On the Road with Brent & Erika

*Warning* These two pictures are to balance out the following. This post will be a little depressing, but that's just where we've been the past few days. Vietnam and Cambodia have had a rough last half-century, so it's not surprising that it was sad to revisit these violent chapters in history.

First of all, we left Hanoi on a late night, red-eye (again!) flight to Saigon - former capital of South Vietnam. We only had a couple days and the sites we saw mostly pertained to the "American War," as they call it. The War Remnants Museum is basically a museum housing our tanks and bombs and detailing through photographs the horrors of what happened to the people of Vietnam because of them. There were terrible photos of mangled bodies and Agent Orange victims (people who were, and still are, suffering terrible deformities from the poisonous defoliants the Americans sprayed to destroy vast jungle landscapes--no American aide to these innocents, by the way). I know there could have been a similar display of American casualties, but when a war happens in your backyard there is 'collateral damage' that is tragic and shouldn't be ignored. We're proud citizens for sure, but I definitely felt ashamed of this tragic episode in US history walking around that building. What struck me, though, was how forgiving the people of Vietnam seem to be. Basically we left with the certainty that no one wins a war. It's always tragic and should always be the last resort.


American jet


War - as seen by a child in an art exhibit at the museum


...and Peace

Next were the Tunnels of Cu Chi. This is one of the network of tunnels that the North Vietnamese Army used to hide from the enemy. Amazingly, many people lived the majority of the war years in these cramped quarters that stretched over 200 kilometers! We were able to crawl through a section that had been enlarged for tourists. It was extremely dark, dank and claustrophobic nonetheless. They dug these with hoes and bamboo baskets--unbelievable determination.


This entrance wasn't resized - tight fit!


Erika crawling through the tunnels

We left Vietnam the next day for our final country - Cambodia. We noticed pretty quickly that many people here have it hard. This is the poorest country of the five that we've visited. The first night, however, we lived like the rich and went to Happy Hour in the Elephant Bar - a very fancy hangout in the 5-star French colonial Hotel Le Royal (Brian, we thought it looked like a place you would've found on LuxuryLink!). We had fun requesting songs from the piano guy and later checking out rooms and facilities as interested possible guests. Not sure if our flipflops made us convincing customers though.


Erika, the ultimate multitasking traveler, managing to eat an icecream cone as we go through Cambodian border inspections with all of our junk


Erika outside the fanciness of Hotel Le Royal

The next day we hired a driver for the day to tool us around the various sites. We first visited a former high school that was turned into a torture prison during the horrible reign of the Khmer Rouge. From 1975-1979, Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge in one of histories most atrocious genocides (later dubbed an 'autogenocide' because a people were exterminating their own). Cambodia lost an estimated 2.5 million lives (nearly 1/3 of the population) during this time. Paranoia ran rampant as neighbor turned in neighbor to the Khmer Rouge who tortured until they got confessions and more names. Then they murdered them because of the false confessions. Of the tens of thousands to enter the S-21 prison grounds, only 7 survived to talk about it. However, the chilling halls and heartbreaking photos of victims say enough.


Flowers that had fallen from a tree in the courtyard of the S-21 prison


Rusted out iron bed in one of the former classrooms used for torture


Erika taking in the carefully documented photographs of the victims. For many Cambodians, searching through these photos was how they finally found out a family member's fate that had been taken by the Khmer Rouge.


Classroom that had been crudely turned into tiny cells

Next, we ended our tour of sadness with the Killing Fields. Most of the victims of the S-21 prison ended up in mass graves here. It was surreal to hear the laughter of a school nearby as we walked past a memorial of over 8,000 human skulls and saw remnants of clothing and bone fragments on the ground around the mass graves. It's unreal to think that this could have happened, and only 30 years ago (and we still have had Rwanda and who knows what else since!). Although it was tough to visit these sites, it's important to not sweep this under the rug and to face the reality that humans are capable of some really horrific stuff when led by ignorant convictions.


Skull of females age 15-20 found in the Killing Fields

On a much lighter note (tough transition, I know), we had a nice visit to a park in Saigon. These quirky grounds had animals made of shrubs, a sculpture garden and many Vietnamese exercisers. We really got a kick out of watching the various methods of stretching and working out. Here's a sampling (the short videos I took are much better though):







We leave tomorrow for Angkor Wat and will be home on Tuesday. We say goodbye to Ricky in 3 days (we're sad about that). We'll post another update on that and maybe a couple more when we get home of leftover images and stories. Thanks for hanging in there through the tough read! Until next time...


I've been waiting to capture a group of 4 on the same moto for weeks. I couldn't believe my eyes when this group of smiling seven (there's a somewhat hidden baby in a red hat) rode by!

--Brent