Monday, December 25, 2006
Cambodia - Day 1
Dec. 8th Bangkok to Phnom Penh
Yesterday two good friends – Bill Genne and Jeff Hannibal – came to visit us in Bangkok. We have scheduled a 
trip to Cambodia and Bill and Jeff joined us on the trip. Bill lives in Corvallis, but had been in Sri Lanka visiting his parents who are living there for a few months. Jeff is an old friend from college and now lives just outside of Seattle. I had emailed him that we were going to Cambodia and Angkor Wat and the next day he bought a plane ticket. You have to love that.
They arrived yesterday and we had a really casual day of seeing a few sites in Bangkok. We took one of the long-ta
il boat tours through the khlongs (canals) of the west side of the Chao Phraya River. It was really pleasant and gave us a good feel of how many of the residents of Bangkok lived 40-50 years ago. We visited a few sites like the Royal Barge Museum and Wat Arun, but our main goal was to take it easy and allow everyone to acclimate to their new time zones. We also had a wonderful dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours called Rot Sabieng located in the old train station.
This morning we left the apartment EARLY – 4:30am 
early – so that we could catch our 7am flight to Phnom Penh. We arrived at Phnom Penh and made it to our hotel, the Renakse, without a hitch. We only had one day to tour Phnom Penh, so we checked in, dropped our bags off, and headed to the National Museum and Royal Palace which were conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel. The National Museum provided an excellent overview of the Khmer Empire and culture from roughly the 8th to the 14th centuries. The museum was laid out chronologically so it made it easy to follow to development and ultimate fall of the empire. (No photos were allowed in the museum, but this us us lounging on the veranda after our tour.) We were disappointed to find that we had missed Bill Clinton's visit tot he museum by a few days, but the staff of the gift shop was very excited to show us their photos taken with him.
The Khmer Empire dominated SE Asia for about 600 years.
We see the Khmer influence in art and architecture throughout much of SE Asia still. One of the major elements we did not fully appreciate was that the Khmer Empire was Hindu up until the last 100 years or so of its existence. Thus, most of the temples, art and artifacts depict Hindu gods, especially Vishnu and Shiva. My personal favorite is Ganesh, who was part human with an elephant’s head. (It’s a long story so if you are interested, Google it.)
After the National Museum we had some lunch and headed to the Royal Palace which, among other buildings, includes the Silver Pagoda. Cambodia still has a king although his power is significantly diminished as compared to that of the king of Thailand. I do not believe that any part of th
e Royal Palace is used as a residence of the royal family. Its sole purpose is to serve as a museum and major tourist attraction. The buildings of the Royal Palace are beautiful and, although obviously SE Asian in style, possess a number of elements that are very European. One completely European structure was a building erected for Napoleon III and the French government during the period of French rule of Cambodia and Indochina. (It is back between these two temple buildings.)
The Silver Pagoda was somewhat of a mystery to me, as I could not understand how it got that name. Then I walked inside. The floor is made of silver tiles and a large percentage of the Buddha and Hindu images inside the temple were made of silver. Although, not to be limited to the bling of silver alone, the Silver Pagoda also houses a life size standing Buddha that contains ~90kg of gold and over 2000 diamonds, the largest of which is 25 karats!! (Sorry, again no pictures allowed inside.) The collection of jewel-encrusted household and religious items and gifts of state from foreign visitors was truly overwhelming to the senses. For such a poor country in so many other ways, they have an impressive collection in this compound.
Both the National Museum and the Silver Pagoda were strong reminders of what a rich history Cambodia has. I emphasize history, because the recent past has been a terribly sad one largely defined by war, poverty and genocide. Cambodia is a land of contrasts where beauty and horror exist side by side. I know that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t know how else to say it.
We had debated for some time whether or not to visit the genocide museum in Phnom Penh. We ultimately decided that we should. We felt that it would be somewhat dishonest to only come as tourists and ignore what was obviously all around us. We decided, however, that the kids were too young and that they did not need to see it. Elizabeth and the kids did some other touring and tried to find the Russian market while Bill, Jeff and I visited Tuol Sleng. It was good that the kids did not go as I have never been to a more disturbing place on earth. I know there are other sights of great atrocities of humans against other humans, but this has got to be one of the worst. I will not go into to detail, but the Khmer Rouge was a group of terrorists in the Cambodian civil war during the 1970s and 80s. While in power, the Khmer Rouge tortured and murdered somewhere from over 100,000 to a 1,000,000 people. The actual number is not known and I am not sure it matters. Toul Sleng was a high school but was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a torture and execution facility. I could go on, but why. Just know that the Cambodian people are some the best people you will ever meet and are desparately trying to recover from an atrocity they did not deserve.
What an emotional roller coaster of a day.
To cheer us up a bit, we decided to have dinner at the Foreign Correspondents' Club overlooking the Tonle Sap River. We were happy to throw back a few drinks with the high society crowd in style. It was a very pleasant place with pretty decent grub and we had a nice meal on the upper veranda. In that atmosphere, one could easily imagine being a foreign correspondent wiring in a story from the club room before having a few gin and tonics, to guard against malaria of course, or waiting for a telegram from your editor giving the next assignment. Alas, our next assignment was a lengthy boat trip op the river, so we headed off to get some shut-eye.
Yesterday two good friends – Bill Genne and Jeff Hannibal – came to visit us in Bangkok. We have scheduled a 
trip to Cambodia and Bill and Jeff joined us on the trip. Bill lives in Corvallis, but had been in Sri Lanka visiting his parents who are living there for a few months. Jeff is an old friend from college and now lives just outside of Seattle. I had emailed him that we were going to Cambodia and Angkor Wat and the next day he bought a plane ticket. You have to love that.
They arrived yesterday and we had a really casual day of seeing a few sites in Bangkok. We took one of the long-ta
il boat tours through the khlongs (canals) of the west side of the Chao Phraya River. It was really pleasant and gave us a good feel of how many of the residents of Bangkok lived 40-50 years ago. We visited a few sites like the Royal Barge Museum and Wat Arun, but our main goal was to take it easy and allow everyone to acclimate to their new time zones. We also had a wonderful dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours called Rot Sabieng located in the old train station.
This morning we left the apartment EARLY – 4:30am 
early – so that we could catch our 7am flight to Phnom Penh. We arrived at Phnom Penh and made it to our hotel, the Renakse, without a hitch. We only had one day to tour Phnom Penh, so we checked in, dropped our bags off, and headed to the National Museum and Royal Palace which were conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel. The National Museum provided an excellent overview of the Khmer Empire and culture from roughly the 8th to the 14th centuries. The museum was laid out chronologically so it made it easy to follow to development and ultimate fall of the empire. (No photos were allowed in the museum, but this us us lounging on the veranda after our tour.) We were disappointed to find that we had missed Bill Clinton's visit tot he museum by a few days, but the staff of the gift shop was very excited to show us their photos taken with him.
The Khmer Empire dominated SE Asia for about 600 years.
We see the Khmer influence in art and architecture throughout much of SE Asia still. One of the major elements we did not fully appreciate was that the Khmer Empire was Hindu up until the last 100 years or so of its existence. Thus, most of the temples, art and artifacts depict Hindu gods, especially Vishnu and Shiva. My personal favorite is Ganesh, who was part human with an elephant’s head. (It’s a long story so if you are interested, Google it.)
After the National Museum we had some lunch and headed to the Royal Palace which, among other buildings, includes the Silver Pagoda. Cambodia still has a king although his power is significantly diminished as compared to that of the king of Thailand. I do not believe that any part of th
e Royal Palace is used as a residence of the royal family. Its sole purpose is to serve as a museum and major tourist attraction. The buildings of the Royal Palace are beautiful and, although obviously SE Asian in style, possess a number of elements that are very European. One completely European structure was a building erected for Napoleon III and the French government during the period of French rule of Cambodia and Indochina. (It is back between these two temple buildings.)
The Silver Pagoda was somewhat of a mystery to me, as I could not understand how it got that name. Then I walked inside. The floor is made of silver tiles and a large percentage of the Buddha and Hindu images inside the temple were made of silver. Although, not to be limited to the bling of silver alone, the Silver Pagoda also houses a life size standing Buddha that contains ~90kg of gold and over 2000 diamonds, the largest of which is 25 karats!! (Sorry, again no pictures allowed inside.) The collection of jewel-encrusted household and religious items and gifts of state from foreign visitors was truly overwhelming to the senses. For such a poor country in so many other ways, they have an impressive collection in this compound.Both the National Museum and the Silver Pagoda were strong reminders of what a rich history Cambodia has. I emphasize history, because the recent past has been a terribly sad one largely defined by war, poverty and genocide. Cambodia is a land of contrasts where beauty and horror exist side by side. I know that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t know how else to say it.
We had debated for some time whether or not to visit the genocide museum in Phnom Penh. We ultimately decided that we should. We felt that it would be somewhat dishonest to only come as tourists and ignore what was obviously all around us. We decided, however, that the kids were too young and that they did not need to see it. Elizabeth and the kids did some other touring and tried to find the Russian market while Bill, Jeff and I visited Tuol Sleng. It was good that the kids did not go as I have never been to a more disturbing place on earth. I know there are other sights of great atrocities of humans against other humans, but this has got to be one of the worst. I will not go into to detail, but the Khmer Rouge was a group of terrorists in the Cambodian civil war during the 1970s and 80s. While in power, the Khmer Rouge tortured and murdered somewhere from over 100,000 to a 1,000,000 people. The actual number is not known and I am not sure it matters. Toul Sleng was a high school but was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a torture and execution facility. I could go on, but why. Just know that the Cambodian people are some the best people you will ever meet and are desparately trying to recover from an atrocity they did not deserve.
What an emotional roller coaster of a day.
To cheer us up a bit, we decided to have dinner at the Foreign Correspondents' Club overlooking the Tonle Sap River. We were happy to throw back a few drinks with the high society crowd in style. It was a very pleasant place with pretty decent grub and we had a nice meal on the upper veranda. In that atmosphere, one could easily imagine being a foreign correspondent wiring in a story from the club room before having a few gin and tonics, to guard against malaria of course, or waiting for a telegram from your editor giving the next assignment. Alas, our next assignment was a lengthy boat trip op the river, so we headed off to get some shut-eye.
# posted by Joe Spatafora @ 12:51 AM 
