Beating the Odds

Let's talk about beating the odds.

Alrica, I realized today, is a rare and unusual woman. Yes, you are all saying "obviously, Erich" and you all have a variety of reasons. But let me explain my reason: If we let C(X) be the number of countries that person X has been in and we let Y(x) be the person's age (the number of years they have lived, rounded down,) for most X, we have C(X) < Y(X). However, C(Alrica) > Y(Alrica). Saying this in a less mathy way, though why would anyone want less mathy when more mathy is an option, the number of countries that Alrica has been in is greater than her age.

The next time you want to say Alrica has a big head, note, it is still not big enough to fill her big hat

This came up today because today is Alrica's fiftieth birthday. She had previously set a goal she called "Fifty By Fifty". As you might have guessed, this meant she hoped to have visited her fiftieth country before she reached her fiftieth birthday. She accomplished that goal when we arrived in Costa Rica.

The birthday girl buying from a peddler

Since then, we have added three new countries: the Philippines, Taiwan, and Cambodia. So on the day Alrica turns 50, she has been 53 countries. Her number of countries exceeds her age.

Even on her birthday, she goes out of her way to give the gift of her help

But this is rare, I think. Consider the example of me. I have not yet reached that milestone except trivially. What do I mean by trivially? I mean, it has only happened in the uninteresting edge case that is true for almost everyone.

Alrica (and the other thinkers) are pondering my premise

When we are born, we have suddenly visited one country, yet our age is zero. So almost everyone on Earth spends at least the first year of their lives having visited more countries than their age. I was thinking it was true of everyone, but then exceptions occurred to me. What about people born on a vessel in international waters? Or flying in international airspace? Those people will have been in zero countries and also have an age of zero. But I would think all of them have to arrive in a country before their first birthday, so they are also in the trivial case, just they get there a bit later.

After thinking it through, Alrica decided to sit out the rest of my mathy diatribe

For me, since I turned one, I have never again been in the situation where C(Erich) > Y(Erich). Though I suspect I will get there sometime in 2026. I wonder at what age most people get there. If they get there.

All of this, thus far, is just a rambling preamble (dare I say preambling) to the point of the post: what did we do to celebrate Alrica's birthday?

Not counting our recent trip to Pattaya, which was in celebration of her birthday, but wasn't on her birthday, we still did a few things on the day itself. And I should point out that when I say "on the day itself" I refer to the day on the calendar in our current location. So, for example, when we went to a bakery today and bought her a birthday cake, it was not yet her birthday in the United States. But it was her birthday in Thailand. I consider that to be "on the day itself". Alrica feels that not only should all day today be her birthday, but it should extend to 3 PM tomorrow. You see, she was born in Pacific Time, and it won't be until 3 PM in Thailand that Pacific Time will pass out of her birthday. I'm reasonably okay with this idea, though I have some fear that Alrica will later suggest that since we added an extra 15 hours to her birthday, we have to balance things out by taking away 15 hours from mine. (I'm not that afraid. My birthday is over seven months away. Most likely when it comes she won't even remember that any balancing is necessary.)

The birthday cake

In addition to buying a birthday cake, we headed into Bangkok today. We got lunch and used buses to reach a shopping area called Asiatique. The shopping area (also full of entertainment) wasn't our true goal. That was the pier that is at Asiatique. You see Asiatique is on the Chao Phraya River, the main river of Bangkok. And tonight we took a sunset cruise on the river that came with dinner and performers.

A bit off topic, just a funny sign we saw today (not on the cruise.) The illiterate do not drink tea.

We had fun with both our exploration of Asiatique and the sunset cruise. It was hot today, but beautifully sunny. The sunset was magnificent from the boat. We also got to see bridges up close. We had to stay seated and lean as we passed under one of the bridges. You probably think I'm exaggerating, but this I mean literally. The boats haven't been allowed to go under that bridge for awhile. Today was the first day that the river was running low enough that the government allowed it. And it was barely low enough. In the States, there is no way a river cruise company would have done it. If some idiot had thrust up his hand or his head, it would have been badly damaged, and then the cruise company would get sued. They would have been way too afraid of litigation to go under that bridge. But in Thailand, well, I can only say we did go under it. And no one on the ship was stupid enough to thrust up hand or head.

This is us approaching that crazy low bridge

We got to see amazing sites. The Wat Arun is perhaps the most spectacular. We saw it twice, going upriver with the sun setting behind it. and going downriver under the night sky, but the wat is well lit and equally splendid as in the day.

I can't capture the full majesty of the Wat Arun in a picture

Alrica was given a birthday cake (which was 12% cake and 82% icing and 6% mini cookies set into the icing.) She wasn't alone. There were over a dozen people who were celebrating their birthday on the cruise. That seems weird, right? (WARNING: I'm getting mathy again.) Let's talk about beating the odds. You would think only one out of every 365 people on the boat would have a birthday today. That's probably about true in the population as a whole. But not on a sunset cruise. Why? Well, because if it is your birthday on some Wednesday, you want to do something to celebrate it, right? That's exactly the kind of reason you take a sunset cruise. Hence, (using all my best math words,) there is a higher proportion of people who have their birthday on that day on the cruise than you find in the population.

Alrica with her other birthday cake

So today was a celebration of Alrica. But it reminded me of how lucky I am. I get to share the adventures of this rare and unusual woman.

Talk about beating the odds!

The rare and unusual woman with her adventure partner

Red Light, Green Light

The title of this blog post sounds like a children's game. But this is not about a game, and it is not meant for children. Because this isn't about the game Red Light, Green Light. This is about Pattaya's redlight district.

Alrica and I watched the second night of the fireworks festival. It was again very beautiful, artistically put together. Then afterwards, we walked along the beach road, heading south. If you head south far enough, like 1.5 km, you reach Pattaya Walking Street.

You might think that this is a pedestrian only area. You'd be right, cars are blocked from entering. You might imagine it was a pedestrian shopping district with cute clothing and cozy cafes. Well, it's not that kind of shopping. There are a few clothing shops and restaurants. But the majority of Pattaya Walking Street are businesses that open up at 10 PM.

I'm talking about clubs, some of which feature live music. Some feature go go girls and pole dancers. And some feature a lot more explicit things than that. As we walked through the district, people came up to us with signs that had pictures of people having sex in various positions. They were selling live sex shows. You could choose what positions you wanted to go see.

All the nudity you could desire, and you can get kebabs! Win win!

Honestly, it was fascinating to see. I found it a bit overwhelming, very crowded, lots of flashing lights, different songs blaring out of different locales. But it was interesting to see. And one part that interested me, and Alrica too, is the Thai people's simultaneous tolerance and intolerance of moral questions. Pattaya Walking Street is not surreptitious. It is out there. It is screaming, look at me! Come see sex acts! And the region has a police presence, not to tamp down on any immorality, but to discourage pickpockets or drunken brawls. It's there to keep tourists safe.

In some ways, this makes a lot of sense. Thailand is known for being pretty open to a lot of things. Bangkok itself is a city where you can do most anything you want. So you would think that the Thai don't legislate about moral behavior. And yet, alcohol sales are limited in Thailand to certain times of day. Recently marijuana was legalized, but that was recently. And visiting pornographic websites is not allowed in Thailand. They are blocked.

It's a confusing question: Are you opposed to these behaviors or do you just shrug. Why is it against the rules to watch recorded sex acts over the internet, but if you are willing to pay to see them live inside a club, then hey, go for it. What's the reasoning?

Personally, I have no problem with Pattaya Walking Street (aside from the overstimulation, which is a dangerous word to use in this instance.) I'm also okay with a community or country passing laws to protect its culture and respect its limits. But what I don't understand is the partial nature of it. Why is A allowed and B prohibited? It's like the laws themselves are a game of Red Light, Green Light.

Pattaya Fire Air and Water

In Pattaya, Thailand, there is an annual Fireworks Festival. This year, it happens to fall on the Friday and Saturday just after Thanksgiving (in the US, which is not a holiday in Thailand.) But that made it a perfect set up for Alrica and I. Both of our jobs are closed for Thanksgiving. So we took a bus trip from Bangkok to Pattaya.

My picture doesn't do justice to the fireworks

Bangkok is not on the Gulf of Thailand, but is upriver from it. Pattaya is on the Gulf of Thailand. So we got on a bus which took a bit more than two hours to drive to Pattaya. We are staying in a nice room that is just a block off the beach. And the beach is the location of the Fireworks Festival.

View of the Gulf of Thailand from our balcony

We arrived on Thursday and got settled in. We did some exploration of the region around where we are staying including a romantic walk along the beach. We stopped for dinner (pizza) at a cute outdoor plaza with lots of food stands. It's much like a park with food trucks all around, except the stands aren't trucks.

The plaza full of food (one of many in Pattaya). Also Alrica.

Naturally, the fireworks don't happen in the day. So on Friday, we took a snorkeling trip. A bus picked us up at our hotel and we drove all around Pattaya picking up other people. Then we headed south into Amarin City Village. Here we got our life jackets and got on the boat. It made three stops for snorkeling and one just for relaxing at the beach.

Heading down the dock to the boat

It was an interesting company because one of the big features is that they take lots of pictures, including underwater pictures. At the end, they dump them all into a Google Drive and you can go hunting for the ones you want and download them. But it isn't just the pictures of Alrica and me. It's the pictures of everyone who was on the boat with us. So there is a lot of hunting. Also, they were obsessed with gestures. We pointed, gave two-finger peace signs, three-fingers I Love You in sign language, the Korean finger hearts. What's amusing is that it isn't always obvious who the person is behind the mask and the fish. It was easier to find the pictures of me, as I was wearing a blue swimshirt. I was the only one in that shade of blue. But Alrica was wearing a black bikini, and she wasn't alone in that. Still the front of her mask was white, she didn't have on a watch, and so bit by bit we were able to, by process of elimination, figure out which ones were here. (And some of them look like her, so it wasn't always hard.)

Alrica signs "I love you" to the fish

Snorkeling is a lot of fun. It isn't hard to do, and one can see a lot of fish. When we went snorkeling in The Philippines, I learned the real secret of it. Don't look down. I don't mean this like when you are crossing something high. You aren't afraid of falling, the buoyancy of the water isn't going to let you drop. But if you look straight down, you won't get to see as much. You have less field of vision, and your presence often scares away anything nearby. Looking more in front of you means you get to see a lot more.

Peace Clown Fish, Peace.

We got to explore a whole section of coral reefs too. It was an unexpected pleasure to have this underwater view. Not only could you see the coral well, but you would be swimming along, rounding a corner, and then it looked like you were at the entrance to a canyon. A canyon of coral. You had to be a bit more careful here because the waves really could push you into the rocks and corals. They are sharp! How do I know? Well, I wasn't careful enough. But I just got scratched up a bit, not even blood. So it hardly counts.

The couple that dives together thrives together. That's a thing, right?

Hanging out at the beach was fun. I tried the standup paddleboard (though it was a kneel up paddleboard in my case. I didn't manage standing, and I was wearing my glasses so I didn't want to try for fear of losing the glasses if I pitched into the water.)

Paddle on, kneeling man.

After we got back, we cleaned up a bit and then headed over to the beach. There are hundreds of food vendor stands along the beach road. We bought some meals. Alrica got a pad thai, I got a pork with rice noodles, and we got some meat on sticks to share. It turns out the pad thai was quite spicy whereas the pork with rice noodles wasn't spicy at all. So we traded. We found a spot on the beach to sit (surrounded by our fifty-three thousand closest friends) and waited for the fireworks.

When they came, the shows were very impressive. There was music being broadcast and the fireworks were (sort of) timed to the music. But that wasn't the impressive part. There are just so many artistic fireworks out there. it is amazing to see what they can do, how they can be timed, the colors and effects like sparkles or streaks. And they are loud! Before the show began, we saw some bats in the sky hunting for dinner. I felt a bit bad for them, because once the fireworks were going, that has to interfere with their echolocation, doesn't it? Maybe the frequencies are far enough apart that it's no problem, but those loud concussive blasts must do something.

A still picture can't capture the sparkling effect, but imagine it.

Luckily I am not a bat and I was not hunting for insects. (By the way, if I were hunting for insects, there are food stands selling various cooked species of insects, so I could have gotten my fill without any need for echolocation.) For me, the fireworks were delightful and desoundful.

No, I didn't get to have a traditional Thanksgiving. But there is sure plenty I'm thankful for.

The Overly Detailed Explanatory Blog Post Title

Check out this picture below. Do you know what that is?

What am I?

It's a water monitor. A water monitor is a lizard, the second largest species of lizard. And they are common in parts of Southeast Asia. In particular, they are common in Lumphini Park right in the middle of Bangkok. That's where I saw the one above. But look at this one below. Do you know what that is?

And what am I?

I think it must be a land monitor, right? I mean, if it isn't in the water, it can't be a water monitor. What's more, following my reasoning to its logical or illogical extreme, I think if you moved this reptile into a school and placed it beside the lockers, it would be a hall monitor. This is sound reasoning, I'm sure.

On a recent day excursion into Bangkok, we walked through Lumphini Park. We saw a lot of water monitors, among other things. For example, we saw the King Rama VI Memorial.

It's like six King Ramas rolled into one

There have been many kings named Rama, the present king is Rama X. Basically this entire dynasty which began in the early 1800s have all taken the name Rama when they ascend to the throne. It is named for Rama, an avatar of Vishnu who ruled as a king in the mortal world. He was an ideal ruler according to Hindu mythology, so it is a name that indicates a good king.

From the park, we took a bus across town. But there was a bit of a story getting to the bus stop. As we were walking, speaking to one another in English, a young lady stopped us. She was European, maybe British. Her English seems like British English. But she was having a problem. She had two cell phones, but had put a SIM card in one of the phones which wasn't working. She needed to switch the SIM card over to the other phone. But what she needed was one of those really thin pins you use to open the SIM card slot on your phone. She stopped us to ask if we had anything like that, maybe a paper clip. (Since we spoke English, she was able to communicate with us.)

It so happens that I carry exactly that pin with me in my wallet. There is a little zipper pouch and I keep one of those pins from one of the SIM cards we once purchased. Why do I do that? Because Alrica and I have to change SIM cards often enough as we move from one country to another that I want to be sure we are able to do so.

Wow, the young lady was so grateful. Apparently she had been asking at shops and they didn't understand her. No one had been able to help her. She was just hoping we had a paper clip or something. An actual pin that was designed to open the SIM card slot, this was beyond her dreams.

So after that, we made it to the bus stop. That was a long waiting process. The traffic in Bangkok is pretty intense. Now, at the bus stop, there was a young woman waiting. And her shirt read "Dissentery". Why would you want your shirt to say that? Maybe she thinks it indicates that she dissents, she is a dissenter. And if English isn't your first language, that might be the only interpretation that you think of. But if English is your first language, this immediately puts "dysentary" into your mind. And I don't think anyone wants clothing that announces that they are plagued with that particular condition.

When our bus did arrive, we took it through the city and across the river. We got out near the Wat Suwan, which is a complex. But the wat was not our goal.

Across from the wat is a shopping center called Iconsiam. In this shopping center, there is a floating market. But there is also a fountain, one of those fountains with lights that does a choreographed show to recorded music. This fountain was much smaller than one in Kuala Lumpur. And the fountain in Kuala Lumpur was smaller than the one I blogged about in Dubai. But this one had the most epic name of them all!

Is this not the most iconic (and multimedia) name?

I love that the designers of Iconsiam chose this name for their fountain. The Iconic Multimedia Water Feature. So expository and conceited all at once. To declare their own fountain as iconic is some chutzpah. What justified that? Okay, I get it. The mall itself is called Iconsiam. So being iconic is on brand. But it comes across as a bit artificial, like the Smurfs using the word "smurf" at various points in a sentence to fill in other words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, it could be anything! I guess anything can be iconic too, if you just name it as such.

Does this qualify as iconic?

As I have more humility, I did not declare my own blog post as being "iconic", but I was inspired by the name of the fountain. Perhaps I should have called my post iconic, but I'm a bit of a dissenter. Maybe I'm suffering from dissentery.

Do You Wanna Steal a Slogan?

We are nearing the end of our time in Phnom Penh. But we've had a few extra adventures. One night we walked along the Chaktomuk Walk Street. That's a bit of a misnomer as the street is full of cars. But it is next to a wide walkway along the river. Which river? Let me tell you.

There is a walking part, look to the left.

Long before the city of Phnom Penh was a city with the name Phnom Penh, this region was called Chaktomuk. It means "the place where four rivers come together." Now, this isn't four rivers merging into one river, or even three rivers in and one river out. It is actually two rivers in and two rivers out. Chaktomuk is where the Mekong River (or Upper Mekong River) meets the Tonle Sap River. But then, just downstream of the confluence, the river splits into two separate outlets: The Lower Mekong River and the Bassac River. You know how sometimes rivers split and then come back together so you get islands in the river. Well, here the river splits and it never comes back together. Both the Lower Mekong River and the Bassac River flow separately through Cambodia and a chunk of Vietnam and reach the East Vietnam Sea at two different places.

Boats named for a Monkey God

We were walking along the Tonle Sap, just upstream of the confluence. We bought a bowl of noodles and soup that was being carried on a yoke over a woman's back. We saw party boats along the river. It was a very lively and full atmosphere. (It was also a public holiday.)

Maybe this is a large creature riding a small elephant. Or maybe he is just one virile guy.

The next day we visited a big wat called Wat Phnom Daun Penh. There was a temple with lots of representations of Buddha, people praying, and offerings, including a two dollar bill.

The rare two dollar bill. So rare it is worth two dollars.

We also stopped at an ice cream shop called Mixue. It is a chain that we have seen in several Southeast Asian countries, but this is first time we stopped in one. I was fascinated by their posters and slogans. Mixue has, as its illustrated sales creature, a snowman who wears a crown. They call him Snowking. Here is the general slogan written in English.

Hey, Snowking, are we a happy family?

Anyone remember Barney? You know the man-sized purple dinosaur that was on children's television? I think they stole this slogan! But if you are thinking, "hey, it's just a coincidence," then check out the following.

It does end in Snowking, not snowman, so totally different.

If any of my Lehman Engel BMI friends see this, tell Kristen. But remind her that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I admit that I did enjoy one of their advertising posters.

When squeezing isn't enough

Putting that lemon in its place. Maybe this can spawn a new Olympic sport: Citrus Boxing.

Probably not. It would upset the SPCSF, the Society for Protection from Cruelty to Sour Fruits. And you don't want to get that organization on your bad side!

Bonus signage

Singulars and Plurals and Atrocities

Let me pose this question to you: What is the singular of boba?

The Independence Monument in Phnom Penh (which has nothing to do with boba)

I assume many people know what I mean by boba, especially those in the western half of the United States. Boba are tapioca pearls found in drinks, often called boba tea. I learned that boba were created in Taiwan, and the name is based on the Chinese word for breast. If you are from the eastern half of the United States, you probably call this drink bubble tea. I'm not sure where the dividing line is.

In Southeast Asia, it is called boba, and there are plenty of varieties of it. You don't even have to get tea, which is good for me, since I am not a fan of tea. There are many other flavored drinks with boba in them. Half of the fun for me is capturing and sucking out each individual tapioca pearl with my straw. But what do I call just one tapioca pearl?

We asked our kids and my son says the singular of boba is boba. The internet agrees with him. But I prefer to use bobus. So when I get one successfully out through my straw I say "bobus!"

A small wat

Right now, Alrica and I are in Phnom Penh and it leads me to a second question of similar form. What is the plural of Prius. I'm going with Pria. You would not believe how popular Pria are here. First, Toyota and Lexus hold a gigantic share of the car market here, if what I see on the streets is any indication. Hybrids are very popular, and the Toyota Prius is everywhere.

Three Pria side by side parked at a mall.

We arrived in Phnom Penh on a Sunday night. They have a brand new airport, less than two months old. It is very new looking, super clean. But it is also a long way out of the city. We took the local bus to get here, which cost us 1500 Cambodian riels (about 38 cents) per person. For the most part it was great, but we waited a long time for the bus. When it did finally arrive, Alrica had an experience with another passenger that would be one of those stereotypical American experiences, except I don't think he was American (based on his English, but he could be an American who learned English as a second language.) This man only had US dollars and didn't have any Cambodian riels. The bus driver had no way to take US dollars. And the man said to Alrica, "Why won't he take dollars?" Alrica replied, "Because we're in Cambodia."

But before we lambast this poor traveler, I want to explain he isn't entirely unreasonable. The US dollar is sort of a semi-official and semi-unofficial currency in Cambodia. And the history of it is somewhat unique in that it wasn't a governmental decision. Here's what happened:

Later in this post, I will talk some about the Khmer Rouge, which was a political group in power in Cambodia from 1974 to 1979. One of their many misguided ideas was to eliminate money from the society. They discontinued making riels and destroyed the banking industry. Riels returned in 1980, but the confidence that Cambodians had in their banks was gone.

There are a lot of chained off sidewalks (because people use sidewalks like parking lots) but either is problematic for pedestrians

In the first half of the 1990s, the Khmer riel (which is what Cambodians call their currency) underwent rapid hyperinflation. People would see a day to day change in their purchasing power. They had the same number of riels, but they could buy so much less than the previous day. The volatility of the currency was wild and both merchants and consumers were suffering. Then, in 1994, merchants stopped accepting riels. This wasn't a governmental policy. It was the people themselves who couldn't rely on the currency to still be good tomorrow. So businesses started accepting only US dollars for purchases. Soon, everyone was using dollars. Cambodian banks were stocking US currency in the ATM machines.

Why US Dollars? A few reasons. It was a very stable currency. The UN was sending humanitarian aid, often in the form of US dollars. And many Cambodians abroad were sending money (generally US dollars) home to their families.

Eventually, the government got riels back in circulation with an unofficial exchange rate of 4100 riels to one US dollar. But that is unofficial and it does fluctuate. Right now it is about 4000 riels for one dollar. In the villages, only riels are used. But in the cities, lots of businesses like hotels and restaurants will take dollars. In fact, plenty of them give their prices on the menus in dollars. They will also take riels. And if you get change, it will almost always be in riels. They government is trying to phase out US dollars, which is not going well. But they did phase out $1, $2, and $5 bills. So businesses can't make change that is less than $10 in dollars. It has to be in riels. So Cambodia today really runs with two currencies. Dare I say they have currency concurrency?

Back to the man on the bus. Unfortunately for him, public buses (which cost way less than $10) are one of those businesses that does not take US dollars, only Khmer riels. In the end, some of the Cambodians on the bus put up the money for the man to ride. (And the bus driver was also going to let him ride without paying.) That's how kind the Cambodians are.

On Monday, we took a cooking class. We made Green Mango Salad, Yellow Curry Chicken, and Banana Palm dessert. It started with a trip to a market where we bought our meat and vegetables and fruits and dry goods. Then we returned to the hotel/restaurant where we got to peel, slice, mix, and cook. We enjoyed the fruit of our own labors (and the vegetable of our own labors) for lunch.

Alrica in her cooking hat with her green mango salad

Here is another bus story. On the way back from the cooking class, we took another local bus. This one was very crowded and we had to stand. No big deal. But there was a Buddhist monk on the bus. You always know Buddhist monks because they are bald and wear orange robes. The monk had a seat. (Even if he hadn't had a seat, someone would have given him one, he's a monk.) The monk, who only spoke Khmer, talked to another man who was also standing that spoke both Khmer and English. And the bilingual man explained to Alrica that she had to move further back in the bus. Apparently, it is not acceptable for a woman to have her head higher than the monk's head. Or at least not in the direction that the monk is facing, not where he can see. So either Alrica had to sit on the floor (and there wasn't room for that) or she had to move back so she was behind the monk and out of his range of vision. Naturally, Alrica moved. We try to be considerate of other cultures and their beliefs. But the American in me was also thinking, "but this is what happens on buses! Why take a bus if you can't handle something that naturally occurs on a bus?"

My yellow curry, rice, and banana palm dessert

Tuesday we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It was super informative, but not fun. Still, it is important that this event is never forgotten. Here is a brief overview.

During the Vietnam War, the United States bombed the bejeebies (technical military term) out of Cambodia to try to disrupt the North Vietnamese Army's supply lines. This devastated the countryside and agricultural sector of Cambodia and sent many people into the cities. But there wasn't enough work for all these people and it was a crisis. Faith in the current government was lost. In 1975, the Cambodian Communist Party, which called itself the Khmer Rouge, gained tons of support with a promise of change. They took power. But their vision was horrifying.

The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, wanted to return Cambodia to its agrarian roots. The Khmer Rouge military marched into the cities on April 17, 1976 and immediately began clearing them out. They told the people that more US bombings were expected and they were going to be moved for their own safety until the bombings were over. This was a lie. In truth, they moved people out into the countryside. Everyone was moved. Phnom Penh had been a city of 3 million people and soon it was a ghost town. Cambodians were all made to be farmers (or a few other professions like blacksmiths that could support farming.) People who had no idea how to grow rice were told to grow rice. The government demanded 3 tons of rice per hectare per year, regardless of the quality of the land where these people were working. Of course, it wasn't possible. People were weak and starving.

But that's not the genocide. It gets worse. The Khmer Rouge considered some people the "old people." That has nothing to do with age. It is the people who were engaged in farming and the old Cambodian professions. Others were "new people", including the educated, those working in banking, medicine, or education. These new people were shipped off to "security centers" which we kept secret. They were considered enemies of the revolution, enemies of the Khmer Rouge. They were tortured in horrible ways to get confessions and to name co-conspirators. Then they were murdered.

The Tuol Sleng Genocide museum was one of these security centers, called S21. The government took over a high school (no longer a high school since they eliminated education.) They turned it into a prison camp. Here people were held in leg irons, treated like animals, barely fed, and tortured up to three times a day. It wasn't just the "new people" either. Anyone who fell out of favor with the Khmer Rouge was sent to a security center.

Once you finally confessed to the satisfaction of the interrogators, you were sent to die. They didn't want to waste bullets, so most people were killed by bludgeoning and then had their throats slit, just to make sure. Children were separated from parents and killed.

Tuol Sleng Building C. The barbed wire is because someone managed to jump and kill himself. They didn't want that. You weren't allowed to die until they killed you.

S21 ran from 1976 until liberation in 1979. The Vietnamese army marched into Cambodia and flushed the Khmer Rouge out of much of the country. The Khmer Rouge fled to places near the Thailand border and the people were freed. And even after this, the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China continued to accept the Khmer Rouge as the official government of Cambodia for another couple decades. But back to 1979, when the staff at S21 learned the Vietnamese Army was approaching, they destroyed as many records as they could. They had some prisoners there and killed 14 of them on the spot. They took a few more with them as they relocated. It is estimated that over 18,000 people were imprisoned at S21 while it was in operation. Only 12 survived. And the destruction of records meant most of the prisoners are, to this day, unidentified. Their families don't know what happened to them, or even if they were at S21 or one of the other security centers in the country.

It is a horrible piece of history, but I am glad I learned more about it. It is these atrocities that we must never forget.

Sadly, it is not the only one. We speak of atrocities and genocides in the plural. But one day, maybe we can speak of their count being zero. That should be our ultimate goal.

Wat a Day!

Today was Wat Day Wednesday for me. Alrica is attending convention sessions for Adobe. These are at very convenient daytime hours if you live in Pacific Time. They are perhaps not as convenient middle of the night times if you are in Thailand. So after being up much of the night, Alrica then had a morning session (morning to us, evening in the West Coast of the USA.) While she learned about amazing things she can do with Adobe  products, I went for a bit of an exploration.

That is a roof! Or is it multiple roofs? And why isn't that word rooves?

I visited three separate wats. Remember wat means a Buddhist temple. I put on pants (instead of shorts, because you are supposed to be sure your knees and shoulders are covered when you enter a wat and yes, the pants only helped with the knees, but I was also wearing a shirt so my shoulders were covered too so you can stop worrying) and headed out. Each of the wats was within walking distance of where we are staying in Nonthaburi.

People leave gifts for the spirits. Red is considered auspicious and brings fortune and is symbolic of what was once a blood sacrifice. So Fanta Strawberry is the offering of choice.

Wats are beautiful in many ways. First, the roof is almost always a spectacle. Lots of layers and graceful curves. Then there is statuary. There are many Buddha statues, of course, in all kinds of poses. But there are plenty of othr statues as well. I don't know what some of the creatures are. Some look sort of like orcs in Western fantasy stories. Others are dragons or maybe something like angels. And usually there are so many details and bright, bright colors. Quite splendid.

One of the orc-like creatures. Maybe a demon, but I feel like it is meant to be a good guy.

I was able to enter two of the three temples. You take off your shoes and your hats when you enter a Buddhist temple. Inside one of them, the walls were covered in murals that told elements of the Buddha story. I don't know the Buddha story very well. But one of the murals captured my curiosity.

A regular railing? Why? We could have a dragon!

On the front wall of this temple was a mural of the Buddha (though I would later learn he isn't quite the Buddha yet. He is still Siddharta Gautama in this mural.) He is under a tree on what seemed to be the shore of a lake. In the lake were several swimmers, most of whom looked human, but a couple of them were blue, so not so human. And there was one more larger blue person on an elephant walking through the lake. On the shore, near Siddharta, is a bare breasted woman and she is holding her long hair. Out of her hair spouts the water that is pouring into the lake.

The mural is on the wall behind the statues. Sorry Buddha is blocked.

The problem with my picture of this mural is that there is a hanging lamp. So from any angle I could get a picture, that lamp is blocking Siddhartha. But you can see the swimmers, the blue man on the elephant, and the woman with watery hair.

The temple with the mural inside

So I looked it up to find out who this woman was and here is what I learned. Siddharta is meditating under the Bodhi tree. At this point there is no lake there. Siddharta is super close to reaching enlightenment. And a demon named Mara doesn't want that to happen. (I think it is Mara on the elephant.) So Mara comes with his army which includes demons but also temptors and temptresses. He is going to tempt Siddharta with earthly pleasures and thereby keep him from reaching enlightenment.

Such vibrant colors

But Siddharta is too far along in his path toward enlightenment to fall for this. He stretches his right hand down to touch the earth. In Buddhism, that gesture is referred to as the "calling the earth to witness" mudra. When he touches the ground, the goddess of the earth, Phra Mae Thorani appears a beautiful woman. She is there to testify about the Buddha's merit and how much of it he has accumulated after living many lifetimes. As proof of this, she wrings her hair and out of it pours lots and lots of water. This is all the water that had been stored from ceremonial libations that Buddha had performed over his several lifetimes.

This is a different temple, similarities, yes, but different temple

If you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies where Arwen calls forth the river which washes away the Nazgûl, imagine that. (I know in the book Arwen isn't even there, but I'm going for the visual.) This is what happened when Phra Mae Thorani wrung her hair. The water rushes out and washes away Mara and his army. And Siddharta is free to continue his path toward enlightenment.

I like to imagine Phra Mae Thorani singing her own version of "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of my Hair" from South Pacific. But her lyrics would probably be more like "I'm gonna wash this horde away with my hair and send it all away." Except, she'd probably be singing in Pali, the language of Buddha. And I don't know if the syllables would work out in Pali.

I hope Alrica learned a ton from her conference. But I got all these lovely pictures and even lovelier memories. And I didn't need a single Adobe product for that.