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

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thailand

10 Year Class Reunion-I'm getting Old

In July I went to my 10 year reunion for High School. The first night we just meet at a bar to socialize. I needed up leaving Denver really late because I took a nap that lasted a couple of hours (caused by my jet lag). By the time I got there most people were pretty drunk. I had a fun weekend. It was interesting to see people I hadn't seen since graduation and to see what they are up to now. This picture is with my friend McKenzie. We have been friends since 1st grade.

New Mexico

Last week I went to New Mexico with Gabi to visit his family. It was a fun and relaxing trip. I have never been to Santa Fe so on Thursday Gabi, his sister and I went. It was pretty close to Los Alamos. I got to eat corn on the cob which always makes me happy.



On the way there we stopped by the Sand Dunes in Colorado. I have always wanted to see them. Can you say Random? Sand Dunes in Colorado.




Gabi's mom taught me how to make crab cheese wontons. I only burned myself once.



Here is Gabi getting more corn on the cob ready to cook. Did I mention how much corn on the cob makes me happy? The last night we were there we went to the new Batman movie. It was the most intense movie I have ever seen.

We did have some excitement while we were there. A black bear come out on their porch at night. Gabi's yellow lab, Louie, was outside in a kennel so we had to sneak him in. By the time we got Louie in the bear and gone to the neighbors and I was disappointed I never did get to see it.

Savannah's Amazing Race

I had a chance to compete in Savannah's race this June. My sister Carol's friend Leah planned this "Amazing Race" style activity to help raise awareness about Down Syndrome. I am attaching the Savannah's Race webpage and the News story video they did before the race on Channel 9news. They do a better job of explaining why this race happened.

http://www.savannahsrace.org/

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=93479



Leah and Savannah



There were 9 pairs who competed and Carol and I (nicknamed "The Teachers") got 3rd. Every team had to have a camera man so Gabi volunteered to listen to Carol and I fight all day.

I am going to use the information on the Savannah's Race website to explain each task because that is easier. All credit for this goes to Leah. Her information is in bold and my comments are not.



3...2...1...GO! The teams are running to their cars to
open their first clue...They must go to DIA and find a
marked car in the East long term parking lot.

The three teams that raised the most money had a head start. We were not one of them. On the way we were passed by another team and they got pulled over right in front of us. For those of you who aren't familiar with the DIA airport the East long term parking lot is huge. We didn't know where to start. I was trying to figure out if they would just put the car in a random spot of a row that meant something. The rows are marked by letters. I told Carol just to drive to S for Savannah because I was convinced it was there. I was right and we beat every team except the team that left first.



The clue at DIA sent the teams to INVESCO Field at Mile
High. Here, they had to count the # of orange seats in
the Bronco's mane - then they got their next clue...



It was pretty cool to be running around Invesco Field while it was completely empty.



Which sent them to Ceramics in the City, where they had
to paint their own ceramic plate with a theme of Down
syndrome awareness



The clue teams got after they painted their ceramics sent them to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, where one teammate
had to arrest the other. They had to recite the Miranda warning by memory, cuff the suspect, frisk them, fingerprint them, and
as shown here, take a mug shot. Teams then opened their next clue, which sent them to an eating challenge at Rocky
Ridge Park. Then... The worst part for me was the eating challenge. We to eat a 6 inch sub. I know I am weird but I hate sandwiches so it eat a 6 inch one was painful. To make matters worse I had just eaten a big donut while waiting for the mug shot to develop. I almost throw up twice.



On to Kiowa Creek Sporting Club! Each person got 20 tries to shoot 5 sporting clays. Then the best shot had 10 tries to shoot a double clay: two clays with one shell. If they didn't make the required number of hits, the teams sat out for a 5-minute time penalty. Racers had a great time at this location, and did a great job - even some of the first-time shooters did great!



This was my favorite event. We got there are there were two teams in front of us. I have shot a gun before but have never hit a clay pigeon in my life. The owner of the shooting range was so helpful. and I hit my 5 in 12 shots.



Carol struggled to hit any until the last 7 shots and she hit her 5. After that I was the one to try to hit two clay pigeons with on shot. No one yet had done it at all and out of complete luck I did it on the first try. I was so shocked I didn't even run. The guy had to tell us to get going.


Teams were then sent to Strasburg High School where they had to complete a track and field event (shot put,
discus, and hurdles) and also complete a Greek word puzzle. I finally got to use my shot put skills I gained from coaching middle school shot put.

One of the more difficult challenges had teams diving in the Beck Rec Center Pool to retrieve 20 laminated cards
of their team color. Once they retrieved all the cards, there was a word puzzle they had to complete using
those cards. This was the reason we got 3rd and not 2nd. One of our cards got sucked down the drain. I were it the pool forever looking for it and finally one of the helpers swam around looking. When we lifted the cover on the drain our card popped out. Oh well it was for a good cause anyways. We won 2 one-hour massages for 3rd place. They raised $12,200 for the cause.



It was one of the funnest things I have every done. Leah did an amazing job at planning it and getting sponsors. It was very professionally done. I think we ended up driving over 230 miles.