Throwback Thursday: Malacca at Night
In continuing some of my recent posts, I’m still going through old photos from my Southeast Asia adventure in the summer of 2012. During my quick solo trip to Malacca (aka Melaka) City, in Malaysia I had a great time walking around photographing to my heart’s content. It was great eating at a delicious Indian restaurant (where I’m sure I looked quite foolish, not knowing for sure how to properly eat what I ordered) and taking in the sight of the canal from the back patio of the hotel where I stayed. Here are a few of my favorite shots from that time.
Right before the sun started to set, as I was searching for a good dinner spot in Little India.
Outside where I ate dinner. The trees were filled with birds, making it one of the noisiest parks I’ve been to.
My dinner in Little India
A pretty great way to spend the evening on my hotel’s back patio!
Throwback Tuesday (Is that a thing?): Walking Around Malacca City
As mentioned in my previous post, some photos from my Southeast Asia adventure in July 2012 got lost in the shuffle of life and I’m finally getting back to editing them. Here are some photos from my quick trip to Malacca City (aka Melaka) in the Malaysian state of Malacca, northwest of Singapore. I concentrated my exploration in the touristy areas of Little India and Chinatown. I feel like this post contains a bit of sensory overload, but then I remember that’s kind of what my first day was like there. I don’t have my travel journal or travel book with me right now, so I apologize for not having more details about what these sights are, but I do hope you enjoy these photo highlights!
My delicious lunch- their well-known chicken rice ball dish
I loved the picturesque canal
The town center where I had a few people ask to have their picture taken with me…
Decorated Trishaws are quite a sight to behold!
And here’s some proof that I was present in all of this… including a selfie with Mr. Universe and a random fake giraffe feeding from a museum I visited. 🙂
Flashback Friday: St. Peter’s Church in Malacca, Malaysia
Hi there! Welcome to my very random Friday blog post. I’m currently on spring break from teaching and I’ve had a chance to revisit some photos that I never got around to editing a while back. I just can’t bear the thought of having gone on such a fun adventure and not sharing the photos, so thanks for indulging me by checking out this throwback post…
Here’s some background: In June and July 2012, I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Southeast Asia as a recipient of a Lily Endowment Teacher Creativity Grant. You can learn more about the photography club I started and the great things I saw happening in Cambodia on the blog with much gratitude for the experiences the grant allowed me to have. One bonus of my trip was the time to travel to Singapore, visiting my cousin and her family. While there, I took a quick side trip to Malaysia, visiting the city of Malacca (also known as Melaka). When I returned from my southeast Asia adventure, my life got a little crazy, as did my photography business. I continued to teach, travel, and photograph, and found that time got away from me and I didn’t get to edit and share photos from my many adventures. So I’ve decided to revisit those photos and share some over the next few months. I hope you enjoy these somewhat outdated photos!
When I got off the bus in Malacca, I started to explore and was immediately drawn to this church, St. Peter’s. I think that after spending a couple weeks in Cambodia where Christian churches are uncommon, I found this church to be a novelty and enjoyed checking it out. While the date is somewhat in question, most believe that St. Peter’s was erected in 1710. I loved capturing the light pouring into the sanctuary and appreciated the more modern installation in front of the church remembering Jesus walking on water. I hope you enjoy these photos. More Malaysia photos will be coming soon!
Photography Club
As you may remember, I received a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Grant last year to study photography and go to Cambodia to capture a story through photos. I had a wonderful experience in Cambodia, capturing pieces of its history and projects of hope for its future (scroll through these posts to see more)! As a result of my experience there, where I had my own chance to view the world from a different perspective, I wanted to start a photography club at the school where I teach. With the help of a fellow teacher and friend, Mrs. Tsu, we worked with a group of ten fifth and sixth grade ESL students to help them view the world differently through photography.
We were really thankful to all the people who contributed cameras, batteries, and memory cards to help supply our crew. We had a great time getting to know these kids from the U.S., Burma, Mexico, and Iran. We challenged them to look around their school and home for things that represented beautiful, ugly, shapes, shadows, reflections, candids, and portraits. It was really fun that I was able to use some of my photos and stories from my experience in Cambodia to guide their photography. At the end-of-the-school-year program, Mrs. Tsu put together a great slideshow of pictures the students took, as well as some of them in action as photographers. The students also chose their favorite photo to have framed and displayed at the program. Below are some highlights from our club and display.
It was really fun to share some of my photos from my trip to Cambodia with the students to help guide their photo-taking.
It was great to share some of my Cambodia photos with the students!
Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.
Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.
Some of our photography club students enjoying the slideshow of their photos.
They had a great time showing their photos to family and friends after the program!
Daughters Project- Center for Global Impact, Cambodia
As mentioned in previous posts about my time in Cambodia last year, I had the chance to see some really great projects in action. One such project is Daughters, a project for young women located just outside of Phnom Penh and run by the Center for Global Impact. They are doing some great things in providing training and opportunity for work and personal growth for women who may not otherwise have the opportunity. Here is what the CGI website has to say about the project:
CGIDaughters is a division of Center For Global Impact, a U.S. faith-based relief and development organization. It is a two-year residential program. We offer life-skills training, education, health care, money management and professional seamstress training all through the lens of Jesus Christ. Our product line is handmade with fair-trade principles.
I had a great time visiting the project on a few different days. My friends are involved in it on many levels, so I was able to experience the project in a variety of ways. From running errands for fabric and picking up labels for purses to playing a role in English classes and seeing my friend, Katy, lead them in Bible study. I also saw them meet their goal of making 100 clutch purses to receive a reward of Dairy Queen ice cream. It was great motivation for them! CGI is doing some great things to help women succeed in Cambodia!
The daughters’ workshop
The women at work
One of the many purses made during my time there.
Katy leading English class
They reached their goal!
Katy and I with some of the Daughters after English class.
I also had the chance to visit the home where the Daughters live on another side of the city.
byTavi: Center for Global Impact, Cambodia
When I was in Cambodia this past summer, I was able to visit the workshop of byTavi outside Phnom Penh. It was really fun for me to be there and to meet Tavi, since I had attended a trunk show of byTavi products and have since worn an ID card holder made by one of these women everyday at work. Rather than putting it in my own words, I’ll share the Center for Global Impact‘s description of this successful project:
A faith-based micro-enterprise initiative of Center for Global Impact (CGI), byTavi teaches at-risk, impoverished women how to sew handbags and other accessories. Employed by CGI, the women receive fair wages while their products are marketed internationally.
Through this program these women have grown in confidence and joy as they provide for their families in a healthy way. In addition to learning marketable skills, these women are also surrounded by the love of Christ through CGI’s trusted Cambodian Management Team and other international partners.
Founded in 2009 by CGI’s president Chris Alexander and a meek woman by the name of Tavi, this program provides a unique opportunity to empower the poor and prevent human trafficking.
Please click over to the above links to learn more about what Center for Global Impact is doing in Cambodia to help women succeed. Here are some photos from the byTavi workshop. Enjoy!
Here are the elephant purses in the works.
This is Tavi (for whom the project is named) working in the workshop.
Bags ready to go to the U.S.
A bonus of being onsite was that I got to give a custom order! This is my rice bag in the making by Nary.
The Battambang Bamboo Train- Cambodia, June 2012
While I was visiting Battambang and the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery, I had the chance to go on the infamous “bamboo train” outside the city. Alan and many of the Green Mango girls went along with me (Katy decided to sit that one out with her baby in utero in mind). The bamboo train uses old railroad tracks that were used for trains during the time of the Khmer Rouge on tracks left by the French. According to my Lonely Planet book, the rail line may be upgraded in the future and the bamboo train may lose it’s usefulness. However, for the time being, many 3 meter long wooden frames covered with bamboo and resting on two barbell-like bogies make the trip up and down the rickety tracks daily. One bogie is connected by fan belts to a gasoline engine. You can fit about 10 people on the bamboo frame and take a 15 km/h ride down the tracks (though I’m sure they’ve managed to fit many more). The best part is that it’s so easy to take apart, so when you run into a group coming the other way, one group can just get up and take the car off the tracks to allow the others to pass. You can thank Lonely Planet for that detailed explanation of the train. 🙂 It felt like a very rustic amusement park ride to me.
We had quite an adventure on our ride down and back up the tracks. I enjoyed the gorgeous Cambodian countryside until we saw a group stopping up ahead. We slowed down to find a few “cars” disembarking on a bridge. It turns out it was a wedding party that stopped on the bridge for a photo shoot among the rice fields. It seemed they were a bit surprised to see a group of Cambodian girls in green shirts and two Americans on a car come barreling through, but they were quick to step out of our way to allow us to continue our journey. We broke up our trip with a stop at a roadside rest stop where we could buy treats and scarves and check out a brick-making kiln. We then headed back to where we came from, with a stop on a bridge to get some photos of the breath-taking view of the green rice-field expanse. I haven’t figured out how to post the video I took of the ride, but I hope you enjoy the photos!
Click here to see the rest of my Cambodia posts in succession.
Taking apart the cars so we could pass.
Surprising the bride and groom. Somewhere in a Cambodian wedding album is a photo of our bamboo train full of Green Mango girls and two Americans waving as we passed the happy couple!
A brick kiln
Scarves for sale at the rest stop along the tracks.
Our car along the side of the tracks.
A man demonstrating how it worked.
Close-up for my engineer friends.
Children playing by the “rest stop.”
Images just don’t capture how beautiful this place is.
The girls who work at the Green Mango had a fun time accompanying us on the trip.
Green Mango girls
God did a good job here. 🙂
Had to prove that I was there!
Katy, Alan, and Jonah: Visiting from Cambodia
You may remember these friends as the great people who helped show me around the beautiful country of Cambodia this past summer, from Angkor Wat to Battambang to Phnom Penh and Kep (photos of that are still to come). Well, their family has since grown from this back in June:
to this:
They came home to the U.S. for Christmas and I had a great time catching up with them on a chilly Indianapolis day. The weather didn’t cooperate much for an outdoor photoshoot, but we had fun nonetheless. 🙂
Here are a few more fun shots from our time at the beginning of this month. Enjoy!
This was what he was like when I first met him. We didn’t let it last long. 🙂
Mass Ave Toys was a great place to warm up and check out some fun toys. This little guy was very intent in checking out the world, with his fingers getting pretty close to pointing to the place where he was born… it’s like he knew. 🙂
Such a contemplative look.
The Market in Battambang, Cambodia- June 2012
The day after I went up the mountain to the Killing Caves outside Battambang, I was able to visit the Battambang market with a kind woman from the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery on her daily market run. She has a very efficient system to her market run, which includes visiting regular vendors who she knows and having the Tuk Tuk driver appropriately parked and ready to come assist in retrieving the good when they’re ready. She has friends with whom she leaves some of her buys to pick up on the way out, so she doesn’t have to carry everything around with her. I appreciated her willingness to slow down a bit so I could capture some of the many sights of the market with my camera. Please note that if you don’t enjoy the sight of raw meat, you may not want to proceed to some of the final photos… don’t say I didn’t warn you! 🙂
First, a photo of the lovely, kind woman who took me to the mountain and allowed me to tag along with her at the market the next day:
my wonderful market guide
This is where the Tuk Tuk driver dropped us off.
I have no idea how she sat there by the grill with long sleeves on in the Cambodian heat.
Yes, I believe those are yellow chickens… and yes, I wish that the pajamas as normal day wear trend would reach the U.S.
I love tropical fruit.
Buddhists monks walk around in the mornings asking for donations for the temple.
I can’t remember what these are… i think it might be some kind of fish paste? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
They sell everything in those markets!
A meat section… not exactly the USA supermarket meat department!
Yes, I did take a photo of the pig heads and I posted it here… just want you to get the full experience like I did!
And finally we picked up a treat for the girls at the restaurant- fried bananas.
The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in Battambang, Cambodia
As promised, it’s time to share about the great things happening in Cambodia that I was able to see this past June and July when I visited. (Click here to see the previous posts from my trip, in succession.)
The Center for Global Impact has a fantastic thing going on in the city of Battambang in northern Cambodia. Their website describes it well, so I’ll quote them here: “The Culinary Training Center (CTC) is the largest project undertaken by CGI to date. Students are enrolled in a two-year training program that will prepare them to enter into the most distinguished kitchens in Cambodia. The CTC plays a significant role in establishing a successful strategy for developing future employment opportunities for orphans, at-risk, and formerly trafficked women .”
My friends, Katy and Alan, and I were able to spend a few days in Battambang seeing The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in action. It was so fun to hang out with the head chef and teacher, Ryana, and get to know the girls in the school a bit. During those days, we ate a lot and I had a fun adventure at the market and on a bamboo train that I’ll post about in the future. The food was SO delicious and the atmosphere was very comfortable. It was fun to see how much business they were getting after the few short months they had been open. Check out their website here.
I hope you enjoy a look at this great project that is providing work for some wonderful young women in Cambodia! Oh, and since you probably can’t stop by for a food sampling anytime soon, please check out the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery Cookbook available for purchase here. You won’t regret it!
The food there is seriously delicious. I’m still craving the pickles and sauce (bottom left photo). You really should go buy their cookbook (see link above). 🙂
They had a big group that day!
Chef and teacher, Ryana, does a great job keeping things running smoothly.
The girls are able to build relationships with each other and volunteers. Through the school, they also have life skills and English classes, culinary teaching, and devotional times with mentors.
They sell byTavi items there, another project of The Center for Global Impact.
Place-mats out to dry.
This makes you want to go buy the cookbook now, doesn’t it?
The tuktuk is a moving advertisement for them. It goes to the market at least once a day! Stay tuned for a blog post about the sights, sounds, and smells of a Cambodian market. 🙂
Cambodia: …the Bad and the Ugly
As promised, this is the last post about the negative things I saw in Cambodia, with many beautiful and hopeful posts coming soon about all the great things happening there. 🙂
As I’ve mentioned before (click here to see previous posts), I was a bit surprised to find that Cambodia wasn’t as much like Thailand as I’d expected it to be. There are a lot of similarities, but I didn’t expect Cambodia to be as underdeveloped as it appeared to me. After learning about the effects of the Khmer Rouge’s rule on the country in the 70’s, it made more sense to me. Cambodia has had a lot to overcome.
Below are some photos of some living conditions I was able to see in Phnom Penh. It is known that some young women from this neighborhood have been sold into prostitution to help earn money for their family. I was able to see some organizations that are working with people from this exact neighborhood, so that was encouraging. I’ll be posting about that organization soon. This web page explains Cambodia’s poverty situation in an understandable way (over 30% of Cambodians live below the poverty line). The rural areas are even more affected by poverty as their traditional agricultural methods that don’t produce for quick profit.
This is the home of one of the girls being helped by a program that provides training and work for young women at risk of being sold into prostitution.
Another sad part of Cambodia’s story is its high rate of human trafficking. Last fall, my friend led a book study on the book Not For Sale by David Batstone. This book is very eye-opening to the problem of present-day human slavery all over the world. The projects I visited, associated with the Center for Global Impact, and many others are working to fight against this problem. Specifically in Cambodia, there is a problem with children being sold into prostitution. Of Cambodia’s 15,000 prostitutes, 35% are under the age of 16 (click here for the source of this statistic and more information). Here are some of the sights I saw that opened my eyes to this heart-breaking problem.
A sign in my hotel in Siem Reap
Sign from another hotel where I stayed in Battambang
Nighttime in Siem Reap on Pub Street
Pub Street in Siem Reap
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the “motels” outside Phnom Penh
One of the karaoke bars near the airport that are known more for the prostitution available in the area than actual karaoke.
A karaoke bar near the airport where the women are lined up in chairs every night, basically a modern day brothel…
So, poverty and young women being sold into prostitution… sorry about the downer post. However, there’s good news! Organizations like Center for Global Impact, Hagar International, International Justice Mission, and many others are working to both help prevent and rescue women from this modern day slavery. Just last night I heard an amazing woman, Somaly Mam, speak here in Indianapolis about her own experience of being sold in Cambodia’s sex trade as a little girl and now she’s helping save and assist in the recovery of thousands of girls. Learn more about her organization by clicking here or read her book, The Road of Lost Innocence. Stay tuned for more photos of beautiful Cambodia and the great things going on there.
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Continuing the effort to get the sad posts over with, here is what I documented from the Killing Fields just outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Much like the previous post about the S21 prison in Phnom Penh, I must preface this by saying that some of the pictures and explanation below are graphic and tragic, so don’t feel pressured to continue looking. The quick version is that the Khmer Rouge used this place to exterminate about 17,000 people who first went through S-21 (Tuol Sleng prison) between 1975 and 1978.
The extermination camp of Choeung Ek is located about 15 km from central Phnom Penh. It used to be a Chinese graveyard before the Khmer Rouge took over that area to dispose of people who didn’t fit into their plan for Cambodia. Remains of thousands of people have been found in mass graves in this area. In 1988, the Memorial Stupa was built with more than 8,000 skulls as a memorial to the victims. I’ll allow the pictures to speak mostly for themselves. Click here for Wikipedia’s information about the killing fields. There was also a well-known movie called The Killing Fields made about the Khmer Rouge. Thanks for bearing with me with these tough posts. There are many hopeful projects and beautiful things about Cambodia to still share!
In an attempt to save bullets, they used things like trees to kill people.
Sites of some of the mass graves
There was an audio tour to listen to while walking around the area, including many survivors’ stories of the horrors that took place here.
The Memorial Stupa
The Memorial Stupa
There are more than 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age in the Memorial Stupa
In the museum, they had artifacts and information about many of the people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
These are the clothes that all prisoners and workers had to wear during the Khmer Rouge’s leadership of Cambodia.
The leader of the S-21 prison was recently convicted of his crimes.
Click here to see a video of his admittance of guilt in what happened at the prison.
Below are descriptions of sites on the land.
Discovery of a mass grave
Stay tuned for more information about the many ways the Khmer people are moving on from this horrible time
and all the great things that are happening now in Cambodia.
Cambodia: Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21 Prison)
Like ripping off a band-aid quickly, I’ve decided to post all of the sad stuff I saw in Cambodia in a row to get it out of the way. As I continue to share Cambodia through my lens (click here to see previous posts), I do think it’s important to learn from history and not just brush over atrocities such as this. I wanted to get a full look at what makes Cambodia the place it is and this is part of it. Just a couple more posts of the bad and then I’ll post all the great, hopeful, beautiful things I saw. So please stay-tuned! The best is yet to come. 🙂
When I arrived in Cambodia, I was expecting it to be pretty similar to Thailand (where I spent the summer of 2003). I was surprised to find that Cambodia seemed less developed than Thailand overall. After learning more about the effect of the Khmer Rouge’s rule in the 70’s, it made a lot more sense. When almost a quarter of a country’s population gets wiped out in four year period, it’s no wonder that it’s taking a while to get back on their feet.
When in Phnom Penh, my friends were gracious enough to accompany me on a very tough day visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields outside the city. This post documents what I saw at the S-21 Prison, now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Please know that some of the descriptions and photos below could be considered graphic and are very sad.
I am no expert on the Khmer Rouge and I realize that I cannot explain everything about it in this little blog post, so please feel free to do some research on your own if you’d like more information. I read the book First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and was given a heart-wrenching look into one girl’s experience living through the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-1979. Netflix also has a documentary on this specific prison. Click here for Wikipedia’s information about the Khmer Rouge. Basically, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took over Cambodia to restructure it into a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. They had to get rid of much of the population to accomplish this goal. Much of my information about this comes from what I learned from the Lonely Planet Cambodia guidebook, by the way.
Tuol Sleng was Tuol Svay Prey High School until the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned it into a prison in 1975. From then until 1978, over 17,000 prisoners were taken through the school’s corridors before being taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (which I will post about soon) where the majority of those prisoners were killed. Much like the Nazis, the leaders of the Khmer Rouge kept very detailed records of each prisoner who went through S21. The museum was full or photos of men, women, and children who were brought there. Virtually all of them were killed soon after.
I found Tuol Sleng to be a very disturbing and sad experience. It quickly brought to mind other stories of genocide that have occurred across the world and throughout history. The evil human beings are capable is almost inconceivable, yet there are evidences of it everywhere. It’s hard for me to know what more to say about that except that seeing things like this reminds me once again how much we need God and how thankful I am for His work in the world through Christ. As I said before, the positive stories are coming soon, so please stick around!
Until then, I’ll let these photos speak for themselves.
Hard to believe an educational institution could turn into a place of such sadness.
No laughing- though I can’t imagine anyone being tempted to do that in this place.
Looking through a cell door
It felt strange to look at the beautiful green and flowery trees and to think about how the prisoners must have felt about this place.
By far, the most heart-wrenching part of this visit was seeing all the photos of prisoners, men, women, children, and babies who came through those gates. Seeing the look in their eyes as they anticipated what to come led me to tears. I can’t imagine the horror they went through.
This shows how every prisoner was forced to be photographed with a contraption holding their head up behind them.
The Khmer Rouge tried to wipe out the educated class, so people had to try to hide the fact that they were educated to escape being killed. This man was a doctor of law.
Remains and a memorial for those killed
Many of these leaders have not yet been prosecuted for the atrocities that occurred so many years ago…
Cambodia: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve posted about the trip… I continue to struggle with figuring out how to balance teaching full-time, editing photos, sleeping, sharing about my experience in Cambodia, etc. I might figure this out sometime in the near future. 🙂
As you can imagine, sharing about a culture and travel experience through photos is a challenge. It’s difficult to present a cohesive narrative, so I appreciate your willingness to follow along with the randomness of some of my posts. Click here to see previous posts from my trip.
When I was given the opportunity to go to Cambodia, I told my friends who live there that I wanted to experience as much as I could of life there: including the good, the bad, and the ugly (knowing that all countries and cultures have good and bad to discover). The day I’m presenting to you on this post included all of those things. While in Battambang, I was given the opportunity to visit the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau. A lovely Khmer woman from CGI came with me in the TukTuk and helped me find my way there. I experienced a lot of the good of Khmer culture and country and some of the bad and ugly too… a typical Camobian pop bottle gas station, a moto ride, nice and helpful people, seeing beautiful artistry and a beautiful view of the countryside, and a very sad visit to a cave where thousands of killings took place in the 70’s.
Once arriving at the bottom of the mountain (or some may call it a really big hill… it’s about 12 km from Battambang), the next leg of the journey involved riding a moto up to the temple (with apologies to my father who is not a fan of such unsafe transportation!). We had to stop for gas from the roadside “gas station” (aka old pop bottles filled with gasoline of varying types for easy moto fill-up).
A Khmer “gas station”
Filling up for our ride up the mountain.
Once there, I was able to see a freshly painted Buddhist temple still under construction.
This type of scaffolding was common throughout the country.
Then my guide led me to the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau. This is a cavern area where the Khmer Rouge performed about 10,000 killings of Khmer people by throwing them off a ledge and into the cave below (please be aware that some of the photos below are very sad and disturbing). The cave is now the home of a reclining Buddha and a memorial to the people killed there in the late 70’s.
A painting depicting the killings performed by the Khmer Rouge in that location
At the top of the staircase looking down toward the cave.
Before going down the stairs
Part of the memorial
The original memorial.
The new memorial stuppa
Sadly this is just a small representation of those who were killed in that place.
The official memorial
Looking up at the skylight through which people were thrown.
It was tough to process all of my thoughts and emotions as I left such a solemn place where such horrific things happened and then go up to the summit of the hill and see this beautiful view:
The valley below
There are some really great legends about these hills involving chickens, women, crocodiles, and other fun stories. I wish I could remember the details as they were pretty entertaining stories.
I’m not really sure how to close this post. There really are no words to describe the sadness of seeing an example of what’s left behind from man’s inhumanity to man (something found throughout the world, not just in Cambodia). Knowing there will be more posts about the bad and ugly that I saw in Cambodia, I can share that, overall, I experienced such good in Cambodia that I left feeling hopeful. Stay tuned for the hopeful and thanks for bearing with me through the bad and the ugly.
Angkor Wat in Black and White
I had so many pictures to share from Angkor Wat, I decided to do a separate post with the black & white shots. Click here (or just look at the previous post!) to see the color photos.
The main entrance
I think this was the west portico just inside the main entrance.
Stone window with lathe-turned balusters
Part of the 800 meters of bas-relief carvings detailing battles and epic events, completed from the 12th to 16th centuries
Outside wall of the central temple.
Detail of the central tower
On the moat surrounding Angkor Wat
Stay tuned for more photos and reflections from Cambodia in the coming weeks!
Cambodia: Angkor Wat
I am so excited to finally be able to start posting photos from my adventures in Southeast Asia in June and July of this year. I should probably start by explaining how I got to go on the trip, why I chose Cambodia, and why I’ll be doing so many blog posts about it.
Angkor Wat: Central Temple Hallway
This past February (on my birthday, no less), I found out I received a Teacher Creativity Fellowship from the Lilly Endowment to pursue my proposed project. After hearing about Cambodia from my friends who are living and working there and doing a book study about the problem of human trafficking with the book Not for Sale by David Batstone, I had a great desire to learn more about the country. I also wanted to see what the organization my friends are working with, Center for Global Impact, was doing to help with the problems prevalent in the country. So, I proposed to study photography and go to Cambodia over the summer to capture Light in the Darkness: Beauty and Trauma in Cambodia. Through these blog posts of photos that I took in Cambodia, I hope to share a piece of my experience and some information that will show both the beauty and trauma that I saw in Cambodia. It is my hope that these posts will show both the needs that are present, as well as the hopeful and productive things occurring in the beautiful country of Cambodia.
I’ll begin with my first day there, which was spent outside of Siem Reap visiting the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. My friends Katy and Alan were gracious enough to endure a very hot day exploring this area and brought their friend, Ryana, along for the fun too. There was so much to see and I know we only touched the surface. This post is dedicated to the mother of all the temples, Angkor Wat. The grandeur and scale of these constructions are difficult to show on a screen like this, considering the manpower, hours, and labor that must have gone into this back in the 12th century. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument. It was built between 1113 and 1150, with many additions built later. It was built to represent a microcosm of the Hindu universe with the five peaks symbolizing Mount Meru, though over the years more Buddhist symbolism was added to the sites which you will also see in some photos. Click here to see an aerial photo of the area… it really helps you to see the magnitude of it!
The view from outside the moat and the sandstone causeway
The Main Entrance
Looking to the left in the main entrance gate
Angkor Wat Temple in the distance after crossing the moat with the libraries to the left and right along the path
I think this is the Library, but don’t quote me on that. 🙂
The central temple view from the pool
A little monkey outside the central temple entrance
An example of one of the intricate carvings all over the temple
The roofed section covering help to cover the 800 meter long series of bas-relief carvings that go the whole way around the temple.
One of numerous aspara (heavenly nymphs) carvings found all over the temple
Working our way up to the towers…
Laterite blocks were used for much of the structure, but were hidden and covered with stucco before being painted.
This is a lathe-turned baluster (so says the Ancient Angkor book that I bought!).
Originally built as a Hindu temple, it now holds many Buddhist shrines scattered throughout the temple.
At one of the Buddhist shrines
Central tower of the central temple- Rising 55 meters above the ground
Looking out to the main entrance facing west (note the big yellow balloon in the distance)
Weathering over time and vandalism from the time of the Khmer Rouge have left many artifacts damaged.
The way back down. The original flight was steep to symbolize the difficult task of reaching the kingdom of the gods.
Looking out at the retaining wall and a view of the sightseeing yellow balloon in the distance.
More lathe-turned balusters in the stone windows
A monkey under the dragon as we left the temple
Booths set up outside the modern day wat with food and souvenirs and very eager sellers. 🙂
Another view of the food and souvenir sellers with the modern day wat (temple) in the background
Between the central temple and the outer wall
Part of the 190 meter-wide moat that goes around the complex, measuring 1.5 km by 1.3 km. Note the little girl’s outfit: a pajama set (a trend I would love to see catch on in the U.S.) 🙂
With my wonderful friends, Alan and Katy, who endured a very hot morning in Cambodian heat so I could explore the Angkor temples.
A picturesque spot to rest. 🙂
I still can’t believe I was there!
I hope to be more consistent in my photos posts from this trip in the coming months. Look here for some of my previous posts with observations from my time in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Thanks for checking in! Feel free to leave some comments, observations, questions below!
Singapore: An Island, City, and Country All in One
I’m still working on editing the pictures from my fancy camera and preparing more detailed blog posts about my time in Cambodia, but I did want to give Singapore it’s time in the spotlight like I did for the others. Here are some of my thoughts and observations from my brief time there a couple weeks ago. I realize that one week in a place doesn’t make you an expert. Since I spent most of my time with my cousin and her family, I didn’t really get to know the native Singaporean culture. Nonetheless, here are some thoughts and highlights from my time there:
- I had to work a little harder to come up with fun stories or interesting observations from my time in Singapore because, well, I felt pretty comfortable there since it’s pretty western. It’s a very modern city/country/island and reminded me a lot of London or Sydney since there’s so much British influence.
- I definitely experienced a bit of culture shock when I flew from Phnom Penh to Singapore and saw this recycling display in the airport. There is recycling in Cambodia, but their methods of collection are pretty different.
- Another form of culture shock came when I saw the prices of things. We paid $2 for an unlimited amount of time for the fish massage in Cambodia.
It was really fun to hang out with my cousin (ok, technically she’s my second cousin, but we grew up in the same town, so she feels like a first cousin) and her family on the other side of the world. It was great to reminisce about growing up in New Wilmington, PA and the quirks and fun of having lived in such a small town.- Singapore is two hours behind Sydney, so we were able to Skype with my sister’s family while I was there… a mini family reunion via Skype. I loved it. 🙂
- The Night Safari next to the Singapore Zoo was really fun and unique. I got to see wolves howling in unison. It was pretty funny to see raccoons on display as a novelty (since I just had to go outside on trash night to see a raccoon in person when I was little!).
- Singapore is very orderly, clean, and organized.
- They take this order and cleanliness so seriously that they have signs like this in the subway station:
(Durian is a fruit that is quite smelly… I tried it once and remember it tasting a bit like what I imagine dirty feet might taste like)- I learned a new word: alight. Instead of saying “get off” or “exit” at a stop, they say “alight.”
- My cousin had an app on her phone to request a taxi. The taxi was pretty much waiting for us at the curb when we got off the elevator from four floors up.
- They have signs in the buses and subways that tell people to be polite and give up seats for elderly and pregnant passengers.
- I was on one bus where the bus driver stopped the bus to ask people to move and get up for an elderly passenger.
- Singaporeans are very hard-working people. The morning I went to catch the bus to Malaysia, I looked a bit like a backpacker. It felt like the song “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” from Sesame Street as I stood there surrounded by a bus full of businessmen and businesswomen dressed up for work.
- I rode on the Singapore Flyer (their version of the London Eye) on a rainy day and enjoyed seeing the very unique Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino (three towers with a “ship” on top) from a different angle.
- Also, I discovered that if you take enough poor attempts at long arm photos of yourself in a place, people will offer to take your photo for you. 🙂
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On the Singapore Flyer
- When I saw the sunshine the next morning, I hopped on the bus to go down to check out the view from the top of that building and experience the “ship.”
The view from the top of the Marina Bay Sands
Stay tuned for some more posts of what I’ve been up to lately and many posts of pictures of my adventures from the fancy camera!
Back Home Again in Indiana
Hello all!
Just wanted to post quickly and let you know I made it safely back to Indy yesterday evening after 30 straight hours of travel from Singapore. I’ve never been so excited to sleep in my own bed as I was last night!
Now I have some unpacking, photo-editing, and family visiting to do, but I will leave you with a sneak peek of what is to come…
A view inside Angkor Wat
A Muslim fishing village outside Phnom Penh
The Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace, Phnom Penh
I hope to post a review of my adventures through photos over the next couple months. My friends and cousin were amazing hosts and I saw some beautiful sights in Southeast Asia and while seeing some of the sad realities of what’s happened in Cambodia, I also saw some really encouraging things happening. Stop back on the blog if you can. Have a great week!
A Day and a Half in Malaysia
With the Porta de Santiago in Melaka (fort built by Portuguese in 1511) and wishing for a cold Coke and some AC right about then…
Hello again!
Wanted to check in quickly before my summer travel adventures comes to an end. This week I had a quick excursion to Malacca (spelled Melaka in Malay), Malaysia to explore a new place for a couple days. It’s a town on the Strait of Melaka a few hours bus ride northwest of Singapore. To all you motherly protective types out there: Yes, I was careful and yes, I’m back in Singapore with my cousin and her family safe and sound now. I still have lots to see in Singapore, so I’ll hold off posting on that for now (save this one comment: Yes, I agree with what I posted previously, Singapore really is the antithesis of Cambodia).
So, since I’m now obviously an expert on all things related to Malaysia after the 30 hours I spent in the country ;), let me share some thoughts from my time there:
- The trip between Singapore and Malacca is almost all palm tree plantations with mountains in the distance… really beautiful.
- After my time in Cambodia and Malaysia, I have a renewed appreciation for encountering a western style toilet with toilet paper supplied (it’s possible to find them in both places, but not always probable)
- Knowing absolutely zero words in Malay, I had fun trying to figure out some cognates of English words from the language when I read their signs (a nice change from not being able to read any Khmer letters/signs in Cambodia). See if you can figure any of these out: motosikal, polis, komuniti, sekyen, taksi, bas ekspres
- I sat in the first seat on the way there and noticed that the bus driver waved to every single coach bus that was driving the other way on the highway… and there were many. I don’t think the driver on the way back was quite so diligent in his friendliness.
- A lady gave me directions to find a restaurant on the second floor of the mall. I searched and finally asked someone only to be reminded that when they say second floor, that means third floor in America. 🙂
- There are such a wide variety of cultures represented in Malacca (Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc.), that I have no doubt that I was accidentally offending one or more at a time at various points in my journey. I think I read somewhere that you’re supposed to only eat with your right hand… well, that’s kind of a struggle for left-handed me. Consider this my apology to anyone I offended while I was there. 🙂
- Blue eyes are quite the novelty there. While I was taking a picture of the fountain in the town square, I had two strangers ask to have their photos taken with me… sweaty, grungy, overheated me and my blue eyes. Some people in Vietnam are really going to enjoy those vacation photos for years to come. 🙂
- The malls and rest areas where I was have prayer rooms designated for Muslim men and women.
- I met a lovely woman and her daughter from Brunei on the bus ride back and we had a great conversation where I learned all about Brunei (a country on the island of Borneo) and I told them a bit about my life as well as the Amish culture around where I grew up. It was a really fun way to spend the bus ride.
- I was a bit startled when the woman introduced herself and assured me that she wasn’t a terrorist even though she wore a head covering. It made me sad to think that she assumes most Americans think that way.
- She offered me some cherries. When I declined, she taught me that in Brunei when you decline food, you have to touch the food as you decline it. Interesting custom! I wonder what things we Americans do that they would find a bit weird…
- I tried a food in Malacca called Cendol… it involves coconut milk, syrup, iced shavings, green noodley things, and red beans. It was actually quite refreshing after a hot morning of sight-seeing, though I could have done without the red beans.
- The river going through Malacca made for a really lovely place to walk and have breakfast. I look forward to sharing pics of it when I go through them all.
- There are these rickshaw type bikes for people to ride in called trishaws.. they’re covered in gaudy decorations and each one has a blaring sound system. Sometimes a whole hoard of them will go down the street at once with lots of different music blasting… photos and videos do not do them justice though I’ll try to share what I can when I get back. 🙂
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
Checking in from Phnom Penh
Bayon Temple near Angkor Wat
Hello again!
Just wanted to check in quickly before I fly out tomorrow morning to visit my cousin and her family in Singapore. Everything has gone really well here in Cambodia. The past few week included some fun venturing out and exploring parts of Phnom Penh on my own while Katy and Alan were in meetings. I’ve enjoyed visits to Wat Phnom, Central Market, the National Museum, and the Royal Palace. We just returned from a quick weekend trip to a seaside town, Kep. The place we stayed was up the mountain a little ways and we had a great view of the mountain and the sea… one of my favorite combinations. 🙂
I need to get back to repacking, but wanted to share a few more observations, highlights, etc. from my time here. I head off to “the antithesis of Cambodia” (Singapore) tomorrow. We met up with a man who has lived in both countries last week and that was how he described it to me.
- I wasn’t allowed into the Royal Palace last Wednesday due to my non tank top shirt’s lack of sleeves. Oops! I returned Thursday more appropriately dressed. 🙂
- After my tour, I went back in to take a few more pictures of the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace. Everyone had left for lunch, so I had the place to myself to take pictures of the beautiful gardens and stuppas around the pagoda… it was very peaceful and a nice break from the city for a few minutes.
- The amount and variety of items that I’ve seen balanced on bicycles and motos here is unbelievable (from IV bags attached to people to live chickens to rice bags to TVs and hundreds of other things).
- Cambodians always return your change (bills- they don’t use coins) using both hands (something I didn’t realize until a couple days ago… another cultural mistake I’ve made!)
- On Wednesday I got to buy some fabric in a home on stilts with bamboo floor from the woman who made the fabric on the looms under the house… it was a really unique experience.
- When you get gasoline at the stations, they thank you/try to get you to return business by giving you pop cans and tissues… it kind of feels like you’re getting treats for buying gas there. And who knew that they still make Pepsi Twist in other countries!?
- We went to church on an island that used to be a killing field. We took a boat to get to it… I think that’s the first time I’ve ever had to take a boat to get to church.
- They sang a song at church called God is Good (in Khmer) that I loved to sing in my church in Honduras in Spanish.
- The Khmer people are very friendly. Kids love to yell hello when they see foreigners.
- They have these raquet things here that have the special light and shock thing to use as a mobile bug zapper. best.invention.ever.
- Alan and Katy’s neighborhood has a bunch of dogs that like to sing together in harmony a few times every night. That, plus some repetitive croaking (or maybe its chickens… I really can’t identify the animal that never stops making noise), plus some roosters thrown in, make for lovely white noise to fall asleep to. Here is a clip Alan made of the dog choir: http://www.alanandkaty.blogspot.com/2012/02/dog-choir.html
- The Daughter’s Project girls are currently making some purses. When they make a hundred, they get to go out for ice cream. When we arrived on Friday, over a hundred were completed. They’re excited for ice cream now.
- A woman who was at church on Sunday and we saw again Wednesday told Katy that I’d gained weight since Sunday. Apparently Cambodian food agrees with me. 🙂
- I’ve found that my taxi bargaining skills that I perfected in Honduras have transferred pretty well to getting a TukTuk deal.
- Crossing the street here is quite the experience. You kind of follow the same rule that the moto and car drivers follow: pull out without looking and then look left right left right left right left the whole way until you make it to the other side. It’s very much like a game of Frogger.
- It’s really nice to be able to skype with my sister in Australia when we’re both in similar time zones.
- Have I mentioned that it’s really hot and humid here?! Thankfully the experience of getting to know Khmer people, their culture, and their country makes it worth it. 🙂
Well that’s it for now. I hope you’re well and staying cool whever you are!
The not-so-relaxing fish foot massage in Siem Reap
With Katy and Alan in Phnom Penh
With Katy and Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh
Update from Cambodia
Hello again! I’m finally getting a chance to sit down at a computer and thought I’d send a reflection your way via this blog.
I continue to have a really great time seeing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hopeful here in Cambodia. It’s been an slightly overwhelming time with so much to take in in the short week I’ve been here, but really great overall.
Instead of giving you the play by play on all I’ve seen and done, I’m just going to share some fun tidbits along with some other thoughts on my brief time here. Please note that I realize that I’ve only been here one week and I am a clueless American. Being someone who loves to experience new cultures and knowing that our culture is equally foreign and strange to those who visit it, I hope these comments do not offend anyone and the non-expert source will be considered while reading.
- Gas bottles are sold on the side of the road in old Coca Cola and other clear pop bottles, but they also have regular gas stations. I rode a moto up a mountain to a temple and cave and the guy had to stop for gas. He filled it up with a coke bottle of gas and we were on our way in about 10 seconds!
- They use US dollars here and their bills for small change (no coins). I’m a pretty big fan of not exchanging money and knowing how much things are.
- Walking around a foreign country with a pregnant friend has its advantages: when people stop, stare, and talk about us, I can just assume that they’re talking about the pregnant foreigner and not me. 🙂
- It’s REALLY hot and humid here
- People wear pajama sets as normal clothes here… and you can wear flipflops with everything. This is my kind of place!
- Angkor Wat is actually a temple complex of many temples built in the 12th century and covering tons of land. We explored three temples and barely scratched the surface.
- Khmer is not a tonal language (I thought it was since Thai is tonal. I was wrong).
- Siem Reap, Battambang, and Phnom Penh have many NGO projects that are helping provide livelihoods for Khmer people.
- It’s been a privelege to get to see some of those projects in action.
- The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in Battambang not only helps train young women in culinary arts, but it also has really good food… I had the fried pickles everyday I was there.
- Today I went to the workshops of the Daughters’ Project and byTavi (www.bytavi.com), two sewing projects of the Center for Global Impact(www.centerforglobalimpact.org). It was so great to see the place where my ID holder and my mom’s purse was made (Buy their stuff, it’s great!).
- Seeing projects like this and seeing women learning about God’s word has been an experience that has left me encouraged and hopeful for further progress in this country.
- A cultural thing that people do here is to get their picture taken at these studios… basically Khmer glamour shots. Since it’s super cheap, I decided to jump in to said cultural experience. Let’s just say that fake hair, fake eyelashes, and a tiara were involved in this process. One of the funniest experiences I’ve had in a very long time.
- Tonight my friends had teachers from their Khmer language school over for dinner. I had a great time talking with three of the young women (in English) about teaching a language and their perspective on refugees as they asked me about the refugees at my school.
- When your main purpose in being in a country is to take pictures to document it, I’ve discovered that you end up without many pictures of yourself due to your big fancy camera being too big and fancy to give to other people for self pics. However, due to the climate’s effect on my outer appearance, I think that I’m ok with this fact. The Khmer glamour shot is the best I’ve looked all trip, so maybe that’s all I need to prove I was here. 🙂
- Have I mentioned that it’s REALLY hot and humid here?
If you made it through the list, thanks for allowing me to share a few pieces of my experience. Tomorrow is going to be a tough and heavy day as I visit the Killing Fields and S21 museum to learn about some of Cambodia’s darker Khmer Rouge history. Tough stuff that I’m not sure how to take in, but I’m thankful that it’s something people are willing to learn from today in hopes that history will not repeat itself.
Thanks again for reading. Until next time…
jenni
Coming Soon: Cambodia Through My Lens
Greetings from Cambodia!
My Internet/computer access is very limited right now, but I wanted to check in and say hello.
I’m having a fantastic experience and can’t wait to share pictures from my time here when I return. Some things I’ve learned in my time here include:
-Cambodia is hotter than all get-out… seriously, Indiana has nothing on Cambodia when it comes to the heat/humidity factor.
-it reminds me a lot of parts of Thailand, but it’s also very unique. (a popular quote here fits well: “same same, but different”)
-I wish I could capture the sounds, smells, and tastes in addition to the photos I’m taking.
Here are some highlights I look forward to sharing pics from:
-Angkor Wat temples
-getting a fish foot massage
-Center for Global Impact’s training restaurant The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in Battambang
-a Killing Cave where 10,000 Khmer Rouge killings took place on top of a mountain
-an acrobat circus training school show
-my visit to the morning market with a lovely Khmer woman from the restaurant this morning
I hope you’re having a great summer. I’ll try to check in again soon!
jenni mansell photography 
