Hanoi, Vietnam

 

We arrived in Hanoi last night.  Hanoi is a busy city with 6 million motorbikes but less than a million cars.  It’s not unusual to see a family of four on one bike.  There seems to be no rules when it comes to traffic flow.  They say if you can make it through rush hour in Hanoi and you can make it anywhere.

More helpful bathroom info from Asia ?!?!

 

Killing Fields

 

1975 to 1979 was one of the worst genocides in modern history when the dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murdered over 3,000,000 Cambodians which was about 1/3 of the total population.  First they killed anyone who disagreed with this extreme communist group.  Next they murdered the highly educated, religious leaders and foreigners.   This was to cover up the reporting of the genocide outside of Cambodia.  Next they murdered teachers.  They replaced the teachers with educators that would support and promote the groups propaganda.  The remaining citizens were made to march from cities to farm work camps.  The old or weak were shot along the way.  The rest were forced to work 10 to 12 hour days with little food and water.  Many died of exhaustion, starvation and disease.  

Now a memorial site is built in their honor with photos and information for visitors.  The hope is we will all learn from the past and this will never happen again.

What is the best thing about Cambodia?

 

What’s the best thing about Cambodia?  The People.

Cambodians smile…a lot.  They are also kind, humble, reserve and soft spoken.  They are curious about people from outside their country but happy to have us visiting.  They are resilient, which makes sense with horrific regime changes they have endured. They live simple, uncluttered lives.  Their diet is mainly rice, beans, fish and vegetables with very little processed food.  The average American is much larger than the average Cambodian.  We feel VERY tall here.  

And Cambodian children are absolutely adorable!

Hero Rats

 

Millions of land mines were placed in Cambodia during the civil war by the Vietnamese and the brutal Khmer Rouge with a devastating impact on the people of Cambodia.  There have been over 65,000 deaths and 25,000 amputees since 1979.  Many of the dead are farmers working the land and children out playing.

These African Giant Pouch Rats are trained to sniff out the mines so they can be removed.   The rats are too light to set off the mine so they can continue working for years.  Since 2017 they have located over 4,500 mines and 36,000 bombs.

When in Cambodia always obey the rules

 

I used a bathroom in a local restaurant and observed this sign.  Not once have I ever considered washing my feet in a toilet?!?!

Cambodia Temples

We took a TukTuk at sunrise to see the Angkor Wat Temple.  This is the largest religious temple in the world.  To Cambodians its a powerful landmark and a source of great pride.

The Ta Prohm Temple is located in the dense Cambodian jungle.  There are giant spunt trees with roots that seem to engulf the temple giving it a mysterious feel.