Tuol Sleng and The Killing Fields

There is a restaurant in the tourist section of Phnom Penh along the river that screens nightly documentaries, one of which tells of the quick and brutal history of the Khmer Rouge. We had read that the show was a worthwhile primer for anyone planning on visiting Tuol Sleng and The Killing Fields. We detoured off into Cambodia from our Vietnam vacation specifically for this purpose, so we went. We sat outside in the hot night and waited for the start time by drinking beers (me) and a milkshake (Sami). White people of all shapes and sizes sat scrunched together in wicker chairs and played cards or read Lonely Planet guides as street solicitors peddled photocopied bestsellers and the latest travel trinkets made in China. One man with no limbs was wheeled an arms length away from we diners. He moaned an agonizing groan while his partner collected donations.

I had a decent buzz going and was delighted to find that beer was allowed inside the theater. I ordered another and we preceded around to the side of the building where we were led through a large, black painted wooden door and up a steep incline of stairs. Velvet curtains bordered the screen which flashed a multi-colored and bouncing Apex logo transmitted from the cheap DVD player on the floor. There were only a dozen or so soft and dirty chairs which soon were filled with people I never bothered to make eye contact with.

Inside the theater

View of the screen

The documentary dealt principally with the so called "King Father of Cambodia" Norodom Sihanouk. As Prime Minister, Sihanouk allowed the North Vietnamese to store military supplies in eastern Cambodia during the Vietnam War. In 1970 a pro-US government called the Khmer Republic overthrew Sihanouk. In the years that followed, Sihanouk supported the Khmer Rouge. Because many Cambodians still revered Sihanouk, they joined the Khmer Rouge. Most felt that they were supporting their leader and the country they loved rather than a change to Communism. When the Khmer Rouge overtook the Khmer Republic, they quickly stripped him of the notion that he would have any power in the new regime.

One aspect of the documentary that I will always remember is Sihanouk's hatred of the US and in particular President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He claims that the US's bombing of NVA supply bases in Cambodia led to anti-American sentiment which made it easy for Cambodians to align with the Khmer Rouge. What he fails to mention is that he permitted the NVA to use Cambodia as part of their war strategy.

Of course, it is never easy to remain neutral and Cambodia surely received funding from China and North Vietnam in exchange for use of land. If Sihanouk had sided with the US and South Vietnamese, there is no guarantee that the chain of events that followed would have been bloodless.

The events and ideas that brought the Khmer Rouge into power need to be remembered and studied. I am certainly no expert and still have a lot of research to do on the subject. The pain and suffering as a result of their brutality is much easier to comprehend. Our first taste of it came by visiting Tuol Sleng, a former high school turned torture prison.

Tuol Sleng looks like it hasn't been touched in 35 years. It sits inside a wall topped with barbed wire. There are three main three-story buildings, all a dirty cement yellow. We were not allowed to enter the building closest to the entrance, so we headed to the smaller far sided building. It contained larger rooms that were used as torture chambers. The Khmer Rouge executed all of the educated people in a quest to create the perfect agrarian socialist society. Anyone even rumored to be engaged in capitalistic practices was tortured and forced to give up names. Captors were eventually killed whether they gave names or not.

Tuol Sleng

Barbed wire over the entrace

The graves in the background honor the last prisoners to die at Tuol Sleng. Their bodies were found when the prison was finally uncovered.

Each torture room had one picture on the wall that showed the devices in practice.

The torture cells were left mostly bare save for a metal bed frame and ankle chain locked to one of the four posts. Pools of decades old rusted blood lay like terrible islands on the checkered floor. Each torture room also had a singular picture documenting the atrocities as the occurred.

Outside there was a piece of metal frame that the Khmer Rouge used as a gallows. The interrogators would bind the prisoners hands behind their backs and attach them to a rope that they would sling over the gallows and raise, tearing the shoulders and chest as they were stretched. They would do this until the prisoners lost consciousness after which they would dunk their heads in filthy water mixed with fertilizer to revive the prisoners for another round of torture.

Gallows

The ground floor of the main building held crudely designed prison cells made from slathered on grout and cinder blocks. Prisoners were chained by their ankles in these cells that were no bigger than a bathtub.

Maybe the most powerful feature of the prison turned museum is the mosaic of photographs that cover an entire floor of the main building. Prisoners had their pictures taken the first day they were brought in and the looks on their faces are haunting. Most had no idea that they were being taken to their deaths.

On the top floor there was information regarding the current status of former Khmer leaders. Most of them are awaiting a trial while others like Pol Pot are dead. There was also an interesting exhibit on former Khmer Rouge soldiers. It is important to remember that many of the soldiers who carried out these acts of genocide were just kids. Joining the Khmer Rouge was really their only option over forced labor and eventual death and all were separated from their parents as older people were seen as carrying the virus of capitalism.

The prisoners of Tuol Sleng were killed and buried in mass graves known colloquially as The Killing Fields. I was surprised at how close The Killing Fields are to the city of Phnom Penh. It was a beautiful mid-morning when we toured The Killing Fields.  Geese roamed the grassy areas and hundreds of yellow butterflies fluttered drunkily among the shallow hills that were once the scene of so much horror. The pleasant weather did little to detract from the remnants of sadness that lay about. There is a glass tower of bones in the center of the field. The bottom contains the piles of clothes confiscated after the site was found. The next few layers contains skulls, many with obvious mortal wounds. Then next contains leg bones then forearms and so forth up and up an up.

We learned terrible things about the methods used, how chemicals were dumped over the bodies in the pits to mask the odor of death and finish off any of the half-living. There was also a tree used for the sole purpose of killing babies. When the hard monsoon rains come and dump over the pits, bits of bone become resurfaced. As we were walking back we easily spotted a tooth lying all too naturally in the grass.

Teeth and parts of bones can still be found in The Killing Fields

 While I was at The Killing Fields I couldn't bring myself to imagine the piles of bodies heaped and mangled, sprawled and buried in a human landfill. How can it be that something so terrible can happen in my parents' lifetimes and then again in mine in Rwanda and during the Bosnian War? How does a human life mean so little?

Just a few of the former mass graves at The Killing Fields

Phnom Penh- Part One

We took an early morning bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh on the third day of our vacation. Sami had taught a genocide lesson in her World Studies class, and I have always been intrigued by the horrific brutality of the Khmer Rouge since seeing the movie The Killing Fields. Our plan was to visit the mass graves known colloquially as The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, a former high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison.

We had visited Siem Reap a year ago, but didn't have time to make it to the capital city of Cambodia. Siem Reap was and remains a very special place for Sami and me. We will never forget the thrill and amazement of our first tuk-tuk ride from the airport. The warm night air was silent and black. Such a welcome contrast to the cold, neon frenzy of Seoul. I remember being passed by barely humming motorscooters ridden by barefoot teenagers. Skinny dogs sniffed the dirt roads lined with open air gas stations or, to be more specific, short racks of Johnny Walker bottles filled with petrol.

It was only a short walk from our hotel to the bus terminal, but early morning is the busiest time in Ho Chi Minh City, as locals scramble over the best fish and produce sold at narrow sidewalk markets and food stalls. We banged through the crowd clumsily hauling our luggage.

Shortly after finding our seats, the bus began to fill with a decidedly international crowd. I would say that half of the people on the bus were either Vietnamese or Cambodian, but there were a few Frenchman and a clique of young Indian men who smelled strongly of curry. I really don't mean to stereotype and this could have been an isolated incident, but it is my opinion that people tend like what they eat. My first week of teaching in Korea I began to notice that the kids' farts smell like kimchi. My skin smells like garlic if I eat too much of it and my natural armpit odor is enchilada.

On the road again

We were seated toward the back of the bus and I slept most of the way so I did not get a great view of the scenery. I will say that in the US we drive on the right side of the road and in the UK they drive on the left, but it Vietnam they just drive. I am certain that there were dozens of near accidents and close calls. What must be the country's main highway to Cambodia was only two lanes and scooters, buses and cars veered in and out of both at full speed.

At one point, one of the chaperones collected all of the passports and, for a five dollar fee, arranged everything for us at customs on the border. If you didn't want to pay the five dollars you could try and do it all yourself, but it would take longer and you would have to find a way to rejoin the group where they lunched. The group of Indian men chose not to pay, and came running and panting onto the bus just as we prepared to leave after lunch.

Lunch was not overly memorable, but I do remember ordering a beer and asking for a mug filled with ice. This is how I see all of the locals doing it, but for some reason they never offer it to the foreigners. I think maybe they figure we are scared of the ice. Sami certainly is and found my request downright irresponsible.

As the students in Korea say: "Runch-ey"

About halfway into the trip our bus was ferried across a body of water. I am not sure of the name or even if it is a river or lake, so I will have to do some research and revise later. I didn't get a great view of the scenery as we were being ferried across because there were vehicles to our immediate left and another aisle of occupied seats blocking our view to the right.

Upon arriving in Phmom Penh, we were struck by much bigger and busier it is than Siem Reap. The tuk-tuk ride to the hotel didn't have any of the magic of our initial late night carriage due to the traffic and the noise, but the driver was nice, even if he did try to take us to a different hotel- one operated by a family member.

I won't mention the name of our hotel, but it was located in the main tourist area on the river. It seems like a popular ex-pat hangout and is probably known more as a bar than a hotel. Our room upstairs was clean and had a huge bed and flat screen television. Probably the only such tv we have ever seen throughout our cost conscious travels. There were at least a dozen young, attractive Cambodian women (girls?) that worked at the bar/restaurant. It kind of creeped us out how many of the fat old white guys would flirt with the employees, and I wondered just how the owner could afford to pay them all.

Anyway, we ordered some food and then quickly walked to the National Museum before it closed. We soon found out that if we were going to walk places, we would have to pass through the gauntlet of tuk-tuk drivers starving for business. However, we were determined to save money and get some exercise.

The national museum featured many of the same stone relics featured in the Angkor Museum in Siem Reap. The best part about it is the building itself and the courtyard within its walls is a great place to sit and take in the quiet.

Courtyard of the National Museum in Phnom Penh

Catching Up and Looking Forward

There hasn't been much writing for awhile owing to a simple lack of inspiration. It is cold and there are remnants of frozen snow all about. We have been in hibernation mode all of December up until now. Part of this is us saving money for our upcoming trip to Southeast Asia, and part is pure laziness. Oh, there have been some highlights. For a few weekends before the snows I would play basketball over at my school. I would go to just to shoot, but inevitably a group of high schoolers would ask me to join in half court three on three. Being bigger and stronger, and (unlike my youthful competition) having received the benefit of actual instruction in my youth, I dominated the games like a young Shaq.

A week before Christmas we had some people over for a gift exchange and holiday party. We played King's Cup on the floor of our apartment which was a good time, but our Korean friend was understandably frustrated every time a nine (bust a rhyme) was pulled. As you can imagine, this is a difficult feat to perform using your non-native language. We drank enough that we ended up at the karaoke room. We learned that if you order enough beer (which is apparently illegal, but they all do it anyway) they will give you extra time to sing. I am still not sure if this is a good thing.

On Christmas night we went to a foreigner Christmas dinner put on by a brewery in Seoul. We were lucky enough to go first in line at the buffet and we loaded up our plates with standard (but sorely missed) Christmas fare. Since we were first, we even got to take a turkey leg which made us quite happy. I can't say the same for the people who went after us. We actually tried to get back in line for seconds before other sections were given the go-ahead. This did not go over well.

These last two weeks, I have only been going to school half days to teach an English camp. The first week was 3rd grade, last week was 5th and next week will be 3rd again. The first week wasn't so bad. Thanks to Sami, I have awesome materials for all my classes so that isn't a problem. The 5th grade session, however, was horrendous. I just don't have the patience for this. Why do the boys, who are soon going to be in sixth grade, have to be hitting each other and shooting each other with fake guns constantly? I don't get it. I actually had to take away a water gun that looked exactly like a real gun. The whole time I am thinking, if this happened in the states, it would be news. Whenever I get really worked up about it, however, I remind myself that it is only a half day and I usually forget about what a pain it all is soon after I get home.

I have spent a lot of my downtime reading some really great books. I finished Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," (very dense and filled with imagery. Had to re-start it 100 pages in, but epic. I will definitely be reading it again and can't wait for the movie), "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser, Anthony Bourdain's "A Cooks Tour," "One Day" by David Nichols, "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and "The War for Late Night" about the whole Jay/Conan fiasco.

I would recommend "Beloved" to anyone who hasn't read it already. I easily understand why it ranks up there with the best American novels. Very moving, but what I was most impressed with how the other weaves her way through the scenes, present and past. Just really great writing.

Because I am such a late night junkie (I am now a certified "Jay" guy whereas I used to be solely for Conan) I devoured "The War for Late Night" in two days. It was a very interesting insider account of how it all went down, and I hate to say it, but I don't totally blame Jay anymore like I used to. I think it was just a little mismanagement on the part of NBC and an overreaction by Conan. And now he is on TBS and while I can't see it, I am imagining it isn't going too well. I wish he would have just stuck it out. That still doesn't mean I think the joke-machine Leno is the least bit funny.

Of course, the biggest thing that has been occupying my time has been following all of the coverage leading up to the National Championship Game. I continue to devour all of the news I can even though everyone is saying the same things we have heard all season: win the day, one day at a time, Oregon plays at a superfast pace, the defense is underrated etc etc etc. The one thing I keep thinking back to was seeing Darron Thomas in person for the first time when he was a true Freshman. In a previous life I helped put on a charity auction in Eugene and I was fortunate enough to usher some VIPs for a meet and greet with the players as they ate after practice. Darron had on a bright blue Aldine High hooded sweatshirt and I thought, "This kid cannot weigh more than 160lbs." Dennis Dixon had just been drafted and most people thought that Justin Roeper was going to be the starter based on his performance in the Sun Bowl and the fact that Nate Costa was injured. Man how things have changed.

I don't want to say more than I have to about the potential of me missing the first half of the game Tuesday (Monday back home). It is too depressing. My plan is to find some games the kids can do without much input from me so I can watch online. I guess I would be even more depressed about this fact if I didn't have Vietnam to look forward to next week.

Yes, our much anticipated vacation is finally less than a week away. The twenty-three day itinerary goes like this: Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh)-Cambodia (Phnom Penh)-Vietnam (Hanoi/Ha Long Bay)-Thailand (Bangkok)-The Philippines (Palawan). The icing on the cake is that after our trip we go back to work for two weeks and then take off again for Bali for nine days. Yep, before you know it it will be March and the snow will be a memory.

In preparation for our trip I have lined out four movies to watch: "Apocalypse Now," "The Quiet American," "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "The Killing Fields." I have yet to see the last two, but feel I must because we have visits planned to both the Japanese WWII bridge in Thailand and the mass Khmer Rouge Graves near Phnom Penh. I watched "The Quiet American" yesterday and have to say that it is almost as good as the book by Graham Greene. Yes, some things were cut out and changed, but doesn't that happen with all movies based on novels?

"Apocalypse Now," of course, is one of the all-time greats and I am pretty sure I could watch it once a month for my lifetime. After my sixth or so viewing the other day I found myself wondering how Kurtz could be so heavy out there with his cult Cambodian followers. He looks fit from the pictures in the classified files taken not so long ago and then of course Willard explained how he finished airborne school at nearly 40 and how physically demanding that is even for 20 year olds. I mean, sure they sacrifice a water buffalo every Sunday night let's say, but still, there are a lot of skinny damn people on that compound (not to mention body parts strewn about, but that's a different topic).

Then I thought, oh it's probably just that Brando got fat.

Cambodia: More Temples

I'm baaaaack! Joe is in the kitchen mopping the floor. I can hear him scrubbing away and the sound is music to my ears. I am eating Digits, my favorite Korean cookies (basically a graham cracker with chocolate on the bottom), and trying to remember what happened to us after we visited Angkor Wat. Life is good. We leave for China Tuesday and will be back next Sunday. We are very excited to have the opportunity to visit Shanghai while the World Expo is going on. I am sure Joe will have numerous stories to entertain you with when we return. He has been talking nonstop about all of the different food he is going to eat while we are there!

Back to temples... Determining whether or not a temple is Hindu or Buddhist can get a little confusing in Cambodia. In ancient Cambodia religion was dictated by the head of state, so anytime there was a new leader there could potentially be a new religion. However, Bayon Temple, our next stop after Angkor Wat, is distinctly Buddhist. There are 216 different giant Buddha heads looking at you as you wander around the temple. There are also full-bodied Buddhist statues all over the place, many of them headless and defaced as a result of thieves. If you check out the museum in Siem Reap, it is full of Buddha heads that have been recovered from all over the world. In addition to the Buddha heads and statues, there are also several places you can make an offering to Buddha, always apparent by the strong smell of incense and the colored scarves placed around Buddha's shoulders. People usually leave money, both real and fake, and sometimes they leave a soda or some fruit for Buddha to eat.

Outside the gate to Bayon Temple. 

 Chilling with Buddha. Again mother, this was not Joe's idea. In fact, Joe refused to take a picture with Buddha. 

I

Buddha, incense, headless statues.

I

  I guess this Buddha needed a snack. 

S

The Buddha with the biggest smile. 

O

Outside Bayon Temple- so distinctly Cambodia.  

We made one final stop at Angkor Thom before heading back to town for dinner, but by that point I was ready to be done for the day, so I honestly don't remember anything from our final stop. Dinner was much more memorable, but then again, any meal with Joe is memorable. We decided to eat at a restaurant that had a view of downtown Siem Reap, and as we made our way toward the open air balcony, I noticed two things: 1) there was only one other couple in the restaurant and 2) over half of the tables had signs on them that said they were reserved (we never actually saw anyone with a so-called "reservation" come into the restaurant, so I am pretty sure these were a ploy to make the restaurant look more popular than it actually was). I started to get a little nervous, so as we ordered from the sizable menu, I went with the sweet and sour pork. Joe of course made some comment about how I always eat the same thing and I ignored him, as usual. Joe ordered the fatty pork stew- doesn't that sound appetizing? What was I thinking going with the sweet and sour pork when I could have had the fatty pork stew? Both of us ordered a Fanta to drink. I don't usually like orange soda, and I know I can get orange soda in Korea, but for some reason I really wanted to drink an orange soda in Cambodia that night. It was delicious, and I know Joe felt the same way because he ended up ordering a second one. Once our food arrived, I had to listen to Joe go on and on about how delicious his giant bites of pork fat were. He then tried to forced me to eat some of his pork fat, like usual, but I instead opted for a sip of the broth. It was tasty, but I was perfectly content with my own dinner. To this day, Joe talks about the fatty pork stew. We'll be watching Biggest Loser and all of the sudden Joe will start licking his lips and say, "I really just want some of that fatty pork stew." Sure he talks about pizza, burgers, cookies, ice cream, and a lot of other food too, but the fatty pork stew is referred to quite frequently in our home. 

Joe eating his beloved Fatty Pork Stew. 
(Joe's note: I think that I am licking my teeth and gums to either savor or rid of the thin layer of fat residue)

A

An up close shot of the stew.  
(Joe's note: This Khmer Stew contained big chunks of pork, tofu and hard boiled egg. Those are three hearty proteins! Later, I crapped a shot put.)

Our final day in Cambodia we embarked on our second consecutive day of temple viewing. We had a new guide, who I understood a little bit better than the first one, and after purchasing our temple passes for the day, we headed to Ta Prohm. If you look through our pictures, it looks like we had the place to ourselves, but honestly that couldn't be further from the truth. The place was jam packed with tour groups. The Japanese and Korean tour groups seem to like dressing their tour members in matching outfits. There were multiple groups of 30-40 people all wearing the same thing. I nicknamed one group the carrots. They were wearing orange shirts, bright green shorts, and bright green baseball caps. Even more ridiculous than the matching tour groups were the women wearing high heels trying to navigate the uneven ground. You see this a lot in Asia. The women LOVE their heels. 

Ta Prohm was one of my favorite temples that we visited. It is where Tomb Raider (Angeline Jolie) was filmed, and the whole temple site has been overtaken by the jungle. Despite the hordes of Japanese/Korean tour groups taking cutesy photos in their matching outfits in almost every part of the temple, we did manage to get a few good pictures. 

The trees have pretty much taken over Ta Prohm. 

While en route to one of the next temples we visited, we came across a fairly long funeral procession. The van slowed to a crawl and we passed by waves of people both young and old. The elderly in Cambodia are always women. During our week-long stay I am unable to recall ever seeing a man over 40 or 50 years old. Considering that men were targeted heavily by the Khmer Rouge this should come as no surprise, but it is still a very eerie reality to contemplate. When we finally made it to our destination many members of our tour (including my husband) got out of the van to snap pictures of the processional. I stayed in the van and waited for the group to finish. I remember wondering what I would think if I was at a funeral and random tourists started snapping pictures of the casket and the grieving guests...But since we have the pictures, I guess I will post a few.

Bakong Temple was our final stop of the day. It is here that Joe and I learned two very important lessons that we will now heed anytime we travel. Lesson 1) Wait until you get home to wear the t-shirts you buy. At the entrance to the temple we heard children giggling and looked up to see fingers pointing our direction. The reason for the giggling was immediately apparent. I had decided to wear one of the t-shirts we bought from the orphanage we visited earlier in the week, and the children were wearing the same shirt. They had a table set up outside the entrance to the temple and they were asking for donations for the orphanage. The situation was made even more awkward when Joe insisted that I take a picture with the children, especially considering we didn't donate any money (we had already given them money earlier in the week). Lesson 2) Don't accept gifts of any sort from Cambodian children. Joe made the mistake of taking a leaf from a young Cambodian girl. The girl then proceeded to follow us around for 30 minutes saying softly, "One dolla, one dolla, one dolla..." She was relentless and followed us all the way to the van. I felt bad not giving her a dollar, but more often than not children are being exploited and forced to do this kind of work, and tourists are implored not to give in to these kinds of scams.

T

The picture Joe forced me to take with the children from the orphanage. 

W

Whatever you do, don't accept the leaf!

As the day came to a close, it was time to get ready to return to Korea. Tired, hot, and fighting a cold, I returned to the hotel room immediately after dinner to clean up and finish packing. Sometime during dinner Joe found out we hadn't spent all of the money we brought, so instead of joining me at the hotel, he set out to spend every last dollar (Cambodians want US dollars, so that is what most people use) we had. The pictures below chronicle his final adventure in Cambodia. 

Joe finishing up his second beer at dinner. 

H

Ice cold beer. So refreshing. Must have one for the walk home.

Hmmm, I really don't feel like packing, so how about another massage?
 (Joe's note: no boner this time.)

Sweet! I have just enough money for a sandwich. 

A

Aaaaah, so tasty, Hopefully this tides me over until they serve the meal on the plane... 

(Joe's note: This is a very common street food in Cambodia- a pate sandwich. A slathering of salty minced meat paste and a sweet honey garlic sauce, two hunks of a pressed, processed meat, a pickle and shaved onions on crispy french bread. God I want one.)

Cambodia: Angkor Wat

Over the weekend Joe granted me the “privilege” of being a “guest author” on his blog. He built it up like he was bestowing upon me some impressive honor, but in reality he set a goal to finish blogging about Cambodia before we leave for China, and he is feeling slightly burned out. His solution: bring in Sami to finish the job while assuaging her ego in the process. He tried to sell me a bunch of crap about how I know more about the temples and history of Cambodia than he does. Blah blah blah. Whatever Joe. A word of warning- I probably won’t spend the entire time trying to write about farting, poop, and food, so if that is why you tune into Joe’s blog, you may not find me as entertaining.

We spent our final two days in Cambodia touring temples. We toured a total of 12 temples during our week in Cambodia, and 10 of those visits took place in those final two days. Scheduling two consecutive days of temple visiting was a mistake on my part, and temple fatigue definitely hit us hard, especially considering that the temperature was close to 100 degrees. Thank goodness for the camera because by the end of the second day my brain was completely overwhelmed and I could barely remember which temple was which.

We started the two days with a visit to Angkor Wat, in my mind the most impressive of all of the temples we visited. I booked a group tour so we would have a guide to provide us with information as we visited each temple. Unfortunately, I could barely understand a word our guide said. I can understand Konglish (Korean English) very easily, but I have a very difficult time understanding Indian English and Cambodian English, to the degree that it can be embarrassing. Luckily, Joe was more adept at deciphering what our guide was saying, so every now and then I would ask him to translate. Interestingly, Joe is not as good at understanding Konglish (he will tell you he is, but really, he isn’t). 

 I guarantee I can't understand a word he is saying.

As we walked along the path leading to Angkor Wat we were greeted by monkeys of all shapes and sizes, just chilling in the grass. At that point, Joe turned into a 10-year old boy. He gets so excited about animals, monkeys in particular. He of course wanted to play with the monkeys, but when the monkeys tried to steal his sunglasses things got a little tense. I tried to capture this moment on camera, but I got too excited and fumbled the camera. By the time I had things under control Joe had managed to retrieve his sunglasses and the monkey had moved on to shinier pairs of shades. 

 

 Moments before the monkey stole Joe's shades. 

 The detail in Angkor Wat is incredible. Almost every inch of its surface is covered in ornate carvings. It is staggering to consider the amount of manpower that went into constructing it, and even more staggering to contemplate the time and effort spent carving Hindu imagery all over the temple walls. As a history teacher, I was shocked at how accessible everything was at Angkor Wat. You can view almost every inch of the temple and there are few limitations on what you can touch. A couple of years ago I visited Mount Vernon and toured George Washington’s home. The tour was the worst I have ever been on. I felt like I was being herded through the home as quickly as possible, constantly being reminded not to touch anything. The experience at Angkor Wat was just the opposite, but the extreme accessibility of the temple was almost disconcerting. It is rumored that the Cambodian government has considered closing it off to the public in an effort to better preserve the ancient structure, but hopefully they will instead consider limiting the areas that people can view and encouraging people not to touch the walls and carvings that are slowly eroding. 

 Traditional Khmer apsara dancer.

 The walls are covered in carvings like this.

Crazy tourists like him need to be stopped!

There was one area of the temple that I was almost prohibited from viewing. Due to the extreme heat I wore shorts and a t-shirt that day, forgetting that I read online the importance of covering your knees when you visit the temples. Luckily two members of our tour group offered me their long-sleeved, button-up shirts, and I was able to construct a skirt and gain admittance to the only area of Angkor Wat that is restricted. It was a little annoying to constantly have to readjust the “skirt” and make sure my knees were covered, but overall it was worth getting the full Angkor Wat experience. 

T

 A view of the skirt, front and back. 

 No Mom, this wasn't Joe's idea. The guide told us to take a picture here, so Joe doesn't get the credit.

r