BayanWe've been really busy in the past week, so not much time to update the blog. We spent 4 days in Siem Reap Cambodia and bought a 3 day pass to Angkor Wat. The temples were spectacular of course. The various temples were very spread out so we took a motor scooter with a trailer taxi (aka: tuk-tuk) to get from site to site.
The Cambodian food was truly great and very flavorful. Similar to Thai and Lao food but slightly different. We did not have time for a cooking class this time. Our favorite was called amok.
While we were in Cambodia it was a holiday on Jan 7, to remember the 30th anniversery of when the communist Khmer Rouge was overthrown. It is our understanding that the Vietnamese overtook Phnom Phen and the Khmer Rouge retreated into the jungles and to Thailand. However, fighting continued for many years until the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot died in 1998. 1 million people died, killed by their own countrymen. Unbelievably, no one has been convicted of any crimes, but a trial is to be held soon. We went to the land mine museum, where the founder is a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge, who left them and fought with the Vietnamese against Khmer Rouge, has now dedicated his life to deactivating land mines that he himself placed. He sometimes has deactivated 30 UXO's in an hour, with his bare hands and little protective wear. He is amazing.
One interesting thing about Cambodia was the traffic patterns (also common to Laos). When approaching an intersection, everyone drives like it is a round-a-bout, except it really isn't a round-a-bout. Everyone just merges and passes though. It would be like coming to the intersection of Airport Way and University Avenue and just slowing down to about 20 mph and then merging through. It is interesting how it all seems to work out though.
Ta Phrom
Our Tuk-Tuk and driver, Mr.Routh
Banteay Srey
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
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