Southeast Asia Trip-Vietnam

Some of you know that my big trip this summer was to Southeast Asia. I went to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand on a tour with my sisters Carol and Connie. Connie flew home and Carol and I visited an island in Thailand and then Malaysia and Singapore. It was a pretty amazing trip. I am going to give high and lows of our trip since I have so many pictures.

Vietnam





These two pictures sum up Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Crazy amounts of people on mopeds and wires looking unsafe. Saigon is growing too fast for its own good.



We went to the Cu Chi Tunnels (and yes your pronounce it the way it looks). They are the Viet Cong tunnels that were used in the Vietnam War to fight against the Americans. They were pretty cool.


There was a lot of anti American propaganda that we had to listen to. Basically they were told that America was evil and stupid and the Viet Cong were great and incredible smart. After awhile it got old to listen too.


They had these small holes so that they could quickly hide from the American troops. It was not very big. My hips barely fit. You had to go down with your hands over your head or your shoulders wouldn't fit. The tunnel was really small and apparently there were two bats hanging out in the tunnel. I found that out after I crawled through that tunnel.



On the way back from the tunnels we kept passing these houses with German Shepherd statues on their gates. We thought this was really random and it took about 12 tries to get a picture of one.

This was the most we ever saw on one moped 6 people. They passed a law so that adults have to wear helmets but apparently kids don't have too. Crazy.

Cambodia

Cambodia Phnom Pehn

Since I teach 7th graders I always take pictures of the toilets in the countries I travel. The love that.


Fried crickets for sale


A Buddhist Temple


In 1975-1949 the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and started a genocide that killed a little less than 1/3 of Cambodia's population. Everyone in Cambodia knows people that were killed. Our two tour guides in Cambodia both lost family in the genocide. No one has been tried for the things had happened. The current Prime Minister used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge. He tells the people that they need to bury their bad feelings and memories and move on. We toured two places, S21 (former high school turned Prison and torture camp in 1975) and a killing field. It was a pretty heavy day.


The whole time our tour guide was telling us about the genocide his eyes were moving back and forth to see who was around. He told us and the government has people listen to what the tour guides are saying about the current government and any involvement. At times he would stop in mid sentence because someone else come into the room. Freedom of speech does not exist in Cambodia.
They took pictures of everyone who was a prisoner at S21. Less than 10 people who stayed there survived.


At S21 the goal was to torture the prisoners to the brink of death and then send them to the killing fields for execution. They never used bullets because they felt like it was a waste. There were over 100 killing fields all throughout Cambodia.


Siem Reap



There were so many pictures

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Thailand