Music Concert

This was a Chinese folk music band. They were a cool group. Even the venue was cool, it was a drug dealers mansion that was converted into a hotel after he was arrested.

Student Play

The prompt was: What would you do if you were stuck on an island by yourself.

SE Asia- Siem Reap, Phenom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia was the last stop on our trip. Initially I wasn't very excited to go, but it turned out to be the most socially intriguing country for me.

Our first stop was Siem Reap. It was ok, Angkor Wat was interesting to see, but after a while all of the ruins started to blur together. What I found to be more interesting was the huge amount of children selling various tourist items. One girl could count up to 10 in 5 different languages, and say 10 for $1 in all of those languages. She must have been 13 years old, and should have been in school.

Angkor Wat


An invasion of monkeys. We made the tuk tuk driver stop so we could take pics.

Next up was Phenom Penh. In PP we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Originally the building was a high school that was turned into a prison/torture center and is now the location of the museum. The school was converted by the Khemer Rouge as a facility to torture and house their prisoners, before eventually killing them. I had no idea that a genocide that killed 2 million people took place in the late 70's. What is even more upsetting is living leaders of the KR have yet to be punished for their actions. The KR targeted scholars, government officials and other high powered Cambodians, in an attempt to destroy all history of Cambodia. It is no wonder that Cambodia is having so many problems today. The most interesting exhibit was one of a Dutch diplomat that had originally supported the KR's cause. It displayed pictures of his tour of Cambodia in the 70's with commentary of what he thought in the 70's and what he now realizes about what was really going on in Cambodia. Most of the pictures he had taken he now concludes were staged scenes by the KR for his visit.

A room and bed used to torture. Prisoners would be tortured here and thrown into cells the size of bathroom stalls.

The Killing Fields was a mass grave for the victims of the KR. This monument is filled from ceiling to floor of victims' skulls.

After seeing the horrors of the KR, Kelly and I decided to take a cooking class to brighten up our trip.

In the class we learned to make spring rolls, Amok fish, and sticky rice with mango. It was delicious.

I wish I could make that here. Maybe if I have visitors I will try...no promises.

Yoga

Lately my body has been really creaky, so I decided to go to a yoga class tonight. I found a yoga studio from the ex-pat website and contacted the instructor. I didn't know exactly where the studio was, but thanks to my improved Chinese (and a paper with the address written in Chinese), I was able to find the building. When I arrived in class, I realized it was conducted in Chinese! Luckily the instructor realized I didn't speak much Chinese and translated what she was saying for me. Man, I was not expecting to get so sweaty from yoga, at other times my body was shaking from the positions we were doing. I am glad I am starting yoga in China, because if I am doing the position wrong, I can just pretend I don't understand the translation. Bad, I know.