatively new religion started in Vietnam in 1926. There are about 2 million followers, mostly Vietnamese. The religion uses the third eye motif and has service multiple times a day in buildings that look a bit like Elton John designed them. The most interesting part to me was that your status depended on how long you had believed in the religion. There were nine tiers and each five years that you stayed with the church you got to move up to the next tier and sit a little closer to the front of the room. The farthest you could go was the 8th tier because the 9th was purely for the gods and higher beings of the religion like saints. When we visited there was one man 5 tiers up - so he had been actively religious at least twenty years. The sad part was this church that we went to has been turned into a tourist attraction. The religion puts up with it because it gets the word out easily about the religion, but you could tell there were a number of worshipers there that were not appreciating our attendance, understandably so. The terrible thing was that we were all expressly told that we were not allowed to talk during the service but of course - you get that many people in a room and half of them were talking. Foreigners. Goodness. Well, then is was on to the tunnels. They have obviously molded this area for tourism but it was still interesting to see. One set of the tunnels they hollowed out to two times the size of the original so that you could walk through bent over. The true tunnels were purely used by slithering on your belly and using your elbows and knees to get yourself through. The Vietnamese I guess thought that tourists might not like that as much. Our guide for the day, Slim Jim as he liked to be called, took us through different sections of the site. There were two areas of traps that the Vietcong used to catch unsuspecting opposing troops. All of them were not happy things and would hurt like hell if you fell into one. One of the ones that stuck out to me as being the worst was the "Souvenir" trap. They dug a hole and then put what looked like a metal four legged stool upside down in the hole. On each leg there was an extension of a metal spike that pointed in towards the underbelly of the stool. So someone walks along, their leg falls into the hole and their foot lands on the underside of the stool but then as they pull their leg out the metal spikes jam into their calf. Slim Jim said that if this happened there was no way to get the contraption off while out in the battle field so the soldier would have to be taken back to the hospital with the stool to get it cut off - aka the Souvenir trap. They also showed us a sniper ground lookout and allowed us to climb in if we wanted. You could see a small tunnel leading away from the sniper hole to who knows where. Then we got to go in the tunnels ourselves. Our group made it so that we would be in front. Underground if you ended up freaking out there were a number of side shoots that would get you outside immediately. I wonder how many tourists had panic attacks before they figured out to make those. A tunnel guide headed in, followed by some lady in our group, then Andrew, myself, Marie and Cliff. The lady soon gave up and took a shoot back to the surface. I really didn't think the tunnels were that bad. Granted I'm pretty small and didn't have too much trouble getting through and tight spaces have never bothered me much. Poor Cliff, he was just way too tall for the trek. He ended up having to go on hands and knees and got a cut on one of his knees from the rocks. The hardest part I thought was that there were different levels so sometimes you had to hop up to the next section and the stair situation wasn't the best. The key was to just not fall backwards on the person behind you. We stopped after a shooting range where you could pay 200,000 Dong (about $10) to get 10 bullets to fire out of a gun used in the war. The downside was the guns were strapped down so all you were actually doing was pulling a trigger. Due to a number of reasons we all decided to pass. To finish the tour we got served raw tapioca and tea. Then we were shown a movie that was what looked like propaganda films that the Vietnamese had created during the war about different heroes on the battlefield. Then it was back home to Ho Chi Minh City. We grabbed dinner and had a quiet evening in watching TV and trying to use the internet on the one free computer at the hostel.

Mekong Delta tour Day 1! The delta is where the Mekong River ends and enters into the sea. It is widely known for the enormous size of many of its sea creatures. After busing out to the area we stopped at a bee farm and had some honey tea. The stall was also selling snake wine. You can purchase a bottle in a range of sizes that has snakes and scorpions floating in the liquid. On top of that they randomly had a very large boa constrictor that was being passed around the tourists for pictures. After the farm we went out into the canals of the delta. There were hoards of small Vietnamese canoes manned by the locals. A few tourists got in at a time and got sent down the canal to our next destination. We were under express instructions to not move our hands outside of the boat because with the boats always bumping into each other that's how you can easily break a finger. Afterward we went to a coconut candy making factory. There were women going through all the different processes that went into making the candy and then you could buy all different flavors at the end. I bought a package of chocolate coconut and it was delicious. The texture is sort of like taffy and it doesn't really even taste like what we associate with coconut. There was also a taste testing section of different liquors. We all tried banana wine that was pretty bad. In China, and now we know in South East Asia, when a bottle says wine it really means hard liquor. We stopped for lunch at a big restaurant in one of the towns along the way. Their famed dish was Elephant Fish where you got the entire fish and it was held upright when served. Unfortunately it was extremely expensive so...we did not get one. Lunch ended and we were given some time to hang around with the option to go on a bike ride. So of course we went to go find some bikes! I ended up picking one that was stuck in 1st gear, veered to the left, started shaking if you went too fast and did not have working brakes - good job Carrie. That, plus my complete lack in physical strength, made bike riding a bit difficult. But we got around the little local town a bit and it was fun seeing the countryside. Our final stop for the day was an orchard where we heard traditional Vietnamese music. There were a couple instrument players and a few women who switched back and forth singing. At one point they asked if anyone in the crowd knew a song and one of our Vietnamese guys got up and sand a short tune. The evening ended in Can Tho, one of the bigger towns in the area where we got put up in a typical hostel by the tour agency. The city was on the water so we walked along the riverside and found some Pho Noodles for dinner. It was the first night in awhile that all four of us weren't crammed into one room so it was nice rooming with Marie again and we stayed up chatting for a bit and then got some rest.

Mekong Delta tour Day 2. We set off at 7:15 and got on a boat to see the floating market. This market was an actual 'in use by locals' market for fresh fruit. There were tons of boats each selling a different kind of crop. The boats would inform you of what they were selling by having a tall bamboo pole at the front of their ship with a piece of their fruit or vegetable tied to the top. It was a supplier market so if you wanted to buy any fruit you needed to get at least 10 kilos. Luckily, there were a few boats that had gotten into the tourist trade and had a single piece for sale instead. Marie was tempted by the pineapple - always a good choice. We got off the boats and then went to a local, on land, market that sold meat and fish. One of the most common fish was this long thin black one that was round so it sat on it's belly and could use it's fins to move on hard surfaces. Most stalls had a whole tray of them that were still alive and moving around. It wasn't uncommon for one to scoot itself right off the tray and onto the ground. We also saw some meat stalls that were trying their best to use every part of whatever animal they had that day. There was an entire cow's skull that was picked to the bone. There was another table that had a whole chunk of meat on it and the eye of the animal still attached to the shapeless form. We also saw a cow heart - it was huge! The market was the last stop of the day so we were taken by boat back to Can Tho. We were on our own for lunch in the city so we wandered around until we found a bakery. Getting some bread and baozi we headed for a tourist market to pick up some trinkets before heading home. The baozi was a bit interesting. A common thing to eat in China, we didn't think much about it when we bought them. But these had not only a full hard boiled quail egg in them but also a large chunk of moon cake like hardened egg yolk that was nasty. Eventually we got back on the bus to Saigon and said goodbye to the Delta. On the return trip our bus got a flat tire! So we got to watch how a bus tire gets put back on and got to sit around for a little bit before starting again. We stopped once at this very nice, but very touristy, resort for a bathroom and snack break. In the on-site convenient store they were selling a couple different types of wine and had a couple of bottles that you could test try before buying. So Marie and I each did a small shot of black sticky rice wine. That was the worst thing I have ever drank in my life! I thought I was going to puke. It was extremely strong and even worse than baijiu. Luckily we had some ice cream to get the taste out of our mouths and then got back on the bus. One random story: We met this lady from Minnesota on the tour. She was traveling by herself and obviously wanted to make some friends so we chatted with her for a bit. She has been living in China teaching for at least 10 years, we asked her how long and she wouldn't say an exact number. We later found out just how Chinese she has become. When we stopped for the bathroom break Marie got in line behind her and had the same stall. Well in China, Chinese women do not like Western toilets. So if there is one, they lift up the seat and then actually climb up onto the bowl and squat just like a regular Chinese bathroom. Why they feel the need to climb up on it/how they don't fall quite often, no one knows. Anyway, so Marie went in after the Minnesota lady and the seat was up and there were footprints on the bowl! She has officially become a Chinese person, no questions asked. It just seems like a dangerous practice. We got on the bus for the last time and got back to Ho Chi Minh City before dinner. Our flight in the morning was at 8am so we had decided it didn't make sense to get a hostel for the night since we would have to leave so early anyway. So instead we decided to spend the night in the airport. Due to that we had all our bags at the tour company and had to carry them around if we wanted to go anywhere. So we just went back to our usual eating place in the backpack district, because it was across the street, and had dinner. At dinner Marie and I chose to order a cup of snake wine because we didn't want to leave Vietnam without at least trying it. It really was not bad! Much better than the sticky rice wine. And at least at this point it has not killed us. After dinner the tour company helped us get a taxi and we arrived at the airport. The place cleared out by about 11pm and during the night there was only one other non-worker in the place. That was actually really nice because it meant that we could spread out on the chairs and not worry about getting yelled at. Unfortunately, Cliff had gone to sleep before the place quieted down so he made a little bed behind the chairs and spent the night on the floor. None of us got a lot of sleep by any means, but it could have been a lot worse. In the morning we cleaned ourselves up a bit and got on the plane. We arrived in Guangzhou a few hours later and were back in China!! Overall the trip was a great success. Three weeks is a lot of time to be on the road, but we made it work. Except for a few minor set backs, nothing really went wrong and we got to see pretty much everything that we wanted to. My favorite part I think was learning all the history and going to the Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. And luckily by the end of the three weeks we all needed some alone time but were not at the point of killing each other (at least I hope not). I thought Marie and Andrew did a great job planning Cambodia and Vietnam and I was happy that I could experience all of it with them and Cliff.

The crazy world of Cambodia

January 26th, 2011 - Day 10 of our adventure. The morning started out with a goodbye to Ben. He was heading back to Bangkok to meet up with some other CTLCers. The rest of us - Cliff, Andrew, Marie and I went to go find our minibus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Marie was in charge of Cambodia research and she had read bundles of warnings about the trip across the border. Do not heed them lightly - the warnings are correct. The first portion of the trip went according to plan, we took a bus almost to the divide between the countries and stopped for lunch. That is when things went downhill. The head of the tour came up to everyone (it was the four of us, a backpacking couple, a guy from England and two other slightly older guys who we didn't talk to) and said that we would each need to pay 1300 Baht for our Visa before crossing. Now the true visa costs $20 which equals 600 Baht and Marie had heard that you NEVER need your visa before crossing the border - you get it in the middle ground between countries - and that if anyone tells you different they are lying and trying to cheat you out of money. The three guys by themselves each got out their wallet and paid the money. The couple and our group were both looking at each other like 'that is not right'. The boyfriend eventually spoke up and said that they weren't going to pay the money. The leader came up to us and said that this was the only way and that we needed to give them money. During his speech the boyfriend kept saying no and things like 'don't listen to him'. The leader got annoyed, glared at him, and left. A moment later he came back, pointed at the couple and said 'we don't have enough room on the bus you need to go with this guy to get across the border' pointing at one of the other drivers. They looked unsure but couldn't do anything else so they went with the driver. The leader then came up to us and told us that since those two were being difficult he sent them on the wrong bus and now they will have to take a taxi to Siem Reap which will be over 2000 B and asked if we would like to pay for the visa now. We stood our ground and said that we would buy the visa at the border. After lunch he came back to us and said that the bus was again full and we would have to take this van to the border. Not really wanting to leave the three guys who had paid for the visas, but not having a choice, we boarded the van. Luckily for some reason in the end the three guys also ended up getting in our van so it made us feel a little bit better. To also give us moral support on the back of the seat in front of us was written "they'll sound convincing but trust your instinct". Well we made it to the boarder, got our visas (which ended up costing 1000 B since we didn't have US dollars on us), got across and got to the bus station to take us to Siem Reap. And when we got there we met back up with the "troublesome" couple who were making it through just fine and didn't need to take a taxi. So moral of the story - DO NOT trust anyone on the Thailand side of the Cambodian border.

During the bus ride we stopped alongside a little town for a bathroom break. The first impression I got of Cambodia was that it was dirty, sad and poor. Right when you step off the bus kids swarm you trying to get you to buy little bracelets from them. If you wouldn't pay for it they would start saying "here you can have it for free, just take it!" We all made sure not to take anything from them. I really wonder what would have happened if we did. We were afraid they would scream bloody murder that we stole from them and next thing you know you're in a Cambodian jail - not good. We grabbed a few snacks from a local stall and got back on the bus. When we arrived in Siem Reap we took our first tuk-tuk to the Happy Guest House - our favorite of all our hostels. The people there were SO nice. In Cambodia they use Riel (their currency) and the US dollar since their currency is so weak. It is 4000 Riel for 1 dollar. We only had a few dollars so we got a tuk-tuk guy from the hostel to take Andrew and I to a Union Pay (our Chinese bank) ATM. It took us three tries. The first one didn't accept Union Pay, the second the computer was broke, but on our third try it was success! It was great because we got a small tour of the city along the way and the tuk-tuk driver was great about pointing everything out. What was even more crazy was that on the way back I saw a bunch of CTLCers hanging out at a bar so I shouted out to them and we chatted a bit before heading back to the hostel.

The next day we rented two tuk-tuks for the day to tour Angkor Wat. Marie and I received Tom, the best tuk-tuk driver around. He was such a cute little guy and tried his best to entertain us. He would shout things back at us about the temples and he would swerve in and out with his bike and turn around and grin at us to see if we were having fun, which we were. The downside of the day was that I had gotten a pretty bad head cold so I had a small fog over my brain for the day. During the trip we saw Angkor Thom which includes Bayon (has the large face statues), Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King, Angkor Wat (actually smaller than Angkor Thom but the iconic site of Cambodia), Ta Prohm (has trees growing all over the buildings), Banteay Srei (the pink sandstone temple), and Phnom Bakheng (where you go to watch the sunset). A little fun fact - Tomb Raider used Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm as sets during the movie. The temples were breathtaking. They all looked slightly similar but also each had something unique. Angkor Thom was gigantic and you could always seem to find something new to look at. The different sections were each terraces with different etchings. When Marie kept telling us there was a Leper Terrace we kept convincing ourselves she was saying Leopard. But sure enough there was a Leper Terrace - though it was not etched with pictures of people losing body parts. This specific area had changed colors over the years due to the rocks that were used and people thought it was very similar to the leper disease, hence the name. We found another building in the area that has extremely steep stairs that were halfway falling apart. Warning signs and "Climb at your own risk" postings were up everywhere. So of course Andrew and I wanted to get to the top. Once reaching the peak there was a little old woman asking you to light incense for the gods (leaving a small monetary tribute as well was encouraged). Touring the top we were going to head down, which would have been the scary part, when we found a new wooden staircase built in the back...so much for the need to climb the steep side - but it was more fun. At one part we were really lucky because in one of the wats we observed what was either a movie/commercial/music video/? being shot. There were a bunch of girls in traditional Cambodian dance costumes. Two of them were up on the outcroppings of the temple performing a dance while being filmed. There were even lighting guys and helpers that shaded the girls between takes. The other thing that I greatly enjoyed about the day was the tuk-tuk rides. The pink temple was out in the boonies so it was a 45 minute ride there and back. You passed through tons of local villages on the way that partly survived because of tourism. There was the typical stalls and food for sale but you also were able to see some of the daily life as you went by. One interesting part of the temples was the renovation efforts. Due to their age, large portions of the wats were falling apart. Generations have gone by that have been trying to help preserve these areas. There were piles and piles of stones around the wats that some group of people had taken out and numbered at some point. Well of course since then the notes have been lost and a lot of the curators are not positive how the system works. So now it is a giant puzzle to find where to put the stones back. We ended up finishing the day early. We were all tired and hot and the only thing left that we were supposed to do was to watch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng which wasn't for another hour or so. Instead we reached the top of the temple (which was up a large hill might I add), looked around and went back down to go get some rest. That night we went and saw some traditional Khmer dancing. The dances tell stories, most of the ones we saw were about relationships and the historical day to day life of the Cambodian people. Afterward we had told some CTLCers that we would meet up with them so we headed for the tourist street of Siem Reap. We were a bit early so we stopped by the night market beforehand. While there we got a fish massage! For $2 you got a 20 minute fish massage, a can of beer and a back massage. A fish massage is where you take off your shoes and you put your feet in a large fish tank full of small fish. The creatures come and eat your dirt and dead skin off. A gross thought but it actually felt pretty good. It tickled a lot at first but you get used to it. I was the first one up on the seating area and there were already three women who were probably in their late 60s with their feet in. I was really nervous and they were really funny because they were yelling at me to get my feet in and that if they could do I could too. Poor Cliff and Andrew though, they both had sores on their feet from traveling and so the fish were biting them open. It was a bit disgusting because once the scratches opened there would be blood and the fish's mouths would get all red. We ended up staying for over 40 minutes because we were live advertisement for the stall owner. Eventually some other people came and we were getting over the excitement so we headed out and found the CTLCers. It was nice seeing everyone but we didn't stay for too long because we were all very tired.

The morning started with going horse back riding through the rice fields. It was this cute little ranch away from the city. The guide was a woman who had been a tourist in Cambodia two years before and had asked to start working for the barn and next thing she knew she had a semi-permanent residence there. The owner was a Cambodian from California called "The Sheriff". He was a nice guy and chatted with us after the ride about politics and tourism in Cambodia. The ride itself was great and we got to see some temples, schools and neighborhoods of the locals. Next we went back to the hostel for lunch and had our first experience with Chicken Amok - the signature dish of Cambodia. It is sort of like a yellow curry. We spent the afternoon at the butterfly garden and landmine museum. The butterfly place was very beautiful. You got to walk around and just take in all the butterflies fluttering past you. We also got to see their hatching closets and the whole process from egg to butterfly. The workers go around and collect the leaves with eggs on them and then sort them according to species. The worms get placed in tupperware containers until they start to make their cocoons. Then the cocoons get moved into the closets in the garden. The landmine museum was the first taste we got of depressing/inspirational information about the countries we were visiting. Aki Ra is an amazing man (he is in the top 10 CNN heroes this year) who has spent the last section of his life removing active landmines from around Cambodia. So far he has deactivated over 50,000. The museum is all about his life, the life of Cambodia, the terror of landmines, and exhibits of mines they have found. He has a movie playing on loop explaining the museum and the effect landmines have had on Cambodia's history. It included an account of how much damage some of the main landmines would cause - whether it would blow off one leg, two legs, or your entire body. We unfortunately were a little bit rushed during this time because we had to get back to the tourist section of town for a Cambodian cooking class. We got back just in time and joined a French woman, her five year old daughter, and an Australian man. The class allowed you to each pick an appetizer and entree to create. I chose fried steam rolls with vegetables as a starter and amok chicken with rice for my main meal. The class was a lot of fun. We all got to put on cute little aprons and chef hats and started learning. The lady running the class, in my opinion, seemed to hate her job. The others thought she might have just been a bit stressed by having to teach so many people how to cook at once which is understandable. Luckily the class was set up in a way that you almost did everything yourself. So the teacher would come around, tell you what to do, give an example, and then move on to the next person. We got to slice and dice, chop and mash, fry and boil, etc. In the end we all had great food. The four of us shared a bit of each others. Marie had fresh spring rolls, Cliff had a unique salad, Andrew had pumpkin soup, and those were just the starters. There was so much food that I couldn't even finish my meal. Sadly half of my chicken amok was left over, but I was very content and had a happy belly. After dinner we headed home to relax a bit. Cliff, Andrew and I ended up heading back out for a nighttime stroll of the pub street. On our way we saw an unfortunate tuk-tuk accident! A bicyclist and tuk-tuk driver both tried to merge into the same lane and slammed into each other. The rider fell off his bike and landed underneath the tuk-tuk as it tipped over. We ran over quickly to help lift the tuk-tuk off of him. Luckily he wasn't hurt and we walked away as he was shaking it off. Pub street wasn't too exciting, we hung around for a bit and then headed home. On our way back a motorcyclist started driving alongside us. He stared at us intently and quietly said "You want skunk?". We said no. He replied "You want coke?". Again no. Finally "You want opium?". Still no. He finally got the hint and rode off.

On day 13 we found about the power supply of Cambodia. There was possibly a commercial shoot...or a wedding...or something that needed a lot of power (we kept hearing different stories from the same tourist that obviously didn't have a clue) and they had cut the power for the entire block to meet their needs. Classy. So we didn't get our usual morning email check, but that's what vacation is for. We soon left and got on our next bus to Phnom Penh. This was one of our worse riding experiences. We were second or third row behind the horn crazy driver. Literally every person, animal, or tree that he saw deserved a honk - just in case the thing decided to jump out in front of the vehicle. If it was another car, it got 2-15 honks. The constraint we all kept to not hit him before the ride was over was admirable. Also along the way we saw a military procession. Six or seven tanks and soldier trucks passed on their way to who knows where. Arrival didn't come soon enough, but we were thankfully quickly to our new hostel. As circumstances would go we ended up staying next door to our reserved space because there was not room for us - but luckily the next door hostel was much nicer so we got it easy for a night. To get a feel for the town we walked around a bit, got stalked by a shirtless guy, stopped for a few beers at a local restaurant, were seated directly next to the bathroom where the door didn't close, and had an appetizer kindly bought for us by some Cambodians. Overall it was a very good end to a not so good day.

After moving to our new room at the original hostel we started walking to the Cambodian Royal Palace...and ended up going to the National Museum instead. In certain places you have to wear pants out of respect and the boys didn't have theirs on so we couldn't go to the palace, but it worked out. Out of all the museums we went to this one was the least note worthy. It had some interesting information and some great artifacts, but the best part was the courtyard which had a beautiful garden and small ponds. Going back to the hostel for lunch and a nap, everyone got on long pants and we headed back to the palace (along with requiring long pants, a lot of places are closed from 11ish-2ish for lunch). I really enjoyed the palace - mainly because I quietly followed around this couple's tour guide for a bit so I actually learned some things that were not written down. The thing I liked the best was the palace has a color of the day. There are seven colors and you are supposed to wear a specific one each day and it will bring you luck. This is a tradition that has been occurring for generations and is still in use today. In case you want to start the trend: Mon-Dark Yellow, Tuesday-Violet, Wed-Yellowish Green, Thur-Green, Fri-Blue, Sat-Blackish Red, Sun-Red. On the outskirts of the palace you can also go see silk scarves being created on looms. Then in the upstairs section there is a man playing the xylophone. There is a second one and he will teach you to play a simple song so you can play along with him. Of course he expects a small donation afterward, but it was fun. We had a bit of time left before dinner so we went to Wat Ounalom - the supposed location of one of Buddha's eyebrow hairs. The place turned out to be a functional wat and there were people living and praying within the walls. It is always a bit awkward walking into a temple that is in use since you don't want to seem like the annoying tourist who has no respect for the local religion, so we didn't really want to walk up to anyone and request to see Buddha's hair. Instead we looked around for a few minutes and went on our way. The central market was our next location, but we quickly found out that all the markets shut down around 5pm (which seems weird) and we were just a bit late. We ended up grabbing dinner at a local restaurant and headed back to the hostel for a quiet evening hanging out and chatting in the room.

January 31st was our day of depressing activities. (Just in case) For anyone who doesn't know, in the late 1970s the Khmer Rouge, a communist political group, took over Cambodia. They believed that Cambodia would be better off if they started anew. To do so they evacuated Phnom Penh, the capital, and sent most people out to the fields to start farming. They believed they needed to wipe out the educated citizens to help start over as well as remove anyone who might question their efforts. Anyone who was known to be a doctor, teacher, student, etc was rounded up and killed. A fourth of the population - about two million people - were murdered during this time. Now parts of the areas used are museums and memorial sites. We first went to the Choeung Ek killing fields, one of the largest of its kinds, where trucks of people arrived every day to be beaten or stabbed. A tall Buddhist stupa stands in the center of the area to house all of the bones that have been excavated from the shallow graves. At the monument there are about 8,000 skulls inside. The different tiers of the building hold different kinds of bones with the lowest one having all of the clothing remnants that have been found. After viewing that you travel around the grassy area seeing each of the mass graves that have been dug up. The two main graves that were referenced multiple times were one that every body was missing it's head and one that had over 150 bodies with only women and children. In total there have been about 20,000 bodies found on the property. After touring the area there is a small museum where you can view a short film. The museum spoke about the individuals responsible for the terror that took place there. The trials for the crimes these people committed are still going on today. After the killing fields was the genocide museum. This was placed in the S.21 prison used to hold intellectuals and people against the Khmer Rouge before they were sent to the killing fields. The museum was set up where you walked through the cell rooms to learn about different portions of the prison. A large part of the presentation was rows and rows and rows of pictures of the prisoners. Each prisoner had a head shot taken when they arrived and all of these were on display. In 2006 a large tour was given of the killing fields and the museum for Cambodians who had suffered during the Khmer Rouge's rule - one woman found a picture of her brother among those in the museum - she had never known what had happened to him. Another part of the museum had biographies of men and women who had served the Khmer Rouge and what their feelings of their actions are today. The whole day was very heavy but informative. Cambodia notes that this was an extremely dark part of it's history but the people feel it is important to keep these areas preserved and let Cambodians and the world know the crimes that were committed so that it does not happen again. During our time in these areas our group was very somber, none of us even took out our camera to put what we saw on film. Other tourists did not have the same reaction and were still taking pictures of each other while doing the peace sign. Not very respectful... After the museum the tuk-tuk took us to the Russian market which turned out to be a regular trinket selling market but it was fun to walk down the aisles searching for the best deal on whatever it was that you wanted as a souvenir. We got back early so Andrew and I took a walk around town. We ended up finding a large stadium that the neighborhoods had taken over. There was a local soccer game going on, tons of women doing aerobics, little food stalls, kids running around, etc. Andrew and I just sat and took it all in for awhile. Then we went back for dinner and every night the hostel has a showing of a movie about Cambodia so we stayed and watched The Killing Fields - a Hollywood film about the reporters and some locals when the Khmer Rouge started taking over.

We had one day left in Phnom Penh so we decided to go see the animal sanctuary. We were hoping that it would be happier than a zoo because a lot of the animals were rescued from poachers...our hopes didn't really come true. The sanctuary started off with an area where you could pet Samba Deer and see some crocodiles and monkeys. A couple of men were following along with us telling about each of the animals. Their hope was that we would hire them as guides for the rest of the park. One of the Gibbons that we saw was blind and obviously had been fed by a lot of foreigners because once he heard you coming he would stick out his hand for food. You could hold hands with him for a bit until he realized you had no treats and he lost interest. We left that enclosure and headed for the next set - the small ground animals and some more monkeys. Our guide admitted defeat that we weren't going to hire him and left so we didn't get the same input and fun facts about these. We were standing around the next gibbon cage watching a baby excitedly swing through the fake vines - they are very fast monkeys. All of a sudden the biggest one swung over to us reached his hand out of the cage and grabbed Cliff's arm and started trying to drag him towards the fence. Cliff obviously freaked out and smacked at the hand and jerked away. Luckily he got away with not bites or cuts. We were very wary of our distance from the cages and the locations of the animals after that. The next stop was the birds. There were some fun ones that were like parrots and tried to mimic the tones they heard. We had fun teaching them how to say "Wei" a common Chinese phrase for hello. Then there were larger birds such as eagles, hawks and owls. These were a lot more sad to see because the cages were large but they were such big birds that there wasn't really much room for them to move about in. After seeing some bears the last stop was the elephants. This was also a very sad enclosure. Each elephant had chains tying their feet together. Most of them did have some evidence of poacher attacks so they probably were rescued creatures but it was still sad they didn't have much freedom. It was time for lunch and there were was a section of tables and hammocks inside the sanctuary so we decided to stop. Our tuk-tuk driver helped us order three different chicken dishes and we asked him to join our meal. He told us all about his life in Cambodia so far and the general life of the majority of people in the country. There was a set of little boys that also surrounded us while they ate. After getting us to buy some coconuts for drinks they stuck around and were very curious about our language. At one point I pulled out my notebook to write something down and one boy stared at it very intently so I got him to say his name so I could show it to him written out. After lunch conversation turned to our driver's tuk-tuk and he offered us a lesson on driving! It actually wasn't hard at all. I was the first and went up and down the road a few times, even making tight turns to get back and forth. Soon after we headed home. That night we walked out to the waterfront, got some pizza and walked along the sidewalk, watching the water. In the morning we were headed out for Vietnam. It was our earliest morning yet, we had to get on the bus at 6:45am. But no worries! Dragon practice for the upcoming new years started at 5:30. So there was loud drumming coming from the building next door and it made the perfect wake up call. With the end of our time in Cambodia I rethought my reaction that it was a poor, dirty, sad place. It is a poor country with a recent tragic history, but they have done a very good job rebuilding themselves since then. Phnom Penh was a bit strange because the town shut down at about nine every night and it wasn't what you would really expect of a capital but it was still an interesting place to visit.