Pictures Part 2

Our 2nd album of pictures can be found at:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108781435296042098143/albums/5760063359419671281

The 1st album is here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108781435296042098143/albums/5742105012611135265

Wat Kongdin and Faasai Pt. 2

We've made it through a wonderful 3.5 weeks in Cambodia and are back at Faasai Resort near the city of Chanthaburi at the Thai/Cambodian border.  We couldn't be happier to be here at in this little slice of heaven working in the garden and hanging out with our favorite Kiwi, Bronwen.  Today, both she and her husband, Surin, took us to Wat Kongdin "The last temple of Rayong province's."  It is centered around a Buddha statue built in 1499 by Pracho Prom Maharaj on his 24th birthday and two Bodhi trees planted 245 years ago by King Taksin.  There is a popular story Thai children learn of the battle that ensued (the Burmese had taken the capital of Ayuttaya and the Thai's were going to recapture, although heavily outnumbered) where King Taksin told his army "We are going to attack Chantaburi tonight. Destroy all the food and utensils we have, for we will have our food in Chantaburi tomorrow morning, or we will die."  The Thais succeeded in battle and he became the first commoner King of Thailand.  Reminds of us of a popular battle all Texas children are taught concerning a Colonel Travis, a sword and a line in the sand... except the obvious opposite outcome of the battle (but not the war! Republic of Texas, est. 1836, yeehaw.)   

Rural Cambodia

We've spent the past 2 weeks teaching children in rural Cambodia (Kampeng Village, Takeo Province - 12km from Phnom Chisom) and just made it back to Phnom Penh last night.  No running water, lots of rice, limited electricity, cart and ox still heavily used for transportation, no connection to the outside world and a LOT of smiles.  We were treated like movie stars in the village with the women handing us their children with pride and not being able to walk anywhere without all of the kids coming out of their huts to greet us and show off one of the 3 English phrases they have mastered: "Hello!" "What is your name?" "How are you?"  We truly enjoyed our time out there and the 15 days flew by with the generous hospitality extended to us.  The meals consisted of rice, water and a portion of meat... quite a few times frogs (note I said frogs... not frog legs as they just grill the hell out of it and serve it whole and you eat every part of it.)  The average farmer in this village makes around $60 a month and uses that to support generally a family of around 6-8 people (lots of kids) so needless to say this area was very poor.  That said, the outlook, attitude and welcoming we received proved to be all the luxuries we needed (OK, OK... we would have liked toilet paper.)

We just uploaded our pictures to the "Travel Gumbo 2" album so feel free to check them out.  I'll post a link to it soon if anyone has difficulty seeing them.  There are a lot btw, once the kids got ahold of our camera it was a no holds barred free for all photography frenzy.     

S21 and the Killing Fields

Having been in Cambodia for less than a week we have seen the beautiful proud side of the Khmer people and the dark side.  It's difficult to imagine that collectively 7 and 9 years before our birth, while our parents were complaining about OAPEC and soaring gas prices, nearly 2 million people were killed during a 3.5 year period under Pol Pot to create a crazy marxist agrarian wet dream.  Today we visited S-21 (a prison for torturing confessions out of people) and "the Killing Fields" where the condemned prisoners were taken and bludgeoned to death (bullets were too valuable to spare.)

S-21 is a chilling place, a few of the 4 buildings were kept exactly as they were found.  In fact, you can even walk into the wooden cells where prisoners were shackled in between torture sessions.  You can see their scratch marks in the wood, presumably counting the days they were there (highest I counted was 21), and there are still blood stains on the floor.  The other buildings are monuments to the dead.  Like the Nazis, the KR was meticulous in its documentation and systematic extermination of people - photographing all of the prisoners.  The other buildings house picture after picture of faces of the dead.  Taken when they were first admitted to the prison, some smiling, some scared, some angry, all confused, only 7 survived.

The prisoners were then taken to the "Killing Fields" to be executed immediately some 10-15 km away.  There is a stupa now in the middle that houses almost 8,000 skulls and it takes quite an effect on you.  There is also a tree where babies were thrown against to be killed "to kill the grass, you have to kill the roots as well." 

Obviously, we were highly moved.  Specifically by how everything was kept in place, no excuses made, and by how recently all of this occurred.  Makes you think about the other genocides that weren't even less than 10 years before our birth: Rwanda, Darfur, Sri Lanka to name a few.  Also makes you amazed by the spirit of the Cambodian people and the pride we see here. 

Legends of the Hidden Temple

I call Red Jaguar team!  Ok, ok, enough of our hilarious 90's kids humor.  Spent 7 hours exploring around Angkor Wat and the surrounding Wats on the 7th.  Had a blast - really enjoyed the fact that in Cambodia they let you climb all over everything and hardly anything is off limits if you want to climb into it.  We got a ton of pictures but are having difficulty getting a good enough internet connection for them to actually upload.

In other news, we leave for the orphanage tomorrow (ourfriendsorphanage.org) and will be there for two weeks.  Not sure what the internet will be like out there so maybe a few weeks without posts. 

River Boat Queen

With our Thai visas expiring, we left Faasai/Chanthaburi on the 4th to head into Cambodia.  We walked across the bridge with little trouble and hired a taxi to take us to Battambang.  We spent two nights in the old French colonial town and have to say we enjoyed it.  Our hotel was pretty much in the center of town so we had little trouble getting around and there was a huge market less than a block away (oh ya, and the restaurant across the street had 50 cent beers...)  Anyways, after a day of resting, relaxing and reorganizing after the 2nd night we hopped on a boat at 7 am on the Sangkae River and took a 7 hour boat ride down the river, into Tonle Sap lake and finally arriving in Siem Reap.  A short tuk-tuk ride later and slightly soaked from the afternoon rains and we have made it to our newest hotel and are looking forward to Angkor Wat (we leave in an hour, ie 8 am.)

In other news, we are now posting pictures in our "Travel Gumbo 2" album.  Let us know if you have any problems finding that one and we can post a link.