Angkor Wat

Yesterday, Tuesday, Jan. 28, we found ourselves on another bus that took forever. This time we weren't as prepared mentally as we have been in the past. The supposedly 6 hour ride took 9 hours with many stops to pick up locals and transport them to the other side of town or to a nearby town for a cheap cheap price. We paid $15 for the two of us to travel from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and we saw a woman get on and get the local special. She paid $1.50 for about half of the ride. We were fairly positive the driver and host were pocketing the change. Our stops also included restaurants that had highly questionable food, so we opted not to eat. We finally ate at the "Little Cafe" in Siem Reap. We must have been starving or the food was simply amazing!
Today, we woke up at 4:15am and met our Tuk Tuk driver at 5am to go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. There is a Tuk Tuk driver in Siem Reap that is a member of the church and his brother, Gong, was our driver all day long. We will let our pictures do the talking about the Eighth Wonder of the World. We will have plenty more pictures to show when we get home.

A sobering day....

We had a great history-learning day. We spent the day learning about all of the Khmer Rouge history and visiting two interesting sites.
In the morning, we were picked up in a tuk tuk by a guy named Picadae (pronounced "pick-a-day"). He is someone that John and Michele knows and trusts. We took a 45 minute tuk tuk ride to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. We walked around the grounds listening to an audio recording on a headset of a man who had survived the tortures and killings of the Khmer Rouge. He talked about the grounds and what happened there for a prisoner. He explained the experience of what happened between leaving the prison and how they were executed. It was amazing to think that this all occurred about 40 years ago and that many of the higher up leaders of the Khmer Rouge weren't tried in a criminal court until 2011.
After the killing fields, we moved onto the Tuol Sleng Museum. The Tuol Sleng was once a high school for kids until the Khmer Rouge took over the grounds and used it as a prison and torture place of thousands of innocent Cambodians who were thought could be a threat to the Khmer Rouge. There was still blood stains on the walls and ceilings in many rooms. The exhibit was very interesting to walk through.
From the Museum we walked around the more touristy area of town and found some food. Our hotel is not very conveniently located in regards to eating safe food. John and Michele warned us not to eat the street food in Cambodia because everyone they know who has, has gotten sick. So being in the touristy area was nice, but food was fairly expensive. All in all, we had a great day. Below are some pictures of the day.

The road was unpaved in many sections, so Picadae stopped and got us masks.

Picadae driving

Memorial Stupa that houses all the bones and skulls that have been unearthed from the rainy seasons.

Mass grave site

People have placed these bracelets all over the posts of the grave sites. No one did tell us what it was for or meant.

Skulls in the Stupa

There are 17 shelves of skulls in the Stupa. Over 3500 people were killed at this killing field. There were over 300 killing fields throughout Cambodia during the time of Khmer.

A room at the Tuol Sleng Prison. One room would hold anywhere from 10 to 1000 people. The rooms were crowded with 20 people in them. I can't imagine 1000 people.

Building A of the Tuol Sleng complex. There are four buildings total that mirror this building. 

Independence Monument

We were looking at other travel books and stumbled across the Book of Mormon. We are fairly positive the missionaries gave it to her at one point and she has been trying to resell it ever since. She wanted $3 for it. What a rip-off! The same book is only $2.50 at the Distribution Center. Maybe someone will fall for it and take the bait.  If they do, they wont regret it. 

Saigon to Phnom Penh

We have found our way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The bus ride was scheduled to take six hours, but in Asian good fashion, the bus ride took almost nine hours. Crossing the border went fairly smooth and we rode on a sweet bus. Some of the company was less than desirable,  but the cutest little Vietnamese woman sat across from us and would sing to the old time music that would turn on throughout the bus ride.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and borrowed some guy's phone to call the nanny of John and Michele Hustedt. Chandet (the nanny) arrived in a tuk tuk and off we went to John and Michele's place. When we arrived, we felt like we were on House Hunters International.  John and Michele and their two year old daughter Anna were wonderful to stay with. John is the older brother of a friend of ours, Anna Cannon. Anna and her husband, Brad, were in our Ward in Logan and got us in contact with John and Michele. Small world, but we are happy it is small.

John and Michele have been a great resource in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. They have traveled to all of these places several times during the two years they have lived in Phnom Penh and John has done much traveling before that also. We are very happy and thankful for this new friendship. Thanks John and Michele!

We attended an International Branch today. The members are from different parts of the world. One family from Nigeria. One guy from New Mexico. Few Cambodians. And a family of Philippinos. Plus, two Senior Missionaries from Idaho Falls. We also had a family much like us visit too. The family was grandparents,  daughter, and grandson. The grandson had just completed his Eagle Scout Project by delivering soccer balls, toys, hygiene products and underwear to a remote village in Laos. Talk about an Eagle Scout Project!

Pictured below is us with John and Michele. Their daughter Anna was napping because they arrived from Hanoi at 11pm the night before also. Late night for the little one.

Last Day in Saigon

Today was our last full day in Saigon and Vietnam. We had a great day. We have found the biggest scam to tourists in Vietnam is taking a taxi. We have fallen victim to this the two times we have taken taxis in Vietnam. Spike has the same sickness as his father and always looks at the map before attempting to go someplace for the first time. We took a taxi to meet up with Linh (Spike's Grandparents' friend) and we needed to take one road all the way out to her place. Needless to say, the taxi driver took a couple extra side roads to get us there. It was super annoying because we can't say anything that he would understand,  but we knew we were being scammed. It wasn't until we picked up Linh when he drove right because there were two instances when Linh got on the driver's case and told him where to go. It was nice to see that happen.
We spent a couple hours helping Linh make sandwiches for 400 cancer patients going home for the Chinese New Years celebrations. Shelley and I sliced open all 400 baguettes of bread then helped stuff the loafs. It was nice to meet Linh finally. She has been a great help to us here in Vietnam. Grandma and Grandpa Robinson, Linh wanted us to tell you "Hello".
In the evening, we spent the night walking around Saigon and watching the sunset happen over the Saigon River.
Here are some pictures of our day and Saigon.

Decorations for New Years

        

The entire country spends millions of dollars on huge elaborate decorations for New Years

Shelley has never eaten so many Oreos. 

Oreos=home comfort

Spike and Linh

The crew making sandwiches

Cu Chi Tunnels

Today has been a great day! We had some fried eggs (op la) and bread for breakfast for $1.50. Love this place :) Then we hopped on a bus to the Cao Dai Great Temple. It was a crazy experience, Spike is going to try and post a vid. We got there during one of thier prayer times. There were hundreds of people kneeling, all dressed in white, praying. Others were in the back chanting and playing some kind of instruments.  The relgion believes in God and Mother Buddha as well as Sage...They seemed to have a slice of every religious pie. It was fun to see them pray. Then it was off to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Our Vietnamese tour guide, named Minh, was wonderful.  He fought in the war along side our American soilders. He did alot of work translating Vietnamese into English for the US. It was really interesting to hear his take on what happened during the war. Yesterday at the War Remnants Museum and again today at the tunnels we felt sad that only the absolute worst of everything we did here is on display. So, it was refreshing to hear some non-communist thoughts on history. The tunnels were built by a group of South Vietnamese who were on the Communist side.  It is no wonder our troops could not find the bad guys. The jungle is super thick and the Vietnamese are very creative. The tunnels we crawled through have been enlarged and I felt a little claustrophobic.  I can't imagine the real thing.

Minh, fought in the war for 8 years against communism. When Saigon fell, he was in a refugee camp for 2 years and then was forced to work on a communist farm for 10 years. As he told us his story, he smiled and said that he never had time to be young. I am amazed how happy he is despite all he has been through.  He said his final goal is to be buried with a smile on his face because smiling is the universal language.  What a guy!

Here are some pictures and hopefully a video to watch.

Nha Trang to Saigon

Nha Trang is a beautiful place. Full of big hotels, restaurants, and lots of Russians. We have seen many Russian people out and about. Sometimes too much Russian when we went to the beach.
Vietnam has been nice, but tough mentally because we recognise the Roman letters (Vietnamese is the only Asian language that is Romanized), but cannot speak or read it. Plus, we have tried not to spend money doing all the touristy stuff, so that has left us to do all the free stuff. And once you see one Pagoda, you basically have seen them all.

Long Son Pagoda in Nha Trang pictured below.

Giant seated Buddha at the pagoda

We are super excited to be in Saigon.
We have taken another night train to Saigon. Ga Nha Trang (Nha Trang Station in vietnamese) is full of sharks. Newspaper sharks that is. We witnessed three vietnamese men for four hours follow other vietnamese people to their seats and put magazines and newspapers in their face and basically beg them to buy the material. The begging was often without words as the paperboy would just stand there long after a noticable no was expressed. One paperboy we witnessed would loosen his grip on the paper and let it fall into the lap of the victims trying to obligate them to buy. It is nice to know that the vietnamese target the vietnamese also.
Our train ride was less than par. We opened our sleeper room door and it was full of garbage and the bedding was clearly used. To European girls near us tried to open their door and couldn't until someone finally unlocked it. They discovered that all the beds in their room were taken also. Then next to ours the Train Captain and a worker got into a huge arguement with another gentleman. The arguement spanned the first 20 mintues of our journey.  We assumed the man was caught not in the right place also since it seemed as if everyone was occupying beds they shouldn't have been. Needless to say,  we were just happy to finally put our feet up after sitting at the train station for over five hours.
In Saigon we have been planning on doing more of the touristy things. We have attended the War Remnants Museum already. That place was very interesting. As I was walking through and reading the many terrible stories and seeing the pictures, I was continually reminded of the great work my grandfather did while over here. Thanks Grandpa John for always living your testimony in all aspects of life, even that tough time. We hope to bike the Mekong Delta, and hopefully help Linh (Spike's Grandparents' friend) with a service project of some kind. We will keep you posted about that.  For now, enjoy some more pictures.

Ga Nha Trang

Ticket Booth at Ga Nha Trang

Sleeper Train

Stopped for breakfast on our way to the hotel.

We had Op La (fried egg sandwich on a baguette).

We've eaten alot of these. $2! Not bad.

Crazy traffic in Saigon. 

Oddly enough, this is mellow compared to Hanoi.

War Remnants Museum

War Remnants Museum

War Remnants Museum

Seated Buddha's view of Nha Trang

Shelley packing to the train station

Night sleeper bus from Hoi An to Nha trang