An American, Greek and Russian walk into a monastery…

Wow! Lots to share from the last few days.  It’s Saturday evening as I write this, but have no idea when I’ll have Internet to post.  We are anchored next to a monastery on one of the outer islands just north east of Skopelos.  Today was the first real day of sailing where the wind and weather cooperated.  When we finally turned the engine off and were just under sail power, I couldn’t help but smile.  We did a good bit of training today tacking, jibing and trimming.  My duties are becoming a little more specific, as I pretty much just focus on trimming the headsails and the foresail, and everything related to anchoring.  If something goes wrong, I try to fix it, which so far has mostly involved me running out on the sprit and pulling the jib free from the staysail as we come across upwind (lots of sailing jargon there, basically I walk out on the part of the boat that sticks out in front and pull on some ropes while trying not to fall in, or the latest danger brought to our attention: castration).  The students have done a fantastic job of learning their tasks and becoming fast and exact.  On Monday, the three teams will all switch sail stations so it will be a little bit of a learning curve at first, but we should do fine. 

Backing up a couple of day…. Tuesday afternoon I had free and decided I wanted to hike up to the monastery and check things out.  Being on a boat with 14 other people definitely means solitude is tough to come by so I was excited when I was freed up around 16:30.  I walked out of the harbor and started along the path uphill.  Two little dogs followed me out of the harbor and would be my companions for the duration of my hike.  Every switch back they would run ahead and then wait for me.  They would even come if I whistled, and waited for me outside of the monastery when I made it to the top.  I was a little crunched for time but was pretty committed to making it up to the top, so I paced it out pretty quick.  Fortunately it was cool and there was even a slight rain/mist, so nothing too extreme in the physical exertion category.  When I finally made it the monastery door, I definitely confess I paused for a moment and contemplated the chances of me being stolen by some witches and cooked in a stew.  I was on top of a hill I had just hiked without passing another soul for the past hour, and no one knew where I was.  It was misty and overcast, perfect witch weather.  The monastery looked like an old castle.  The sign on the door said ring once and wait patiently.  I had just hiked for an hour uphill and certainly wasn’t going to stop at the doorstep so I rang the bell, and waited for what felt like an eternity as I replayed all the witch movies I had seen in my head.  Sure enough, an old hobbled nun limped over to open the door, barely up to my waist in her state, with teeth coming out every which way and long whiskers on her face. “Great,” I thought, time to get thrown in a big pot with some frogeyes.  What’s worse was that this witch/nun was offering me some sort of food from a jar.  Fortunately, I was too smart to fall for the "candy from an old person that’s really poison" routine so I politely declined.   If my facetious account of a witch has run too far, I wasn’t in any danger of being tossed in a cauldron, and the old nun who greeted me turned out to be named Miriam, and had lived at the monastery for six years by herself (she did look exactly like a witch though).  Miriam only spoke Greek, but fortunately another man who was visiting the monastery, Thanneus spoke Greek and English.  Thanneus grew up on Skopleos but had since moved to Sciathos and was just visitng.  Thanneus was very friendly and helped translate what Miriam was saying, and asked lots of questions about why an American was visiting a monastery alone at the top of hill on an island in the middle of the Aegean Sea.  The monastery was pretty incredible, an outer wall with rooms for visiting pilgrims to spend the night and inner structure that was the main chapel.  The chapel was ornamented to the extreme, with every surface being carved, painted or plated.  After spending a few minutes marveling in the middle of the chapel, I was startled (more like scared to death) from someone coughing a few feet behind me.  I had walked right passed a pilgrim sitting in the shadows quietly.  Eventually the lady, who happened to be Russian and a Greek Orthodox, told me in broken English that she was visiting for religious purposes.  The two visitors, Miriam and myself managed to talk for a little bit through the translation of Thanneus and the broken English of the Russian - one of the stranger conversations I’ve been a part of.   Thanneus offered me a ride back down to the port, which I happily accepted, since I would have been late for dinner if I had neede to hike back down. 

Wednesday we had free all day, so after breakfast and packing our lunch all the students and I headed into to town with the goal of renting vehicles to explore the island.  I had my eyes set on an ATV or dune buggy, but most of the rental places required an international driver’s license.  After checking about 5-6 places and always being denied for lack of proper paperwork, we went up along the main road a little further to one of the last rental places in the area.  Nikolas’ Rental Shop seemed pretty sketch from the get go, which meant we probably had a good chance of renting our vehicles there. Sure enough after a few minutes, my American driver’s license and a friendship discounted price we tore down the road in two dune buggies and one ATV.  Some of the girls had rented two cars so together with our three vehicles; we made quite the envoy travelling around the island.  Our first stop was the monastery I had hiked the day before.  The ATV made quick work of the rocky switch backs and we all spent a few minutes walking around and greeting Miriam.  Next we travelled along the coast for almost an hour to another beachfront village for lunch. Taking the ATV on the road was fun, but the handling sucked, so I had to take turns pretty slow but I was able to go about 70-75 kph, which was a lot of fun.  After lunch we somehow managed to navigate up into the hills of Skopelos to another old monastery.  After a quick walk around we rotated through the vehicles and I ended up in one of the dune buggies.  Although not as powerful up hill as the ATV, the buggies handled really well and could drift corners like a dream.  We found a big puddle at the bottom of one of the hills and decided it would be fun to go through it.  It was probably only 6-8 inches deep of water but was more then enough to completely soak us and cover us in dirt and mud.  Since we were already filthy at this point we figured we might as well go through the puddle again, and again after that.  We ended up at this cliff with a walking path down to the beach and an off road path to a light house at the very tip of the island.  At this point I was driving a dune buggy, which were “supposed” to stay just on the roads, but figured any path made for vehicles could be a road, so we went tearing down this mud filled bumpy path to the light house.  Between driving right next to a vertical cliff and getting thoroughly soaked several times while drifting around some of the corners, the path was an absolute blast and the views from the lighthouse spectacular.  After a quick swim at the beach to wash off and regroup for our trip back down to the harbor, the guys left on dune buggies and the ATV while the girls took the car to the Mamma Mia church.  I’m sure the church would have been cool, but being able to fully open up the throttle on the way back down without having to wait for anyone else was too much fun.  Later that night we all dressed up a bit and took the vehicles to Theo’s house for a great home made meal.  I was able to sneak out for a bit later for a late night ride back to the coast, but the headlights on the ATV weren’t strong enough for me to be able to drive fast and safe so I headed back to the ship.  That's all for now.  Check out my other post about sailing to the outer islands.  

Keep Well 

-BG

The World Championships of Synchronized Swimming

It’s been well over a week since my last blog post, and I’m not sure when I will have internet to actually post this, but here goes…

I arrived in Volos mid-afternoon last Sunday, meaning I’ve spent over a whole week already living aboard the Encounter.  Leaving Athens, the English level dropped to near zero, so the only way I found the bus station right outside of the city center was to follow someone with a suitcase and hope they were also going to the buses.  I couldn’t understand anything on my bus ticket except that the price matched the price of a bus ticket from Athens to Volos so I just hoped I was heading the right direction.  Sunday and Monday, the crew of the Encounter from the summer, an American couple, helped showed me the ropes so to say (boat humor), and were incredible helpful and encouraging.  I am so thankful that Paul, Mary and Marianna (who is the ships cook and is staying on for our voyage) were able to be there for my transition. 

Tuesday night, the World Championship of Synchronized swimming held their opening ceremonies on the water front just a hundred yards or so from the Encounter.  The athletes lined up along the breakwater, as an old Greek rowing shipped rowed up to them and each rower carried the flag of a participating nation.  Then the athletes marched down the breakwater to stage as fireworks and flaresticks lit up the whole harbor.  It was really fun to watch, even though I barely had any idea what was going on.  The announcer spoke in Greek and then repeated in broken English, but I could make out enough to cheer loudly for the American delegation.

On Wednesday the students arrived throughout the day and we shared our first meal together.  There are 12 students total, 8 girls and 4 boys, with 9 from Canada and 3 from the States.  An interesting mix for sure, but already after a few days everyone feels like family.  My tasks for Wednesday were to show the students to their cabins, give a basic tour of the ship and show everyone how to work the toilets.  I am terrified of the toilets clogging or overflowing since it is my responsible to clean them and unclog what I imagine to be miles of poo clogged toilet pipe – honestly a few mornings I have woken up and the first thing on my mind has been to check the tanks in order to make sure they have enough water so that the toilets can be pump flushed.  Fortunately no problems yet.

Thursday morning we left the port of Volos, as our skipper, Theo, showed me the procedure for raising the anchor.  The Encounter is roughly 65 tons, and the anchor chain has 1 inch thick links, so I was told about 12 different ways in which I could lose fingers, toes, whole limbs, my head etc… I was also enlightened on the multiple ways I could send the anchor, or fore mast boom, or RIB or gaff crashing into the hull and gashing her open.  The stakes are slightly higher on this boat compared to the junkers I am used to sailing at the yacht club.  Most of my free time I have spent visualizing my different tasks and practicing different knots and cleats, or reading old sailing manuals.  In principal and theory I understand everything, it’s just the details of which line goes where, through which block, with what direction cleat and what style knot, which is different for each type of sailboat.  Thursday afternoon we anchored in a small cove and had some free time to swim and lounge around the boat.  Theo, is a big fan of afternoon siestas, so we try to have at least one hour of quiet and calm each day in order to catch up on sleep and refresh from the morning’s activities.  Later that night, I was on watch from midnight to 3am.  The winds had really picked up and were pushing our boat dangerously close to the rocky coast earlier in the night, but fortunately all was calm during my watch and I was able to get some reading in and practice tying knots with my off hand.

Friday we sailed to another small island.  Sailed is probably not the most accurate term, since we were under engine the whole way.  The students practiced raising and lowering the sails but the wind was just not strong enough to sail.  It also rained all day, a trend that continued into Saturday.  Again, we spent the day motoring to our next destination.  When the rain would ease up enough, we would all rush on deck and learn more about how to raise and lower the different sails.  The students have done a great job of picking up a lot of information and technique in just a few days already.  Sailing a boat this size takes an interesting mix of brute strength, finesse, and awareness of about 50 different things at once.  I wished the wind had been more cooperative so that our tacks and jibes could be practiced, but we still have 7 weeks to go.   Our anchorage Saturday afternoon was a small cove on a picturesque uninhabited island.  Although it was raining, we spent the afternoon swimming to shore, and hiking over the island to an old lighthouse in the cliffs.  Pretty incredible stuff.   We all come back and took our first “shower,”  salt water and shampoo and then a ration of 2 small cups of fresh water to rinse.  Honestly, it was incredibly refreshing and I might have actually smelled good after.

Sunday will typically be our day of rest, without any activities, but Theo thought it was best to try to make it to Skopelos island, before a big series of storms was supposed to blow through.  We were all on deck setting sails non-stop from 9am till almost 3:30 when we arrived.  It was definitely tiring but already my body has adjusted well to boat life.  I am bare foot 24/7, and a lot of the time I am out climbing on the bowsprit line or hanging on the rails, so my feet hurt, but atleast I don’t have any sandal tan lines.  Sunday evening we celebrated one of the student’s birthdays with a delicious cake, and then had our first worship service together.  I was able to play guitar and lead (barely) everyone through a few songs.  It might not have sounded the best, but it was authentic.

So that’s it for now.  We are probably going to be in port in Skopelos for a few days.  Theo has his home here and I think we will have some free day(s) to rent motorbikes and explore the island.  Apparently this is where they filmed Momma Mia, so all the girls are excited, but the natural beauty is enough for me to be content.   Hopefully it will stop raining for more than an hour at a time, but until then I’m more then happy to fall asleep to the sounds of the rain on my hatch window as the boat rocks me to sleep.

Keep well

-bg

Athens

Athens

ειά σου! (Hello)

I’m writing from my hostel in Athens, less than a mile from the Acropolis, and minus the blood stains (not my own) on the sheets, I can’t complain about my accommodations.   I arrived in Athens around 3pm local time on Friday and managed to get all my luggage, exchange currency, find the train station, take the correct train to the correct stop and find the right street my hostel was on in about 2 hours.  I left Dulles Thursday night around 8:10pm eastern time after sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours while the plane’s engine was repaired (We were scheduled to leave at 5:40, but sometimes those plane engines just don’t wanna start…) arrived in Geneva, Switzerland around 10am local and fortunately made my next flight into Athens.  So despite the delay everything worked out great.  Flying over the Swiss Alps was incredible.  Mount Blanc literally seemed to pass just a few hundred yards away from the plane.  

Once I got to my hostel and dropped all my bags off, I grabbed a map and a Greek phrase sheet and headed out into the city.  Because of the Olympics here in 2004, English is on all the street signs and it’s pretty easy to find your way around.  The Acropolis is also a great landmark for navigating because you can pretty much see it from anywhere in Athens.  I spent about 3 hours walking around and actually hiked up to the Acropolis but didn’t feel like paying to get in so I just hung out on the rocks outside the gates and enjoyed the awesome city views.  I made my way back to the Monastiriki area and found an outdoor café where I enjoyed some lamb Gyros with Tzattiki sauce – very delicious.  Later that night I met up with one of the students who is going to be sailing with me and went to another outdoor café.  It was great meeting him and some of his friends he was with and I’m really excited to get to know him and all the other students in a few more days.

I made it back to my hostel a little after midnight and was pretty exhausted.  Sadly my brain ignored my body’s tiredness and instead thought it was still on east coast time.  I was finally able to get a few good hours of rest in morning, but hopefully tonight I can reboot into Greek time and get some good sleep. 

This morning (Saturday) I left a little before noon to go explore more of the city.  I stopped by one of the large squares for breakfast, walked over and hiked around in the national gardens and saw the parliament and congressional buildings ( the buildings were empty - not surprising considering Greeks current economic/political woes).  Using my Greek map as a guide I tried to make my way to one of the ancient stadiums, but ended up on a really busy highway and couldn’t find it.  Later, from the top of the acropolis I realized I was right next to it, I just couldn’t see over the trees from the street level.  The Acropolis was next and was pretty easy to get to (just looked up).  Normally I can be leery of some of the tourist spots that everyone goes to around the world but the Acropolis was pretty cool.  It really wasn’t too hard to imagine the same structures being used 2500 years ago, and despite a lot of restoration equipment and scaffolding, the antiquity remained.  It was tough to know what was authentic, what had been restored, and what had been replaced with modern rocks, but from a layperson like myself – it was neat.  The Acropolis also offers 360 panorama views of Athens, all the way to the coast – so now I can say I’ve seen all of Athens in the past 24 hours. 

I spent a few hours being touristy and taking picture of the Parthenon and the other structures that I can’t pronounce and then walked down the south side along the Apostolou Pavlou (the road of Apostle Paul) where Paul spoke at the meeting of the Areopagus and told the Athenians they were ignorant and arrogant for worshipping silly gods because it was trendy (my translation, but check out Acts 17).    I think this is the first time I’ve ever visited a location specifically mentioned in the Bible, and I definitely look forward to seeing more of the places Paul wrote about in the coming months.

Overall Athens has been an awesome city.  Not overly touristy, but very accessible and easy to get around for an American like myself.  I also don’t feel like I’m sticking out being American, mainly because everyone kind of blends into different shades of whiteness.  Minus the language differences everyone is pretty similar.  It’s even tough to spot the tourists from the locals, which is a nice feeling and makes my experience a little more authentic.  Tomorrow I’m up early to navigate the bus system and hopefully make it to the port of Volos by mid-afternoon and move into (or onboard) my new home for the next couple of months.

Go Big Red!

-BG

Look! I can add photos too! Here's me in front of some old stones, also known as the Parthenon.

It's been a little while

August 16 2012

Greetings!  I know countless readers have been waiting with bated breath for my triumphal return to the blog-o-sphere, and that time has arrived.  If you scroll down a little bit you’ll see a lot of writing about travelling and living on a boat and some other stuff like that – hopefully you readers actually know me and remember that I did Semester at Sea during spring 2011.  If you forgot, or are new to this site (welcome random internet users!) take some time and read about my experiences, or at least watch my movie – I promise it’s good stuff.

So that takes us to now, mid-august 2012, 15 months removed from circumnavigating the globe, one final year of college, a graduation, a quick missions trip to northern Africa last spring, a surgically reconstructed hip, months spent studying for the MCATs, and most recently a two-week cross country road-trip with a buddy visiting friends…….

I will be once again living on a boat. 

Now despite the obvious observation that living on a boat means I won’t have to change the title of the this blog, there are some other details that should probably be explained…

Three weeks from today I will be leaving for Greece to start an eight-week sailing trip around the islands of the Aegean Sea.  I know what you’re thinking – isn’t it time you get a real job or go to medical school or something?  Answer: yes.  But you’re also thinking what an awesome opportunity this is and how I would be crazy not to pass this up.  I know a want to be a doctor, and know I’ll make a career of it, so it can wait for a bit.  I also know I love Jesus and love making his name famous around the world (I’ll make my life out of this).  Some other things I love are sailboats and traveling around the world too, so when a friend told me about a bible school aboard a sailboat in Greece, I thought it couldn’t hurt to check it out.  Last summer, I emailed the skipper/director expressing interest in a job aboard and about 8 months later I was offered the position of deckhand and Dean of Students.  It wasn’t too hard of a decision to accept (Jesus + Greek Islands + sailing + no expenses = better than anything else) but I did seek the Lord in prayer and knew this opportunity was from Him.

So I invite you to stick around for the next few months and share in my adventures.  I’m realizing now how much there is to be said and explained, so look for those post in the coming weeks.  In the mean time feel free to check out some info on the sailboat: http://www.kingfisherproject.org and the parent organization for the bible school: http://www.torchbearers.org/.

Your Dean of Students,

-BG

Link to my movie

Anyone wanting to see some of my photos/videos from my voyage can check out the film I made here: Ben's Movie.  Other photos can be viewed on my facebook page.

Enjoy!

Back in 'Nam

          

March 25

Our times at sea have gotten shorter and shorter.  From Singapore to Taiwan we are at sea for 6 days and in port for 17 days, so basically there is a lot of travelling to be had, and not a whole lot of time to write about it.  I, of course, certainly enjoy travelling in country a whole lot more than taking classes at sea, but there is a lot of preparation, reflection and sleep to catch up on while at sea and not a whole lot of time.  Anyways, my final blog on India will again be delayed (probably until after Taiwan) but I’ll try my best to share about Vietnam and Cambodia. 

Saturday: Due to the tides, the ship wasn’t able to arrive until around 1100.  It was a lot of fun travelling up the river that morning into port, passing large container ships, ferry boats and a flotilla of small fishing canoes.  It was very similar to our travels up the Amazon and also reminded me of the river scenes in a lot of Vietnam War movies.  When we finally made it off the ship just before noon, we were confronted with the realization that Saigon is the motorbike capitol of the world (not an official stat, just a guess).  With the attitude “When in Vietnam, do as the Vietnamese,” we hired motorbike drivers, hopped on the back and took off into the city.         

            Our first stop of the day was at the tailor’s shop.  I have never had a custom tailored suit before, and going with my Singaporean theme of acting more wealthy than I was, decided I might as well take advantage of quick and inexpensive suits.  Sure enough, Sunday night I was back at the tailor’s picking up my 2 suits.  I don’t know much about clothes, but the suits fit great, look great and certainly seem to be high quality, so I think it was worth the money.  After our suit experience, we had our drivers take us to local restaurant for some authentic Vietnamese lunch (not sure what I ate but it was pretty good) and then on to Ben Thanh market, one of the largest markets in Saigon.  We knew from the vendors right outside of the port that we would be able to buy a lot of brand name items for a low price, and Ben Thanh certainly confirmed that we could buy North Face, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Lacoste, Gucci etc… for cheap.  Again, I’m no clothes expert but buying a North Face backpack (even if it is probably fake) for $8 is a pretty good deal.  We also went to the Russian Market, where I got a North Face rain jacket, Saigon square and the Tax mall where I was to stubborn to pay the extra dollar or two the vendors were asking and walked away from a lot of good deals.  After a nice 60min full body massage (no happy ending), which left me feeling refreshed and smelling great (the lotions they used were awesome) about 10 of us went out to this huge Chinese restaurant for a family style meal.  The food was really good and pretty cheap and it was fun just taking my food from the heaping plates in the center of the table.

            The nightlife in Saigon is incredible, and Saturday night we ended up at this venue called “Acoustic.” They had live bands covering American songs and it was honestly some of the best live music I have ever heard, especially for free.  It was an absolute blast dancing with the locals (Vietnamese women are gorgeous) and singing along with the bands.  At the end, the owner let us up on stage to sing a few songs, which was a lot of fun and a great way to end the night.

           

Sunday:

            Sunday morning I was able to get a free ticket for an SAS trip to the Cu Chi tunnels.  The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of tunnels and underground bunkers, which the Vietnamese used to fight the Americans during the War.  It was definitely an eerie experience visiting the tunnels, since it was essentially a monument of the Vietnamese ingenuity and success in killing American soldiers.  We visited the bunkers and were shown how Bobbie traps were made out of bamboo spears, how undetonated American artillery shells were transformed into land mines and grenades, and how spikes were placed in the grown covered with fecal matter that would infect the American troops when they stepped on them.  There was a monument to a young girl who was a “American Killing Hero,” for her bravery in gunning down GIs and an American tank that was destroyed by a homemade landmine.  I couldn’t imagine going through the Cu Chi tunnel compound if I had a more personal connection with the War or knew someone personally who had served in the military during that time. 

            The actual tunnel aspect of the compound was very impressive, and I am proud to say that I completed both the “tourist” tunnel (slightly enlarged) and the original Vietnamese tunnel.  Although I was on my hands and knees and had to bellow crawl for portions, I made it through the 50-meter tunnel section, in near pitch black darkness, 20 feet underground with hardly enough room or air to breathe.  To celebrate this amazing feat of squeezing a large object into a small space, I went to the shooting range at the compound and shot an AK-47, a fitting reward.

            After the Cu Chi tunnels, we were back on the ship for lunch, and then out into Saigon again to stop by the markets (I bought a lot this time) grab some Pho for dinner, and pick up my suits.  We stopped at a country western bar that happened to have a Vietnamese pop band covering 90s American rock songs, which was one of the more impressive conglomeration of culture I have experienced on the voyage so far. It was a packed day, but a lot of fun and also a great educational experience.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 25^th

So… this is where procrastination rears its ugly head.  I finally am writing about my time in Cambodia (the previous section on Vietnam I had written on the ship, and just hadn’t posted it online).  It has been a full one month and one day since I disembarked the ship in San Diego and I would guess around two months since I was actually in Cambodia, but I guess the saying goes, better late than never.

            On Monday we left in the morning for a flight out of Saigon and into Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. After clearing customs at the airport, we met our tour guide and took a bus through the capitol to the national museum containing various religious artifacts and statues.  It was pretty cool.  Next we took a riverboat cruise down the Mekong River.  The river has great views of the various ornate government buildings as well as “floating villages” where people live and work on houses and boats floating off shore.  After the boat tour, we headed to Palm Tree Orphanage, an orphanage founded and staffed by primarily SAS alumni.  Unfortunately, we were only there for around an hour, but that gave a friend and me just enough time to “adopt” an orphan and have him show us around his home.  I’m pretty sure the kid had some learning and developmental disabilities, since he couldn’t really communicate with us, but we decided to name him “Mambo” and pretend like we had been friends for years.  Seeing orphans, especially, in impoverished developing countries always leaves quite an impression on one’s psyche and perhaps worldview, whatever that may mean. 

            After the orphanage visit, our group had an authentic Cambodian meal (the lemon grass soup was memorable, in a good way), and made our way to our hotel.  Again, SAS had put us up with overly nice accommodations, but I won’t complain.  Some friends and I headed back into the capitol on the backs of Tuk-Tuk, the local equivalent of an Indian rickshaw.  The nightlife of Phnom Penh is pretty famous, both for some bars frequented by famous journalists and celebrities, and for the Russian sex slave and drug trade.  We decided it would be best to experience just the bars, and leave the drugs and sex, although I was offered heroin for one of the few times in my life (I politely declined). 

            Tuesday morning, we headed to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda compound.  The architecture and adornments were absolutely incredible.  The Khmer empire was one of the largest and most powerful in SE Asia back in the day, and their buildings certainly are a testament to their wealth and opulence.  The Silver Pagoda (so named because the floors are silver – seriously) contained a life size statue of Buddha made of solid gold and covered in 9584 diamonds (I wikipedia’d it).  Right next to it was a box asking for donations for Cambodia’s orphans.  I don’t even want to guess how many orphans would be helped by selling just one of the 10,000 diamonds, or one of the silver floor tiles – but I guess that’s essentially how most governments operate. 

            After our visit to the extravagant palaces, are next destinations were the Toul Sleng Genocide Muesum and later the Killing Fields.  I’m hesitant to write about these experiences, partly because it would be impossible to justly describe the atrocities of these locations, and partly because I’m not exactly sure how to verbalize my reactions to them.  I remember in high school doing a project on Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and the genocide that took place in Cambodia just over thirty years ago and thinking how was it possible that most people, even educated people, are oblivious to this terrible period in human history.  The Khmer Rogue straight up brutally tortured and executed millions of people.  MILLIONS of people died at the hands of an ideological psychopath thirty years ago, and most people don’t even know it.

The genocide museum was originally a high school before the Khmer Rogue turned it into a prison/torture camp.  I’m not really sure how to describe it, other than it was not pleasant to look at the torture devices, or chains, or pictures of dead inmates, or read the signs explaining how prisoners were tied upside down until they passed out and then dumped into a vat of fecal matter to wake up, so the process could be repeated.  Our tour guide lost his parents and aunts and uncles at the hands of the Khmer Rogue.  He wasn’t emotional until one of the four former prisoners to actually escape the camp and live, showed up.  It was an impactful visit, and I remember feeling sick, physically sick, at what I was looking at.  After the genocide camp, our group visited the Killing Fields.  The name aptly describes what took place there, and again, its tough for me to describe it.  A surface level explanation would describe the tree that guards would throw babies at to execute them, or the pits in the earth that were filled with thousandths of bodies just a couple of decades ago, or the shed that held the chemicals to cover the smells of the rotting bodies, or the station where a loudspeaker was positioned to drown out the screams of the dying victims, or the monument of skulls, or the walking path where bone and teeth fragments still wash up to this day, whenever it rains.  A deeper explanation might describe the mixed of confusion, sadness, anger, pity, sickness, and the unavoidable screaming question of Why?

We left the Killing Fields and headed to a local lunch and some time at the market.  I got a nice Rolex (definitely a fake, but not as fake as the other fake Rolexes I have) and was able to convince some one trying to sell me a fake iPhone that I should test it first.  This resulted in a good 15min phone call home costing about 5 bucks, not bad for being on the other side of the world.  Next it was on to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap.  Fortunately, I was afforded a little of bit of time to process my thoughts and rest before our arrival.  Siem Reap is mainly a tourist destination and houses the famous temples of Angkor Wat.  After checking into our hotel and taking a quick swim in the pool, we headed to a “cultural dinner” which was pretty touristy and just consisted of a massive buffet and some dancers up on stage.  Later that night we took some Tuk-Tuks downtown to check out the nightlife.  Just like Vietnam, it was very impressive and a lot of fun (I was also offered heroin again, but declined – thanks DARE).  On our way back to the hotel that night we stopped at a massage shop where they had big tanks filled with tons of little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet.  I think it cost us each a dollar for a 15min session, although the first 8mins or so were basically spent with all of us attempting to overcome the uncontrollable urge to laugh and pull our feet out as induced by the tickling sensation of hundreds of fish picking at your feet.  By far one of the coolest/strangest things I have ever done.

Wednesday morning we were up real early to head to Angkor Wat (collectively all of the temples are referred to as Angkor Wat, but Angkor Wat also happens to be the main temple of the larger compound).  The temples were built on a North/South gridlines and Wednesday happened to be the equinox, which basically means that it was the best day of the entire year to watch the sunrise directly behind the largest spire of the main temple.  When we first arrived, it was obviously still pretty dark, meaning we didn’t quite get the full effect of how incredible the temples were, making the whole experience a little eerie/awesome.  I made one of the best decisions of my life that morning, when I walked up to the main temple in the barely there morning light, hopped over one of the fences and explored the temple by myself.  I pretty much felt like Indiana Jones; alone in one of the world’s greatest ancient temples, hopping security fences, climbing along the walls, discovering the ark of the covenant (maybe not) – but it was pretty cool.  I made it back out to the rest of the group for the actual sunrise, which of course was incredible and perfectly aligned with the temple. 

After sunrise we were back at the hotel for breakfast and then back to the Angkor Wat (the main temple) for a few hours of exploration.  We also visited the temple of Ta Prohm temple, where archaeologists have decided to let the massive roots and trees seemingly growing right of the ancient temple stone remain.  I felt like I was on the set of a Hollywood movie (they filmed some scenes of Tomb Raider here. That’s how Angelina Jolie got into the whole adopting Cambodians thing, I’m told).  We went back to the hotel for lunch and a little bit of free time.  During the free time two friends and I walked to a massage parlor to enjoy some cheap massages – hilarity ensued.  I’m not the kind of person who likes to be touched a whole lot, and am definitely very ticklish, so when my masseuse found out that by tickling my feet and butt, I would laugh hysterically, it made for a very uncomfortable and funny 45mins.  Add to this the fact that my two friends were lying on the ground next to me also getting massages (not sure why they had us all in the same room like that) and the fact that we were all clothed just in underwear.  The climax to this comedic experienced occurred when I essentially crushed my petite Cambodian masseuse when she attempted some sort of wrestling move to crack my back (a fitting punishment for her tortuous tickles). 

After not feeling relaxed from my massage, we returned to visit the Bayon Temple, again absolutely incredible.  Collectively, Angkor Wat is the largest religious complex in the World and its rather unimaginable that people constructed it almost 1000 years ago.  I was able to ride an elephant for a while between two of the temples, adding to the whole Asia experience and lengthening my list of modes of transportation I have used.  Our flight was delayed for a bit so we had the privilege of having another cultural dinner in Siem Reap before flying back to Vietnam and getting back on the ship a little after midnight. And that concludes my travel experiences on Semester at Sea.  

Finally finished!

-Ben