May 28, 2002
5/28/02 Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Phillip)
Click here for pictures from cambodia
Well, after a daylong boat ride we crossed the border into cambodia. We (Alex, Amy and Ernie) are in the capital city, which was the main site of the genocide in the 70s. Over 1 3/4 million people were killed. Pol Pot selected anyone who was intelligent or religious and had them tortured and put to death. We visited one of the mass gravesites today, pretty chilling experience. In the center was a shrine with thousands upon thousands of human skulls stacked. Before that sobering experience we went to the 'shooting range'. Basically they have all sorts of weapons (hand guns to rocket launchers) and you pay to fire them. I'm not really into firing guns, plus there are lots in Texas, but I wanted to throw a grenade. Problem was that it was $20 to do it! It's hard to negotiate with a guy holding a semi-automatic machine gun so I opted not to do it. Alex and Amy took turns firing an AK47 though.
I'm actually missing a few journal entries regarding the rest of Vietnam, but basically Alex and I went to a place called Mui Ne beach and relaxed for a few days. The town doesn't have many sites and apart from some rather unimpressive sand dunes and being ripped off by a local kid who convinced us that there were mines in a stream we walked in (and hence we needed his guide services), nothing much to report. Sorry that was a long sentence! The town is rapidly being touristised and resorts are being built. We did spend an evening with two Aussie girls we met, and later with an Aussie guy who was building a resort there. He filled us in on all sorts of useful information (such as why McDonalds hasn't opened in Vietnam: Hygiene).
In Saigon I actually bumped into Wee Kel and Anne so that was nice. My group got there the day earlier so we had already done the Saigon Water park by the time Kelly was going to do it. We actually were the first guests that day and for the first 90 minutes didn't have to wait in a single queue!
The (American) War Crimes Museum was another sobering experience. Similar to most museums here it has an assortment of American planes and tanks outside, but inside was a different story. In the 5 rooms it breaks down all the bad things America did during the war. It's desperately one sided but pretty intense. I think the worst room was the Agent Orange room. AO was a chemical that the US dropped during the war and it's been proven to cause birth defects. Inside the room were plenty of pictures of said defects but also deformed babies in jars.
Vietnam was definitely a different experience, not what I expected in many ways. I did manage to learn quite a bit of the language which (since I'm now in cambodia) is totally useless to me again! We're heading up to Siem Reap the day after tomorrow and then over to Bangkok in time to catch Star Wars before I fly to China/Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to that but I definitely need a break! I'm totally exhausted from travel already, I left Texas at the end of November and I think I need a couple of days rest! Anyone want to get me a nice hotel suite?? :)
Posted by Admin at May 28, 2002 02:56 AM