Siem Reap: Day 1 part 1

My computer completely broke, as in faulty hard drive wont turn on, life is hard.  Of course everything worked out as it always does.  My work had an extra old laptop that works well enough for me to use it for work and I'll get my computer fixed when I get back to the states.  Because of this posting with pictures requires borrowing Anna's computer to upload pictures from my phone to her computer then from there to here so bear with me as my posting may be delayed.

This past weekend Anna, Hamza and I went to Siem Reap to see all the temples.  After an 8+ hour bus ride in which Anna, Hamza and I spent alternating between reading like that nerds that we are and freaking out about our future, law school, and life in general while everyone else our age was care free and napping like normal backpackers we arrived in Siem Reap at 1am.  (Well I also napped because Im a good sleeper.)

Friday morning we hired a tuk tuk through our guest house and were off.  Of course we started at Angkor Wat, the most famous temple in Cambodia and the one that is on the flag.  Its hard to describe any of the temples with just words because the intricacy of every wall and ceiling is so insane.  Pictures do not even begin to show their beauty but hopefully you can get an idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

On our way to the next temple

Bayon: aka the temple with all the faces.  This temple, while maintained decently, it is more real.  there are crumbling walls, piles of stones that once made up the walls and ceilings of the temple.  There are dark halls and puddles everywhere.  On the top room of the temple where there is still a altar there were two women worshiping.  When we approached they waved us in, handed us each a stick of incense, instructed us to bow 3 times then stick it in the altar.  We all complied and one by one allowed on of the women to tie blue and red colored bands around our wrist while reciting a prayer of sorts.  While Im not buddhist and don't really know much about the religion it was a really cool experience.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

When we took a lunch break I fell in love with a super cute kitty and named him Milo.  He apparently fell in love with me as well and all on his own came over, jumped on my chair, and sat with me the whole lunch.  The people working there tried to shoo him away but I explained that I liked him and didnt mind sharing my seat with him.

More to come when I have time
xoxo

Tarantulas and Fire Ants OH MY

Tuesday afternoon I received this email "Would you like to get together for drinks after work tomorrow and dinner with deep fried tarantula? ;)​" If you do not know already I HATE spiders, all of them.

Being the WebMD, over-analyzing, hypochondriac that I am, decided to hyper research eating tarantulas at Romdeng (the restaurant we were going to) HUGE MISTAKE! Just to summarize what I learned: they deep fry them without battering them;  the legs are crunchy and crispy; the body is squishy and most likely contains excrement and eggs; and they will bring out a live one for you to hold.  The only thing I was excited about was being done.

Tuesday night, eight of us piled into 2 tuk tuks (sort of like chariots attached to a moto) to meet our coworker that coordinated it at a bar called Liquid in BKK1 (the expat community).  The group consisted of 3 Canadians, 2 Brits, 2 Cambodians, Anna and I.  We all had a beer and talked for an hour or so, distracting ourselves from that fact that we were about to eat an arachnid for dinner.  

When we migrated to Romdeng we were all on edge.  Vy, our coworker who coordinated this forced cultural event, made sure to order enough tarantulas so that we each could have our own in addition to deciding what we would eat for the main courses.  Clearly my spidey senses were working because I could sense when they were bringing out the live one made eye contact with the guilty-ist looking waiter (who totally had the tarantula) and bolted to the other side of the table to hide.  A couple people held the live one, I avoided it at all costs and was very pleased when they took it away.  After tons of protesting, and a selfie, I agreed to eat a leg.  I chewed it as little as possible and then swallowed.  So I am not entirely sure what it tasted like but I surely won't do it again.  

One of the dishes that Vy ordered for us was beef curry with fire ants.  Fire ants aren't like normal little black ants, they are giant bee sized ants with wings.  Being that I was hungry an if you didn't look at the plate you could pretend they arent there, I ate them without much protest.  And you know what, it was really good, but I still wouldn't ever order it again.

 The arachnids

 Just a spider running around on the table nbd

 "Elaine eat it!" "But look at this cute selfie I took!" "I don't care eat it!"

 Jin eating the fire ants

xoxo

Human Tradgedy

I am pretty sure that the 3 of us are still in tourist mode and are in denial of the fact that we have 2 months to see all that Cambodia has to offer but that's okay.  Sunday was a national holiday, so we all had Monday off and for some reason thought it was a good idea to immerse ourselves in the terror of the Khmer Rouge. (google Khmer Rouge if you don't know what they are but basically under Pol Pot they attempted to turn the country into a communal agrarian society which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of Cambodians at the hands of other Cambodians)

Tuol Sleng (S-21):  Tuol Sleng was a primary and high school in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge came into power.  One of their anti-education slogans was "there are no diplomas, only diplomas one can visualize. If you wish to get a Baccalaureate, you have to get it at dams or canals" so there was no need for schools anymore.  The former school became Security Prison 21 (S-21) where they tortured and imprisoned people.  The place looks like it was just discovered yesterday, its pretty intense.  Some of the cells are still in tact and have pictures of the bodies that were found when S-21 was discovered.  Others serve as rooms to display artifacts and information about the prison and the Khmer Rouge in general.

The graves of the bodies left when S-21 was discovered

The prison rules

A cell and the actual bed and foot shackles

Former excercise equipment for the students that the Khmer rouge uses to tie victims to as a torture method, and when they lost consciousness they dipped their heads in the dirty water in the pots.

Photos of Victims 

shackles used to strap prisoners into beds by their feet

Painting of baby being thrown up and shot

Painting of a baby being taken from mother and hit onto a tree

The Choeung Ek Killing Field:  Because, you know, we weren't depressed enough so we headed off to the killing field where the S-21 inmates, and others, were taken to be executed.  Anna had read that there were bones coming out of the ground, I of course didn't believe her but she was right and we literally stepped on and could have tripped over human bones that were surfacing due to years of rains.  When you arrive they tell you to stay silent and hand you a head set to listen too while going through the guided tour.  I learned a lot about the Khmer Rouge and how horrifyingly they executed people in mass.  Some of the mass graves have been excavated, the bones examined and logged, then stored in a giant stupa where you can pay your respects.  Other graves still contain bodies and as the bones and clothing become visible the grounds keepers collect them to put on display.

 Where remains which have been forensically analyzed and categorized are housed

 Bones resurfacing due to rain

 Clothes and bones resurfacing due to rain

 "Killing tree against which executioners beat children"

 Rags of victims clothing that have surfaced

 Pieces of bones and teeth that have surfaced and been collected by grounds keepers

I promise to write about something happier next time, but history is important and if we dont learn from it we are doomed to repeat it.
xoxo