Victims of Khmer Rouge

Pagoda filled with bones and clothes of victims

As hard as it is to view these photos it’s important to us to include this dark episode in Cambodian history; especially since it still goes on today in other parts of the world. Absolutely everyone we met in Cambodia was tragically affected by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters, babies killed ruthlessly by other children, child soldiers who were then routinely executed as well. Everyone was a victim of Pol Pots madness.

Details of the torture and killings were incomprehensible but they happened. Our consciousness was once again opened and another layer of insulation was removed as we pondered the questions like “How could anyone do this? Why, why?” Now when we read or hear news about Darfur or Sri Lanka we are chilled by this new raw awareness that man’s inhumanity to man is still very strong in our global village.

Victims clothes, bones, teeth continually arise unearthed by weather

Craters of the mass graves

Iron Ankle shackles

Shelves in the shrine, organized by age an sex of the victims

Global Village

Traveling each country has proven to be a living lesson in its culture, history and current events. We leave one village, walk through a few doors, and in a matter of hours are walking through another village thousands of miles away. The world as a global village is no longer a distant concept. Everywhere we travel I repeatedly find that behind the different cultures and customs we are all just regular people living our daily lives.

War, famine, and genocide have never touched the soil I grew up on; not so for many other countries in our global village. Visiting VN was a wake up call to the fact that anyone we met over 30 years old has experienced first hand the brutal affects of war. We visited war museums, the land mine museum and crawled through the Vietcong tunnel network near Saigon, but it was the people and personal family stories that made it all so real and touched us most. It was a living reminder that war is rarely the solution.

Thirty years later the lush countryside and bustling cities show little of the drastic aftermath of the American war in Vietnam; but Agent Orange still deforms babies and leaches into the crops, limbs and lives are still being lost to land mines hidden in rice paddies and groups of displaced confused expat US Vietnam Vets sit drinking themselves numb at 10 am in the cafes around Saigon. The poignant words of the song War just kept replaying in my mind, over and over. “War! What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!”

Time to Catch Up!

Traveling (and bus wrecks) can get in the way of journaling the journey. Rewind one month to Halong Bay, Vietnam.

We’re on another rice barge (a.k.a. deluxe floating resort) doing what many good tourists do; seeing beautiful scenery, eating exquisite food, and meeting lots of other westerners. We generally don’t take tour packages as they tend to ‘view’ the culture and environment from an insulated distance rather than be absorbed into it as we like to do by traveling independently. Unfortunately avoiding the tour packages in Halong Bay was near to impossible so in this case we splurged and took a really nice one. It was fun, relaxing, and…a bit lacking in adventure.

Houses, markets, kids playing, even dogs and cats that have never touched real ground; everything is on the water at this small floating fishing village.

Exploring these villages, caves and islands we really missed our swim buddies and the wild adventures we would have with them if they were here.