Tour of Ancient Kingdoms, September 21 - October 11, 2023

Between the airport and hotel we stopped at the Champey Academy of Arts, a free school of traditional dance, music, and art for disadvantaged inner-city kids.

In addition to motivating the poor kids, they are perpetuating their classical Khmer culture. Part of the dance requires performers to hold their fingers "backwards." I was assured they could train my hand to keep that position in a few weeks. My physical therapist was not able to get that flexibility in months - they must be dedicated to refining their talent.

The young folks were quite adept in dancing, to musical accompaniment by other students. Notice the hands together and the fingers going outwards! We also saw kids developing their art skills.

Some of the dance was actually a play. I found it interesting that most performers in both Laos and Cambodia were barefoot.

Phnom Penh is a typical city of 2.2 million, current capital of Cambodia

On the bus ride, we passed the Royal Palace, the nominal home of the royal family.

We visited one of the larger killing fields and the associated Genocide Museum

As people arrived, most were taken to open graves and immediately executed. The remains of 8,985 people, many of whom were bound and blindfolded, were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves in what was previously an orchard; 43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched.

A memorial stupa, a Buddhist mausoleum, was built in 1988 and contains more than 8000 skulls, arranged by sex and age.

The skills are visible behind the clear glass panels, many marked with a color dot.
Orange dot: Foreigners
Dark blue dot: Evidence of killing by Iron tool
Large yellow dot: Evidence of killing by Hoe
Green dot: Evidence of killing by Axe
Purple dot: Evidence of killing by Hook Knife
Small yellow dot: Evidence of Neck Cutting
Blue dot: Evidence of Ear Cutting

The sign says "The tree was used as a tool to hang a loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed."

Decades later clothing works its way to the surface - note the piece just emerging near the fencepost, in addition to those hung in the tree.

Eventually the victim's clothes are collected and preserved.

Sometimes human bone fragments and teeth are found.

"THE KILLING TOOL STORAGE ROOM
Here, it was the place where the killing tools such as shackles, leg irons, a hatchet, knives, hoes, digging hoes, shoves {sic}, iron ox-cart axles were stored. The storage room was constructed from wood with a galvanized steel roof. These tools were lost in 1979."

What happened to kids? These hair bands have been added by visitors over the years.

long bones have been found in addition to skulls

I assume this is one of the mass graves that has not been exhumed.

We meet a couple of the survivors or descendants in the museum which was coupled to S21 - a school converted to a prison.

This happened recently enough that our local guides all knew relatives who were executed.

This is the actual room - C22 - where Chum Mey, one of the people we met, was confined.

Another door handle that I could not resist. Until now, I didn't realize that the inside handle was different than the outside handle - I should have taken two pictures.

/p>

This was an evening of "personal time" so we had our trip leader arrange a city tour (despite almost raining) with a tuk tuk.

The Independence Monument, built in 1958 to memorialize Cambodia's independence from France in 1953. Wasn't that several governments ago?

As usual, Jenny wanted to get to the waterfront, so our driver did so.

This is not a Christmas Tree. Wrong season, in a Buddhist country (97%, state religion since 1993). However, there are a few colored lights inside??? It is in front of a Nagaworld hotel/casino facility.

Our driver was also anxious to show is Nagaworld 1; one of the largest five star hotels and the only premium casino in Cambodia.

He also made a point of showing us Raffles Hotel Le Royal, which people apparently visit to say they had a drink at "Raffles."

Never did figure out this elegant looking facility.

But we were at the night market. Amazing that half the sign is in English.

Colored lights but this isn't Christmas either... same reasons.

Mid-morning we stopped to see a lady who hunts for tarantulas, cooks them, and sells them at the local market.

As we met her, our group got to play with them.

She had a substantial inventory - which she later cooked and many of our group ate.

We went hunting and found a nest not far from her home. She dug a few inches deep and did not find one in this nest, but found another nest not far away that yielded a live tarantula.

She quickly clipped the stingers, making them safe to play with or eat.

Later we encountered a shop where you could get anything made of stone.

and that really means anything, in any size.

we found one of the craftsmen refining a HUGE statue.

By mid-afternoon we came to a 1,000 year old bridge that holds the title of the longest bridge of it's type. To preserve it, heavy loads are no longer allowed (such as our tour bus) which took a detour to avoid the bridge and met us on the other side.

The high water hid the structure of the historic bridge, so I raided the internet for basically the same picture with normal water levels.

I believe the carved decoration at the end of the bridge was in fact a multi-head snake to protect the bridge.

The fancy carved decorations were not hurt by photos.

And finally, late afternoon, we arrived at our Grand Hotel d'Angkor in Siem Reap. I didn't realize it at the time but this is part of the historic Raffles chain.

As we started our morning bus trip, I saw why growing rice is so labor intensive. The farmer had a bunch of seedlings in his hand, and was planting them individually in the wet rice field. Remember he bent over for each of the seedlings on the right, and had the rest of the field to go.

"On the way" we stopped for an ox cart ride. These water buffalo seemed to be "everywhere" but we were assured that they knew their owners, and the owners knew them, even though they all looked alike to us, so there was no need for fences or other confinement.

They are not just a revenue opportunity from tourists - these carts have huge wheels so they can go into the rice paddies and not get stuck. Normally the carts are working farm vehicles (without the little rug for us to sit on).

Yes, the ox-cart (water buffalo) ride was a fun experience

The tour took us through their village for an extended view of the local life.

Finally we reached the boat that would take us to the floating village.

There are 174 distinct floating villages on this huge lake. As the water level changes with the rainy/dry seasons, each village moves 2-3 times per year. Each of the houses floats on bamboo poles or empty barrels, and is easily towed to the new site. (After moving you may or may not have the same neighbors.) Every 5-10 years the floats have to be replaced, which is done a unit at a time, as a neighborhood project, while the house continues to float.

Our destination was the home of the mid-wife for one of the villages. Recently mothers are taken to a hospital in the city to give birth, but she still handles emergency births as well as pre-natal and post-natal care. Her husband is a fisherman. They had 10 kids, all of whom have chosen to live in their floating village (even one who married someone from dry land, and they now live in the floating village).

Their house was amazing - ample room in the living room for the 14 people in our group plus leaders (Soeng, our guide, in the yellow shirt, above, was doing the translation). Notice the room light and ceiling fan - operated from a battery charged by a solar panel.

The pantry of the floating house, including cooking pans, etc.

A floating area tied to their house was being used to dry grain and other materials. Their house had a bedroom with what appeared to be a queen size bed, and a flush toilet into a septic tank under the house (emptied a couple times per year). It had both inside (gas stove) and outside (wood stove) kitchens.

The house next door belonged to her daughter and family. Their perhaps 5 year old daughter came across the board between the houses to visit grandma and to entertain us visitors. The child was happy, apparently well fed, and well dressed. She was not suffering a deprived life.

This is the back side of what I failed to take a picture of earlier... the elementary/middle school for the village. In the center is a soccer field (covered and enclosed to prevent loss of the kicked balls) surrounded by two classroom buildings on each end. I don't know how those four floating classrooms are divided - one large room or several classrooms each.

An optional activity in the afternoon (that I believe everyone attended) was to visit the APOPO "HeroRATS" in action.

This special breed of African rat that can be trained to detect explosives (up to a couple feet underground) in about 9 months. If they pass the final test with a perfect score, they are put to work clearing mine fields. If their final test was imperfect, they do demonstrations such as we saw.

A safe lane about 3 feet wide at each side of the working area is cleared using traditional methods. Then a person stands on each side with a low wire connected to their leg. A trained rat in a harness is put on that wire so it can move from one side of the field to the other. The handlers also have a leash to encourage the rat to keep moving - once it has crossed the field the two handlers move about 18 inches and have the rat return. If an explosive is detected, it is marked and removed by conventional methods. The rats can clear an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes, compared to 3-4 weeks by traditional methods.

The rats are nearly blind, so work best at night where they navigate primarily by smell. This rat is weaering the harness that the wire passes through as it goes back and forth across the field. Some of the rats are also trained to detect tuberculosis in a sputum sample. They can test 100 samples in 20 minutes, which would take a lab person 4 days to do conventionally

This area is known for very strong straight trees, that (as we will see) can have a mind of their own.

In mid afternoon we arrived at the Ta Phrom temple, where the movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" was filmed.

The main distinction of this temple is the overwhelming way the trees have grown over, around, and through the stonework.

Yes, that is a root of this tree that is growing along the top of the wall.

This tree decided it wanted to straddle the wall. Note that the near half of the root structure has been removed.

I don't recognize what is missing, but the tree took it down and is living among the pieces.

The tour guides were excited that Jenny and I (and in-turn, each of the other members of our group) could be "under this tree"

Even though we had a hint of Angkor Wat yesterday, this morning is the primary visit. It was built AD 800 to 1200 over an area of roughly 96 square miles. I don't know what OAT had to do to get our tickets (US$62 each) but they are good for three days in a 10 day period, and have our passport photo on each ticket.

As you get closer, it is certainly impressive. Work to preserve it is constant - the blue on the left tower is part of a construction site.

There was discussion how this area could be filled with water during wet season, with limited drains in the corners.

The entire temple is three stories tall, with about 100 uneven, worn, steps, with no railings, to the upper level. Therefore OAT kindly provided a separate guide, Jack, for us older people, so we could get a thorough tour of the lower level without climbing to the upper floors. During his explanations, and looking closely, we could see great detail, but the photos don't do it justice.

Sometimes the detail was so large that it was obvious

A favorite photo spot is in front of the lake with the reflection of the temple in the lake. Too late to ask Jenny to drop her right elbow! Notice our photo ID tickets worn as badges.

We returned at dusk to see the temple in the sunset

and we all drank a toast to Angkor Wat ... with Angkor beer.

The evening activity was a Khmer Circus performance. I expected a professional performance for the $80 it cost us. Instead it was a student exercise. The only professional level act, in my opinion, was this person balancing on many layers of unstable base.

The second best performer was this young man, who in this act was bouncing on the bar held on the shoulders of his associates. However, a professional doesn't need three spotters to catch him each time he falls - a pro should rarely fall and in those rare cases should be able to catch themselves. The previous balancing act did not have any spotters. To me, this activity was the only disappointment of the entire trip.

Mid-day we had checked out of our hotel and visited the Angkor National Museum.

The museum had a great scale model of the Angkor Wat grounds and temple. The total area was nearly 100 square miles, but the temple is far larger than Vatican city and St. Peter's Basilica.