Gap Year

Thailand: The Land of Smiles

My last post ended as we boarded a plane bound for Phuket, a tropical paradise in Thailand. After an exhausting week of traveling in Cambodia, we were more than ready for relaxing on its renowned beaches famous for their stunning beauty and alluring turquoise waters. By the end of our stay, more than the water proved tempting.

Sunday was just that, relaxing. We slept in and then spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. While taking a dip in the ocean to cool off from the near-perfect 90°F weather, I noticed a boat taking people parasailing. Since the 8^th grade, I’ve wanted to parasail, but it’s never materialized—weather prevented my first attempt, and in the face of the second, I chickened out.

I marched down the beach, haggled over the price, and before I knew it, I was soaring over the ocean! It wasn’t scary in the least, just super relaxing. That evening, we went to a restaurant overlooking the ocean and enjoyed a nice meal while watching the sunset.

Monday, we headed by speedboat to Raya Island, a small island about 40 minutes from Phuket with an extensive coral reef. We hoped to escape the tourist crowds of Phuket and take advantage of the snorkeling. The fish were plentiful with a variety of striking colors. We saw a blue starfish and even a blowfish. I sadly didn’t find Nemo, but I did find Dorothy!

For our final day in Phuket before heading to Bangkok, Marius decided to go bungy jumping. Now, I could have easily spent the morning lounging on the beach or going horseback riding, but I can do those things anywhere. When would I have another opportunity to bungy jump in the near future?! And with that, I decided that I too would take the leap.

Heading to the site Monday morning, I was calm and kept reminding myself, “You just jump. Right? What’s the big deal?” Wanting to see how the operation worked, I let Marius go first and continued to replay the tape, “You just jump…jump…”

Marius completed his jump and declared, “That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done.” Suddenly, it was my turn.

First, they bound my legs together at the shins. Then, I hopped to the lift, boarded the tram, and began the 50-meter assent to the platform.  I pressed play, but the tape snapped! My feeling of, “You just jump” was replaced by, “What in the world are you doing!?” I was terrified.

I hopped to the ledge with a death-grip on the railing. The man assisting my jump instructed me, “Put your arms out, keep your chin up, and dive into the air.” YEAH RIGHT! There was no way that I, the kid who couldn’t dive at YMCA swim lessons, was going to dive from 50 meters up, out over a lake.

No way. I wanted back on the ground now.

The instructor coaxed me to raise my arms. Slowly, I let go of the railing. He agreed to push me out so that I wouldn’t have to dive. The instructor counted, “One. Two. Three,”…

Suddenly I was screaming and plummeting towards the water!

But then, I was bouncing back up and swinging all around. This lasted for a solid minute and my screams turned to whimpers. Finally, the man on the dock held out a long pole for me to grab. After I few more bounces, I grabbed the pole, and he brought me safely back to earth. Safe at last! It was definitely the scariest thing I’ve done as well, and it was also the biggest thrill ever. I think I will have to try it again if I ever make it to New Zealand, the home of bungy jumping.

Wednesday marked our first day of exploring Bangkok. Although we got a reasonably early start to the day, the morning turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. Our first stop was to be the Grand Palace, a simple ten-minute walk from our guesthouse. No one mentioned we had to cross the largest intersection perhaps in the world.

As we stared at the map plotting our approach to this intersection with no crosswalks, tuk tuk drivers and others began to offer us their kind advice: “Grand Palace? Oh, not open until one. Museum? Oh, that’s also closed until afternoon. You should go to Standing Buddha. It’s simply incredibly. You must go!”

We got the same advice from probably 10 different people. By this point, I was ready to scream profanities at the next person wanting to help us. Something felt off leaving me hesitant to believe this story, and to make matters worse, these “attractions” weren’t even in my guidebook. With everyone’s persistence, against my better judgment, we took the bait and off we went.

Fifty minutes and two unimpressive Buddhas later, we asked our driver to take us to the Grand Palace. He agreed, if we stopped by two shops where he could get “petrol.” We had no other choice but to oblige. These shops were tailors where you could have anything made at what I would guess to be outrageous prices. Turns out that the drivers get a cut in the profit, hence this massive scam to take you there! Luckily, I escaped this incident, loosing 40 cents and about two hours of time. I am sure others aren’t so lucky…

For the rest of the day, we toured the Grand Palace, a very impressive complex, Wat Phra Kaew with the famous Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho with the massively large reclining Buddha (I am not kidding this thing was HUGE!), and the National Museum. To end our exhausting day, we enjoyed wonderful Thai massages that left us in peaceful bliss.

The next day, we explored outside of the city. We began by visiting a local market located on a train track. It’s not a practical location—the train comes four times per day!—but lack of space makes it the only option. A whistle blows a few minutes before the train, and with about twenty seconds to spare, goods are moved off of the tracks. Ten seconds after the train has passed the market is back in normal operation! Quite a feat.

Next, we visited a floating market. It was cool and all—people selling food, souvenirs, and other home essentials out of boats—but it was very touristy (we sat in boat traffic jams with a ton of other tourists…).

Our third stop was the Tiger Temple, a temple that has been raising and rescuing unwanted animals of all types, including tigers, since 1994. For about three hours each day, you can pet the tigers and snap a photo with them. At first, I was terrified—we have a family friend whose business partner was mauled be a lion—but after about the tenth photo, I relaxed, somewhat… It was awesome to get up close and personal with a tiger, but I think I still prefer my horses! :)

For our final activity of the day, we rode an elephant! Riding an elephant is a Thailand must, so we jumped on and rode down a little trail into the river. Again, I prefer my horses!

Friday marked our final day before heading back to Shanghai. After a quick visit to Wat Arun, we headed into the center of Bangkok to see the city. We wandered the streets, went up to the 77^th floor of the Baiyoke Tower (the tallest building in Thailand), and even stumbled upon a Help Hope Haiti Rally where we joined the masses and purchased t-shirts. I felt close to home at the rally. Public rallies require a permit in China, few of which are issued, unless of course, they are organized by and promote the state. 

My two weeks in Southeast Asia were an unforgettable experience. Besides seeing incredible places in the world, I was also able to take a step back from the Chinese culture. I’ve grown accustomed to many aspects of my new culture, spitting in public for example, but suddenly distanced, my focus sharpened. We Americans take many behaviors, values, and freedoms for granted.

If anyone wants a quick, fun read about China and its culture, I would highly recommend Lost on Planet China by Maarten Troost. It takes you on a journey through China while offering excellent cultural insights.

In the meantime, I am packing my suitcase once again, this time joining my host family for a six-day, Chinese-tour-group adventure to Japan. It is guaranteed to be quite the experience in many ways. I will post when I return.

Click here for pictures of Thailand.

 

 

Temples of Angkor and Other Cambodian Adventures

After two weeks of exploring South East Asia, I am now back in Shanghai attempting not to freeze. A 30°C drop in a matter of four hours sure does bring a chill to the bones!

After the sobering experience of S-21 and the killing fields on our second day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we explored a few more areas of the city, including the Russian Market, and then made our way “over the bridge” for traditional Khmer food. A famous Cambodian chef featured in my guidebook said that to eat true Khmer cuisine, one must venture out of town and over the bridge.

Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we hopped in a tuk tuk. We quickly made our way through town to the bridge, but at the bridge, we hit a massive traffic jam. After we crawled over the bridge, dust filled the air, lighting dimmed, and entrances to buildings filled with women, overly made-up women trying to entice. We were “over the bridge,” but these dishes wouldn’t satisfy our desires!

We drove and drove leaving the lights and dust behind. “Are you sure this is right?” we pestered the driver. He assured us it was, and suddenly, we arrived at the Rum Chang Restaurant. I scanned the crowd—only one tourist in sight who was dining with a large group of local Khmers. We had found our traditional dining experience! The fish and frog legs were delicious; it was “over the bridge” dining at its finest.

The next day, Monday, we boarded the Mekong Express bus and headed to Siem Reap, home of the Angkor temples. Early Tuesday morning, we were greeted by our tour guide, Soluy, and for the next four days, we would explore numerous temple complexes with help from our guide.

The temples of Angkor would not have been the same if it weren’t for Soluy. She is a vivacious young woman who is truly passionate about the temples and their history. She offered us numerous insights into the temples and Cambodia, and she even helped us with our photography as photography is one of her many passions. If you ever find yourself needing a guide for Angkor, I would highly recommend Soluy.

We began by visiting Angkor Thom, the capital city of King Jayavarman VII in the late 12^th century. Although the homes of citizens have long disappeared (they were made of wood), the temples of the city remain with help from restoration funded by countries throughout the world. With its carved faces, Bayon Temple is the highlight of Angkor Thom. The Elephant Terrace was also spectacular with incredible carvings.

After Angkor Thom, we headed to Phnom Bakheng built by King Yasovarman in the 9^th century. Located on top of a hill, the temple offered great views of the surrounding areas.

In the afternoon, we made the trek to Kompong Kleang, a floating village. Because it’s the dry season, the houses of the village were not surrounded by water. Instead, we saw the high stilts of the houses that prevent flooding during the rainy season. For a few months during the dry season, some people relocate to houseboats on the river, so we took a boat trip to see the houses. We saw pigs living in the river, clam boats, fishing boats, and even a hut drying fish.

I cannot imagine living surrounded by water and needing to take a boat to go anywhere! Our tour guide aptly noted that here, where the daily income is about $2 per person, people are happier than in the cities. They might appear “dirty” and make little money, but they’ve figured out what’s important in life.

By 5 a.m. the next morning, we were sitting in the dark under sparkling stars in front of Angkor Wat waiting for the sun to rise. Suddenly, the sky lightened and there was Angkor Wat. WOW. There’s a reason it’s the most known temple; it’s simply amazing. For two hours, the sky displayed vivid light shows allowing us to capture the beauty of Angkor Wat in a variety of colors. We finished our visit through the temple a few days later and were lucky enough to visit the top tower (it had been closed for a few years but opened the very last day of our visit!).

From here on out, we saw numerous temples, over the four days about 60. All were stunningly impressive, but the most incredible were those eaten by the jungle. Massive roots cover the late 12^th century temple Ta Prohm, and gigantic trees protrude out from the rubble of the early 12^th century temple Beng Mealea. The contrasting grandeur of temple and jungle made for exciting visits.

I have two other stories before we leave Cambodia for Thailand. First, on our last night in Cambodia, we decided we wanted an exotic meal. As we strolled through an alley filled with restaurants, we stumbled upon Cambodian barbeque. If two guys hadn’t been raving about it to another passerby, we would have walked right past. Luckily, we didn’t.

Cambodian barbeque combines the traditional sense of barbeque with hot pot. There is a grill, and below, soup broth boils to cook vegetables and noodles. We chose five meats: chicken, goat, crocodile, snake, and ostrich. All were delicious and plenty exotic!

Finally, to celebrate my Birthday, on Saturday, the day we left for Thailand, I awoke early for a sunrise horseback ride. Not having ridden since October, I was thrilled to finally be back in the saddle. We rode through the countryside with many homes, animals, and fields to a temple. Unfortunately, the sky was too cloudy to actually see the sunrise, but the scenery was beautiful and I rode a HORSE!

That afternoon we boarded an airplane for Thailand…

I will leave it there for now and discuss Thailand in my next post. Pictures are up. Check the sidebar to the right for links.

Cheers!

The Tragic Past

Sunday, our second day in Phnom Penh, was our day to catch a glimpse of the atrocities of a few years prior.

With our personal tuk tuk driver for the day (Phnom Penh has very few taxis, so people rely on tuk tuks, a motorcycle connected to a carriage-style device able to sit six people), we set out for the Tuol Sleng Museum, otherwise known as Prison 21, the first of two stops to retell the horrors of the Khmer Rouge Genocide.

In 1953, after years of French rule, Cambodia gained its independence with King Sihanouk ushering in an era of prosperity and optimism. In March of 1970, with the conflict of Vietnam, the growing threat from the left, and a deteriorating political position, he was overthrown by Lon Nol.

Lon Nol took a hard approach to the conflict in Vietnam and ordered all Vietnam Communities taking refuge in rural Cambodia to withdraw. Soon after, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia to sweep away the North Vietnamese, and the U.S. began bombing supposed communists camps.

With the bombing of the countryside, many rural Cambodians fled to Phnom Penh or joined the growing Cambodian communist faction, the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. Meanwhile, the government of Lon Nol became increasingly inefficient and corrupt, paving the way for the Khmer coup of April 1975.

Within the first day of takeover, everyone living in cities was forced to leave for the countryside to toil as slaves, money was abolished, and all forms of fun and entertainment banned. From here things turned bloody. Anyone viewed as a threat to the regime was killed, especially those involved in the former government. From April 1975 to the Vietnamese overthrow in December 1978, about two million died from either torture or starvation and another one million escaped the country.

Prison 21, once Tula Svay Prey High School, was one of several prisons throughout the country designed for detaining those who were arrested before they were taken to the extermination camps. 17,000 people were held at S-21, and only seven, who were able to escape the killing fields, survived. People were held one to three months in classrooms converted to tiny cells, and during that time, they were tortured to secure a confession.

Today, in classrooms that once served as cells, photographs of prisoners line the walls. Men, women, and children were all held here before being murdered. If a father was convicted of a crime, the whole family was killed. One painting showed a man beating a baby against a tree while the mother screamed. How can people kill innocent children whose only crime was being born is beyond me. It is simply revolting.

Another moving picture was that of a wife of a once high-ranking Khmer official. The Khmer, who so often eat their own, turned against her husband sending the family with children to S-21. Her first photograph is like all the others, but the second shows a tear trickling down her cheek, as she knows the fate that lies ahead. I cannot fathom sitting in the picture chair knowing what awaits in the coming months; it’s a feeling I hope never to encounter.

To show us around the compound, we hired a guide, who explained everything, even how she survived the Khmer Rouge. At the time of the overthrow in 1975, she and her family were able to escape from Phnom Penh to Vietnam. Along the way, they killed her father, brother, and sister. She was one of the lucky ones. Hearing her story was as painful as the thousands of pictures lining the walls.

Like in so many wars throughout the world, the people committing the most atrocious crimes were shockingly the children themselves. They joined the revolution for security, hoping to survive the seemingly random killings, and then they were brainwashed into committing gruesome crimes. I honestly cannot lay blame on these young teenagers for the brutality of the genocide. Blame rests solely and squarely on those at the top who ordered such killings.

From S-21 we moved to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where prisoners of S-21 were taken to be bludgeoned to death. Upon entering, there is a large monument to remember those who perished, and inside there are shelves upon shelves of skulls. Thousands of skulls stare at you.

Around the monument are multiple mass graves that appear to simply be sunken holes. I was wondering where the graves were, and then suddenly, I realized that thing sticking up out of the ground was not a root but in fact a bone. As I looked closer, I noticed all of the countless bones surrounding me.

The question that comes up when viewing the remnants of such atrocities is how can something like this possibly happen. How are people capable of such inhumanity? And worse, how can the world sit by and watch?

We have witnessed it time and time again, the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge Genocide, the Bosnian Genocide, the Rwanda Genocide, and today, the Genocide in Darfur. We said another Hitler would never rise again, but he has, and more than once.

Somehow, after withdrawing from Vietnam in 1975, us Americans forgot our humanitarian duty, turned our eyes away from the Khmer Rouge, and sanctioned the birth of another genocide. We could waste millions in a war against communism, which itself resulted in the loss of countless lives, but when people were being intentionally killed, tortured, and starved, was it not our duty as people, fellow humans, to stand against unconscionable injustice?

Ironically, those whom we were out to defeat, the Vietnamese, did what we could not. The Vietnamese saved the Cambodians. We, the wealthiest, pro-freedom country in the world failed, while the commies rescued the oppressed.

Will human slaughter ever end? How can we ensure that it does not happen again? People are capable of anything, and it will take more than a few officials condemning the killings, or the rallying of people a continent away, to end the ruthless and needless murder of individuals.

Phnom Penh: Warm Smiles with a Tragic Past

Greetings from my third day in Cambodia! It’s currently Monday morning, and with a few hours before we leave on a bus to Siem Reap, it’s time for an update!

 

Marius, my travel companion, and I arrived in Phnom Penh late Friday night. As we drove in from outside the city, I quickly came to the conclusion that this was not a place I’d like to walk alone at night! From the safety of our Toyota, I was able to watch the outside pass.

 

Saturday late-morning, we set out to get our first taste of the city. After leaving the alley of our hotel, we were suddenly greeted by motor scooters whizzing past, people pushing carts with food and drinks for sale, and numerous shops serving almost every need.

 

At this point we came to our first conclusion: Phnom Penh is nothing like Shanghai. Factor number one: There are no tall buildings. Most buildings are three or four stories max, and instead of the glitz of Shanghai’s high-rises, shabbiness of the third-world dominates the horizon. Factor number two: One can walk down the street without being pushed from people in a hurry and threatened by impatient drivers. Yes, no one follows traffic laws, but people aren't so impatient as to run you down.

 

By the time we reached our first destination of the day, Wat Phom, we had found the greatest difference between here and China, people on the streets are friendly. Unlike in China, where no one ever smiles to a stranger and would rather push you out of their way than be courteous, people here happily exchange smiles with others and will even politely avoid your path of walking so not to run into you. With so much friendliness in the air, it was hard not to beam.

 

Our first sight of the day was Wat Phnom, a temple on the only hill in town. It was kind of cool looking, but more captivating were the pack of monkeys swinging on the flagpole.

 

From the temple, we made our way to Central Market, which sold everything from clothes to calf tongues. The highlight was the food section. Fruit, sharks, livers, eggs, anything and everything could be bought. The smell was horrific, and suddenly I was transported back to the Medina Market in Ghana, the one I walked through everyday on the way to my host family’s. I was now in a different world.

 

After a quick lunch at a local food court and a brief respite at the hotel, we made our way to the National Museum and Royal Palace (yes, Cambodia is a kingdom!). The museum was interesting with lots of ancient Buddhist and Hindu statues, but the highlight was the palace. The architecture was fabulous—I will take this type over Chinese architecture any day—and one building, the Silver Pagoda, contained a floor covered with 5 tonnes of silver tiles and a Buddha decorated with 9,584 diamonds. It was simply astonishing.

 

Day one was a great, relaxing start to our two week adventure. I will post about the sobering experience of day two soon.