Cambodia & Vietnam

We came, we saw, and we conquered. Well, it was more like melted into a puddle rather than conquered, but as they say  in Thailand, “same, same”. LJ and I travelled to Cambodia for 7 days and then crossed the border into Vietnam, where we spent 8 days. Both Cambodia and Vietnam shared similarities with Thailand, but each country has their own unique flare and culutuaral exerience that is not to be missed. We learned so much about each country’s history becuase it played such a role in what they’ve become today. Both Cambodia and Vietnam experienced painful, country-wide tragedies including, declaring Independence from French colonial rule, being under violent dictatorships, enduring a mass-genocide of the county’s most intelligent citizens, and of course the emotional and physical toll of the Vietnam War. So, again, I will attempt at explaining our experience in two amazing counties but I can’t promise I’ll do it justice.

Cambodia: 

I’ve always considered myself a fan of geography but for some reason I could never remember where Cambodia was. Before we came to SE Asia, there was a 50/50 chance I would say it was a country in Africa. This is to say, I knew little to nothing about Cambodia but what we’ve learned in the last couple of weeks is fascinating; filled with pain, injustice, and eventually restoration. When you’re from a relatively new country that has been maintained as a world-power and is strong and developed, like America, you should consider yourself lucky but it doens’t always make for an interesting history class. Cambodia on the other hand, has endured so much just in the last 40 years. As you can tell, Cambodia’s history became a captivating part of our travels and we took every opportunity to learn about it. I apologize if history bores but I just can’t help myself.

One of the biggest reasons we wanted to come to Cambodia was to see the ever-famous, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Angkor Wat. Angkor is an area that served the Khmer Empire, which was a very powerful and influenctial Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The Khmer Empire occupied present day, Thailand, Laos, Southern Vietnam, and Cambodia. Ultimately, over these 700 years, they made Angkor (today, Siem Reap, Cambodia) their capital city, where they built over one-thousand temples located within forests and around farmland. It is said to be the world’s largest single religious monument, although it does not possess much of a religious feel today. It feels more like you’ve travelled back in time and you’ve entered a video game or alternate universe where spralling Kingdoms exist and nothing else matters but the sandstone palace you are standing in. You walk through small doorways and enter in a new room, and then another, and another until you are lost. We actually got lost in one of the temples, it was so big and maze-like…and that was one of 1,000+ temples that was in a few miles of us. I do not lie when I say it’s amazing and you feel like you’ve just stepped into an Asian version of Game of Thrones. Actually, the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed in one of the temples if that gives you any ideas. If you ever have the chance to go, please do it.

The more recent events of Cambodia’s past touched our heart’s as well. Back to History Class: Khmer Rouges was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and they were an offshoot from the Vietnam People’s Army in Northern Vietnam. It was a communist party and the dictator in charge was Pol Pot, who was undoubtedly a paranoid, egotystical psycho. Pol Pot killed an estimated 3 million of the country’s most presigous and intelligent people, making it the one of the world’s largest genoices in history. During this time, 1/4th of the population died by means of the Khmer Rougues genocide. Their goal was to purify the race and restore an agrarian society. They wanted people out of the cities and onto the farm land, with no education and no hope of global progress. Therefore, anyone who had an education or had a job that wasn’t farming was executed; officials, executives, teachers, lawyers, doctors. Things obviously got out of hand and conflicts with communists in Vietnam began to rise. The Khmer Rouguue let paranoia take over, and they started to kill everyone they could find, in fears that the were working for the KGB or the CIA. They had numerous torture camps and “killing fields” all around the country, where they would dig mass graves of over 400 bodies per grave. LJ and I visited a torture camp that was perfectly resotred and also one of the 300 “killing fields” where many murders took place. The Khmer Rougue was detail-orineted and took pictures of everyone before, during, and after their time at the camps. Needless to say, the things we saw made us sick to our stomachs. The pictures, the stories, the cells which you could walk into and stand. The palpable sense of sorrow and loss was enough to make your throat tight and eyes glossy. The feeling was even stronger because you know their past is still present, with people alive today still remembering the memory of Khmer Rougue. People’s parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents having been murdered for a delusional cause and the few survivors that are haunted with the disgusting way of life that once was.

That was only 40 years ago! Can you beleive that?! I didn’t even mention the fact that this was right after being bombed to peices by President Nixon and right before Cambodia had a 14-year long war with Vietnam that lasted until 1991. The United Nations took over Cambodia until 1993 and they have been independently governing their own country ever since. As I’m sure you can tell, Cambodia left quite an impression on us. For once thinking Cambodia was in Africa, I’d say my appreciation and reverence for the country has come along way.

Vietnam: 

Goodmorning Vietnam! As you know, Vietnam has a close to home feeling about it…but in a very strange an unusual way. Before expereincing it myself, I associated Vietnam with war and American pain. Not knowing anyone personally who fought in the Vietnam War, I’d think of tv shows and movies where people would start sentences with, “Well, back in Nam…”,. They’d paint a horrific picture of confusion, violence, and death. Although, the Vietnam War feels like a painful thorn in the American memory the truth is that it was much more painful for the country of Vietnam.

On one of our first day in Saigon (officially Ho Chi Mihn City), we went to the highly reviewed War Remininents Museum in the city center. It’s an amazingly, well-documented, unbiased account of the Vietnam War that covers 3 floors and a few outdoor exhibits. The museum’s exhibits progress from factual timelines to survivor story-telling to award-winning photography. Although LJ and I enjoy history, we didn’t realize how little we knew of the U.S.’s involvement with Vietnam. For those of you who don’t know, the U.S. had troops in Vietnam for 25 years. For many years, the U.S. was the main funding source for the First Indochina War, between Vietnam and France. Then, America did a alot of things and broke a lot of rules and BAM, the Vietnam War began. Obviously, the museum was much more articulate and delicte, but in short that is kind of what happend. As LJ and walked from station to station, which disclosed more and more facts about  America’s ongoing involvement with Vietnam we unknowingly started shaking our heads. What we were reading was truly unbaised information, it was just the cold, hard facts and it was brutal. By the end, I honestly felt like an embarassed American and I contemplated putting on a British accent but then I realized that would definitely be more embarrassing. Then, just when you think it can’t get any worse, you enter the Agent Orange exhibit. Picture after picture after picture of the most unimaginable birth defects and deformities known to mankind. It’s said that 4 million people were exposed and 3 million effected. Today, Vietnam still feels the effect of Agent Orange and the incredible pain it’s caused Vietnamese families. By the time we exited the museum, our brains felt numb. In the course of 3 hours, we absorbed so much new information and our emotions were taken from happy to sad to confused to angry and back again. It was an incredibly catastrophic war for both sides, with 58,000 Americans having died and a staggering total of 2 million Vietnamese, 1.1 million fighting for America. The Defense Department reports that the total cost of the Vietnam War was $173 billion (equivalent of $770 billion in 2003) [cited source].

Well, I sincerely apologize for several depressing paragraphs flooded with boring facts, but when you’re standing on ground where world history was made, it’s hard not to get excited about it. I will end this on a happy note regarding the magnificent island of Cat Bà, Vietnam, which is where I am writing from. Cat Bà is one of 366 islands within 100 square miles that lies on the southeastern edge of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. It is where LJ and I decided to end our journey and we are so happy that we did because it the most natrually stunning place we’ve been in the past 8 months. It’s like a geological masterpeice of forested mountain after forested mountain, all strung together on one big island. Then, around this big forested mountain island are more forested mountain islands….366 of them to be exact. Yesterday, LJ and I went to the national park and hiked up to one of the highest peaks on the island. The hike was strenous and I started to go cross-eyed for a minute there, due to heat and exhastion, but then we made it to the top. It was so breathtaking and unbeleivable. Honestly, after all of the beautiful things we’ve seen it still amazes me that the earth can continue to shock me with its beauty. As we stood at the top, we could turn 360 degrees and see nothing but forested peaks until we couldn’t see anymore. The air was hot and breezy, and as we looked around us we kept saying, “wow, this is amazing”, “this is so beautiful”. In that moment I couldn’t beleive that  Cat Bà could impress me even more, but today it did. This morning we navigated our way though a fraction of the 366 islands, on a boat, and found an area to kayak. Once we found an area where the waves weren’t of epic propotions, we jumped in a kayak and paddled away. There were so many islands, big and small, that we had to take very specific notes of where we had gone so that we didn’t get lost. The area is like a scene of one of those crazy dreams that you have, where you’re fighting a 4 legged sea monster and you find out you can fly; then you wake up and say something like… “I had the craziest dream last night”. We paddled around islands and we even found a lagoon with water so clear that we could see a huge jelly fish right next to our kayak. We could look in any direction and paddle as far as our arms would take us, and still all we could see was forested mountain islands and monoliths. The island of Cat Bà is a wonder of the world in my book, so stunning with it’s beauty and unique in rock formations and forested mountains. If you get a chance to come, you should do it…you’ll be amazed.

The view from our hotel room in Cat Ba

Hike in Cat Ba

Brewery in Saigon