Tuol Sleng museum and the Killing Fields

Phnom Pehn is a large noisy busy city and the capital of Cambodia.  The Royal Palace dates back to the 15th century and has beautiful grounds.  The current king lives here but behind the public areas.  he is 53, has not married and does not have Cambodian blood (his mother is Vietnamese and father Italian).
 Most people come to the city to see Tuol Sleng prison or S21.  It was one of many prisons where people were brought to be tortured.  It was once a high school, but since Pol Pot took over the country, schools, hospitals and any educational centre was banned.  Anyone who was suspected of being a threat to his new society were tortured and executed.  If they survived S21 they were then taken to the Killing Fields.   They were bound and blindfolded and executed and dumped in mass graves.  The Khmer Rouge did not shoot them, bullets were too scarce, they hit them with hoes, machetes or decapitated them saw palms. Children were murdered also as they could not work in the fields.  Not everyone was dead when they were pushed into the mass graves, so DDT was then spread on them to dampen the smell and kill anyone who was not dead.  Loudspeakers played music to drown out the screams as this killing field was next to farms and a town.  There were dozens of prisons and killing fields throughout the country.  Over 3 million Cambodians were murdered between 1975 to 1979, anyone who was educated or thought to be a threat to Pol Pot.  They openly admitted to killing anyone they thought may be  threat, no proof needed.  The rest of the population from cities and towns were forced into the country to build dams, grow rice and other perform other menial labour.  It was a dismal failure as they were given not instructions and most knew nothing about farming.  Many
starved and were worked to death as there was not enough food.  Pol Pot also traded 3 bags of rice for a gun with China depleting the food supply even further.
The Vietnamese forced Pol Pot (short for Political Potential named by the Chinese) from power but the misery for the Cambodians was not to end.  Families were reunited but most of the men from the towns were forced to harvest timber which was sold to China, Vietnam and Thailand.  This was dangerous work as the areas were full of landminds and many died or were maimed by them.  It is sad to see the men missing limbs who cannot work and there is not public welfare so they often have to depend on the generosity of tourists.
There was no education between the early 1970's to 1993 so a large portion of the population cannot read or write. 

Royal Palace

Throne room, no pictures allowed

the killing fields, bones and bits of clothing migrate to the surface from the shallow graves

Tuol Sleng prison

the classrooms were divided into cells which were less than 1 metre wide, the prisoners were removed from their cells to be tortured

Banteay Srei and TaProhm

Lintel above a doorway at banteay srei, carved in red sandstone

doorway Banteay Srei

Ta Prohm where Tomb Radier was filmed, they were going to leave it in ruins but have decided to restore it now

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carved corner

tree growing along the top of a corridor

guardian at Ta Prohm

Temples of Angkor

The temples of Angkor cover many kilometres and are in varying states of repair from ruins with trees growing through the temples and walls to ones which have been restored, a term that is used loosely.  They are a site to behold and the details in the temples are amazing.  Many have intricate carvings depicting battles, heaven and hell and religious figures from Buddhism and Hinduism.  Depending on who was ruling the area at the time, the religion bounced around from Buddhism to Hindu and back again.  Carvings of Buddha where scratched out and then replaced, heads were cut off the Buddha statues, but a lot of the carvings remain.  Most of the statues were destroyed or taken to France for museums and private collectors.
A surprising number of wats were constructed from the tenth to thirteenth centuries.  The large sandstone blocks were cut from a quarry 50km away and floated downstream on barges.  The construction was dry fitting, the blocks were fitted together tightly without mortar reminding me of the Incas.  Foundations and walls were made of volcanic stone as it was tougher and available and the temples were made of sandstone as it was easy to carve.
Angkor Wat is the most famous but the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom is one of the most beautiful along with Bateay Srei.  Angkor Wat and many of the wats are surrounded by moats as they used the soil that was removed to build the foundations.  Also if the soil stayed moist, it was more stable and the foundations did not settle or move.  You can see it in the temples where there is still water in the moats as compared to the ones that are dry.  Most are also surrounded by walls which also protected the cities within.  None of the buildings remain as they were built of wood.  It must have been a sight to see, the cities were planned and very orderly.   They had drainage and sewers and urban planning.   The ancient cities were planned whereas the modern one, Siem Reap, was not.
We spent three days exploring the temples and did not see half of it.

sunrise over Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Hindu carvings

sandstone carving depicting a famous battle

tower, most of the wats had several towers

the Bayon temple had 54 towers with each of he 4 sides carved with the face of Buddha (216 of them)  they were carved and then placed

Baphuon temple 1055 in Angkor Thom complex

sunset over the bridge to Angkor Thom

Ta Nei temple ruins

gate at Angkor Thom

carvings on the gate at Angkor Thom

Life along the Mekong (southern Laos)

everyone fishes for food for themselves and to sell.  The size of the nets (wholes in them) depends on the season and the size of fish

children bathing, they love to say hello and wave

vendors selling their products to travelers passing through

gathering river weed for fertilizer

fishing at sunset

did not think it could hold that many, but they are bailing

elephants

baby elephant on mom's back while bathing

nursing baby elephant 2 yrs old, Maxi

Dan and his elephant (and mahout) going for a bath

bath time, the water is colder than it looks

time to dry off

cooling off after a long walk

Maxi playing on mom's back while bathing

temples in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO site,the town and area has over 50 wats ie temples in various states of repair/disrepair.  Most have monks living on the site.  The wats consist of a temple , drum building, a building to house the ancient palm manuscripts and the stuppa which has a conical top and used to bury important articfacts or ashes (of the abbot).  The Lao people are very serious about Buddhism, many get up in the morning at sunrise to gives alms to the monks ie food or money so the monks can eat.  The monks eat twice a day, early in the morning and lunch.  They pray, go to school, maintain the  grounds or just walk around town.  The monks can be any age from a young boy to an old man.  They can come and go as they wish and can enter and leave the monkhood? at any time.  It is lovely to see them walking around in their bright orange robes.
The temples can be very simple or very ornate, many have been decorated with mosaics depicting the life of Buddha.  Many have paintings inside depicting what will happen to people who are not good throughout their lives ie Hell.  There are 5 rules in Buddhism, do not kill, steal, commit adultery, drink and lie.  There is a separate hell or punishment for each sin.  We have seen graphically painted and carved depictions of each punishment.  Tongues cut out for telling lies, you have to climb a thorny tree naked and get eaten by animals for adultery.  Not pretty and we thought the Buddhists were such pacifists!
Luang Prabang was a French colonial town where they came to escape the heat and believe me its hot in southern Laos and Cambodia.  It is a very pretty and peaceful town with some great French restaurants and bakeries, good pain au chocolat.  You can get an hour massage for $10 where a small but strong girl sits on you and beats and stretches you into blissful submission.  Lots of shopping, the uniform of the backpackers are elephant pants.  They are baggy and ugly and everyone wheres them, aarrgh. 
We visited an elephant camp and got to ride the elephants, it is not a smooth ride.  I rode bareback which gives your quads a workout and your skin gets exfoliated

giving alms to the monks

.  Elephants have short hairs on their heads and bodies that feel like steel wool.  We got to wash them, which was interesting.  We wore our bathing suits which exposed our legs to their brillo pad hairs.  We then splashed them and ourselves with water and scrubbed them with a scrub brush.  We like to think that the elephants do what we tell them but they really do what they want, its hard to get an animal that big to do what you what without a large hook, which they do not use.  It is used in logging where these elephants were rescued from.  They are worked very hard as they eat a lot and have to produce in order to pay for their food.  Often they are abused.  Rescue camps buy them, when they are too sick or weak to no longer work, nurse them back to health and then use them as an attraction where they don't have to work very hard.

main temple in the Royal Palace

doorway to temple

trying not to get our feet wet

its not as easy as it looks, you really have to hang on especially going up and down hills, its a good leg workout

Arrived safely

Buddha which is found with his hands in difference positions meaning different things

night market in Luang Prabang

sunset over the Mekong