Guns, Germs, and wow

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So i shall warn you before you start to read this that this entry is no where near happy and exciting as some of my others have been. In fact, it is the complete opposite. It is disheartening, very upsetting, and mind boggling. I don't plan on down playing this either because this is an event that I didn’t know about, and I am sure that some of you may not either, and I will probably cry as I start to tell you all about my experience yesterday in the killing fields. I wasn't really in the best of shape to write this yesterday so I had to wait till this morning, because I was a complete mess yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday morning we all went to this former prison here in Phnom Penh called S21. It is now called the Tool Slang Genocide Museum. Yes you can see where this entry is going.... It was the former security office 21, and was directed by Pol Pot, in april 1975(to 1979). It was designed for detention, interrogation, inhumane torture, and killing. Prior to this, it was a high school for many students in Phnom Penh

An insight as to who Pol Pot was. He was a former leader here in Cambodia, who had studied and believe strongly in Carl Marx's beliefs of a utopian society. He had a plan to turn the country into an agriculture utopia through a very extreme regime. This was known as the Khmer Rouge takeover. Literacy, arts, music and religion were all abolished, and left even the monks without a place to live. Any person who was considered educated was instantly executed and families were separated based on their beliefs. No person was allowed in or out for Cambodia during this time...

When we got to the prison yesterday, I honestly did not know what to expect. But it quickly became VERY apparent to me that what i was about to see was going to make me very uneasy. With the high wall, heavily surrounded with barbwire and a big metal gate, that is just what it did. Our guide first explained to us what i just did to you about Pol Pot, and how he ruled. And then we went into building A that was used for detaining those who were accused in leading the uprising against Pol Pot's revolution. They were provided with a bed, a "blanket", cushion and mat. They were also given a metal tin and a plastic water container to dispose of their bodily waste. It was horrifying. It was just like a school, but with this in a room, and in each room, a different photograph of how each individual was tortured... There was blood stains and splatters on the roof, walls, and the ground. It was absolutely disgusting because i cannot understand for the life of me how another human can do that to another.... They would be cut open and then left to bleed to death. Or cut in multiple places and then the cuts were filled with poison... and there was more but i cant write about all of them or i will start to cry again.

We were then taken to building B where there were photographs of every prisoner who was in there....some with repeating tag numbers because the individual who had the number previously had been killed, so it got "re-used". and around the corner of a set of men, there was a wall of children’s photos... and that is when i lost it and left the place and went and sat with Erin and had a coffee... there was much more to see in there, but i didnt need to be any means... that was enough for me.

Oh and there was this other torture device where they would hang the person by their feet and dunk them in sewage infested water until they confessed who was in their family, and where they lived.

Some people ended up having to kill their families because they had to do what they were told, and just sorry, I cant write about it all.

Then we got back on the bus, and we went to the killing fields. The place where people were taken bus by bus and were tortured and killed. This I have problems telling you about as i have started to cry just thinking about it. When you walk in there is a Memorial Monument with over 8000 skulls that they had found on the premise. Arranged on levels by age, ranging from infants to over 60 years old... And that is not even an 1/8 ov the people who were slaughtered here. There were multiple "pits" Ones for people who were beheaded, one for just men, ones for women and others for children. And it is when i got to the one where they killed the children that i broke down and cryed to the point that i was heaving and couldn't breath... I have to tell you this because yet again, it is important for people to know what happened here , but if you read on you will be just as disturbed by it as i am... they would crank music so that others would not hear what happened, and they would use kids as a baseball bat against the tree until they died...I can't really explain it any other way.... but that is where i will have to end this because i will start to cry harder...

But you want to know that the neat thing is in all of this? The Cambodian people want people to know about it! And for that, i think that they are amazing. Because walking down the streets here, you would not know that over 30 years ago, over 1.7 million people were mass murdered. But to know what some have seen just breaks my heart.

Yesterday afternoon was a hard one that is for sure. and when i got back i went for a massage at a blind massage place, and it was the best.

Last night we went for dinner at a place that helps out all of the street kids here. And i had a Tracheal... yepp i ate a piece of it. just its leg.

But i will write more about yesterday afternoon, when i am not so jittery after that last part.

Love always

Taylor Hi all!
Sorry it has been so long since i have written... It has been a VERY emotional last few days since we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City..
Shall we start there!
We all left Hoi An on the, oh jeeze i cannot think of the day, or for that matter, how long i was there! But anywho, we flew from Hoi An to HMC and arrived in the evening.
For dinner that night we went to a "restaurant" in the market. Yes it was a real restaurant; however, i was half way out on the road eating, with motorbikes zooming by as i munched on some baby bock Choy and spring rolls with the group.
The morning after, must have been the 8th I think, we went to the CuChi Tunnels(1960-1975). Now THAT was an experience and a half!
Now you must bare in mind that we are in a communist run country, who, not that long ago experienced a war.
There were lots of things said from our guide that were a complete 180 from what i had learnt about the Vietnam war. Very propagated by the government this place was.
If you don’t know what the CuChi tunnels are, they are over 200km of under ground tunnels that were about 70km from HMC in the NW. They ranged from 3m, to 9m deep and were very narrow. There were 5 bunkers, one used for cooking, one for medical needs, another for the men and women, and other fighting bunkers. They were probably deadly for any American soldier who decided to enter them as they were pitch black and set with traps.
The traps were rather disturbing. They would have 2m deep bamboo traps, where they would soak the VERY sharp ended bamboo in toilet water and then let it dry in the sun and then they would place them in these holes. They point of the toilet water covering the end of these you may ask? Well when a soldier would accidentally walk over one of these covered traps, the ground would give way, and they would fall into these holes, and the bamboo sticks would puncture them and if that didn't kill them, they would usually die from the infection that the positioned ended sticks would give them. Pretty gruesome hey? That doesn’t even cover the half of the traps... We got to see about 10 more ways that the Vietnamese would kill them. There were other traps that when walked on would splice their ribs open, or catch them in the armpits, or in the neck, and then to top that exhibit off... there was a hand painted mural with pictures of all these traps with an American soldier in them, just incase you couldn't picture it. And that is when i checked out. I didnt want to hear anymore. However all the while that we were out there, you could here the AK47's being fired, because if, at the end of the tour you decided that you wanted to give money to shoot one, you could. And NO way did one person from our group do it.

It is really hard to describe it. Just bizarre, and so anti- American. It was not the best thing, nor did i enjoy it.

Then on our way home in the hot hot heat of the afternoon, we blew a tire, and we all had to sit on the ho pavement for about 40 min while it got fixed.

That night was Ben, Hillary, John, and Gails last night, and also the night that some new people joined us.

The morning after, we were up bright and early for a long 3 hour drive to the Mekong for a day on the river.

We got to see how they make candy, rice paper; that is quite the art, and popcorn made of rice. It was pretty neat how they have used their resources. For lunch we headed up this little canal, and because the water was so low, we got stuck! So funny, but then the tide came in and we trudged along. Then we got to ride in one of the tiny "boats" that the locals use. It is the smallest wooden boat, and if you tipped a little to one side, over you would go! And how is it powered you may ask?... With a lady or man STANDING in the back using the longest wooden oars!

At lunch there was a MASSIVE 70 pound python that you could hold, and somehow Rob; on of the new guys, convinced me to hold it! COOL but i am happy it was a nice one.. it could have easily squeezed me to death. And YES I have a picture.

That night we headed back, and the girls and i, Jodie, Rosie, Erin and i went for sushi. SOOO good, and after dinner, i went over to David and Ellen’s; that is where i will be staying after this tour. They are the nicest, most warm hearted people! I am very lucky to have them to stay with. And not to mention, that i LOVE that city! Sure it is big and busy, but there is just so much to see =D

And yesterday we boarded a big public bus and headed to Cambodia, where i am now, and have MUCH to tell you in my next entry either tonight after dinner, or tomorrow afternoon.

But the bus said that there was a TV and a toilet... there was both, but the TV was not on, and the toilet...well it was packed to the top with FLOWERS! So messed up haha! Needless to say it was a long 6 hour bus ride!

But i have to go eat, i will talk to you in a short while!

love love,

Tay

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