Phnom Penh - Siem Reap

I love Cambodia. Usually, I don't want to go back to a place once I've seen it, but I already want to come spend more time here. I just connect with this place!

Not a very eventful day-- except we are now with the Staggs!!! So fun to see them here. Our flight from PHN was very quick and easy. Our hotel is the least nice of all the ones we have stayed in. I felt bad that we had the Stagg's stay here with us because there are such nice places around, but Suzanne can't stop talking about how great of a place it is. Everything is relative. She about jumped up and down to see an elevator. It's cute to see her so excited about basic amenities.

We are right next to the market. I'm such a sucker for a deal. I ended up buying two paintings today which may have been a mistake. One of Buddha and the other of a female goddess on the Angkar temples. I think it's like Disneyland where Mickey Mouse stuff is cool while your there but not so much once you leave. (Not that I'm comparing Buddha to Mickey Mouse, just may not be as meaningful to me once I'm back home.) Anyway, we always have fun shopping. I've never been such a souvenir person but the deals are great, then I feel guilty buying things for myself so I go back and get more for my sisters. :)

Tonight we met up with Wilf and Suzanne. So fun to see them. Stagg's, you would be proud of your parents. Suzanne talks like she struggles so much but you should see her walk into stores and greet people in Khmer. They really seem to be doing well. We went to dinner with the local missionary couple, Elder and Sister Enslen (Bob if you're reading this they are from Alabama and he was Stake Pres when you were mission president. They say hello). This is a very hard mission for these couples. I can't believe how strong they are to adjust to this life style. Hearing Suzanne and Wilf talk about life out in the country is almost unbelievable. But they both talk about how much they love the people and you can tell they do by how they speak to everyone around us. It's really fun to see.

Sorry no pictures. This internet is slower than in Phnom Penh. I may not be able to post until we hit Singapore.

The Enslen's arranged for our guide and drive to Angkor Wat tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it!!

I'm out walking with the Stagg's this evening around town. Janet was tired and resting this evening.

Love to you all! Thanks for all the comments. Interesting stuff Boyd, thanks for the info.

Thailand- Cambodia (Phnom Penh)

wow, I have so much to blog! I don't know how to get it all down. This computer is quite slow so I don't know how many photos I'll be able to put with this post.

I guess I'll just start where I left off.

The last morning in Thailand was very nice. Jim Thompson's house was really beautiful. He was an American architect who moved to Thailand and got the silk industry going there. He took five houses and made one big house. We were not allowed to take photos inside of the house as some tourist knocked over a priceless vase while trying to take a photo. Things in the house are just left on tables, etc. Surprising they are not under glass. There was an old wooden Buddha that I'm sure is rotting more and more with the humidity but it is just sitting in an open room. It did give the whole thing more of a feel of being in a home and not a museum. I'm glad we had this on our itinerary.

Our flight was delayed two hours. The airport was crazy. Huge, and no place to get food or water after going through security. So it was a long afternoon. Then when we got to Cambodia it was totally unorganized getting through customs, etc. But we made it okay. We sat by a young pregnant girl from Alabama. She and her husband are Christian missionaries moving to Cambodia with their family (they have a 2 year old and the baby is due in 8 weeks) for the next 10 years. She had a lot of information about Cambodia. She explained to us the huge problem Cambodia has with child prostitution and slavery. She says she does not trust many white people in the country because most have ugly motives for being here. It was very interesting talking with her.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. The roads in Cambodia are hard to describe. There are a lot of motorbikes in Thailand, but nothing like Cambodia! Hundreds of motorbikes crammed with people are weaving in and out of traffic and going down the wrong side of the street. We saw families of five on one small bike that two people would ride in the U.S. Toddlers were standing between parents, women ride sidesaddle with one arm around an infant. As we got closer to town there was more and more traffic and more and more people lining the streets. People were cooking outside their homes, selling things in little booths or just hanging out. I think Janet was completely freaking out.

I loved it. It was all very energizing to me. We got to our hotel and Janet just wanted to get ready for bed, but I needed to get out and experience what was going on. We compromised and had dinner in the hotel restaurant and then I went for a walk by the river.

First, let me tell you about our hotel. It is lovely. The smaller room we booked was full so we got a free upgrade to a suite and it is so nice. Rich, wood floors, an amazing view of the river and large Buddhist temple just outside of our window. It is incredible.

View of temples from our hotel balcony. River is just to the left.

Walking outside was much different than I expected. It was heart wrenching. All kinds of people begging, mixed in with tourists eating on sidewalk cafes and vendors selling things. Total mayhem. There were many women with 2-4 children sleeping (many of them naked) on mats next to them, people deformed and/or missing limbs and lots of little kids. All asking for money or water. I saw one dad with a baby in his arms tell his toddler next to him to just pull down her pants and go to the bathroom on the sidewalk. He took his bare foot and swished it around to make it look like something had just spilled.

After about 10 minutes, I had to go back to the hotel room. I don't really know how to deal with seeing that then going up to our nice hotel room just a few feet away.

Today was one of the best days of the trip so far. We got up and went to church. We found a very nice tuk tuk driver who spoke English quite well. We hired him for the day. He drove us to all of our destinations and then waited to take us to the next place. I'm sure we could have negotiated a lower price but by the end of the day we kicked in a few extra bucks from what we agreed and gave him $20.

Church was interesting. We went to the International Branch which was about 25 people, mostly youth. They have a huge church building which houses CES offices and I'm guessing a lot more. The Branch Pres was from New Zealand. He had asked two young girls from one of the local branches to come and speak. They did a good job. We walked in with one of the girls and she told us how nervous she was to give a talk not in her native language. She was very cute and recently finished her mission (in Cambodia). It's always surprising to me how church is the same everywhere. It was fun to connect on this level with people here.

After church we went out to the Killing Fields. It was a little ways out of town and very interesting riding out in the little tuk tuk. We didn't take many photos as our driver told us people on motorcycles will drive by and grab your camera or anything else that isn't secure. We had him stop a couple of times to take a photos and we snapped one or two along the way.

Ok this isn't the best photo- they are hard to see on the thumbnail when I'm trying to decide what to add. It's taking so long to upload this is the one you're getting. :) It's a photo of a house that I snapped riding in the tuk tuk. This is quite a ways outside Phenom Penh.

Downtown Phenom Penh.

There is no way to describe the horror of the killings fields. This was only one of many places the Khmer Rouge brought people to be executed. Sometimes as many as 300 per day. In 1980, they found huge mass graves at this site and are still uncovering bodies. As you walk around you see pieces of clothing and some bones half buried along the path. It was hard not to just cry the whole time there. There is a monument where you take off your shoes and see hundreds of skulls that they found.

There were about 10 shelves of skulls piled inside of the monument. Some of them you could see where they were killed with a blow to the head.

It was very hot, but with only one day here, we decided to keep seeing the sites. Our driver "Jonathan"(he laughed when I kept trying to say his Khmer name and told us his American name is Jonathan), took us to the hugeRussian Market-named after the Russian merchant's wives who used to like to shop there. Of course, we found more must-haves. We didn't stay long as it was really hot in the stalls and we had more to see before the day ended.

Next we went to a former high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture prision. They went to great lengths to make sure nobody could commit suicide and escape the torture. Most lasted about one month before dying form torture if they weren't first taken to one of the Killing Fields to be executed. Seven people survived when the Vietnamese came in to overthrow Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Surprisingly, many of the prisions there were officers of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot was very paranoid and anyone who he thought knew too much would be killed along with their families, friends and friend's families. Many people did not know why they were arrested, just taken there and tortured or killed because they knew someone who may have been a threat to Pol Pot.

We hired a woman to be our guide there. She was 10 years old when the Khmer Rouge came into Phnom Pehn and told everyone to leave the city. She was separated from her family and worked in child labor camp from when she was 11 until she was 15. Her father and 3 siblings died either from over work or starvation. She said as a child she worked from sun up to sun down and sometimes would continue if the moon was bright. They were given three spoonfuls of rice per day. After the war, she eventully found her suriving family but still struggled with hunger and poverty for many years. It's hard to believe people have strength to survive such things.

The prison still had blood stains from people being tortured. Each prisionor had a photo taken when they arrived and they were displayed throughout the rooms. Our guide showed us one photo of a young boy in a Khmer Rouge uniform. His family came through in 1997 and saw his picture. He was taken at a young age and forced to join the Khmer Rouge army and his family never knew what happened to him until they saw his picture just a few years ago in the prision museum. Our guide said it was likely he was assigned under a general who Pol Pot decided was getting too powerful so he had the General and everyone under him tortured and killed.

It was hard to believe your eyes actually were seeing all of these things today. We were both glad we went to these sites today though. Incredible that such atrocities happened as I was happily oblivious in my grade school life. Our guide today was just a few years older than me.

Janet and I went back to the hotel for about an hour and half for a little down time in the late afternoon. Then our driver picked us up to take us to dinner at a local restaurant. I really loved the spring rolls and banana-pineapple drink. The rest of the food was just okay.

More craziness driving back this evening. Janet said it felt like we were in a parade in our little tuk tuk with motorcycles driving every which way all around us.

Even with all of this, I really enjoy Cambodia. I feel much more comfortable here. In Thailand I felt stressed a lot, but the energy here is different and I feel calmer. It seems it should be opposite. Maybe I'm just finally used to the time difference. I did sleep all night for the first time last night.

Thailand Day 3

I loved today. We got up early and went to Wat Po (Temple of Reclining Buddha). It sometimes doesn't seem real that we are here. The architecture is amazing (Hey Gene and Boyd I'm thinking burrito right now). Here are some photos.

In one of the temples a young monk was being ordained (maybe that isn't the right term).

We then took the water shuttle across the river to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). This is supposed to be a great place to watch the sun rise and set, but we figured since it's so hazy it wouldn't make much difference when we went. There are a lot of steps to climb up to the top of the temple with a nice view of the river and Bangkok from the top.

We got sucked into more shopping. We always think we've bought enough then we find more. I got some sandals at the market outside of Wat Arun.

I enjoyed the area down by the river. Our hotel is nice, but kind of out of the main area. There were a lot of food and fish vendors down there. Very much what I pictured Thailand to look like.

We took a taxi to Traimit (Golden Buddha). It is a solid gold Buddha that was covered in plaster to protect it, then forgotten. When they were tranferring it to this small temple some of the plaster broke off and they found this amazing gold statue.

It was very hot by this time. So we took a taxi to this huge mall. Nice A/C but really just a huge mall. Ü We got a drink and donut and walked around bit, then took a taxi back to the hotel.

I went and got a massage while Janet rested. Heidi and Steph, I'm dying to show you some of the crazy things they do in the massage. They stretch and crack you every which way. Fun. Kinda painful- and tickles at the same time. Ü

We are headed down to the weekend market for dinner and, yes, more shopping. We don't plan on buying anything, but I guess we'll see. We have to pay for anything over 33 lbs on our flights in and out of Cambodia so we're trying to hold back on all the purchases.

Tomorrow we will go to Jim Thompson's house, which is supposed to be a nice museum and example of Thai architecture. Then we will head to the airport and off to Cambodia.

We love getting everyone's comments. You anon people, sign your name so I can be happy to hear from you. Ü Janet can't remember her password to get her email. I don't know if anyone can go to her house, log on to her computer and figure it out. You can email it to me if you can. Thanks.

From Janet

Will someone call Pam and tell them we are okay and see if she is reading the blog. It was fun to hear from everyone. Did Lone Peak win the ball game? I'm doing things I never imagined I'd do. I'm fine.
Love you!
Janet

Thailand Day 2

Another fun day. Mongkhon picked us up at 8:00 a.m. and we drove 2 hours to the floating market. The drive was interesting seeing outside of Bangkok. Mongkhon brother-in-law is the local Stake President. We talked to him about the local church and some of his story. We talked about how far they have to go to the temple (either Hong Kong or Manila). We kept asking what all the beautiful buildings were along the way and they were almost always Buddhist temples. He said, "There are temples on almost every corner, just like being in Utah (with LDS Temples)" He was cute.

The floating market was amazing. First we stopped and got fresh coconut. (pic). Then we boarding our boat. This was a lot of adventure for Janet as she had to sit almost on the floor of the little boat. She thought she might be stuck there for good. I'm glad we were with Mongkhon as we entered the canals far away from all the tourists and got to ride along beautiful jungle-lined canals to reach the market. This area of Thailand people live on canals and take boats everywhere. I was hoping the market would be seeing more of a local market, but it was a lot of the same tourist souvenirs we see everywhere. Although there was a lot of food. We tried some fried bananas that were excellent. They were these small bananas deep fried in a coconut batter. Really sweet and yummy. I was bummed that I remembered I could take video on my camera after we left the main market place because I'm sure the still pictures don't do it justice. I'll post some.

We then drove another 45 minutes or so to the Bridge on the River Kwai (thanks Alex Guinness for helping me know what that was - and thanks to Tracey and Jenny for picking the movie at movie club last year Ü So American of me to get my history from Hollywood!) We first stopped briefly at a cemetary where they moved the soldiers from the work camp graveyards. It was a nice memorial.

The bridge was fun. I walked all the way across. One of those things they would never let you do in USA because of all the possible liability. There were a lot of people walking both ways and you'd have to move to the side (old, small, board running along track) as they passed. Instead of moving each time I just kept walking on in, then realized it was a little scary. Ü There were groups of school children who kept asking me to be in their photos with them. I'm not sure what that was about, but they giggled a lot.

After the bridge we drove to the Rose Garden where we had a late lunch (really quickly as we were running late) and watched a Thai dance show. It included some traditional dancing and Thai boxing ("kick boxing- sport of the future"- name the movie). Then they had elephants and snakes in the center square that you could ride or take a photo with.

Now we are back at the hotel and it's about 6:30. The evening is pretty open. I think Janet is done for the day. We may go get a late dinner in an hour or so. I'd like to go get another massage. It's pretty amazing how they contort your body. Fun. Ü

Ok- this took forever. I wish I had time to post more pics.

Love to you all!!

Hong Kong to Thailand

I don't have much time right now. I will probably just write and add photos later tonight. I have a massage scheduled in 15 minutes and the photos take a long time to upload.

We enjoyed seeing the Hong Kong LDS Temple. It was beautiful. We couldn't do much but walk around and take a few photos. The temple is on the third and fourth floors of the building with the mission home and offices on the lower levels.

Just inside temple grounds

We had a good dinner at our hotel before leaving Hong Kong. I had some yummy noodles and Janet got a steak sandwich (bonus of eating in the hotel is there is a quite a variety of food to choose from).

Everything went well with the flights. It was just a late flight (it was on time, but the time was late). We flew Emerates- wow, great airline. Thanks to everyone for paying the heafty gas price because that Arab airline rocks! However, we slept most of trip. For the three hours flight, they served a great meal, lots of space, etc. It was fun landing because one of the channels showed you out the cockpit window. Reminded me of flight simulators from dad's work when we were kids.

We got to our hotel and to bed around 2 am.

Thailand

We slept in a bit this morning and went down to breakfast a little after 9. Continential breakfast in Asia is way different than in the West. We eat very well in the mornings. The only bad thing about the late start was we were touring in the heat of the day.

We went to the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was incredible. Everywhere you looked was ornate and beautiful. We took quite a few pictures, which I'm sure won't do it justice. It was a little difficult for Janet as it was outside, hot, and had quite a few steps. She is a trooper though! I'll get some pics on in a few hours.

We decided to get out of the heat we would go to a museum, hoping for A/C. We spent a little while at the National Museum which was Thai history information.

We took a little break for some Haagen Daz and decided to come back to the hotel. I'm getting a massage (gotta run now) then we will find someplace for dinner and go to the night market for a couple of hours this evening. Hopefully, after I can get on and finish this entry and add some photos. Tomorrow we have a personal tour all day with the gentleman Janet arranged before we came.

Thanks everyone for you comments. It's fun to stay in touch.

...More

The night market last night was craziness. I can't believe how huge it was. Janet and I thought we'd just go down and check it out for an hour. Neither of us really wanted to buy anything- just experience the market. Two hours later, we'd seen about 1/8 of the market and we both bought something. Ü

Contact

I don't know if any of Janet's family is reading this blog. She is not checking email, but you can leave a comment on the blog and she will see it.