The B Family Adventures: May 2012

Tanya and I traveled to Cambodia for 8 days leaving Dalian Friday April 27th. We flew in to Phnom Penh, a city of about 1.5m, which of course these days feels like a small village to us. Our stay there was 48hrs long, just enough time to see the Royal Palace, the killing fields, and get what would prove to be the first of many excellent meals. From Phnom Penh, we took a car 3hrs to Sihanoukville in the Kampot District on the coast to meet up with Irish friends from Dalian who are volunteering at a school there. After 3 wonderful days with them, we flew to Siem Reap to see the Angkor Temples.

I'll of course fill in all the details as we go through the pictures. The country is horribly scared by its history of war and genocide, and yet the people are some of the happiest, sweetest, and most genuinely nice that I have ever met. I had heard of the killing fields, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and all the rest, but that barely touches the surface. I always thought of that as something that happened in parallel to the Vietnam war. What I did not realize was that Pol Pot was alive until 1998 and the Khmer Rouge still exist today.

One of the many buildings that make up the royal temple complex in central PP

The poverty here was of a magnitude I've never really seen before.

Taking quads on a tour through the countryside 30min outside of PP

Plowing the fields. These tractors are used for everything in the country, plowing, pulling carts, construction.

The only remarkable thing about this young boy we saw along the way out of the hundreds who ran out to wave to us was that he was wearing pants. Roughly 50% of the boys under the age of ~2 were simply naked. A much smaller % of the girls of the same age were as well. As I said, poverty like we have never seen.

Tanya showing off her dirty face after the ride.

I did not take too many photos at the killing field. Formally known as Choeung Ek, it is estimated that 17,000 people were killed here between 1975 and 1979, with almost 9,000 bodies still in shallow graves. Bone fragments and teeth are visible on the ground in the depressions that are everywhere showing the locations of mass graves. It is a chilling and somber place as you walk through the site of a self inflicted genocide

The blue fabric in the center of the picture is coming up out of the earth as it separates from the person who wore it and died in it here.

Ok... on to happy things. If you count the arms, you can see that this is in fact 6 people on a motor bike. From L-R Grown Woman, Teen Girl, Mostly hidden young girl in pink floral shirt, young girl in yellow shirt, Man driving, young boy in front. Legally only drivers have to wear helmets, and they only do so when they think there is a high risk of being stopped.

Royal Palace

Ciaron and Audrey in Cambodia. I took over from Ciaron in my current position when he and Audry left Dalian in November 2011. They have been in Sihanoukville Cambodia teaching young kids at some rural schools. More on that later.

Happy Hour on the beach waiting for Sunset... Margaritas which are normally $3.50 are 2 for 1 on Happy Hour.

Sun set from our Happy Hour

At the school, Tanya helping the kids play "bingo"

This young girl lives across from the school but is to young to start so she just hangs out on the swings outside

This kid was amoung my favorites. Very smart, and really friendly and outgoing... here he is showing off the fruit snacks that we brought from the US to give to the kids

The view from the school door

The younger kids class. The school is just a wooden shack w/ a concrete floor. It was built by a local military General who owns all the land. Most of the parents work for him on farms in the area.

Spelling "CAT" with Plasticine... kid in the middle is my favorite in this class

These kids literally have nothing, their "uniforms" that they wear to school are usually the only clothes that they own. Most of them are eating on a regular basis as the General does a pretty good job providing for the community and taking care of the people in the area.

Going home from school...

They loved getting their picture taken and then looking at it on the camera... the dog was not as amused
The boy on the left and his brother (not pictured) are both orphans who have been taking in by the General, he built them a shack and the brother now works in the chicken farm.

Showing the kids games on the iPad

Map of the Angkor Temple Complex. The most famous, Angkor Wat is by no means the largest, although its central temple is the most intact and impressive. We visited 4 different sites.

At Angkor Thom. This structure is about 20m tall.

The bass reliefs carved into Angkor Thom are the most famous and detailed. They tell the stories of both actual war and mythical battles

The doorway openings visible on the lower right of the picture are a bit bigger than a modern door to a home for scale. Also look at the faces in the tops of the spires. There is a pic later with Tanya and I for scale.

The size of the faces relative to Tanya and I

Step stairs to the top. The 75 degree angle stairs are everywhere but most are closed due to tourists falling off and getting badly hurt of killed.

One of the gates into the Angkor Thom complex. A standard size sedan can and does drive through this gate.

At Ta Prohm - the site where Tomb Raider 2 was shot.

Wide shot of the entrance to Angkor Wat. You can see the famous spires in the background

Angkor Wat and most of the other temples were closed until ~2001 due to land mines left over from the civil wars. You can clearly see the bullet holes pot marking the columns at this temple entrance.

Bullet hole close ups

Oh to have had a bit more water and a bit less wind making ripples...

A persons home outside of Siem Reap

People going about their day on the banks of a river

All of the stone for the Angkor complex was quarried at Kulen Mountain ~70km to the north west. The mountain is also famous for its beautiful waterfall. Above Tanya walks down the well maintained stairs to access the waterfall.