Southeast Asia 2023 

February 16, 2023 I headed off to Southeast Asia -- Thailand,  Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  I thought that I knew a lot about Asia. In addition to  my academic courses and personal reading, I'd been to Japan twice -- once for  3 1/2 months and once for 2 1/2 weeks. I'd gone to China 3 times, including to Yunnan Province in Southwestern China which is very different from the eastern part of China. I discovered  Southeast Asia to be a very different world from these other countries. 

The tour started slowly as we all adjusted to time changes, and for me, 30 hours of travel. For the first few days we visited typical tourist sites.  Then, our tour group made great efforts for us to meet with local people and experience the culture, not just see famous sites. We also discussed controversial  topics in each country. Heads up:  My favorite places were Luang Prabang in Laos and Vietnam. Here are some highlights of my trip. (FYI I apologize for my lack of understanding the layout tools for this program with uncentered type, but you'll get the idea).

February 18

 I arrived a day early to help with jet lag and met a few people in my group. Several of us visited a non-standard tourist spot,  the Dragon Temple about an hour + outside of Bangkok. You can see the Dragon winding around the Temple

                                                Notice the Dragon head at the top of the temple.

The Buddhist nuns told us we could take flowers and write the names of our loved ones on a ribbon and put it at the top of the Temple for good luck and long life. After we took the flowers and ribbon, they mentioned we could make a little donation for it! The photos of the king  of Thailand and his family are everywhere.

This is the inside of the dragon. They had lights and the occasional fan, but it was as steep and claustrophobic as it looks. A couple of us got out our hiking poles to get up this thing. I don't know if it will lead to long life or a quick heart attack!

Then we went to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, the largest complex of temples in Thailand. I believe our guide said there are over 400,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand and 40,000 are in Bangkok.

There are many Buddhas in the temple buildings and a mix of tourists and worshipers.

                                                        And the star of the show --

    Wait, here's the real star!!

February 19

Today our tour officially begins.  We visited this house on the outskirts of Bangkok for a cooking demonstration.

Several people from our group helped cook.

Teakwood chairs so heavy we could barely move them to sit down for our lunch.  Only part of our meal was from the demonstration.

Teakwood bench. Our leader, Joe.

 As we traveled  around Bangkok,  we saw that images of the Royal family are EVERYWHERE! Hundreds of huge portraits around major highways.

The King

  Thailand used to be an absolute monarchy but now is a constitutional monarchy, like England. The King is supposed to stay out of politics but apparently this king has been trying to comment on politics. Not sure how that is working out as the Premier, former military man, is more or less a dictator despite "elections."

Imagine seeing a hand in meditation posture to hang your bag on in a US bathroom!

February 20

Today we visited the Grand Royal Palace, the official residence of the Kings of Siam and later Thailand. It is a huge complex of buildings including Buddhist Temples and Chapels for official religious ceremonies.

                        Some scary creatures keeping bad spirits from the Grand Royal Palace.

                Important information  posted in the bathroom for those unaccustomed to western toilets!

Street light

After visiting the palace, we walked to a nearby university and met a very brave 24-year-old woman who has been arrested and is still followed for protesting against the government. She now works as an activist, hoping that the country will become a democracy instead of being ruled by a totalitarian Prime Minister.  We met her in a secluded park on university grounds where no one would see us talking to her. She wore  a wonderful democracy T-shirt but we couldn't take any photos of her. 

After her very moving talk we went to a UNESCO mask dance culture show. We were not allowed to take photos but the costumes, choreography and dancing were truly stunning. After the show, we rode back to the hotel in a tuk-tuk. I think someone took a photo of me in the tuk-tuk and if I didn't look absolutely terrified, they caught me off guard. It's a modern day rickshaw, 3 wheels and an automobile engine. This open vehicle goes at the speed of light, dodging cars, crossing lanes, stopping inches from the vehicles in front of us.

We finished the day with a dinner cruise on a rice barge on the Chao Phraya River, the most important river in Thailand.

February 21

Today we drove about an hour outside of Bangkok to the Ayutthaya and visited the Ancient capital which was declared a UNESCO site in 1990. The ancient capital, home to 33 kings, was burned and destroyed by the Burmese. Throughout the trip we'd hear in various countries -- " This part used to be part of Thailand," or "this was once part of Cambodia or this part is now in Vietnam."  Or "China once invaded..."  More history than I could begin to remember but clearly many changing regimes and borders.

Hand of a large destroyed Buddha.

Japanese tourists visiting the modern temple on the grounds.

For those needing even more explanation on western toilets.

A very different view of the Chao Phraya River. We are about an hour and a half north of where we were last night. We are traveling on a wooden rice barge but much smaller than the one we were on last night.  The people who live along this river have major issues with flooding. 

 

                                

We stopped in a small town where we watched a man make their version of cotton candy. We learned the the people making it are primarily Muslims. 

There is a big Muslim community here that dates back to the time of the Silk Road. Our leader keeps commenting on how everyone gets along and how great it is.  I keep thinking that since most of the population is Buddhist and the Muslim population isn't increasing, there may be less tension than in other places. It's easier to be tolerant when you don't feel overwhelmed. 

Before this trip, I thought that I knew a lot about Buddhism, from my travels to China and Japan and reading. I learned that was not quite true. I knew a lot about Mahayana Buddhism which is practiced in Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam.  Buddhism there permeates people's view of the world and life but isn't obvious in everyday culture.  Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia practice Theravada Buddhism and you can't miss it.

These ancestor altars are present not just in people's homes but outside or inside every business that I visited.  They are well-tended and will bring good luck and good karma to the business.

And for a very different experience:

We went to a restaurant called Cabbages & Condoms. The restaurant has a condom theme throughout the restaurant and in the gift shop. There is is a chain of them in Thailand owned by a former minister of health. He thought that condoms should be as common and accessible as cabbages. Initially, the focus was for family planning but later focused on AIDS. His playful view helped make gigantic strides in eliminating AIDS which was a huge issue.  Profits from the restaurant all go to help poor people. They've even received a grant from the Gates Foundation.

Centerpiece made of condoms.

Outfits completely made of condoms.

February 22

Arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos. 

After being in Bangkok, a huge modern city, with 11 million people, it's nice to be in this mountain town of 55,000 people. It can get up to 90 during the day but has extremely low humidity and can go down to 63 in the evening. It is a relief to be here but this will likely be the last place that isn't super hot. In Thailand, the old capital was declared a UNESCO site. Here, the entire village is a UNESCO site. That means that they are given money to try to maintain the village as it is.  Within certain boundaries you can't make changes to a property without approval.

                                                                            Jackfruit

Mekong River

This is a jumbo, a three wheeled scooter driven cart, not as powerful as the tuk tuk (or scary). No busses are allowed in Luang Prabang so our bus from the airport dropped us off at the edge of the village and the jumbo drove us to our hotel. If we needed to take a bus on an outing, the jumbo took us to the bus

                                       

  French architecture, still around after the colonizers left.

                                                        Coconut shells piled on the street.

 Lao and communist party flags.

                                                    

Lemon Lime shake

                                                    Lovely riverside bar and restaurant.

Guess who visited this little bar where us non-night market shoppers stopped for a drink? He'd gone to an Asian summit and stopped by for a few hours. He's the only American president to ever visit.  He got a coconut water drink. All of the residents had been told to stay inside but he told people they could come out to meet him. Now the locals call this the Obama cafe!

February 23

Love the simplicity and openness of our hotel in Luang Parabang.

                                                            Best maid signs ever.

                                        There's a daily farmer's market 50 feet from our hotel.

Today they paired us up and gave us a phrase in Lao to use to buy groceries for our host dinner the following evening. If the store clerks didn't have the item, they would motion for us to keep going. I noticed that the first shopkeeper looked away from the produce to his bottles and then motioned us on. This made it easier to skip ahead till we found a shop with bottles and successfully purchased cooking oil.

                                                                   Rice anyone??

                                                 

                                                Or maybe you prefer noodles instead of rice?

            Banana Leaves -- essential for serving food in Lao.

                                            Crowded motor scooter parking beside the market.

    We took a river cruise along the Mekong River. "mother of all rivers" which runs from Tibet, China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

                It looks smokey because they are burning rice fields before they replant. 

                                                            We stopped at Muangkham village.

                                He's making a wire fence so that the water buffalo don't eat his crops.

                

                    The entrance to the village has a Buddhist temple and several shrines.

This little boy demonstrates a dance they do before kickboxing. It has nothing to do with the Buddhist shrine but it made a great stage for him.

        This is the main street of the village.        

                                    A very slow chopping process. Like going back centuries in time.

From October to April, every day, the villagers work to dry and preserve river seaweed. This fresh water seaweed  provides greens the rest of the year.

They pound the seaweed, pour on tamarind sauce, add tomato, garlic, and sesame seed and then dry it in the sun.

Bananas

These are the nets the fishermen put in the river to catch fish.

Pigeons for eggs and dinner.

                                                        We return back to the river.

                They aren't swimming. This whole family is gathering the freshwater seaweed.

Water buffalo

Next we stopped along the river at Pak Ou Cave which is high above the river.  Readers of the beloved Dr. Siri mysteries by Colin Cotterill may remember a visit to this cave filled with thousands of Buddhas.

February 24

Today we left the hotel at 5:30 AM. We sat outside this temple, waiting for the monks who go through the streets receiving alms from the people. They depend completely on the villagers to feed them. They are not allowed to cook or keep food. These monks are not vegetarian. People feed the monks because it brings them good karma.

We sat in the dark with little baskets of sticky rice and as each monk went by, we pull out a bit rice with our bare hand and put it in each of their bowls.  They don't look at us. After 2 groups of monks went by, we went into the little temple. When we came back out, it was daylight and there were still monks coming. A few people still had rice left, so they gave it to them.

We learned that in Laos, most boys go to the monastery for a least a week, often a month when they are 9 years old. Those who stay are often from the country and poor. Becoming a monk provides them with an education. The rural monks live a more isolated life. The city monks like those we saw can have cell phones and visit family. So is it about religion and piety or upward mobility, or just enough to eat and a place to live?  Couldn't help but notice that most of the monks are darker skinned that the majority of folks.

                                                Typical wires in Laos. A little scary looking.

Is it Laos or Lao?  Our guide says either but the locals call it Lao and Lao people. It was the French colonizers that came up with Laos and Laotians.

We drove up the mountain today to a Hmong village. These people were living by a lovely waterfall when the government decided it would make a great tourist attraction and forced the village to relocate to this mountain. They were very angry that they no longer had access to water so the Grand Circle foundation which the parent company of Overseas Adventure Travel, provided money to create water pipes from the river. They provided 7 huge water tanks to store the water. In this country, it's either incredibly dry like it is right now or monsoon season with tons of flooding. The Grand Circle Foundation also built the school that we visited.

We watched a blacksmith repairing cutting tools. A chief from another village brought him some knives to repair while we were here. The woman in back looks like she's churning butter but is actually controlling the bellows to keep the fire going.

The school. In addition to this  2 room school, the foundation also built two bathrooms for the students. Some of the students met with us so we could read to them in English.

We met a Hmong shaman. He explained that Shamans are chosen by the spirit. One can't choose to be a Shaman. He performs healing ceremonies.  Sometimes he will just give people herbs to heal them.  If their illness or condition has a spiritual cause, then he must perform rituals to make the bad spirit leave the person. Our guides are Buddhist and the Hmong beliefs are alien to them but they are very respectful.

This is a traditional Hmong instrument that is played at New Year, at a death, and when visitors come!

We headed down the mountain and back to our hotel. Wandering in the neighborhood saw another temple and spotted Naga, the river spirit keeping guard. Every river has a Naga.

Right around the corner from our hotel there's a large night market that is open every night.

Huge food court at the night market.

February 25

Many of us visited the Grand Palace Museum.  It was the former palace and home the the last king and queen of Lao. This was before they were taken to a reeducation camp where they supposedly died from malaria. Nobody believes that's how they died. The Pathet Lao also took the king's eldest son who died there. Since the king appears in the Doctor Siri mysteries I wanted to take photos but we were not allowed to take any photos.

After that, we flew to Vientiane, the capital. It's a real city with almost a million people It's flat and also along the Mekong River. It is illegal to cross over to Thailand.  This is a new cultural building paid for by China. We've seen a lot of infrastructure paid for by China and a few things paid for by South Korea.

I'm not sure what this says but I think this is the current leader of Lao and Ho Chi Minh.

                                This is the Victory Arch for the victory over the French colonizers.

 In a stroke of good timing, we arrived back at our hotel when the restaurant next door was opening up. Before they start work, the staff is required to do a little exercise dance.

Our Lao guide, Lou lives in Luang Prabang. He is a a college educated man who seems very middle class. He shares his mother-in-law's home. They are well off since they have 2 outhouses. The kitchen is outside like most because everybody cooks with wood.  The smoke in the city is bothering some people on my trip. They also have one bedroom and a Buddha room. Some family members put down mats in the big room they have and cover themselves with mosquito netting. I forget if they have 5 or 7 people living there, but the mother-in-law often stays in the Buddhist monastery as many old people do.

For our first night in Vientiane, we were divided into three groups and sent to a home hosted dinner.  We were told that here in the capital, the families would be middle class but wealthy by comparison to families in Luang Prabang. We were told that they would speak some English but not as good as our guides. Our host picked up my group in a new 7 seat Toyota van. Her English and her sister's English was incredibly good.

Despite their high end neighborhood, the dirt roads are horrible. The neighbors contribute to improving them but every time there's monsoon season, they have to start over. 

Nice house -- shared by several family members and their children.

These are our hosts. There are actually 3 sisters living here but only these 2 were in town.

                                    Sometimes when the house is crowded this sister sleeps on the porch. 

 No one says toilet or bathroom here or in Thailand. They all say happy room.  You can tell this family is well off because they have two inside happy rooms, both on the second floor.

We helped make dinner with the groceries we purchased. We ate about 4 different dishes plus coconut soup. Unfortunately, it was dark out so we couldn't see their garden. They have a papaya tree, coconut tree, a mango tree and all of the vegetables we ate were also grown in their garden. Their father loves to care for it.

                                                            Rice in banana leaves.

                                                                Container for sticky rice.

                                                                        Meet Galong. 

 We saw many dogs on our trip. Most of them were wandering by themselves. A few of them had owners, but I never felt like I could pet any. I never saw a leash. At this house, they kept the doors open, no screens and  Galong, their dog, just walked in and out of the house. When our host drove us home the dog kept following us, and our host kept saying oh she'll turn around here, and then a few minutes later, she said oh she will turn around here but the dog just kept coming.  Soon we turned into a very busy street and the dog followed us.  Our host looked distressed and I said we need to stop. I  opened the car door  but it was too high for the dog to jump in. I got out and panicked  because I didn't see her and cars and motorcycles were zooming around. Finally she ran back and she was light enough I could actually pick her up and stick her in the car. Everyone clapped. One of the other guests said I was the hero of the evening.  This was the first time the dog had ever been allowed in this van. The host said she normally rode in her basket on her motor scooter.

February 26

We spent the morning listening to a monk talk about Buddhism and do a short meditation with us. He also answered questions but I'm not sure everyone was clear about his answers.

He has been in this monastery since he was a young boy. It does seem like it would be easier to accept all of his beliefs and practices if you don't know anything else, don't have to work for a living or take care of other people and all of the outside community provides  cooked food for you every day. 

                Then we visited the oldest temple in Lao. They are all starting to blend together.

Naga

Naga

To get in and out of our bus today, we had to step on an upside down Pepsi crate. Fancy!

                                                                    Street light

Laos was never part of the Vietnam war and the US never declared war in Laos. But because the leader of Laos let Ho Chi Minh bring supplies to the south by going through Laos, the US dropped  over 270,000,000  bombs in Laos. 80 million never exploded and are buried in the soil in Laos.

Every year, 20,000 people are killed or injured from these bombs that didn't explode, many of them children. When Barak Obama visited and learned about this, he managed to get Congress to commit to $90 million to eradicate these bombs.There are still 80,000 left. They are hard to find because they are in the jungle. We visited the COPE center, an organization that helps victims with prosthetics and other kinds of help that they need.

These are cluster bombs. They drop a big bomb that opens up and then all of these little bombs come out of the big bomb and drop to the ground. They are different from landmines. People usually get hurt by digging in their fields, making a fire, or kids find one of these little round bombs and start throwing it like a ball.

                                                             Metal detectors used to find bombs.

This survivor came to talk with us. He even rolled up his pants to show us his prosthetic legs. It's not easy  to see in the photo, but it's a kind of wheelchair bike. It has a pole that he moves back and forth to propel the bike, rather than petals. Needless to say, it was a rather sobering morning.
                                                       

In the COPE center gift shop, they had a display of the Dr. Siri books that I absolutely love. I usually get mine digitally from the library.  bought one that I hadn't read.

And the reason I bought this is that the money from the sales stays in Laos, and a percentage of it goes to bombing victims from UXO, unexploded ordinance.

I always love folk art and traditional theater. Some of you may recall that there's a puppet in one of the Dr. Siri books. This first performance tells the story of an evil giant who wants to kidnap a princess. Don't worry. He gets his in the end!

                                             This is a story about the environment and trash.

                                                                     Hmong puppets

                                                                 My favorite.

                                        These puppets are all made from recycled materials.

 February 27

When we arrived in Cambodia, one thing  I did expect is that we would all enjoy visiting an art school for kids from 5 to 22. The school focuses on traditional art, modern art, music and dance. O.A.T. helps support the school. Students perform a famous coconut dance.

Some of the dancers were quite elegant. Don't you think the socks made this outfit?

One thing I did not expect when arriving in Cambodia was to discover that Phnom Penh is a a large, modern, elegant city. I didn't get the best photos though as our remok drove through the city. A remok is similar to a Jumbo.

Street markets everywhere mixed in with modern buildings.

This is the China Hotel where our guide's wife works. She can speak Cambodian, English, and Chinese so she is highly employable. She works as a receptionist there which is a great job for her.

.

                                                                    Fresh coconuts.

This is the Naga casino. It is illegal for Cambodian people to go there. It is for the Chinese and foreign visitors. Not sure if it's called Naga to protect it or those who come there.

In the evening we went to the river. The king's palace sits on the wide walkway. It is situated on the bank of the cross between the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong River. Apparently the Chinese told the Khmer Rouge that they would support them if they did not destroy this palace or kill the king and queen.

                                             A crowded walk to our restaurant on Buddha Day.

February 28

A very difficult day. Today we visited the genocidal museum which is at one of the 343 Killing Fields in Cambodia.

This stupa contains the skulls that were dug up on these grounds.

We bought flowers and incense to offer the souls who lost their lives here.

I'll spare you the photos of random bones and teeth that they keep finding. 

Our local guide told us that his parents were told to marry by the Khmer Rouge. They didn't even know each other. Both of them were nearly killed twice by the Khmer Rouge, the father because the Khmer confused his unit with rebels but right before they killed him they realized their error. His mother who was starving found a melon. All food belongs to the Khmer and they were about to kill her when she lied and said she was brining it to them. They believed her and let her live. It's a miracle that they survived and our guide exists. For years his family thought that they had lost 5 family members. Then 30 years later his mother's brother contacted her. He had escaped to France and for the longest time couldn't find her.  We also learned that there were limited prosecutions of Khmer Rouge because the country was afraid of civil war erupting again. Mostly they prosecuted people at the top, but then stopped doing that. There's rumors that the current leader was a former Khmer leader. He claims he merely handled supplies but people doubt that and think he stopped the investigations because they were getting too close to him.

When someone asked if there were deniers, like we have Holocaust deniers, our guide said no because everyone had lost some family member during the war. Many of the Khmer  Rouge soldiers were very young and uneducated. Pol Pot was educated and even studied Buddhism to become a monk at some point. He didn't like educated people because they might question him. He liked uneducated people. Doesn't that sound a bit like something some orange menace once said?  Since that time, many of the Khmer Rouge soldiers have become alcoholics, or have constant nightmares, or serious mental health issues.

Nice houses being built in the middle of nowhere outside of the Killing Fields. They were built by Chinese and  bought by Chinese and other foreigners because nobody in Cambodia can afford them.

I just liked this truck.

We met two survivors. They used to tell their stories in the former prison across the street. It became too political so our leaders rented a restaurant for the morning where they could comfortably talk and we could talk wth them. Both of these men have written books about their experiences. They had them translated into English and that's how they make a living. When we went across the street to the former prison, we saw them sitting there where they spend all day trying to sell their  books.

This man is in his mid-50s. When he was a boy, his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge and he then lived in an orphanage.. He said there were many bullies and it was not fun. He has since married, has two kids and practices Buddhism so he is not angry. He wasn't tortured like the older man was.

This man is 91 years old. When asked if he was still angry, he said he's very angry. He wants his wife back. If he ever sees these people who hurt him, he wants to put them in shackles like he was put in shackles. 

This looks like an ordinary high school. It used to be, until they turned it into a prison. They took people there and tortured them until they would admit that they were CIA, FBI, or Russian spies. Actually, what they were doing was torturing them to give names of family members or friends or people that they knew. They were told that after they gave names, they would quit torturing them, except, of course, they didn't. They killed them anyway.

                This sculpture is now in the courtyard.  It indicates that the world is upside down.

                                                       

                                                            Some of the very few coffins.

                                    This is the narrow cell where the old man was shackled.

When the Cambodians realized that the Vietnamese troops were coming, they decided to empty the prison. They ran out with all the prisoners. Guns were firing all over the place. Somehow 7 prisoners survived. The one who is really short is the old guy we'd met  who was selling his book.

After this, it was not so easy to eat our lunch. This is a spirit alter at the restaurant where people make offerings to the ancestors so their business is profitable. We saw these all over Thailand  Laos, and Cambodia.

We all loved these little ice cream spoons that you can hook on the side of your bowl. Many restaurants use them.

Now that might seem like enough really difficult experiences for one day, but all  but two of us decided to do the optional activity. We went to an organization that rescues victims of sex trafficking and tries to get them out of the business, After a time, the Daughters of Cambodia added another group for the lady boys. That's the phrase they used which we also heard used in Laos. They describe them as transexuals because they dress in women's clothes.

They teach them skills that they can use to make a living. There are workshops to make jewelry, clothes, and do silk screening. They also teach them massage skills. In addition, they teach basic life skills that many of them don't have.

I am not the bravest person but two things really scared me. The one that affected me most directly was crossing the street. There are almost no street lights, and they don't really have crosswalks or pay attention to pedestrians.  We would cross the street in a large group (safety in numbers?). Twice when we had time to ourselves, even though I normally don't mind going to a restaurant by myself, I didn't want to go alone. Besides being terrified to cross the street, the sidewalks are uneven. It's an understatement to say it would be easy to fall coming back in the dark. The first time I asked a couple if I could join them for dinner. Tonight I ate at our hotel. Most of the hotels we stayed at only serve breakfast but fortunately this one had a Japanese restaurant and it was actually good.

The other thing that scares me about these countries is much more distant. It's the politics. Supposedly all of these counties are democracies and have elections, except somehow the same people are constantly elected and nobody believes that's what is really going on. It's simple. You just pay people and they vote for you, or you just change the results. The current leader of Cambodia is a psychic because he knows for sure that his son is going to be the next leader. Funny how that is. In other words, there is no freedom of speech in any of the countries that we've visited (or will visit, Vietnam). If you disagree out loud, you disappear, never to be heard from again,

I hesitate to say that there is one good thing. Because these leaders don't want insurrections, it is illegal to own guns. They have no school or mass shootings.

March 1

Goodbye Phnom Penh, this elegant grand city with about a million people and remnants of French architecture and on to Siem Reap, a city with only 300,000 people, much history, world heritage sites, and also French architecture.

We took a day-long bus ride to Siem Reap. We broke it up with several stops. First, a spontaneous stop when our guide spotted a woman selling lotus seeds.

                                                    The little points are actually quite sharp.

                            You pull out the green seed, peel the green outer layer and eat the seed.

There is also a form of lotus silk. It comes from breaking the stalks and then stretching them out.

Then we stopped at a village known as tarantula village. Several villagers, including this woman hunt tarantulas and sells them. She also cooks them. 

     

                                                    This is her house. And her cow.

She makes a wine that includes herbs, tarantulas, scorpions, and centipedes. It's supposed to have healing properties and be good for your joints. I think I will just suffer!

We went out in the jungle with her and she showed us how she dug in the holes to find tarantulas.

She snips the tarantula fangs so they aren't dangerous. They can't kill you. They are different from the ones in the US, but they can make you feel pretty sick.

                                                    Yes, those are tarantulas in the frying pan.

A lot of people tired these garlic and oil fried  tarantulas. I didn't. The report is that they didn't taste like much.

                                Spotted on her tree. Don't know if she cooks these as well.

Our next stop was a workshop/store that carved Buddhas out of sandstone.  People in town will buy these expensive Buddhas and then pay to have them shipped back to Phnom Penh. They hope it will improve their karma.

Then we stopped for lunch at a restaurant by this lake. It looks peaceful but it was a strong home for the Khmer Rouge. They wanted to expand the lake so they could cultivate more rice. They were selling this rice to the Chinese instead of trying to feed their own people who were starving.  Our guide says that his parents were forced to help dig out this lake to make it bigger.

The next stop was to watch a woman make rice cream. It's a seasonal treat. She heats the rice, then pounds the hot rice, and separates the rice from the chaff. She isn't wearing earplugs and the noise is deafening. It's incredibly hot outside without the fires and yet she's wearing long pants, long shirt, and something on her head. Our guide said that this is because people don't want to get too dark. So sad.

Our final stop was a 900 year old bridge. Cars and busses are no longer allowed to use it but scooters can. That's Naga behind me. Remember Naga the river spirit?

We finally arrived at our hotel. The fanciest one yet. This the floor in the in elevator. Can you find your astrology sign?

I almost called reception because  I thought that there was so much noise coming from my air conditioning. Nope, that wasn't it. The same noise is outside. It's cicadas.

March 2

We started our day with an ox cart ride. Actually, they are water buffalo. If you look carefully at this photo, you can see me crammed at the back. There were two people per cart. They drove us around the village.

Seems everywhere kids know how to wave and love to do it.

My new best friends, or my view from my position in the cart.

Next we stopped at a weaving village. This is rattan. It isn't grown. It's wild and harvested and since more land is being dug up for new buildings, they are concerned that they won't have any rattan at some point.

  This woman is 84. Many older women shave their heads and start going to the Buddhist temple when they get old. 

Our guide showed us one the baskets they made. He said it took them all day to make this. Then someone can buy it for five dollars!

Next, an unplanned stop. We saw fields of lotus flowers, and they stopped for us to get out and take photos.  They've been cultivated to be sold.

Next adventure, we boarded a boat like this to go out on Tenlo Sap lake to view the floating village. There are about 6000 people living in this floating village near Siem Reap.  On this entire lake, there are about 2 million people living in floating villages. It's a huge lake. When our guide was little there weren't any good roads to Phnom Penh. He would take a boat to get to Phnom Penh that took about 30 hours. He slept in a hammock.

                                                            Houses on the lake shore.

These are fishing nets. We had to stop so the captain could untangle them from our boat.

This is our captains's 12 year old son who we all thought was about 9 or 10. He his helping us navigate out of a tight spot after his father dealt with the fishing nets.

Right now the water is very low since it's the dry season. This means that the water is only 6 feet deep and very muddy. During monsoon season, it can get up to 20 to 35 feet deep. Then the water gets very rough and most people try to move their houses into a narrow tributary.

Previously people used bamboo to support their boats but now they use oil drums and have to change them every few years because they rust. 

                                                        This is the floating school.

Planning a wedding? Or another big event? If you live in this village, you can rent out the platform.

Yes, that's a floating Catholic Church.

If they have to go somewhere and are lucky, they own a motorboat. Usually the boat is tied up to their floating house. 

We'd done so much this morning that I assumed we were going to lunch. Instead, they said if we wanted we could stop to visit the inside of a floating house. Most of us went. It was not easy going down these little mud steps. This house is floating but it's up against the shore.

There are seven people living in this two room house. There used to be eight but the father said that his father just died.

 

                    This is the owner's fishing boat that he uses when he goes out to check his traps.

I wondered how they had a functioning TV. Everything is run on car batteries. The car batteries are recharged by using solar panels. I tried to take photos of the houses with solar panels but I couldn't get close enough for a good photo. They're not like the big ones you see across a roof in the US. There may be one or two small squares.

One person mentioned that the children had curly hair. Our guide pointed out that the original Khmer people had curly or wavy hair, were darker, and sometimes have wider features.  Our Cambodian guide is part Chinese. We also learned that our main trip leader is part Chinese which explains why Joe doesn't look quite the same as most people in Thailand.

Then some of us went on an optional activity. We went to an artisan school. At one point the school had a lot of international money to help train poor kids, They are still teaching poor kids a variety of arts skills.

He is carving sandstone which is easier to carve than wood because there is no grain.

This is Cambodian sign language. A number of people being trained are deaf.

They also had a lovely gift shop. I saw a beautiful stone Buddha that was maybe 1 1/2 inches high and cost $61. It stayed there!

Then we visited Ta Promh temple. It's better known to many as the Temple of Doom from the Lara Croft movie with Angelina Jolie. The temple has been somewhat destroyed by tree roots that are absolutely amazing and unlike any I've ever seen.

When our guide was a boy, long before this became a UNESCO site, he use to play hide an seek here. He wanted to see if he could still fit in this tree.  He did. He even managed to get back out!

                This is one of several photos of me in front of the iconic film photos from Temple of Doom.

The most famous photo from the movie.

I can't even capture all of the tree root, it's so huge.

This is the moat that goes around Angkor Wat. Unlike western castles, this is not here for protection from enemies. It is considered sacred water. After our tour I looked at the weather. It said 91 but feels like 96. My only thought was - - only 96?? It was so hot.

At night some of us chose to go to a classical professional Cambodian dance performance and dinner.

They also performed the coconut dance. They were better than the kids we saw though the kids were quite good.

Unfortunately our evening was somewhat spoiled at the end  by a group of very rowdy Europeans. We weren't sure where they were from but we were sure they had a lot to drink. Some of the women decided to go up on stage and get their photos taken beside the dancers. The dancers stood there patiently,. Then a huge creepy man went up with a selfie stick. He put his arms around the dancers and didn't even look at them. They were like his trophies.  The women just stand there tolerating it. Even the the men in our group thought it was disgusting.

March 3

This morning we began our tour at the East Gate of Angkor Wat. One of the women in our group had rented a remok for the mile walk in and out. It's flat but it was also very hot and humid and I decided to save my knees and join them.

There were a number of steps with no hand rails or walls to hold on to. Since my knees aren't great, I've never had good balance, and I'm afraid of heights, I was so very glad to take the arm of a very nice, strong man on our trip as I negotiated some dicey passageways. 

We saw many murals carved on the walls. Each one depicted a story from Hindu mythology. I couldn't begin to repeat or remember all these stories.

             I could easily grasp and remember the information from this illustration in the rest room.

 I did not go up to the third level. There didn't used to be a handrail. I watched young people struggling to come down holding on to the railing for dear life.  Our guides kept saying how Angkor Wat was on everyone's bucket list. If you go to Cambodia, you absolutely should go here, but it wasn't on my bucket list and I'm not sure that I would make the trip just to see it. 

 Next: A Belgian organization called a APOPO works with HERORATS. These rats help find the millions of land mines and unexploded bombs in Cambodia. Every other day someone is killed or maimed by these unexploded ordinances. The rats are very special African pouch rats. They live till about eight years old, have an extraordinary sense of smell, and can detect TNT.  These Tanzanian rats are quite large but not large enough to detonate bombs or land mines. One rat can detect more bombs in 3 hours than a a metal detector in four days. Plus a metal detector picks up all metal so it's tricky to figure out what is actually a bomb or landmine.

A

 Meet Valerie who demonstrates how she finds something. Don't worry. It's just a small amount of TNT, not a real bomb-- and then she claws at the dirt and gets a reward as she learned to do through clicker training.

                                                                This is me and Dora

                                            One last temple, Angkor Thom Bayon Temple.

 

And then we saw an unexpected sight at the temple. We were told not to get close to the monkeys. People used to feed them, Now if a person is carrying a plastic bag, the monkeys will jump up and grab it. If they bite you, you will need to get rabies shots -- so don't get close - feed or pet them.

Angkor Wat at dusk. We toasted to our adventure and ate local treats.

Mangosteen fruit

Aligator Jerky

Water snake and water buffalo. I just ate roasted peanuts.

Some monks at the moat at dusk.

In Cambodia, nearly all bathrooms have a hose like this to clean the bathroom. It seems not all visitors understand what it's for.

Some of us went to an acrobat show. What's really cool about this, besides the fact that they're good is that it's another organization that brings in poor young people who are talented and then teaches them art and performance skills so the may be able to have a job in the arts 

March 4

We went to Banteay Srei, the pink sandstone temple in Cambodia. It has a rose color and the stone can be carved like wood. It has elaborate carvings.

These musicians play traditional music outside the temple grounds. We also saw a group like this at Angkor Wat. They are all people who have been maimed by landmines or unexploded cluster bombs. this is how  they need to earn their living now.

                                                  After our visit, we stopped at noodle village.

 This woman in her sixties gets up  at 4 AM to make fresh noodles every day so she can serve people at her little restaurant that is simply a long table with some plastic chairs. She makes fresh  rice noodles every day and uses ancient equipment.

This is the first step where she puts the the rice and water in a stone grinder with a wooden lever.

        Next step: squeezing the water out of the rice paste.

Then she squeezes the noodles out of a metal cup with holes.She does this using a wooden beam that requires two people to put their weight on it to press the noodles down into the water where they cook for just a few minutes.

                                                        Final producet on a banan leaf.

Then the noodles get added to soup. These were the freshest rice noodles I'll ever eat. They were wonderful.

Ever wonder why cashews are so expensive? This is the cashew fruit. People in Cambodia only ate the fruit. Then many years later they learned that people eat the nut. The outside of the nut is poisonous, so it has to be peeled.

As you can see, each fruit bears only one nut and that's why they're so expensive. This was one of those spontaneous stops. Our guide saw a stand selling them and stop to buy us some cashews.

Final stop in Cambodia was the Angkor National Museum which as they proudly told us is their world class museum.

We visited the room of 1000 Buddhas. Dare I say, after you've seen 100 Buddhas, you've seen them all!

                                                            It was a very nice museum.

 On to Vietnam. You know those incredibly boring videos about how to fasten your seatbelt that you don't pay any attention to? Well, Vietnam airlines has figured out a much better way. How about a little humor and fun? You can't not watch this!

March 5 

First, a few observations. When we first arrived in Bangkok, our leader kept saying that their Buddhism was like the New Testament. By that he meant that Hinduism came first and then Buddhism evolved. When we went to Angkor Wat in Cambodia we learned that basically it was a Hindu temple. Most of the wall carvings were from Hindu mythology.Then came Buddhism and it was a bit of a decorative mix. I was amazed at how much Buddhism permeated the daily life in Laos and Cambodia, and to a degree in Thailand.  I was hoping to compare the differences between Theravada and Mahayana when we were in Vietnam, but guess what? This is a communist country and religion is not encouraged so I can't quite make that comparison. I'll have to do my own research at home.

Another observation is that dams are a huge, huge controversy. China has built multiple hydro electric dams along the Mekong River. Laos built a huge hydroelectric dam financed by Thailand. Cambodia and Vietnam hate these dams. They've been bad for the fish, bad for the crops, bad for getting the silt needed to keep land fertile. In some ways this like issues we have in our own country with dams, electricity and having enough water.

The pandemic has been hard. Thailand's major source of income is tourism. 47 million people came to Thailand each year before the pandemic and then a two year draught. Since the country opened up 6 months ago, 10 million people have arrived. In Laos, our guide became very depressed not working for 2 years and unable to support his family. He went to a monastery for a month to work on his state of mind. In Siem Reap, Cambodia, 85% of the population makes their income from tourism. Our Vietnamese guide said during the pandemic people either got divorced or had a baby. She has a 17 month old so she says she made the better choice.

I am now in what is officially called Ho Chi Minh City but most people still call Saigon. There are 11 million people and 8 million motor scooters. You don't see any big motorcycles. If you don't have much money, you buy one from China for $500 but you better be really good at knowing how to fix them because they break all the time. Anyone who can buys one for $2000 from Japan and they can last at least ten years.

It's illegal to eat on the street in Saigon so these young people are gathering around as they often do to eat but they have tiny little chairs so if the police are coming they can grab a chair and get away in a hurry.

 This street is blocked of and apparently there's a big to do tonight and one of our guys just came back and said that there were thousands of people there. I'm sure it was quite a scene and I'm glad to have missed it.

When people ride motor scooters, they can get numb butt after an hour. They often stop at a place for Vietnamese coffee which is made with condensed milk and served in a glass. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee but unlike Columbian coffee, it often gets relabeled and you don't realize it's Vietnamese. For those of us who don't drink coffee we were served green tea that was kept unbelievably hot in this coconut that was carved out.

After drinking their coffee, people often relax in a hammock before getting back on the motor scooter.

                We took a boat ride along the Mekong River about two hours south of Saigon. 

This area is known as the food basket of Vietnam. We were served coconut water the way it is traditionally served.

This boat has two eyes as many still do. The idea was that if an alligator raised its head it would be scared off by the bigger "animal." There are no more alligators since people ate them all.

Yours truly. We were given the option of sitting there and getting a photo, and, no, we didn't get to keep the hat! We turned off the main river to a smaller tributary. 

                                                                   

      Wild water coconuts.

We took the boat up the tributary to stop at an organic farm. We met the farmer and his wife. He was incredibly nice and very funny. His main crop is pomelos.

Peeling it. Pomelos  are supposedly the parents of grapefruit and are sweeter than a grapefruit.

Then we got to go back to the kitchen which is outside, of course. This is where they were making rice crackers which they sell. 

The finished product.

After that, we got to ride on a sampan boat. These are small boats that are mainly used on the tributaries.

When we took out oxcart ride in Cambodia, they called it the Cambodian Lexus. After our boat ride on the Mekong they told we were riding on the the Vietnamese Lamborghinis. 

Then we stopped by a coconut factory where they made coconut candy. It's a real factory but also clearly at tourist spot where they hope you will buy lots of candy I just tried the samples.

We stopped for lunch along the river. This is an elephant ear fish.

It ended up in this spring roll.

A dinosaur egg. That's what they called it but really it's sticky rice that they in strips and then gave us small pieces. 

Shrimp salad on a shrimp chip.

Shrimp golden crepe. A French Vietnamese fusion.

In every country that we visited, since there was no freedom of speech, each of our guides said that what was said in the bus stayed in the bus. If we were out and asked a controversial question, we would be told that they would talk about it later. Our current guide said that she won't do any research or discuss things on her phone or computer because the government can track her information.  If she wants to research something, she uses the hotel internet at one of the hotels she works with. That way, the government can't trace who was using the computer and getting information. We also learned that everyone has been issued new ID cards that have a chip in them so they can tell where you are all of the time.

March 6

Saigon is a very vibrant city. and the most cosmopolitan we've visited. I noted that there were many Japanese stores and learned that's because there are many Japanese factories here and many Japanese have moved here. To compare to anywhere I've been I'd say the closest is Shanghai.

First stop this morning: Book Street. Apparently the government is worried that the kids are always on their phones and not reading. They are encouraging them to read. Classes will go here to buy books.

Manga are very popular and have to be held behind the desk. Students need to request them.

We learned that some people don't buy books but just get dressed up to take photos. And then look what we found.

Next stop: This was built by the French. It's Notre Dame Cathedral. It's been under construction for several years so we couldn't visit.

This is the back of the Virgin Mary. At some point someone was watching her and was certain that the Virgin Mary was crying real tears. This news spread and suddenly large groups were gathering at the statue. This did not go over well with the communist government who pressured the local priest to explain to everyone that it was really just cleaning fluid streaming down her face.

                                    People like to dress up and take pictures here as well.

                                         This is the post office also clearly built by the French. 

                                                                    I liked the floor.

                                And the ceiling. Wait! Who is that at the end of the hall??

                                Why it's Uncle Ho! This is what the people of Vietnam call him.  They really do adore him. People think he was the last leader who actually cared about the country and people and not just himself. While the US was so worried about him spreading communism across the region, most other communist leaders strongly criticized him for being a Nationalist first and a communist second.

This is Independence Palace. It was the last place that the former government of South Vietnam conducted business before the communists took over.

Courtyard garden. Our guide explained the importance of the placement of this garden because Vietnamese people take Feng Shui very seriously. 

                                             The communist flag and the Vietnamese flag.

These were two buddies. The one in the white helmet was a double agent. Apparently there many double agents who worked in the government who accumulated information and then gave it to the Vietcong.

Then we went under the palace to an underground bunker with work rooms, and escape area.

We were told that the radio equipment was donated by Motorola but I could not find the name on any of the equipment.

Then the government officials could go down yet another layer to to lower bunker and even sleep there.

A few other comments-- while were on our bus our guide showed us some historical photos. She talked again how careful we all need to be. Apparently, at one point she took a bus to Independence Palace and two women were very hot and chose to just sit down. She let them use two of her photos as fans. She'd told us many times that spies were everywhere. One of them called her in for "a cup of tea." He asked her why she had these photos because one of these officials in the photos was no longer in good standing. She  explained that she was just trying to teach the history. After a long talk they let her go, but she said she never wants to have another "cup of tea" again!

Remember the infamous Buddhist monk who went up in flames after setting himself on fire and energized anti-war sentiment? This is a statue of him. Our guide tells a different story, and one that she thinks is the real story. He fainted because he was drugged. And then people who wanted to create anti-war sentiment set him on fire but made it look like he'd set himself on fire. The copycat monks who followed the example probably set themselves on fire.

Then we walked into a formally private home owned by one of the many military men that who was actually a double agent.

Over three years they snuck in military equipment under vegetables. You can see how they were hidden in boards and then put underneath the beds.

This is a little bunker underneath the house. I didn't walk into it since it looked difficult to get up and down.They also stored weapons here. 

                    I didn't go into this store but I couldn't help but take a photo!

Next, we visited Ben Thanh market, the most famous market in Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City. It is unbelievably huge and overwhelming.

I didn't buy any of this coffee which is known as weasel shit coffee. That's the real name. Apparently the weasels would eat all of the coffee beans but they couldn't completely digest them. You can guess what happens next. Then the farmers collect the pooped out coffee beans that had a thick shell, wash them, peel off the the outer shell and use the inner beans. Supposedly it's great coffee.

After many requests, Madame do you want to buy? Good price for you! I just sat down. The huge bag of cashews looked good but I'd need another suitcase.

O.A. T used to include this war museum on their trips but then they stopped doing it because so many people complained the it was un-American. A few years  ago our leader added it back as an optional activity. It didn't strike me as specifically anti-American. Maybe just factual!

We learned that Agent Orange can affect 6 generations.  Many children are born with horrible mental and physical disabilities. Seeing as our government didn't deal very well with our own soldiers who were exposed to agent orange, it's not surprising that our government hasn't done anything for the Vietnamese people. Children's drawings about Agent Orange

 

And a random comment, the guide said a tourist told her that the people in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia look alike but the people in Vietnam look Chinese. This really upset her. Why? Because she hates the Chinese. Most Vietnamese do and it's not just because they invaded them often for centuries. Currently, no one but Vietnamese are allowed to own property in Vietnam. Somehow the Chinese bribe the right people so that they actually buy the land for Chinese. People are furious with the government because some of them have leased some of the most strategic ports to the Chinese for 99 years. They think that these guys will be in power for 4-8 years and then probably go to the US or somewhere else and they don't care what happens to the country.

March 7      

A few thoughts. Even though things can be crappy in our country, we do have freedom of speech.We might get criticized but we aren't going to be sent off to reeducation camp and have our entire family be penalized. Even though under the table things happen in the US, it's nothing like these countries. Our guide in Cambodia told us that if went to the hospital as he did with his father, the doctors and nurses will eventually come out to see you and then tell you that they might see you at the end of the day or you can come back tomorrow. If you decide to stay, the doctors don't really come back. But - if you pull out a wad of cash and give it to them, suddenly you are getting the medical care that you need -- in this country that supposedly has free medical care.

     In a situation I'm not so critical of, our Vietnamese guide lives in a neighborhood that doesn't have good schools. She pays what they call "coffee money" to someone and her daughter is then able to go to school in a different district. 

    Today we went on a long ride about two hours north of Saigon. Our guide told us about her family on the way. Her one grandfather was from the north. His parents were killed by the French. Not surprisingly, he later joined the Vietcong. At one point he was captured and spent two years in prison. During that time  a Catholic priest visited him and kept him from committing suicide. That's why he later converted to Catholicism. He was proud of the revolution and the system it created. Later he changed his mind. After the war, the government owned everything. Your land, your chickens no longer belonged to you but to the government.  You were allotted a certain amount of rice for your whole family, regardless of the size of your family. When his son, our guide's father, became very sick, he was so worried, he quietly killed one of his former chickens to make soup for his son. He tried to be very quiet but the scent of the chicken soup carried. A bossy neighbor came over, discovered the soup and reported him to the police. As a result, his family was denied their rice portion for 8 months and the woman who reported him got his family's portion. He was enraged by this and lost complete faith in the system that he'd fought for. 

     Her other grandparent worked for the government of South Vietnam. After they lost the war, the new government tried to get people to surrender but nobody would. Finally, they showed positive tv images of people surrendering and being well taken care of. They were told if they surrendered, they would be sent to a work camp for a short time and then could come back to their jobs. His wife had two kids and was pregnant. He told her he'd be back in a month. They never saw him again.

    Increasingly, Vietcong supporters have been disillusioned seeing how the country is now half communist and half capitalist and capitalism seems to be wining and inequality has returned.

    After several hours of stories, we arrived at the Chu Chi tunnels. These were the underground tunnels that the Vietcong used. This looks like a termite mound but you can see there's a hole to let air into the tunnels. Of course, during the war this would be camouflaged.

This is an opening where someone could stick a rifle out to shoot the enemy.

This is our guide at the tunnels and you can see that he's quite skinny and can actually fit in these tunnels. The Vietcong were small, had no hips or shoulders compared to westerners, and since they didn't have enough to eat, weighed about 75 pound. That meant they could fit into these tiny tunnels. Our guide could only have his job because his family was Vietcong.

                                                He's demonstrating how to slip into a tunnel

                        He demonstrates how to put the lid back so it doesn't look like there's a lid there.

Our guide places her foot so we can see how narrow the opening was - and she  has small feet.

This is a booby trap. Originally they were used to catch animals. During the war they would use them to catch soldiers. When other soldiers came to their rescue their friends, the Vietcong would shoot the rescuers.

There are very sharp spikes sticking up. Sometimes they put poison on the tips. Sometimes they put snakes or scorpions in the pits.

They opened up some tunnels so that tourists can enter. They really increased the size from the actual tunnels. Solders had to crouch and duck walk with their arms on their thighs. They might walk a long distance in this squatting position. It makes me claustrophobic to think about it and to wonder how they got enough air in there.

This is the size of the actual tunnels. They made them much larger for us but they still felt small and claustrophobic to us.

                                        There were doctors who worked underground for years.

                                                                    

                                                                    Meeting room.

The Vietcong had to cook underground and make the smoke go out and away from them. They figured out how to make the smoke come out two miles away. They would cook at 3 or 4 in the morning so when the smoke did come out it would look like morning mist. 

The GIs would try to find these tunnels with dogs. At first the Vietcong killed and ate the dogs. Then they tried putting out spicy chilies that made the dogs sneeze like crazy. What worked the best was when the VC snuck onto the American base at night and stole their soap. They started washing with American soap and it threw off the dogs because they smelled like the GIs.

After our walk through history, we went back to the modern city of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.

The cost of living in Vietnam is outrageous. This was true in all of the countries we visited. People often earned $300 to $500 per month. Our guide has a degree in economics but prefers working in tourism. Her husband is an engineer. She says her family owns their own apartment which is an hour away from the city by scooter. It has a small kitchen, small living room, and 3 bedrooms. That sounds good until she explains that 14 family members live there. Her parents, siblings, their spouses and children. Her mother sold a piece of property in the village and bought this with the hope that her children could save up and buy their own homes. There are no beds in the small rooms but sleeping mats that they can roll up during the day. They say you have a HUGE bedroom if you can lie on your mat but can't turn on the TV with your foot! She said it was awful during the pandemic. Her parents returned to their village, the siblings cooked at different times and remained in their tiny bedrooms.

She told us before Covid,  they didn't have many homeless people but they do now. We saw a woman sitting on the sidewalk with a sleeping kid across her lap. Our guide told us not to give them money. She said it was likely this was not her child.  They drug these kids so they lie on their lap all day and people will take pity and give them a handout. The kids did look out of it and they weren't toddlers. It's hard to comprehend this.

Some final scenes of Saigon.

And that's the end of my Southeast Asia journey. That, and 30 hours of traveling back home.