Cambodia Land Mine Museum

I feel like I should just create a solitary posting regarding this  place. I am not intending to make any political statement about America's part in the use of so many bombs dropped here or anywhere else. I will say that visiting here did make me realize how much history I do not know or remember. And I will add that as we entered this little museum, another visitor was leaving and said out loud' "Thanks America". I'm not sure if this was said to us or just in general. 

The gentleman who was our guide was an American, former military. We also met his wife, a former teacher in Florida. Interesting folks. Well spoken. 

Anyway, the website is interesting and it does seem if the efforts being made here to reclaim ordinance, help those who have been injured by the hidden bombs and to educate rural children is genuine. The scary thought is the estimation of how much ordinance is still out in the rural areas today yet to be uncovered, or worse.

www.camboialandminemuseum.org

And here are a few pictures. This is not a fancy museum. This picture makes it look really good. 

It is just a little place on the roadside, but people have worked to keep enough memorabilia and materials available to educate visitors. The student living area, where visitors are not allowed, is just behind the museum. There is student art work that depicts what has happened and what children want to have in the future. There is a fund set up now by a group of firefighters from the U.S. to support any student graduating from this orphanage/school to go on to college. Those that have made it on to the college level appear to be mostly girls. Most of these kids are missing one or more limbs or parts of limbs. 

We Didn't Rest For Long

We spent one last night back at Jenny and Michael's home. We washed clothes and re packed our suitcases. Tuesday morning found us finishing packing and saying saying goodbye to Netta and to the two well travelled Jeffress cats, Stella and Blaze. 

We returned the now filthy rental truck (and held our breath that those million pot holes we drove through hadn't caused part of the under carriage to fall off). Then we were off for the airport. We all boarded a Vietnam airline Airbus and took off for Phenom Pehn, Cambodia. At this airport we met our wonderful driver and buddy for the next several days, Mr. Leap. 

We then started an even more harrowing drive to Siemens Reap. Divers in Cambodia are similar to those in Laos - passing all other vehicles in a organized but terrifying way (to us). Oncoming traffic scoots over to allow for passing. Passing when oncoming traffic looks way to close is the norm. Having to avoid the very tall and graceful white cows also using the road was frequent.

(I thought this might be my last picture I ever took of Philip. Poor guy - he rode up front and saw all oncoming traffic better than the rest of us!)

 The main difference in Cambodia's road traffic and that of Laos is that in Laos there is no honking and in Combodia it is the standard. We were in a nice big van that I'm pretty sure we all thought we were going to die in! Especially since the last two hours of driving were in the dark and guess what? Not every vehicle has lights.

BUT WE DIDN'T!

We arrived all in one piece. Mr Leak got us to our down town hotel. We checked in and went out for our first meal, rested up and got ready for our Anghor Wat adventures. 

You can buy a tickets to visit this whole complex for as long as a 7 day ticket. I can truly see how you could use that whole 7 days. This was an amazing complex of structures with a complex Hindu, Buddhist, French, Vietnamese, Cambodia, American history. Our tour guide grew up nearby and as a kid playing on the grounds, before it was rediscovered and cleaned out. It is still being restored. The history is very long and very complex. Our guide said visitors used to be sparse until the American move , Tomb Raider. (Angelina Jolie) was made. That spurred new interest and now, it is packed with visitors from all over the world every day.

 Here are just a few of our tons of pictures.

The Thinkers.

This was apparently what everything looked before restoration started. Some of the structures are blackened because some of the vegetation simply had to be burned away.

Our current SEA family. Look quickly, the boys were still for only a moment!

We also went to the big Angkor Museum which gave us a much better idea of this area's complicated history and the reclaimation of this site. Sorry, absolutely no pictures were allowed. 

We had a nice stay at our hotel. Massages were decent and cheap. The staff was extremely attentive and the buffet breakfast was great. Needless to say, with young American kids along, we ate lots of pizza, but we did also frequent good restaurants, which coincidently turned out to be usually owned by European or American expats. I ate what seems like now, a lot of fried rice dishes. While service is sometimes confusing caused by language differences and the same annoying custom we have in the sates, where the server DOES NOT WRITE DOWN THE ORDERS, there was often confusion about our orders. 

 

One of out more somber visits while here was to the Land Mine Museum. This was started by a young Cambodian man who himself had been a child soldier, planting explosives. His story is very moving, as is the story of a all of the kids he has taken in and is still taking in who have been victims of the hidden explosives. There is now an orphanage, school and a non-profit  agency that raises money to build and fund rural schools. We met the American couple who are instrumental in the support of these things. The original founder and others that the foundation trains also are heavily involved in the effort to find and diffuse the large amount of ordinance still found in Cambodia.

 Once we were finished fin Siemens Reap, we jumped in the van with Mr. Leap and headed back to PP. This trip did not seem as harrowing. It was all in the daylight which helped and maybe we were tired and were now, old hands, at these driving/riding adventures. Mr. Leap was good at finding restrooms along the way that were clean and NOT SQUAT TOILETS. In fact, at one pit stop I walked out of the ladies room chatting with a lady who was returning to her large travel bus. She told me that she was traveling with a Jewish group out of New York that funds several NGO's in Cambodia and that they were doing site visits. Meanwhile Michael has recognized Mandy Patakin (correct spelling?) going in and out of the men's room. Turns out that had been Mrs. P that I was talking to. Small World, right?

Finishing Up in Luang Prabang

For the next day and a half we did as many things as young boys could tolerate. Of course nothing could hold a candle to riding elephants, but we persevered. Some of us climbed Phousi Hill and visited another temple. Great view of the town.

Some of us crossed the river over yet another bamboo bridge ( no easy feat)

and went into a community with a mix of poor homes but also craft shops. We watching ladies weaving beautiful scarves and others making paper from the dung of elephants. Apparently elephants in huge amounts of food every day but their bodies don't digest a lot of the fiber. I don't really know how the dung is harvested or used int the paper process, but I did see the result and pit was very pretty. (And of course, we bought some). 

We took a sunset cruise on the Mekong. We saw homes, temples, lots of small farming areas and water buffalo. 

We went to the Night Market for the second night in a row. For this activity, we did not take the kids because it gets pretty crowded in those aisles. You could find lots of clothing, baskets, textiles, jewelry, herbs, oils, and more. 

Jenñy and I spent most of our time pouring over the Hmong vintage textile pieces that are being salvaged from the elaborate clothing the Hmong women have created for yeas. Several stalls had purses, wallets, aprons, etc made from these pieces, but we bought salvaged pieces that we will do something with ourselves (not sure what yet, but we will be creative!).

On the morning of our departure, we arose early and walked down the road to the main temple area and watched the monks take their morning walk from one temple to the other in their saffron colored robes and receive the offerings from the local citizens. It was just as the sun began to rise that they finally appeared. I lost count at 70' so it was quite a lengthy event. 

Finally, we were back on the road, yeah that bumpy, pot hole filled road. Over and through the mountains - back to Vientiane. 

Northern Laos

The morning after our nice restful night in the rice paddy resort, we had a nice breakfast at their restaurant (big breakfasts seem to be important here), we loaded up and took off through the mountains for Luang Probang. We started out on the same windy, pot hole filled kind of road. We passed through countless little villages. We began to see individual gardens as well as fields with beans, corn, cabbages. They also grow their herbs in the small beds raised up to about waist high. Looked like onions, but we were whizzing by pretty fast, so who knows. Speaking of driving fast, let me just say that Lao people are resourceful. They get around on bikes, scooters and larger motorcycles  and TukTuks frequently. And is common to see as many as 2-4 people, including babies on those bikes or scooters. It is apparently expected that if you are driving a car or a truck, you can just pass anyone at anytime no matter who or what is approaching in the oncoming lane. It is scary, but no one honks, everyone scoots over to one side or the other and people just keep going. 

We arrived in Luang Prabong late in the afternoon and checked in to our nice hotel right across the  street from the river banks of the Mekong and Nom Kai junction. 

This is the front of The Mekong Riverview.

 

The courtyard between our rooms. 

The Mekong river across the street from us. 

We walked across the bamboo bridge which carried us across the river and found a place to eat.

Yes that's us eating while sitting on cushions on the floor. Luckily there are sno pictures of us getting up from the floor after eating so much.

Were able to walk around that evening and see a little bit of the town, but we were tired from traveling and needed a good night's rest because....

The next morning we were up bright and early to go to The Elephant Village!  We had a van, driver and guide arranged ahead of time, so off we went.

We arrived and were promptly given basic information and a short lesson in elephant verbal commands. 

Next, we were shown how to climb up onto the back of this big creature. Trust me, this picture does not do justice to how big this female elephant was when I stood nose to nose with her. 

And while I won't show you pictures as to "How" we climbed up, indeed we did.

We visited the two babies and then took our turns in pairs, riding down the river bank, into and down the river, then back out and finally down a rode past homes of the workers and back into the sanctuary.

After disembarking, we fed the elephants, then fed ourselves at a nice buffet and ate under a palapa overlooking the river. 

Finally, we rode across the river in a small boat and some of us climbed back on our elephant and took them into the river for a bath. The elephants then went into the jungle for the night's rest and more food. 

As we left, we were able to see a real live cock fight between roosters owned by the sanctuary employees who live out there. While I don't really support the idea of cock fighting, I have to say, these men seemed to care greatly for, their birds and No bird died. In fact there wasn't even much blood. Birds then got a bath after fighting and were put back in their cages. I guess if your grandchildren have to see a cockfight, at least it was a gentle one. 

It was a very good day. These elephants have been rescued from various difficult situations, one has survived a fall when she was a baby, another survived stepping on an unexplored ordinance. She is missing toes, but keeps on going. They might have been out doing labor but instead are giving rides and earning their own living. Each has a trained Mahoot that lives on the sanctuary and is responsible for her care. While it isn't freedom, I guess it is at least protection. 

On The Road

Wanting to live up their well earned reputation as great trip planners (earned by their two wonderful adventure trips with us while living in Morocco), Jenny and Michael had apparently spent countless hours researching this one. 

We rented a diesel Ford truck, packed it full and they did the same with their Ford Explorer. After lunch on Thursday, we took off.Getting out of busy Vientiane took a little while. The countryside looked a little like a mix of East Texas red dirt and West Texas scrubby trees, but soon turned a little more mountainous. About four hours later we arrived in Vang Vieng. This is the poor little town that has been besieged by back packers over the last several years. It became known, as the "Anything goes" place. Lots of free thinking young people from all over the world have come here and partied. I think the. Town officials cracked down on a little of this, but there still are a lot of backpackers present. We had reservations for the night at Villa Terra. We had to pay to cross the rickety looking wooden bridge, park on a muddy river bank and cross another foot bridge to get here:

Yes, those are our rooms located along another wooden walkway above the rice paddies. 

The view from our porch back to the office.

Our view of the mountains.

Our room.

Philip on front deck.

We walked back across all the bridges that night and went back onto the Main Street and went to dinner.  The excellent open air restaurant was literally a one man show. The owner, a Lao man who had lived in Germany for many years,  owned the restaurant and was the chef and waiter. The item he was well known for was Schnitzel. It was delicious. He cooked everything right out front, behinds a little screen while we, and other tables waited. As people came in to sit, he would explain how long the wait would be due to previous orders. No one chose to leave - a sign of how good his food was. We had a nice and very quiet evening. Good thing. Our next day was to be a test of Michael and Philip's driving skills.

Our Days in Vientiane

Once we were picked up at the train station and  at a local coffee shop, we headed to the kids' house. It is very nice and in a sort of "compound" which appears very safe. Remember now, there was this freaky little cold front that blew in. So this house is set with great air conditioning but no heat. The cold weather has been the primary topic of discussion everywhere in town. Who ever needs heat in central and southern Laos? But we were resilient and we layered our clothing. 

When traveling with the small amount of luggage, I bragged about in an earlier posting, one must be creative. So, our next unexpected clothing issue came when our son-in-law informed us that we could be included in an official U.S. Embassy function on Monday when Secretary of State, John Kerry, would be visiting with embassy families willie in town on official business. So, we wore the best we had, borrowed shoes, scarves and shirts and took off. 

Of course, we were fine. The bomb sniffing dog and security guys did not care one bit what we looked like and Mr. Kerry did not even get close enough to see us.

Jenñy and family.

We have seen many temples and visited two .

We went to the Laos War Museum. I have learned that this is a very strong little country to have survived so much fighting and from so many other nations. 

We ate hamburgers at a restaurant owned by this American. They cook outside in the kitchen right on the street and you eat inside, where normally you would need the air conditioning. His restaurant is one of the highest rated places to eat in Vientiane. 

We ate delicious Laos dinners prepared by Netta, who works for Jenny's family.

We celebrated Jenny's birthday.

And we visited a wonderful little business called Lao Textiles. This tiny gallery and workshop had some beautiful weavings for sale. The owner gave us a tour, an explanation of Lao weaving, plus a history and current events lesson. This visit was interesting for so many different reasons. 

Vientiane seems to be a friendly city. The streets are in terrible shape and often somewhat narrow, but they are shared with cars, trucks  and a million scooters and seem to be somewhat safe! There also seems to be a large amount of foreigners living here. The two older grandsons have teachers from Australia and Great Britan. Many businesses are owned by non Laos citizens. There is still a lot of poverty, malnutrition and very sadly, left over bombs dropped by other countries, including the U.S. 

We have certainly enjoyed these few days and have learned much. We have not, however, learned any language, written or spoken. The written language is beautiful to look at, but so different, my brain can't compute anything. 

So, that's it for now. We will be off to Vien Vang and then Luan Prabong (not sure if I spelled either of those correctly). I will check on that by the time I post again.