September 2018 · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

September 30, 2018

Days 80-82: Visiting Vientiane, Laos

So before I even really start this post, I want to own up to something. If it is not already clear, it should be: I am no history or geography expert. A year ago, I’m pretty sure I could not have named Vientiane as the capital of Laos or labeled Laos on a blank world map.

Rich could have and that is one of many reasons that he does ALL of the planning. I show up, I learn, I frequently have my mind blown. Having this opportunity is one of the greatest gifts of my life.

All that to say, I had no idea what to expect in Laos, and my impressions ended up being overwhelmingly lovely. We liked Cambodia, but in the end, we may have ended up liking Laos better.

Day 80: Travel from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Vientiane, Laos

Bangkok is really the geographical hub of Southeast Asia. We flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok, then from Bangkok to Vientiane. We landed in Vientiane pretty late in the evening but luckily our hotel arranged an airport pick up for us. It was a pretty straight forward travel day (read: the opposite of traveling in Sicily).

Map with Vientiane — For a little Southeast Asia context…

In Vientiane, we stayed at a hotel that Rich had found online. The hotel was fine, but it didn’t quite live up to the online pictures or reviews. Our impression was that Vientiane may not experience quite the tourism boom of some of the other cities we had visited (Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Chiang Mai) and so the bar just wasn’t quite as high. Still, no horror stories– the space was just a little banged up.

Day 81: Checking Out the Sites of Vientiane

Despite the hotel being a bit mediocre, as a city, Vientiane felt much more modern in comparison to Cambodia and much of Vietnam. Vientiane had large paved roads filled with more cars than motorbikes and lots of restaurants and coffee shops. The sidewalks were clear and easy to navigate!

Pool Time

But first, the pool. After any travel day, we almost always move a little slow. We decided to read by the hotel pool and head out in the afternoon.

Great call because when we arrived we had the pool all to ourselves with the exception of a GIANT UNICORN FLOAT.

This was not my first float rodeo. I also know that my gracefulness has its limits and wisely had Rich hold the float while I climbed in. I enjoyed floating and reading for a bit, then got hot (it’s Southeast Asia), and cooled off by swimming for a few minutes.

Rich: We should probably leave soon, but I think I’ll get in the float first.

Me: Cool (gets out camera).

Rich’s version of the following events is that he helped me get in the float, so I should have offered to get out of my lounger to help him do the same.

My version: I have never seen a man approach a situation more confidently than I watched my husband approach that giant adorable unicorn. It was pure “hold my beer” territory.

You have to see how this is going to end.

Rich confidently plops his body down on the back of the unicorn. He and the unicorn immediately flip over backwards, and he lands upside down underwater. If you are not following us on Instagram, heck, if you are not even on Instagram, watching the video of Rich and his unicorn friend flip over will make it worth your while to change that NOW.

unicorn float in Vientiane — So much love for the unicorn float

The Patuxai War Memorial

Ironically, despite resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Patuxai War Memorial celebrates Laos gaining independence from France in 1949.

The arch stands at the end of a long boulevard extending from the presidential palace. A large and beautiful park surrounds the arch. For less than $1, you can climb the stairs to the top for a nice view of Vientiane.

The monument’s five towers represent the five Buddhist principles of thoughtful amiability, flexibility, honesty, honor, and prosperity.

I am struck by the principles of thoughtful amiability and flexibility. In the United States, Would being amiable would make it into the top fifty American values in 2018? Being kind, gentle, or pleasant can be interpreted as being weak. In Southeast Asia, losing your temper is not just rude– it’s an affront to national and religious values.

The Patuxai Park was an easy walk from our hotel and a really beautiful space. We enjoyed our time there.

World Peace gong in Vientiane — The World Peace gong. Isn’t that lovely?

War Memorial in Vientiane — Rich at the Patuxai War Memorial

arch in vientiane — It looks like the Arc de Triomphe but was designed by a Laotian architect

The Pha That Luang

The Pha That Luang is a very large gold-covered Buddhist stupa that serves as a national symbol of Laos. Several other large temples surround the stupa. We found the whole area really breath taking.

Other temple in Vientiane — Temple beside the Pha That Luang

Coffee at the Amazon Cafe

So Laos is hot, and when we finished at the Pha That Luang, we needed a drink. Rich and I ducked into an Amazon Cafe, a Starbucks equivalent of Southeast Asia.

Inside, we could have been in America, but our favorite part was a table of high school aged students still in their school uniforms working on what looked like pretty hard math homework on their laptops.

These kids were focused, had Excel up to enter data, and kept swinging around the table to share ideas with one other. Rich and I are educators. I really hope this doesn’t sound creepy, but watching kids really engaged and grappling with hard content is like watching babies sleep for me. It is super fulfilling even if I don’t know the kids and didn’t assign the work– rigor looks the same worldwide.

Pizza for Dinner

In Laos, we ate pizza at Pomodoro Pizzeria, an Italian restaurant run by a gentleman originally from Pakistan. It was delicious, and if that’s not globalism, I don’t know what is. The end.

Pizza in Vientiane — When the pizza is so delicious, you forget to snap a picture until there are only two pieces left.

Day 82: Visiting the Buddha Park Outside of Vientiane

Xieng Khuan, unofficially known as the Buddha Park, is a beautiful space about 45 minutes outside of Vientiane filled with more than two hundred religious statues.

We LOVED exploring this park and looking at all of the statues which were full of personality. The park was really beautiful and only moderately crowded while we were there so we felt like we could wander at our own pace and explore.

You could even climb up on one of the tallest structures to get a view of the whole space.

Together at the Buddha Park. A view from the top.

The reclining Buddha was really amazing.

We enjoyed homemade coconut ice cream at the end of the tour. One of my biggest regrets of the whole trip may be the spoonful that slid off my spoon and onto the ground! The ice cream was so delicious and hit. the. spot.

Broad Generalization and Reflections Comparing Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam

I refer you back you to the intro to this post in which I readily admit to being no sort of expert. This is just my own personal impression: Vientiane struck us as having greater infrastructure and generally being more commercially developed than many parts of Cambodia and Vietnam we visited. The kids in the coffee shop were not the only school kids we observed. There were schools and students in uniforms everywhere.

And what I wonder is this: Is what we observed Laos’s fortune of not facing the national tragedies of war and genocide that Vietnam and Cambodia faced? Immediate effects of national tragedies show themselves easily. Does Laos provide a quick juxtaposition for the wealth, comforts, and educational system Vietnam and Cambodia might have experienced if not for the horrors faced in the 1960’s and 1970’s? Were we watching long term effects play out?

More from Laos coming soon! Beautiful Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang.

September 26, 2018

Days 76 – 79: Visit. Siem. Reap.

Visit. Siem. Reap. Like, now. Whatever you are doing, just stop, and get yourself to Cambodia.

Alright, so getting to Cambodia may involve a bit of planning, but I would seriously highly encourage you to start at least considering it.

Visiting Angkor Wat was an unbelievable, other worldly experience, and then the town of Siem Reap takes laid back to the next level. It totally exceeded our expectations with about a million cool coffee shops and cafes that all seem to be giving back to some worthwhile cause.

Day 76: Travel from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Buses run from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap multiple times a day, and despite the ride taking six hours, we had WiFi and the trip was pretty straightforward. We were picked up at our hotel at about 8:30 AM. We arrived in Siem Reap in the middle of the afternoon.

As I shared in our post on Phnom Penh, while we were there we ate at this incredible little hip place called Backyard Cafe. Well, Backyard Cafe has a sister restaurant, Vibe, in Siem Reap that was just as fabulous, so natch we went straight there to detox a bit from the long ride.

Siem Reap Vibe Cafe — A delicious veggie burger and nut milk smoothie at Vibe

We both got veggie burgers (my meat-loving husband wanted a veggie burger!) which were divine. We went back to our great little AirBNB and watched Angelina Jolie’s film First They Killed My Father about the Cambodian genocide. It was understandably tough to watch but definitely instructive for our time in Cambodia.

Day 77: Enjoying Siem Reap

We had originally planned to go to Angkor Wat our first full day in Cambodia, but our AirBNB host gave us good advice to take a day to settle in to enjoy Siem Reap first. Our AirBNB was in an incredible location in the Kandal Village neighborhood, so we walked around the corner to Common Grounds, another adorable coffee shop to work for the day.

Common Grounds for Breakfast…And Lunch

We had muffins and coffee for breakfast, and then worked right through to lunch where Rich enjoyed A PHILLY CHEESESTEAK. Rich, Southwest Philadelphia born and raised, offered the following assessment: “It’s not as good as Philly, obviously, but it is done better than some places in the United States.” High praise.

cheesesteak in siem reap — Not sure who is cheesing harder– Rich or the cheesesteak

Siem Reap has a major ex-pat culture, most notably ex-pats from Australia. While we were in the cafe, we witnessed a nonprofit meeting taking place at one table while a mom worked on her laptop and her son did what looked like homeschool math homework beside her. It was cool.

Dinner at Miss Wong Cocktail Bar

Siem Reap has a total party themed area known as Pub Street because, well, there are about a million bars and pubs where beers cost about a quarter each. Seriously.

Pub Street, Siem Reap. It’s early; this is chill.

While walking down pub street, a ten year old boy asked Rich if he wanted to pay roughly $1 to eat a tarantula. As most of us would have, Rich quickly declined. The boy said, “Come on. Be a man.” Hilarious.

That scene was a bit rowdy for us, so we ducked down an ally to grab dinner and a drink at Miss Wong Cocktail Bar, named for the famous painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. The decor was super posh. The drinks were sophisticated. Rich and I felt a little more like the professionals we once were and a little less like the backpackers we have become. We had a great time.

Miss Wong in Siem Reap — At Miss Wong’s Cocktail Bar

Day 78: Angkor Wat

Visiting Angkor Wat was the type of experience that affirms that for every long travel day, every time we have gotten really lost, and every wrinkled outfit pulled out of the same dirty backpack taking this trip was one of the best decisions we have ever made.

About Angkor

Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer empire. Between the 9th to 15th centuries, historians believe that Angkor was a megacity, housing nearly 1 million people. At the time, that would have been 0.1% of the global population.

Today, in the Angkor complex, over 1,000 temples remain. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the most famous temples, but there are many small and beautiful lesser known temples as well.

All of Angkor stands as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These temples are incredibly well-preserved; there are hardly any areas that you cannot enter today. It is like a giant, historical playground.

Sunrise at AngKOR Wat

Our AirBNB contracts with a team of tuk tuk drivers, and they are pros at planning out the day. We received a printed menu of prices and locations, picked what we wanted to see, and arranged everything through our AirBNB.

We knew we wanted to see Angkor Wat at sunrise so our tuk tuk driver arrived to pick us up at 4:30 AM (!!!). He drove us about 30 minutes outside of town to be at the front of the line to buy tickets, and then we drove another 15 minutes or so to Angkor Wat. Using our iPhone flashlight, we followed the crowds– yes, crowds at 5:15 AM– to a prime view of the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

What is impossible to capture in words is the sheer scope and magnitude of Angkor Wat. How something so old can still tower so magnificently over the landscape is unreal. Watching the sun come up over Angkor Wat was amazing.

sunrise in siem reap at angkor wat — Waiting for the sun to come up at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap — At Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Sun’s Up– Let’s Explore

So once the sun is up, the couple of thousand people who had stood back to watch it come over the water head towards the entrance of the structure. The thing is, Angkor Wat is so large with so many halls and turns and stairs, that you can take a turn away from the crowd and find yourself alone in the temple. This has not been a common experience at most major tourist locations for us.

We wandered around, said whoa every other word, took pictures, and tried to take it all in.

We then got in line to climb to the top of the temple. After being in line for about 20 minutes, the worker informed me that having my scarf covering my shoulders was not sufficient coverage to enter the highest part of the temple because my straps under the scarf were small. I told Rich to go up anyway and got out of line.

Immediately, a t-shirt vendor arrived. We negotiated him down to paying about $3 for a cool Cambodia t-shirt, I put the t-shirt on over my dress, and we were back in business.

The climb to the top was terrifying. You climb the uneven stone steps straight up the equivalent of 4-5 stories. Rich was okay; I got to the top and was ready to kiss the ground and cry! In Europe and America, there would have been about a million warnings and signs removing all liability. Here, they figure you have enough sense to know if you can make it up or not.

The views of course were stunning. We were on top of an ancient world.

How I climbed all stairs all day. These stairs, at Angkor Thom, were a serious modern upgrade from the stairs at Angkor Wat.

To Angkor Thom and Beyond

You hire the skilled tuk tuk drivers for the day so when we finished at Angkor Wat, our driver was waiting for us. He took us to Angkor Thom, we explored, then we got back in the tuk tuk to travel to the next temple.

By the end of the tour, we had seen five of the largest temples. It was about 11:30 AM (remember, our day started at 4:30 AM). Rich and I were so sweaty, so dirty, so wiped, and so content. It had been an amazing day. Nap time!

Another temple. Remember, there are roughly ONE THOUSAND temples total.

Day 79: Rainy Season in Cambodia

The next day it rained. We slept in and then wandered to a late breakfast at New Leaf Eatery, another amazing cafe that donates a large chunk of its proceeds to local education.

We spent the rest of the rainy day inside, working on blogging and planning and just generally getting caught up.

For dinner, we walked three doors down– did we mention our location was amazing– to Crane, one more bar/cafe, this time focused on supporting local artists, where we enjoyed delicious curry for dinner. Siem Reap was the hippest.

If you want to have your mind blown by a wonder of the world, and then you want to eat lots of delicious, healthy food at places that support the community, Siem Reap is your spot. We could not have been more impressed by this laid back and lovely little Cambodian town.

September 22, 2018

Random Reflections and (Sort of) Deep Thoughts from the Road

Over dinner or while we are walking somewhere, Rich and I do a lot of back and forth about what we love about traveling, what we miss about home, what we are glad we did, what we might change, etc. In other words, we take some time for reflection.

We thought it might be fun to share some of these reflections with you! We will still do our next 30 days post– think of this more as eavesdropping on some of the conversations we have back and forth as we hang out all day, every day.

And in terms of process, we answered the questions in the order our names are listed (i.e. the first person writes his or her response blind, and then the second person can respond).

What it is the one physical thing from home you miss the most?

Rich: Our large, grey, comfortable sectional couch. From watching the Eagles and Georgia football games to Homeland, Handmaid’s Tale, and Game of Thrones, it is where we unwind. It can be difficult to relax fully when you are switching destinations every 3 to 5 days.

Amanda: HAIR CONDITIONER. Hear me out. None of the hotels and AirBNB’s have it, and we fly so frequently that I can only buy it in travel sized amounts. Also, everything we do is terrible on my hair– being in the sun and the heat, swimming in pools, oceans, and waterfalls, using the random shampoos provided by the hotels and AirBNB’s.

I think about a huge bottle of great conditioner every day. I read articles about conditioning treatments (here, here, and here) which is just torture because there is no CVS or Sephora in Laos. And if there were, I could only buy the best products in travel sized amounts! Seriously, #1 fantasy: a huge, budget busting bottle of Moroccan Oil conditioner. The end.

What is one experience from home that you miss that you expected to miss and one experience from home that you miss that surprises you?

Amanda: I expected that we would miss family and friends, and we do. Events that would seem super regular at home- kids’ birthday parties, friends going out to dinner- seem the coolest from this far away (“Oh my gosh, look at all those people we know in the same room!”). Abbey starting high school has definitely been the most expected, hardest thing to be away for.

I realized yesterday that I unexpectedly miss folding clothes. We are at the mercy of our situation on how we will get our clothes clean, but yesterday our AirBNB provided laundry service for a small fee. I had to fight the urge to ask if I could fold the clothes myself when they came out of the dryer– the allure of clean clothes, DRIED IN A DRYER (not a given in most of the world), and then the sense of task completion when they are all folded neatly…sigh.

Rich: I expected to miss the fall, the start of school, and football, and I have. I especially miss the start of school this year as it is Abbey’s first year in high school. Fall is our favorite season: the cool temperatures, La Colombe coffee on our couch on Saturday morning, and watching football. Our travel route has us in summer in almost every country we visit, and fall seems so far away. Also, halfway across the world “American” football is non-existent. This is unimaginable back home.

The unexpected experience I miss most is food shopping and having a well stocked refrigerator. I am a creature of habit and love my Saturday mornings at Whole Foods. I miss selecting the meat, fish, and produce that Amanda turns into delicious meals. I also miss the convenience of going into my fridge and grabbing a drink or something to eat whenever the urge arises. When traveling you have to plan out how to get every meal.

What is something that another country does way better than the United States? Like, why don’t we do that at home?

Rich: Bus safety. All buses in SE Asia and some in Europe have two employees on each bus. Makes total sense. We have all heard stories of SEPTA or Metro violence, passengers not paying fares, etc. It is illogical to think one person (the bus driver) can collect fares, enforce collection of fares, ensure bus etiquette, prevent bus violence, and DRIVE THE BUS!

In other countries, the bus driver does just that, drives the bus. Another employee collects the fare, and keeps an eye on the bus and its passengers. Makes total sense. Part of me can’t help think that transportation companies in the U.S. are more concerned about their bottom line.

Amanda: I basically wrote this question because Rich is so fired up about the buses!

Something that we have seen in Asia that makes so much sense to me is that all of the escalators have motion sensors so they only start up when someone steps on them. Genius! Why does the escalator need to run continuously and waste energy? It should just come on when you step on the platform right before you step on the escalator stairs. An elevator doesn’t go up and down when there aren’t any passengers on it. America, you’re welcome.

Let’s talk about time. Does it feel like it is moving more quickly or more slowly than you would have expected?

Amanda: That’s tough. I cannot believe that we have been out of the country for 89 days, and I also cannot believe that we have seen everything that we have seen in only 89 days. Like, oh remember when we were at that waterfall in Iceland, and then we were in Sicily for a long time, and now we are at a waterfall in Laos. So in that sense, it is moving really fast.

However, it feels like FOREVER since we were in the United States grabbing a cheeseburger and going to CVS. And I had a job? Feels like a lifetime ago.

Rich: I agree with Amanda here. Iceland seems like so long ago; however, I can not believe how much of the world we have already seen so far. We have learned how big the world really is and how small we really are in it.

What is your very favorite part of traveling the world?

Rich: For me, it is seeing how different cultures live and learn from each other across the world. I love the world fusion. I love it in food (Think: Bing Bing Dim Sung in Philly- Asian/Jewish food). I love it in music (Think: Hip Hop collaborating with Rock). Also, spending time with Amanda, the learning and growing we are doing together is amazing!

Amanda: Oh, that was sweet– thanks! Besides being with Rich, I really enjoy the unknown unknowns. I might have a vague notion of what a town or a country will be like, but then all of these surprises unfold along the way.

Some of the surprises are amazing- trying a new delicious food or seeing something in nature that looks like nothing I have ever seen before- and sometimes they are a little quirky or even frustrating (oh, our “bus” is actually a minivan and the driver changes twice in five hours and the second driver gets out of the bus to pee on the side of the road once an hour and then drops us at a location in the next town that is not the bus station).

For better or worse, I almost always kind of love all of the surprise. Things are never boring, and there are lots of good lessons about accepting things as they are.

Was taking this trip the right decision?

Amanda: Oh, absolutely. There are so many things about having the opportunity to do this and seeing all we are seeing as well as being back home when we are finished that I hope I will appreciate forever. There is psychological research that gratitude is the key to happiness, and I feel like we are making a yearlong investment in a lifetime of happiness.

Rich: Yes! We talk all the time about how lucky we are to be able to do this. I want to live a big, full life. I want to see the Big 5 in Africa, swim in the Mediterranean, dive the Great Barrier Reef, do Yoga in Bali, hike Machu Picchu, visit all of the great U.S. National Parks, and try great food, beer, and wine from all over the world. And we get to do it all now!

Feel free to send more deep (ha!), higher level thinking and reflection questions our way! Sending our love back across the world to you.

September 21, 2018September 26, 2018

Day 74-75: Hello, Cambodia! Getting Started in Phnom Penh

After finishing off an amazing time in Chiang Rai, Thailand with a visit to a cat cafe, Rich and I jumped on a plane and landed pretty late in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

A unique, and totally endearing, Southeast Asia custom we have picked up on at almost every airport we have visited here is the friend and family welcome committee . For every passenger returning home, it seems there are at least three smiling faces eager to welcome the weary traveller.

Although come to think of it, maybe that is a southeastern U.S. tradition too. The husband of one of my dearest friends proposed to her when she landed in the Atlanta airport, and I know my sweet mother has met me in Nashville with a “Welcome home, Amanda” banner on at least one occasion (when I was 20+ years old).

But I digress. We were happy to land in Phnom Penh and even happier to see our names written on the sign held by our hotel’s driver!

Day 74: Exploring Phnom Penh…But First, Football

If you know us, you know Rich and I are pretty committed to football in general and the Georgia Bulldogs and Philadelphia Eagles in particular. We, of course, miss our family and friends back in the states. AND we also miss turning on the TV on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, plopping onto our huge grey couch, and watching football rabidly for hours.

I’m not going to give too much of our tradecraft away on how we have managed to do this, but so far, we have been able to watch two of the three Georgia games and one of the two Eagles games on our laptops. Because the Eagles played the Falcons in the NFL opener at 8:00 PM on a Thursday night, we saw the game live in Cambodia at 7:00 AM Friday morning.

Weird, huh?

When Thursday Night Football in America is Friday Morning Football in Cambodia

The Eagles, who happened to win the Super Bowl last year (#importantdetail), also won against the Falcons! While we were in high spirits, we got a particularly late start to our day in Phnom Penh.

We decided we would take it slow and walk to the Wat Phnom Temple. While only about a mile and a half in distance, this stroll took us a good hour because, much like Hanoi, sidewalks are not primarily used for walking. While no other city could be as frenetic as Hanoi, Phnom Penh was active. It had its share of motorbikes and tuk tuks, as well as street food being prepared on sidewalks. Interestingly, almost every car and SUV was either a Toyota or a Lexus– apparently there is a large grey market for luxury vehicles in Phnom Penh.

The Wat Phnom complex was a beautiful park with a temple sitting at the top of a hill, a larger-than-life working clock, children riding bikes, and pretty gardens. We even saw a monkey!

Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh — Outside the Wat Phnom complex.

Clock in Phnom Penh — I mean, this clock is awesome. And it’s 5 o’clock somewhere.

Wat Phhom interior in Phnom Penh — The beautiful inside of Wat Phnom

With our monkey friend (who rudely refused to turn around for the selfie)

From Wat Phnom, we went to dinner at Eleven One Kitchen. I enjoyed a delicious vegetable amok, a traditional curry dish cooked in banana leaves. Yum!

Our first full day: Birds win, and we settle into life in Cambodia. Not bad.

Day 75: Downtown Phnom Penh, Health Food, and Tragic History

Fortunately/unfortunately, there was no more morning football so we were able to head out to explore more sites in Phnom Penh much earlier than the day before.

The Royal Palace, Wat Langka, and Wat Botum Park

We knew we had a longer tour scheduled in the afternoon so we did a quick “walk by” tour of the Royal Palace, Wat Langka, and Wat Botum Park. It is clear that Phnom Penh is a city on the rise. There were many beautiful structures and monuments scattered about.

Additionally, while our walk the day before had been across cluttered, broken, and missing sidewalks, on our walk by more of the monuments, we found wider, cleaner sidewalks more like what we are accustomed to in the West. This part of town felt much more Ho Chi Minh City than Hanoi. It was pretty interesting to get a feel for both traditional and modern in the same city.

Royal Palace Phnom Penh — The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Rich with a war memorial in Wat Bokum Park

Rich with one of the major monuments. You can view the high rises in downtown Phnom Penh beyond the monument.

Rich with the Independence monument, signifying independence from France, and the Cambodian flag

Health Food at Backyard Cafe

For lunch, we stopped at Backyard Cafe, a vegan and plant-based cafe that supports a foundation providing healthy food and nutrition for school children in Cambodia.

Umm, this cafe was straight out of an Anthropologie + Goop collaborative Instagram spread. The decor was amazing and unbelievably on trend. Our vegan sandwiches (pumpkin, humus red peppers, etc.) were not bad either.

Yummy Backyard Cafe lunch with passion fruit juice

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was incredibly powerful and also really heavy too. I will do my best to share what I learned in the spirit of bearing witness.

Some Background on the Khmer Rouge

I am not a historian, but my (very) basic understanding is that Cambodia had been a part of French Indochina from 1867 until 1953. Cambodia became a constitutional monarchy. However, quickly the country became conflicted over what their involvement in the Vietnam War should be. While Cambodia wanted to claim neutrality, the leadership allowed Vietnam to transport supplies through Cambodia. Then they also allowed Americans to bomb Vietnamese troops in Cambodia as long as no Cambodians were killed.

This strategy did not exactly win over the Cambodian people, and following the war, there was a coup, and then confusion and a vacuum of power. Enter: Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot believed there was a fundamental difference between “old” people (farmers, laborers, etc.) and “new” people who were educated, lived in cities, and had new ideas. He wanted to return Cambodia to an agrarian society, and as soon as the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, they entered and evacuated Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge told people that the Americans were going to bomb the city and that everyone could return in three days. Instead, the city dwellers were forced into farm labor, the military, or killed.

The Tuol Sleng Prison

The Tuol Sleng prison had originally been a secondary school located in the center of town. When the Khmer Rouge invaded, they installed high fences of barbed wire around the walls of the school and turned classrooms into cells and interrogation rooms. It became a secret facility known as S-21.

Over the next four years, more than 20,000 Cambodians, as well as some foreigners, were imprisoned there. The Khmer Rouge tortured inmates to extract confessions, and they executed more than 12,000 of these prisoners. Many of those imprisoned were teachers; some were there for wearing glasses, seen as a sign of “intellectualism.”

The tour of the prison is grisly. You see the cells where the last prisoners were discovered. The Khmer Rouge took pictures of all of the inmates upon entry, and thousands of these black and white pictures line the walls. It started pouring down rain while we were there. It was just so grim.

There are two former prisoners who survived who return every day to tell their story, and the chief of the prison has received a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

Reflection

So I like to keep the blog light and fun, but we visited a genocide museum. It is terribly sad. We visited Dachau several years ago. Like Dachau, at Tuol Sleng, evil feels close and palpable. As it should be, it in unsettling, but I think that immediacy is intentional. May every person who visits learn enough not to be a bystander should he or she ever come into contact with such evil.

A takeaway for me was how quickly divisions within a country can become terribly dangerous as well as how problematic it is to despise education and ideas.

The Khmer Rouge killed roughly 25% of Cambodia’s population, and most who were killed were the educated. Once the genocide ends, how do you educate your population when all of the teachers were killed and all of the students missed four years of school? How do you build buildings without architects or heal bodies without doctors? How long will it take Cambodia to truly recover?

We walked home from the museum in the rain, took long naps, and stayed in for dinner because we were so beat.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Cambodia as they continue to rebuild, restore, and heal their beautiful country.

September 18, 2018

Days 70 – 73: A Quick Detour to Chiang Rai, Thailand

As I shared in my last post, Rich and I had originally planned to travel from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to the beaches of Sihanoukville, Cambodia. However, when Rich wasn’t feeling well, we made the executive decision that a 13 hour bus ride was not in the cards for us. We decided to fly to Chiang Rai, Thailand for a few nights instead.

Let me tell you: this was a fabulous decision.

Day 70: Travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Chiang Rai, Thailand

Super easy. We took a flight from Ho Chi Ming City to Bangkok, and then flew from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. We flew into the Don Meung International Airport which, while the lesser of the two busy Bangkok international airports, still has six Priority Pass lounges.

on the way to Chiang Rai — Lounge life in Bangkok

The moral of the story being that we ate all of our meals for the day in airport lounges and only spent money on a cab once we reached Chiang Rai. Beautiful. (Also, beats a 13 hour bus ride).

Day 71: Calm and Lovely Chiang Rai

So we loved our time in Vietnam, but there is definitely an intensity about it: intense smells and loud noises, busy, crowded streets, and motorbikes everywhere.

Our most immediate impression of Chiang Rai was how much calmer and quieter it was.

Rich and I both worked in American high schools. Going from Vietnam to Chiang Rai was like chaperoning a high school dance for 3-4 hours and then stepping out into a quiet evening when the kids have all made their way home. The dance was a happy event, you are glad the school has dances, but it is also loud and sweaty and a bit hyped up. Oh how you appreciate the quiet night when it is over.

Wat Rong Seur Ten, The Blue Temple

Our lovely hotel provided bicycles to explore the town. Let me emphasize how much easier it was for me, a rather inexperienced bike rider, to ride on streets not filled with motorbikes. After breakfast, we enjoyed a leisurely bike ride to Wat Rong Seur Ten, commonly known as the Blue Temple.

biking in Chiang Rai — Biking in Chiang Rai was amazing, and I admittedly am not the best biker. I am also wearing this outfit.

The locals began construction on the temple in 2005 and concluded in 2016. It is beautiful. Rich felt like it was as magnificent as any cathedral in Europe, and it is hard to argue with him. The deep blues and golds are brilliant, and the statue of Buddha mesmerizing. A must see in Chiang Rai.

I’m not sure I had ever visited a Buddhist temple before, and I have since learned a few basic principles:

Knees and shoulders should be covered. Having a big scarf that fits in my purse has been clutch, even if I can’t ever quite figure out how to tie it right.
Your bottoms of your feet should not face the Buddha. It seems like most people sit on their feet while praying.
Don’t turn your back on the Buddha. I learned this one after we left. Rich and I both wanted pictures facing the camera with Buddha behind us, but it would have been more respectful to have a picture taken facing Buddha. Sorry.

amanda at blue temple in chiang rai — So I watched this young woman take this same shot, and she looked so glamorous taking it. When Rich and I looked at my version, we couldn’t stop laughing.

The amazing Buddha inside the Blue Temple

The exterior of the Blue Temple– it was pretty crowded, and that was BEFORE the tour bus pulled up just as we were leaving.

Wat Phra Kaew (More Temples)

From the Blue Temple, we biked over to Wat Phra Kaew. Wat means temple, so saying the Wat Phra Kaew temples is wrong (like saying St. Paul’s Cathedral Church). I’ll do my best to avoid the redundancy.

Wat Phra Kaew was an older complex with a series of temples as well as a museum. The space was green and quite serene, with hardly any tourists compared to the Blue Temple. I could understand how it would be an ideal place to pray and reflect, tucked away a bit from the more popular temples.

Apparently, tattoos of the Buddha, while popular, are super disrespectful. #themoreyouknow

sweaty in Chiang Rai — When you are wearing a scarf to be modest and show respect, but your husband thinks it is for him to wipe his gross, sweaty face on.

Time at the Pool

While Rich and I spent an inordinate amount of time at beaches in Europe (my mom called this year of travel our “beach trip”), Le Patta was the first spot we stayed with a pool.

Rich and I both had great books (Commonwealth by Ann Patchett for me and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng for Rich), and spending a relaxing afternoon reading by the pool was just what the doctor ordered to cure Rich fully of his lingering sore throat.

pool in Chiang Rai — The pool at Le Patta

After one day in Chiang Rai, we felt fantastic.

Day 72: The White Temple

Gym Time!

I should also mention that our hotel had a gym. I haven’t talked much about our health journey over the past year, but when we even started talking about even thinking about doing this trip, it was over the holidays, and we were not in the best shape. We had moved cities and changed jobs, and the weight had just sort of crept up on us. How does that happen so easily once you turn 30?

When we committed to the trip, we also committed to getting in better shape. We ran a half marathon. I convinced Rich to try hot yoga, and we went 10 times (at 90 minutes a pop, that’s not nothing). Rich and I started making it to the gym before work and going for walks and runs after.

We knew we needed to be in better shape to face all of the physical challenges in our travels. Rich and I were also just so excited, and the idea of looking better in pictures got us to the gym on the days we didn’t want to go until we really did want to go every day.

And it all paid off! Since January, nine months ago, Rich has lost 40 pounds, and I have lost almost 20. We feel great. Which is the longest way of saying, we had a gym at our hotel in Chiang Rai, and we were glad.

Wat Rong Khun, The White Temple

Local Chiang Rai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat created the Wat Rong Khun as an artistic masterpiece to honor the Buddha. There is a small entry fee for foreigners, but Kositpipat has largely funded the project himself so that he can retain artistic license over his work. He started work on the temple in 1997, and it is not scheduled to be complete until 2070.

While photography is not allowed inside the temple, the exterior provides beautiful views in almost every direction. We had a great time wandering the grounds.

White Temple in Chiang Rai — The White Temple is pretty unbelievable

There is also a golden temple on the same site.

This was one of our favorite sites on our whole trip.

The scarf comes in handy again, this time making my skirt a bit longer.

Quick fun story about transportation: We took a bus to the White Temple (20 baht, ~$0.60/person), which while a bit eclectic in decoration, was a pretty normal city bus.

On the way back, however, the “bus” was basically a pickup truck with benches on the sides and a roof, and the bus also doubled as a package delivery service. Several times we stopped for the driver to grab boxes from local businesses which he then tucked under our feet. When the back got too full, the boxes were tied on top! Can’t make it up.

Chiang Rai bus — One of the packages that rode next to me on the “bus”

Day 73: We Say Goodbye to Chiang Rai at the Cat Cafe

Our hotel checkout time was noon, and our flight wasn’t until 4:45 PM, so natch I insisted that we pass the time at THE LOCAL CAT CAFE.

Quick backstory: My dear friend Tom had been insisting that he was going to open a pop up cat cafe in DC since we were in graduate school in 2009. Our friend group thought this was a hilarious but completely ridiculous and outlandish idea, and we made fun of ^^eow~ (get it? So clever.) for years.

Dear Tom, I’m sorry. You were right and totally ahead of the curve. The cat cafe was everything.

It was my first visit to a cat cafe, but it’s pretty straight forward: you order a coffee or some food, take off your shoes, and go sit on the floor in a room with at least 20 cats. You aren’t allowed to pick them up or grab them– they have to come to you– and you aren’t supposed to feed them human food. If you want to buy their love with food (which you will definitely want to do), you can buy a cat treat for about a dollar. Which Rich may have argued was a bit expensive since we only spent ~$0.60 on an actual bus ticket the day before. Love is buying the cat treat for your over excited wife anyway.

So we spent about two hours playing with cats and taking pictures of ourselves playing with cats. It was really fun, even if I did sneeze and have a runny nose for the next two days.

Rich: You didn’t tell me you were allergic to cats.

Amanda: I have never been in a room with twenty cats before!

He agreed to look at the camera but smiling was too much for grumpy cat.

Memorializing our time at the cat cafe

Rich’s best friend, named Skinny Cat by Rich, crawled up in his lap.

Love is my husband buying me the expensive cat treat so I can care for my kitty friends properly.

My new best friend. We watched this cat pretty viciously attack another cat to take food a fellow customer had given it. Also, why do I look creepier than the cat does.

I mean, Rich didn’t hate the cat cafe.

And then we headed to the airport. Next stop: Phnom Penh, Cambodia!