Northern Vietnam: Waxy Uncle Ho, fermented fish cakes, and cow chocolate

HI GUYS
After a month of shitty internet connections and clunky outdated computers, we finally found functioning internet in thailand, so FINALLY after all of your patience and neurotic blog checking, we have a humungo update for you. HOORAY! Here we go....

First up, Hanoi: Sorry to those who have fond feelings for Hanoi, to be be perfectly honest, this is probably the worst city we have ever been to , ever. Smelly, overcrowded, overpriced, can't walk 2 steps without getting creamed by a moto because there are no sidewalks. Well, there are sidewalks, but they serve as a parking lot for every moto in the neighborhood. boo. but, there were definitely a few good sites. First off, there is a really nice lake near the old quarter where most of the backpackers stay. Rumor has it, its full of giant turtles (last sighting in 2006)! There is a temple in the middle of lake that you can access from a long bridge:


Yay commies:
Uncle Ho's (Ho Chi Minh's) resting place. Even though he requested to be cremated, he was embalmed and now rests in what is now called the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. His body is guarded by 10-15 guards all in uniform who walk you in and out of the site, allowing you to catch merely a small glimpse of their beloved hero (who unified Vietnam as a communist country). Some suspect that he is actually made of wax (Erik). He takes a 3 month vacation to Russia every winter to get a little R&R and a touchup.


We also went to the Hao Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton by Vietnam vets. It was the prison where communist soldiers kept American pilots whose planes they shot down during the war. Here is a picture of our very own John Mccain being treated for injuries after the Vietnamese shot down is plane and they hauled him out of a lake:


For us, it seemed that the history told at the Hao Lo museum was pretty 1-sided - showing images of Americans cooking thanksgiving dinner together, playing basketball, receiving fresh clothing, etc. We all know as evidenced by McCain's inability to lift his arms above his head, that this is not exactly a complete story....

And now....the WATER PUPPET SHOW. The highlight of Hanoi. We thought it was pretty funny that in Lonely Planet's Vietnamese phrase book, it includes a translation for "I do not like waterpuppets". So we just had shell out the 60,000 dong for VIP seats to the local Water Puppet Show. We had a couple beers to make sure things would be extra funny. Arriving at the theatre, we realized that we were really the only young travelers there, the rest being old whities with FUPAS and giant SLR's, rolling out of tour buses. Here are some pics for your enjoyment:

Live traditional Vietnamese music, the soundtrack for the puppet show:

Glorious water puppets, operated from behind the curtain and attached to long metal rods. This scene is two men fishing in a boat.

At the end of the performance, all of the water puppeteers come out from behind the curtain. I wonder if it gets cold standing in water for the entire program?


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NEXT, on to Halong Bay...perhaps the most gorgeous, Travel-Channel worthy tourist attraction in all of Vietnam. We came into Halong City by bus right around 2pm, just as a lot of the boats were heading out into Halong Bay. Lucky for us, this meant that the operators were ready to make a deal to pull in some extra last minute cash. We wanted to do a 3 day, 2 night trip, putting around Halong Bay, visiting caves, and staying on Cat Ba island. Most people payed anywhere from $80 to an outrageous $120 per person (depending on how good of a bargainer you are). But because we came in late, we hopped on board last minute for a sweet $43 each. What a steal!

Here's a picture of the "Junk" boat that took us around the bay. We slept on board our first night.
Hanging out on deck:
From the shore after exploring a cave on one of the islands:

The next day, we got up early to go on a 3 hour jungle hike on Cat Ba island (the only inhabited island in Halong Bay):

Here's the gorgeous view from the top (note: I'm wearing Erik's wife beater that came out baby pink in the wash :-)
Spent a relaxing afternoon at one of the beaches on Cat Ba.


Oh, Mr. Noi. Used to work in the U.S. for the World Bank - so there's actually some big brains behind that goofy smile. He now works for a Thai organization researching the effects of industrial pollution on the climate (hence his reason for being in Vietnam). He claimed to be a spy because he would snap secret photos of smoky towers during our bus rides. He also had an obsession with American rock music: especially Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Led Zeplin...wherever we'd go, he's stick in his headphones and sing along to his mp3 player. He has an extensive collection of over 100 guitars. Whenever he talks, he sprayed spittle like a typical pulsing Vietnamese shower head. It was even worse when he had a few drinks. Here's a picture of the 3 of us sitting in front of our hotel on Cat Ba, along with our other friends Marion and Peter (Ireland) and Marketta and Zanek (Czech Republic):

Us with Marion, Peter, Marketta, Zanek, and Linda (who at first glance looks entirely like a Vietnamese local, but when she opens her mouth and says "gday mate", you realize she is a born and raised Aussie).

From the Junk boat, we even got to take a little cruise out in a put put boat through caves tunneling through the rocky islands in the bay. One of these tunnels was actually used in one of the Pierce Brosnin James Bond movies:


In some areas of the bay, they actually have virtual towns that float on the water (with houses, schools, and town stores). Here's a pic of one of the many families that float around on boats, selling fruit to the tourists that come by.

Overall, our time on the Junk was incredible, however we had one small - then frustrating, now funny - complaint. Food. All of our meals during those 3 days were included in the overall price - I think they took this as a signal to whip up the worst concoctions ever made in Vietnam. All of our meals were bad, but the worst was on our first night on the boat: cold (literally almost frozen) soggy French fries, fermented fish cakes, mushy flavorless tofu, and springrolls so greasy that they drooped when you picked them up. Because Erik was afraid of going to bed hungry, he ate like 5 pounds of plain steamed rice and shuffled off to bed.

Halong Bay was UHmazingling beautiful - we highly recommend a visit for anyone headed to northern Vietnam. Just make sure to bring an entire backpack snacks, or it's fermented fish cakes for you!! ;)

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After a 1 day layover in Hanoi, we were off to Sapa in the northern mountains of Vietnam. The only way to get to Sapa is by overnight train. Here's me in my "cozy" bunk bed on the train (my face was literally 6 inches from the ceiling).

Once we arrived in Sapa, we found this amazing hotel called Darling that offered us a clean, comfortable room with a private deck overlooking the mountains for $10. Even though we didn't use it, the room even included a fireplace (we couldn't find any wood). This was probably one of the best bargain rooms during our whole trip. Here's the view from our balcony (the mountains look a little hazy because the weather is super foggy at this time of year):

The main attraction in Sapa is trekking through the mountains and visiting the multiple hill tribes that now live in the area after migrating from areas in China, Laos, and Thailand years ago. We booked a full day trek through a local agency and ended up with with awesome guide - a sweet, 27 year old, 4-foot something, woman from the nearby Hmong tribe. She couldn't read or write, but had learned to speak English amazingly well by interacting with tourists during her treks. Chi was always quick to joke and laugh at everything. The first time we stumbled across cow poo, she asked "Are you hungry? Would you like some cow chocolate?". Chi and I became friends really quickly. Everytime I'd crack Chi up, she would put her arm around me, or even hold my hand for 15 minutes at a time while we walked. Same sex affection in Vietnam, and particularly in the hill tribes, is very common and openly accepted. It seems kind of strange at first, but it makes it a lot easier to make friends when you can express affection in those ways.

Here are a few pictures from the trek:

Erik with Chi (wearing traditional Hmong clothing, and western style hiking boots):


Rice terraces:
A woman from a local tribe dressed traditionally:

Kids from one of the villages (the girl wears the basket sitting next to her on her back to carry supplies for her family).
More cuties:

Chi offered to take us through a cave along the way - we agreed, expecting it to be like every other cave we have been through before - with constructed walkways and wide open tunnels. This was a whole new game. Scrambling up and down rock faces, squeezing through teeny tiny openings. Most of it was all navigated by flashlight in the pitch black (2 flashlights for 4 people). Here's a picture of me squeezing through a tiny opening deep in the cave.


At the end of the trek, Chi wanted to show us the room where she and her cousin stayed when they were working in the city. Here's a picture of the two of them:


Cool cats! Thanks for tuning in and always love reading your comments
TAKE CARE
Megan and Erik

Mui Ne, Nha Trang, & Hoi An: 3 Man, Lo-Ha-Wee, and Waaaah!

CHUC MUNG NAM MOI! Happy Vietnamese New Year from Vietnam WOO

Apparently the Vietnamese celebrate the New Year at the same time the Chinese do - this year the holiday (Tet) officially landed January 23-26, but most Vietnamese took an entire week off of work to go on vay-cay (causing prices to fly outrageously high during the week). We spent the past 2 weeks traveling north up the coast, definitely happy to get away from the madness of Saigon. And we guarantee some good stories for you this time around...

First up, Mui Ne...a little remote beach town 3 hours away from HCMC. The best part of Mui Ne was probably getting to meet some awesome swedes named Peter and Andreas - both late 20's, one a Swedish language teacher and the other a customs official.

Because Mui Ne is so quiet and the place virtually shuts down at around 9pm, we ended up making our own Swedish/American party, playing texas hold 'em with toothpicks for chips and hitting up the happy hour to get buy 2 get 1 free Saigon beers to play 3-man. They came up with a couple new rules for the "make your own rule" portion that we'll bring back to the states with us...(note: for those clueless to 3-man, we'll teach you when we get back :)

1) When you take the "little man" off the rim of your beer, you have to place him on top of your head, and look at him while you gulp.

2) When you slam your mug back down, you have to say "Heja Sverige" = pronounced "heya sveria" =Go Sweden

Here's some pics of other good times in Mui Ne...

Our casa - HUGE! And CHEAP. It was like a private apartment for $10 a night.

The view from the beach looking out toward the fishing village, with a local fishing basket in the foreground:

Apparently all of the local women must have grouped together to discuss new ways of getting money out of tourists..."hmmm what would those whitey's want?" Those hairy beasts would want baby smooth legs! So now they go up and down the beach, squatting down and scanning each woman's legs to try and find even a single stray hair just to convince her to let them remove it. She worked on this woman by twisting her two strands of string together for 2 solid hours. They even brought in two hair strippers at one point. She must have been a gorilla:

Sunset:

Erik being a floating ball:

On to NHA TRANG...we took a gamble on not booking accomodatings ahead because it's a decent sized beach-side city with countless hotels, but after arriving their around 9pm and walking around for over an hour asking every single hotel if they had an available room, we realized we made a big mistake. Seroiusly, the entire vietnamese population was vacationing to celebrate Tet in Nha Trang. The funny thing is, at the start of our search for accomodation, we approached a hotel that offered to let us stay in the manager's office (basically a computer, plastic chair, and mattress in a room, behind broken blinds above to the front lobby). We brushed it off and were like Oh no way, we can find something better. Even if it was only $10. The guy that presented the offer looked at us and said, "You will walk around for the next hour and look for a room. And then you will come back, and stay with me." And he was so right. No private bathroom (we had to use the employee bathroom downstairs), but hey, at least we got free internet in our room!). Check it ouuuuttt:

The beach:

The Vietnamese always swim with their clothes on. These two were shortly joined by another girl dressed in nice jeans, heels, designer leather belt, and a sweater vest with button up shirt. Don't forget your purse! Erik is thoroughly offended, and says that this is one instance of actual "cultural stupidity":

We met up with Andreas and Peter again :)

That night the 4 of us decided to celebrate our next leg in Nah trying by parking at a local bar - tag lined "Very good, very cheap, very Vietnam". Pitchers of beer for 14,000 dong (less than $1)! After a few pitchers, we decided to go even more local, and check out one of the beer "stands" - basically plastic kiddie chairs set up on the side of the street in between piles of rat infested garbage. The place was run by husband/wife team named Lo (who claimed to have been shot in the leg by an American during the war during the 80's...?) and Ha (who brought us beer and fed the boys pieces of hardboiled egg that she was boiling in a big pot on the street (...?). We were occasionally visited sternly by a seemingly grumpy man named "Wee" who gripped and peered through iron gates that protected a building right behind the "stand". For some reason, we found him kind of funny, so when we weren't cheersing to "mot, hai, ba, zo!" (1, 2, 3, cheers!), we chated "Lo, Ha, Wee! Lo, Ha, Wee!", slamming down our bottles of Saigon. We must have looked like lunatics. But Lo and Ha ate it up and Wee continued to look like a grump, so we were doing our job. Afterward, Peter and Erik went to go find a prime urination location, and spotted a nice looking rusted gate that they could pee through and avoid the splatter effect provided from peeing on direct concrete. With willies in hand, milliseconds away from the splendor of releasing that glorious yellow stream, all of a sudden, a Vietnamese guard with a viet cong-like rifle equiped with a bayonet came dashed out of the shadows from behind the gate. Horrified, Peter and Erik relocated further down the street to pee on a wall instead, leaving with glistening feet. What a night. [Note: Will update with pics as soon as Peter and Andreas email us their pics from that night!]

The next day, we decided to take Mama Linh's boat cruise. Peter and Andreas opted out, but we were pretty excited - for $9 a person, it promised an all-day cruise to 4 different islands, with music, dancing, entertainment, lunch, a floating bar, snorkeling with psychadelic fish (equipment provided), and an overall rucus time where kids should be left at home. Here's what we actually got: a rickety rusted over boat, jam packed with rows of bench seating, cringe-inducing vietnamese slow ballads blaring over the crackling speakers. The composition of the crowd: 50% Vietnamese, mostly families with children. 40% Chinese, all strapped with cameras and palm leaf sunhats. And 10% whiteys. Fortunately, that 10%, made up of Aussies and Brits, were like-minded souls. What could have been a drag ended up being probably the most fun day of our entire trip. The 8 or so of us all kept the beers in fun flow starting at lunch time - there was Scott (who, when intoxicated, became his alter-ego "Scotty McNasty" or "McNasty" for short), Ian (alter ego: Bushy), James (Jim), Heledd (Hells Bells), and one of the most fabulous couples ever, Sebastian (Seb) and Peter. I was Megsy and Erik was, Erik! View good times below:

Eating lunch on the rooftop of our ghetto rig:

Floating bar! We all jumped off the boat into the water and hopped into floaty life rings. A Vietnamese guy with a crate full of bottles of local red wine and a bag of pineapple slices hopped into his own life ring. Oh yes. We hooked up like a big train, with one person grabbing onto the floating bar and the rest hanging on, trailing behind so that he would always be within our reach. Because the number of drinkers was small, there was plenty to go around. "MORE WINE!" McNasty would holler, and we would pass another little cup full down the line. Because Erik was a strong swimmer, whenever he'd rocket toward the floating bar, everyone would try and grab on and catch a ride. "I'm catchin' that express train", Bushy said. Whenever we started drifting away, you'd have to hold your cup between your teeth so that you could swim effectively with both hands and catch back up to the action. Amazing times:

We even made the semi-lame aquarium stop exciting. There were like 80 eels packed into 3 small tanks and a couple of turtles. But we ran around and had a good time. Here's a pic of us goofing around outside of the entrance (and McNasty pretending to hurl on Jim's shoe):

When the Mama Linh's boat trip ended, the party couldn't stop. We carried on to Why Not and the Sailing Club for some late night dancing. YES

Okay Amazing times in Nha Trang, definitely needed some time to wind down in Hoi An. It's a gorgeous old town set on the Thu Bon River, originally used as an international trading port as far back as the 17th century. It's well known not only for it's amazing Chinese, Japanese, and European-influence architecture, but also for being the cheapest place to get hand tailored duds made for cheap. It's also a World Heritage Site.

The view from our hotel:

Old Town:
You can't walk more than a half block without seeing a tailor or shoe shop. We definitely walked away with a total of 3 shirts, 2 long wool coats, a skirt, and 6 pairs of shoes (2 for each of us, plus 2 for kiwon OH YEAH). Shipping it home hurt, but they will make great souvenirs:

Local transport (fit for one foreigner or two vietnamese):

Our favorite meal spot: Mr. Hung's! He serves all of Hoi An's local specialties: Cao Lau (doughy flat noodles mixed with flat croutons, bean sprouts and greens, topped with pork slices and served in a savory broth), Wonton, and White Rose (a little steamed dumpling stuffed with shrimp).

A woman taking a midday siesta at the market:

Just had to put this one in here. A chubby dog cooling his kibbles and bits on the pavement:

Erik getting a haircut. They shaved the back of his neck with a razor that looked like the one that Johnny Depp used to slay his victims with in Sweeney Todd. But hey it was only $4.

And I definitely landed myself in a Vietnamese hospital...got too dehydated from traveler's diahrrea. Plus I had an ear infectoin. boo. Maybe I shouldn't have dranken that last sugar cane juice? Here were my symptoms: nausea, headache, high fever for over 24 hours, achey body, diahrrea, dizzyness, difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, high pulse, ear pressure. Diagnosis from Dr. Quang: "Have a cold". He actually ended up infusing me with 3 bags of hydrating electrolyte solution, shooting injections of other medicines straight into the drip bag, saying things like, "This one make a the strong lung". "This one make a good heart". I was like "okaaaay". We made sure that he used new needles and it all turned out fine. He and his nurses were really good hearted people. I feel soo much better now. Here's a pic of my hospital home for those few hours:

By the way, after spending a good 3 weeks here in Vietnam, we've started to pick up on some Vietnamese English. Here are some of our favorite phrases:

Water, you?

Motobike, you?

Where you go now?

You buy something?

Welcome to my shop, please.

That one good. Make a good smell.

You liiike? I make-a fo' you.

There was also this woman who sold peanuts outside of our hotel in Hoi An who, starting at like 5am would start advertising her goods by yelling what we discerned to be "Waaaahhhh!" in a that shrill, whiney Vietnamese old woman voice. "Waaahhhh!!"

So now, whenever we talk to a Vietnamese person, we get in the habit of trying to talk like they do to make conversation easier. Example:

Receptionst: Where you go now?

How Erik wanted to answer: We are going to the shoe store to get hooked up with some duds.

How Erik answers: We go to shop for the shoe.

YES. we are getting so good at it. We never do it sarcastically, it really does help facilitate conversation!

And as you can see, we're fitting right in! JUST KIDDING

much love guys,

peace

Megan and Erik

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam: Hey, you stole my dong!

Despite being scammed by a dong-hungry taxi driver within 5 minutes of arrival and getting openly robbed by a little girl with an assist from an old vietnamese man (don't worry, only 10,000 dong=$0.60), we were still stoked to be in saigon and had our eyes set on the famous Dam Sen waterpark. We got decked out in our swim suits and sunscreen, negotiated two moto drivers to take us 20 minutes out to the park, and paid the park admission fee...only to find the Dam Sen waterpark entrance barred off. It was like the scene straight out of National Lampoon's Family Vacation to Wally World - "sorry folks, we're closed". If that big moose was there, I would have punched his nose right in, but unfortunately we were only surrounded by the vietnamese park maintenance workers, none of which could explain why the park was closed. Boo! But hey, despite a little bad luck and a couple let downs, HCMC ended up being a great stop on our trip (particularly because of the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels). Check out da pix...

Central HCMC, the backpacker district (Pham Ngu Lao):

In HCMC, pedestrians have no right of way. There are so many motorbikes, that if they run out of room on the street, they can wheel there way onto the sidewalks. I'm amazed I still have all my toes. When you go to cross the street, you literally have to band together in small groups and just slowly creep/shuffle your way across, letting the motos zoom around you like a swarm of locusts. And they literally come from every direction, all at the same time.

Okay, here are some pics from the War Remnants Museum. It was extremely interesting and informative, but definitely didn't spark any American pride.

An American tank:

American bomber:

The effects of agent orange in Vietnam today. Originally used by Americans to kill off local Vietnamese vegetation and uncover the Viet Cong, Agent Orange ultimately caused horrendous physical damage not only to the Vietnamese, but to American and other foreign soldiers as well. Studies show that it not only causes serious illness by weakening the indivuals' health (including cancer), it also effects the reproductive organs, leading to birth defects among their children.

Below is an example of the consequences of Agent Orange experienced by the current generation (this is actually one of the more mild cases):

This final picture shows an exact replica of the "tiger cages" used by the Saigon regime (a virtual American puppet government) to contain political prisoners considered "stubborn". There were some 120 cages, each measuring approximately 2.7m x 1.5m x 3m. During the hot season, about 5-14 prisoners were kept in one cell. In the winter time, there were only 1 or 2 kept in each cell at a time, but their feet were shackled to a long iron bar. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and toileting all took place here.

We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels, located about 90 minutes outside of central Saigon. These were a 200 km long network of cramped tunnels used by the Viet Cong to hide from bombs and launch surprise attacks on American soldiers. Most of the tunnels are too tiny for foreigners to squeeze through (erik's shoulders couldn't even pass through the opening) - thank god they thought to widen a section for us chubbers to crawl through. Because of unforseen circumstances, we unfortunately didn't bring a camera and so don't have any pictures...so here are a few pics we pulled off the internet:

A guide popping out of the secret entrance to one of the tunnels:

An example of one of the brutal bamboo spike traps used to skewer American soldiers - the top is disguised with leaves, if a soldier comes along and steps on it, it will swing downward and greet him with a row of friendly bamboo spikes. Yikes.

Thanks for reading guys! Sorry the last couple entries have been a little heavy, but we are partying on the Vietnam coast now, so we should have some good stories and pics of good times in Mui Ne and Nah Trang coming up.

HOLLER. PEACE.

M+ E

Phnom Phen, Cambodia: Killings Fields, S21, and you want happy with that?

Phnom Phen was the biggest roller coaster of emotions -
this city was the center of the horrors that the Cambodians experienced under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970's. Below are the pictures from our visit to the Killings Fields of Choeung Ek (where the Khmer Rouge executed approximately 17,000 men, women and children suspected to be associated with those against their communist revolution). After being tortured, most were knifed, drilled, or beat to death with metal bars or bamboo rods - methods used to conserve expensive bullets. After being executed, the bodies were thrown into mass graves and sprayed with acid to dispose of them more quickly and to keep the stench down so that neighbors would not become suspicious. Most figures estimate that the What's even more unsettlign is that the UN allowed the Khmer Rouge to occupy the Cambodian seat at the General Assembly until 1991. Horrific, I know, but we felt that it was really important to learn about this part of history in order to fully understand what the Cambodian people have been through.

Here is a picture of the stupa that has been erected in the center of the killing fields. It contains 9,000 skulls that were ecscavated from the mass graves during the 1980's. Many graves remain untouched.

Skulls inside the stupa:

The Tuol Sleng Museum (S21): A school-turned-torture center operated by the Khmer Rouge. The torture methods used are too horrific to describe. Thousands were held prisoner here and tortured before being shipped blindfolded in trucks to die in the Killing Fields. During the first part of 1977, 100 people died everyday from torture here.

These are pictures of victims which could be used as official documentation to prosecute the Khmer Rouge's atrocities - justice has been sickeningly slow and the leader of the Khmer Rouge (known as Pol Pot) escaped retribution and died peacefully in his old age. It makes you hope there is a hell for people like him.

A picture of a prison cell with shackles still in place:

Visiting the Killing Fields and S21 was a truly unsettling experience - it actually made me feel physically ill and Erik enraged. It is so important to understand these histories - because this is not the first or last time that the world has experience genocide - argentina, guatemala, armenia, germany, darfur - and even Burma today. There were places around S21 where visitors could leave their comments - some were truly heartful but others were so ignorant - people saying "WORLD PEACE" with little hearts, "this will never happen again". But it will happen again. It's already happening. I wish I knew what to do about it because you feel so powerless against horrific situations like these.

On a lighter note....

We stayed at an awesome guesthouse ("No Problem Guesthouse") that stands on stilts over a lake. It had a sweet hangout area with cushy chairs and a TV with loads of knockoff DVD's. These backpacker guesthouses are all known for offering everything "a la happy" (usually denoted with a little smiley face :). It's not uncommon here to see someone smoking a joint while eating a pot pizza and drinking a banana shake freckled with more pot. People just get baked out of their minds and watch Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn movies all day.

It also had an UHmazing sunset view:

We were really saddened and angered to find out that we will will one of the last ones to be able to experience this incredible little getaway on the lake - the government sold out the area to Korean businessmen who will drain the lake and knock out the surrounding guesthouses and family homes to put up high priced condos. The only positive thing that we could take away from this is that it would feel the local economy with jobs - but at what cost to the Cambodian people and their sense of nationality? No offense intended to individual Korean people (hey, kiwon!), but we have heard time and time again that locals (in the philippines, thailand, AND cambodia) do not appreciate Korean business practices because they virtually create little mini Koreas in each country, operating amongst themselves without taking from and not feeding the local economy. We feel really lucky to have strict property laws back home that keep our government from selling out its people. We are also really glad that we came to Cambodia at this time - before it gets too eaten up by foreigners (considering both the Angkor Wat and the Killing Fields were both sold to the Japanese. Many Cambodians are enraged because they feel that the government is trading their murdered loved ones for a profit).

Whew sorry for the intenseness in Cambodia guys - the horrific past and financially difficult present here sparks a lot of discussion and debate even between Erik and I - if you have any feedback, feel free to comment!

We are now in Vietnam and will have more updates soon!

Much loves and thanks again for reading,

megan and erik