The Terrible Past of Cambodia

Around eight in the morning, we boarded the bus in Saigon for the six hour trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sure, it was a long bus ride but it only cost $12 per person and they assured us there would be no livestock travelling with us.

It was pouring that day. This did not deter the army of motorcycles swarming the city. I was AMAZED that I did not see more accidents.

We arrived in Phnom Penh in the early afternoon and the city was much more charming than what I thought it would be.

I guess I expected an urban toilet but instead, I saw parks, beautiful architecture, and a much more laid back atmosphere than Saigon.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to come to Phnom Penh was to get a glimpse of Cambodia's very dark past. If you're not familiar with their history, let me give you a little bit of background.

In the spring of 1975 as Saigon was falling (or being liberated depending on which side you were on), Cambodia was just beginning a period of intense turmoil. Pol Pot, the leader of the communist movement called the Khmer Rouge, took control of Phnom Penh and started making up his own rules. He changed the name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea, abolished religion and enforced the concept of "Year Zero", which meant that a new civilization was being created. The population was forced into the countryside to do backbreaking labor for no pay. Pol Pot's ideal society was an agrarian one; everyone worked in the fields.

But it got worse.

Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army began a reign of paranoid terror. They killed off anyone whom they thought might have an opposition to their new government. They tortured prisoners to get more names. Their biggest fear was the KGB or the CIA, but even religious subjects were targeted. Nobody knows for sure how many people were killed during the four years of madness but I have read numbers from just less than 1 million to three million people. Women, children and babies were not exempt from the killings.

As a memorial to all the lives that were lost, visitors to Phnom Penh are able to visit Tuol Sleng, otherwise known as S-21, which was just one of the torture/execution centers for the Khmer Rouge. Strangely enough, Tuol Sleng started out as a high school. It is estimated that 17,000 prisoners were held here but only seven were found alive when the Vietnamese took over Cambodia. The seven survivors had their lives spared because they had talents which the Khmer Rouge found useful.

This is Tuol Sleng. Nice eh?

Inside the building are some very creepy photographs of the victims. The Khmer Rouge was apparently very good at record keeping and they took pictures of all the new arrivals.

What I found most disturbing (in a very disturbing place) were the photos of all the children. A lot of them had very detached expressions as if they weren't fully aware of the tortured death that they were facing.

Tuol Sleng is a very tragic place. Almost overwhelming. It's difficult to believe that someone could have done to this to his own country.

Sadly, Pol Pot died in 1998 of possible natural causes. He was never brought to justice for the genocide.

A cat was sleeping peacefully near one of the exhibits, completely unaware of the horrors that happened there thirty years ago.

As you might expect, some of the Cambodians joined the Khmer Rouge army to save themselves or their families.

In one room, they showed some of these people during the time of the Khmer Rouge regime and in present day. They told their stories and many of them didn't regret the choices that they had made.

Since Tuol Sleng wasn't enough misery for one day, we decided to take the tuk-tuk out to the infamous killing fields which are located about 30 minutes outside of Phnom Penh.

For a great movie which dramatizes the horrors of this location, check out The Killing Fields, directed by Roland Joffe. Haing S. Ngor won the academy award for Best Supporting Actor and he was also a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. In a strange but sad twist, he was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1996.

At the entrance to the killing fields is a monument to all the people who lost their lives. It is filled with skulls and other assorted bones.

Many of the victims were stabbed or bludgeoned to death. The Khmer Rouge did not want to waste their precious bullets.

Many of the mass graves still need to be excavated.

Are you depressed yet?

Cambodia seems to be a country that is missing an entire generation of older people and so even the killing fields had their share of children running around.

Of course, they all want money and we were told by many people that we should NEVER give money to the children if they are begging. The children are often being pimped out by their parents to get the money and they'll never see their share of it. The other reason is that begging can set them up for a life of dependency.

These three kids followed me around while I was taking photos. They had their English lines memorized, "One, two, three, SMILE!" which they followed up with hands clasped in prayer and a very odd, mechanical (almost creepy) song. They wanted a dollar for their efforts. It was really hard to tell them no.

Their smiles seemed very out of place for this somber location.

The Cu Chi Tunnels

As a side trip just outside of Saigon, tourists can visit the Cu Chi tunnels which played a big part in how the North Vietnamese fought the war in South Vietnam.

The Cu Chi tunnels are a very large network of tunnels covering 75 miles according to wikipedia, if you believe that website. The most impressive part about these tunnels is how small they were. Despite their size, the Viet Cong were able to live in them for sometimes days at a time.

Malaria was rampant. So were parasites, mosquitoes, spiders and scorpions. Along with the scorching heat and high humidity, it must have been like living in hell.

To show you just how small they were, brave tourists can try and slip into one of the entrances. This guy couldn't get back out and had to be extracted with the help of two other tourists.

Since most tourists can't fit in this small of an opening, the government expanded a section of the tunnels so that fat sweaty Westerners could enter them and experience the stifling claustrophobia for themselves.

Here is the expanded opening. It still isn't all that big.

This is me at the exit with a big cheesy and very inappropriate smile on my face.

Why am I smiling? Because this photo is completely fake and I just couldn't bring myself to go down into the very cramped tunnels. Keep in mind that it was unbearably hot that day, the tunnels were very dark and I'm claustrophobic. I had to listen to everyone else who said that the experience was not very pleasant.

As an added bonus, there were various exhibits around the grounds showing the deadly traps that the Viet Cong used to kill their enemies.

This lovely little trap was meant to look like a patch of grass until someone stepped on it and plunged into a pit filled with sharpened spikes. Youch!

Just like an American theme park, there was a gift shop where you could buy souvenirs. The hottest item was the Snake and Scorpion wine which is apparently good for rheumatism, lumbago and sweaty limbs!

The wine came with either a snake or scorpion inside and I'm still not sure whether you're supposed to eat them when you drink the wine or whether you're supposed to put them aside. The bottles didn't come with instructions so I assume you just have to chug down everything. Thankfully, I don't have any of the above ailments so I don't have to worry about what is the preferred method of imbibing this strange beverage.

If all this war stuff has got you turned on, then you can take your turn and fire off a few rounds.

Here is the price list. It amounts to about a buck a bullet. The fun you can have in Vietnam is truly endless.

The Reunification Palace

The Reunification Palace is a great place to escape the Saigon traffic for a couple of hours. The admission is outrageously priced at $1 per person. I'm pretty sure I could have bought a lunch off the street for that amount of money.

Historically, the palace was very important. This is where the tanks crashed through the gates and signalled the end of the Vietnam War. The surrender papers were signed here and North Vietnam was officially reunified with South Vietnam, thereby giving the palace, formerly known as Independence Palace, a new name.

There were many interesting photos. The one below shows the tanks breaking through the gates and making a mess of the front lawn.

This is a picture I took from the roof of the palace showing approximately the same view. The gates (now intact) are just missing from the front of the photo.

This is how the palace looks today. Architecturally, it may appear quite bland but the facade contains a lot of symbolism. The lines of the building actually represent chinese characters which mean good, master, prosperity, mouth, three (for humanity, intelligence and strength) and prosperity.

For a better explanation, you can check out this web page.

http://www.dinhdoclap.gov.vn/defaulte.aspx?tabid=243&Itemid=657

The rooms are, as expected, quite formal but unfortunately many of them looked like they suffered from the styles of the late 60s and early 70s.

Outside, there were replicas of the tanks that broke through the gates in late April of 1975.

You know what this means!

Photo-op!!

Okay, okay, I promise I won't pose beside any more tanks trying to look like I'm in the military.

Getting ripped off in Saigon

They say things happen in threes.

In Saigon, we had three experiences where they either tried to rip us off or came very close. These situations didn't make us very happy but they made us a lot wiser.

1) We were walking down a very busy street and just so happened to pass a Hindu temple. As you can see from the picture below, it was quite colorful and (I thought) very inviting. I figured that since it was a religious building and we were obviously tourists, they wouldn't mind us having a quick peek inside. Just a quick peep and maybe a picture or two.

As we entered, two ladies thrust some packages in our hands. When I say "thrust", I mean thrust. We didn't want to take them but they literally grabbed our hands and smacked the packages into our palms. I looked down and there was incense, some candles and some strange green fruit, all bundled up.

We both wanted to hand the gifts back but the ladies wouldn't hear it. They seemed like very angry women and I was starting to get the feeling that this temple visit wasn't going to be exactly free.

Patrick didn't want anything to do with his new gift so he dumped it as soon as he got inside the temple. I held mine onto mine briefly but then ditched it too after I felt a little weird carrying around Hindu offerings when I still consider myself quite Christian.

We didn't stay long. Just enough time to wander around, have a look at the colorful statues and feel very awkward about invading this religious edifice.

Maybe it was just me (and I'm only saying this because they treated us so badly) but their statues looked a little barbie doll-ish. Like you could dress them up in different clothes depending on your mood. Apparently they even came with accessories.




We tried to make a quick exit but the ladies stopped us. They demanded 200000 dong from each of us apparently for the "gifts" that they forced us to take.

The Vietnamese currency is the dong. Yes, I know, it made me laugh too the first time I heard it. But it's their currency and they get to name it what they want.

Anyway, after some heated discussion I was able to get the price down to 100000 dong for both of us which is about 6 dollars. I figured that this was the cost of visiting a museum and so was reasonable. It would have been nice had we been given some cost options BEFORE entering the temple but it's a different country and obviously different rules apply.

2) Our next great experience was with the cyclos. Cyclos are like modified bicycles. A guy pedals while the tourists ride in the front. They probably aren't very safe but they seemed like a good way to see the town without killing your feet and really, is anything safe in Saigon?

While we were walking through the town, we were approached by one of the cyclo drivers. Even though we tried to brush him off, he was VERY persistent and he even showed us his book filled with glowing reviews from tourists just like ourselves. We finally gave in. For 15000 dong from each of us, he and his friend would take us to the War Remnants Museum. That seemed fair. A buck from each of us. It wasn't too far to walk but a bicycle ride seemed a lot easier.

After the museum, we wanted to see the Pagoda of the Jade Emperor. It was a little further away but I asked the cyclo drivers about the price and he told me that it was the same price as before. I figured that this meant another 15000 dong from each of us. Once again, very fair.

This is how Patrick looked in his cyclo. See the smile on his face? He's faking it. He's actually terrified and has every right to be.

This is the traffic that we were facing. Did I say that Saigon was crazy?

The Pagoda of the Jade Emperor was one of my favorite places in Saigon. It's a fairly bright temple on the outside but once we got inside, it was like entering into a different world.

It's very dark inside and since it is an active temple, there were quite a few worshippers milling about and putting gifts in the appropriate places.

Actually, the inside reminded me of an Asian depiction of hell. Lots of dark carvings, floating incense and cramped rooms. This is no coincidence; the Jade Emperor apparently decides who gets to go to heaven and who gets sent below.

Our cyclo driver came into the Pagoda with us and explained the serious nature of some of the carvings. Since he spoke very quickly and his English wasn't all that good, I missed out on quite a bit of information. I figured I would have to do a catchup with my guide book later on.

After we were done touring, the two cyclo drivers took us to a restaurant for lunch. The food was pretty good and the four of us were able to put away 16 Heineken. Thankfully, they were only about a buck a piece.

Then the subject of money came up.

The price of the two cyclo drivers for the morning was now over 1 MILLION DONG. No matter how you look at it, that was a lot of dong and certainly WAY more than what we were expecting or had negotiated. They told me that I had misunderstood them; instead of 15000 dong, they had said 150000 dong for each trip and that didn't even include the guided tour of the Pagoda or the waiting time. I got up from the table and put 200000 dong (equivalent to 12 dollars) on the table, ready to walk out. The cyclo drivers threw it back at me with completely disgusted looks on their faces.

This made me really mad. Now they weren't going to get anything. I wanted to walk out of the restaurant right then and there but there were two problems; the first one was that Patrick was still sitting on his chair with a stunned look on his face and the second one was that it did occur to me that the cyclo drivers might put a knife in my back or at least give me a really mean Asian curse once I left the building.

As it turned out, Patrick was the nice guy and gave the cyclo drivers what they wanted which was $80 for five hours of work. This was outrageous given that the going rate for a cyclo driver is about $10 to $20 for the WHOLE day. I knew that they had quoted me 15000 dong initially and it was a complete scam but at least we weren't going to be tracked at night and get jumped in a dark alley.

My only fear is that these cyclo drivers are going to try it again on some unsuspecting tourists. To try and prevent this, I have posted his picture below.

See that smile? That is the smile of someone about to rob a couple of tourists of $80!

This is a better picture. The horns and tail are real. They appeared after we handed over the money. D'oh!

There were three situations of getting ripped off. The final situation was with the money exchanger. The lady tried to give me 200000 dong less than what she was supposed to. I happened to catch the error as I was walking away.

When I told her about it, she exclaimed, "so sorry! so sorry!" and gave me what I was supposed to have. So sorry my ass. Yeah, she might have made an honest mistake but something tells me that it wasn't the case. She changes money every day and she misses out on 200000 dong and she even used a calculator?! Hmmm, call me a little cynical but I think she wanted a little tip for all her hard work.

And keep in mind that this incident happened after our Hindu temple debacle and the cyclo driver crap. I wasn't in the mood to be f%^ed with.

Saigon had a way of making me feel like that.

Crazy crazy Saigon

Thankfully, we arrived in Saigon around 1 am. The airport was very quiet and the whole city seemed asleep. This was a good thing. If we had arrived during the morning rush, we probably would have hopped back on the plane.

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, as the newer generation calls it, is a certifiable mad house. I have never seen such a densely populated action packed city. It didn't help that there were motorcycles going every which way and we couldn't walk two feet without someone asking us if we wanted a ride on one of them.

Crossing the street was a major ordeal because most of the time, there wasn't a light to guide us. And if there was a light, it was usually ignored. We quickly found out that there was a technique to get to the other side.

Step one: Pray to God, Buddha or Vishnu, whichever you prefer.
Step two: Wait till all the cars have passed. Cars have less maneuverability and hurt a lot more when they run into you.
Step three: Walk with a steady deliberate walk. Even if a motorcycle is coming straight for you, it is important not to stop, back-up, cry or run to the other side.
Step four: Hold your breath. As you walk, the motorcycles should steer around you. Hopefully none of the riders fought in the Vietnam war and hate Americans.
Step five: Thank God, Buddha or Vishnu once you have safely reached the other side.

Standing and waiting for a break in the traffic is a sign of a real amateur. This pause never actually happens so you could be waiting for a very long time or at least until a seasoned pro or a friendly local comes along and helps you.

If there is one picture that sums up the chaos that is Saigon, it is the one below. This was a typical mess of the power lines. I guess none of the cables are below the ground (for unknown reasons) so they were all quite exposed.

Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum. This was previously known as the Museum of American War Crimes but that was probably a little too blunt for a lot of tourists and they had to tone it down a little. After all, those tourist dollars are pretty sweet.

The first sign that we encountered makes it seem like the museum is dedicated to world peace. Actually, that is incorrect. The museum is dedicated to saying, "F%$k you, Americans!"

Aggression War Crimes? Gee, I wonder who they are talking about?

This was the sign above the first doorway. Just a warmup for what we were to encounter after entering.

These plaques were meant to clarify the museum's position on the Vietnam war as if there were any doubt.

Blame America! Blame America!

I thought this plaque was very interesting. It was the Vietnamese way of saying "If you f&^# with us, you'll get f%$ed!"

The Americans obviously didn't know about that damn Celestial book!

There was a very large section dedicated to the effects of Agent Orange. They did not shy away from showing extremely grotesque pictures of the mutations caused by this chemical defoliant. It was like looking at the family album from The Hills Have Eyes clan.

I'm a doctor and I found many of these pictures extremely disturbing.

As if all the pics of disfigured kids weren't enough, they had to include some very graphic photos of the war victims.

Of course, all the photos were depicting the horrible way the Americans treated the Vietnamese.

In this lovely little tableau, we have photos of dead Viet Cong being dragged behind an American truck, an American picking up the remains of a clearly dead Viet Cong and a Viet Cong being dropped from an American helicopter.

All is fair in love and war, right?

Okay, okay, we get the point. Americans are evil!

Out in the court yard, there were various planes and tanks. I thought this was where I could get a little peace from all the graphic brutality inside but I was wrong.

A war victim came up to me and wanted to sell me some guide books. He didn't have much for arms and he offered up a stump for me to shake it. Normally I would not have been grossed out by such a greeting but after walking through the museum, I was not in the mood for such real life consequences. Trying not to be rude, I shook his stump briefly. It was soft and round and felt a little doughy. I thanked him but I told him that I had enough guidebooks. He left to find other beleaguered tourists to harass.

With all these images of death and destruction, I still couldn't resist a good photo op.

Yep, call me the eternal tourist.

Back in Los Angeles

Well, I made it back safely.

I survived three weeks of "authentic" Asian food, begging children, cold showers and Philippine Airlines.

My camera made it through. It still works after being subjected to 100% humidity, monsoon downpours and the occasional knock. Thank you Panasonic. The Lumix DMC-FZ28 is one hell of a sturdy camera.

Dusty is still alive. He stayed with a friend and has been vomiting more than usual but still seems to be doing quite well. He will be 16 years old in January. I'm taking him to the clinic on Monday for more bloodwork and a full checkup.

And now it's time to organize the apartment and get ready for work. I start back at it on Monday. 4 and 1/2 months off. My freedom is coming to an end but I can't talk about that right now. I'm still in the glow.

I want to back up. I had such a great time in Asia, I want to share some of the stories. And a LOT of the photos. The final tally for the number of pictures I took is 2750. I will be editing them for the next ten years.

Where to begin .....???

How about I go back about two months ago when I first decided that I wanted to go to Asia? My brother offered to give me some of his airmiles to help with the expense so it became an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. I still had some time left on my sabbatical so the timing was also perfect. I wanted to go for three weeks.

The first obstacle were the visas for Cambodia and Vietnam. Cambodia wants you to have at least six months remaining on your passport in order to get a visa. Unfortunately my passport was expiring in three months so I had to put a rush order in for a passport. I was still in Canada at the time so I had to scramble to get all the documents together before I left Canada. I was able to get an urgent Canadian passport in 24 hours and along with the necessary urgent birth certificate, I was already $200 out of pocket. Thankfully, Cambodia has an evisa which means that you can apply for the visa online. Vietnam, on the other hand, wants you to send in your passport to the embassy so they can put the visa right in your passport. I sent in my passport and received it a week later. Unfortunately they only gave me a single visit visa (and I needed a multiple visit one) so I had to send the passport back. Time was clicking away but I was able to get the correct visa about a week before I left.

The cost of the Vietnam visa was $130. This is criminal. Essentially, this is just a way of ripping off the tourists who are going there to spend money there anyway. Maybe this is just another way the Vietnamese are trying to screw the Western world for all that Agent Orange. Anyway, I really wanted to go to Saigon so I didn't complain too much about the additional cost. I figured would be saving money on the food and the accomodation.

My next obstacle was Philippine Airlines, affectionately known at PAL. At the time of my departure, I was thinking that they were no pals of mine. I ended up paying over $400 for a ticket that I thought was going to be more or less free for the number of airmiles that I was using. They told me that there was a "fuel surcharge" and "additional taxes". Just to redeem the airmiles was a chore and a half. They wanted all my brother's information, my information and enough paperwork to make a 20 page fax. The day of my departure they told me that my flight was cancelled and I would be leaving the next day. The reason was mechanical. The last thing I wanted was to leave on a defective plane but at this point, I was wondering if I was ever going to make it to Asia and this delay was one more sign that the trip wasn't going to happen.

But it did. I boarded a very tired old Boeing 747. The seat in front of me was held together with duct tape. There was a piece of another seat that I kicked around for the entire duration of the flight. The televisions were filled with cranky static and worst of all, the first movie of the evening was Indiana Jones part 4. Thankfully they supplied us with heavy duty barf bags.

The only good thing about the flight was my flight attendent. She was a beautiful Asian woman named Cherry Pie. She had a great smile and served me up some pretty good food. I fell asleep for most of the trip; the whole thing was about 12 hours.

My first stop was Manila in the Philippines. I arrived at night and was picked up at the airport by a very officious looking man who had a sign with the name of the hotel on it. I was staying at the Edsa Shangri-La, which is a five star business luxury hotel. My brother recommended it to me, thinking that I had WAY more money than what I do.

This is my first picture I took of Asia. It is the view from my room at sunrise. I slept well that night but got up around 4 am.

The Shangri-La is a gorgeous hotel and the staff practically trip over themselves trying to help you out. I liked the elevator guy. Every time I walked nearby he pushed the elevator button. Sometimes I didn't get on the elevtator because I was going somewhere else and it made me feel bad for him. I felt like I had disappointed him in a small way.

The pool, as expected was great. A couple of old men in speedos were swimming in it but it didn't deter me. I was on vacation and damnit, I had a right to that pool too.

Patrick (my travelling buddy who arrived at the hotel later) didn't stay very long. Manila was just a quick stop over. We were travelling to Vietnam on another airlines called Cebu Pacific Airlines the next day. Cebu Pacific is kinda like the Southwest airlines of the Philippines. No frills and the flight attendents dress like they're cheerleaders. We tried to book the flight online with American credit cards but the website wouldn't accept them. Apparently, Cebu doesn't accept yankee plastic. I had to use my dad's Canadian card. Hmmmm. Cebu Pacific, don't ya like the Americans???

We jumped on the plane at 11 o'clock at night. We were headed to Saigon which can be loosely translated as city of complete chaos.

To be continued ....

Winding down in Siem Reap

It's hot, humid and dusty (and sometimes rainy) but I'm still loving Cambodia.

I had am hour long foot massage for $10 last night. Dinner for two cost $15. Large beers are only $3.50 in a nice bar. And it's good beer. We are still harassed by children but at least they smile when they try to sell us their wares for a buck.

Last week, we made our way up to Siem Reap in the northern part of the country. This town is growing very quickly thanks to the largest group of temples in the world. Most people know Angkor Wat but there are many more temples in various stages of decay dotted around this area. For $40, we were able to see as many as we could in three days. For $60, we could have had a pass for an entire week. I have a feeling that Siem Reap is going to be a huge tourist destination in the next five years but for now it still has a lot of charm and the locals still love the tourists.

We've used up our three days but since I'm crazy, I have decided to get early to view the sunrise over Angkor Wat on Monday. The tuk-tuk driver is picking me up at 5 am. Thankfully my camera has auto-focus because my own eyeballs will still be hazed over at that hour.

On Monday, we make our way back to Saigon, then to Manila and then back to Los Angeles. Broke but happy.

I have taken over a thousand pictures and have so many stories to tell. I'll post them when I can when I get back.