Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 12

Being Goofy in Kampot - Cambodia blog entry #10

Wednesday,I took you on a tour of some of the sites in Kep, along the Gulf of Thailand.Today, I’ll introduce you to Kampot, which is a few miles inland. Wikipediasays that the population is 49,600, but it didn’t feel that big to us. 

It’san adorable town along the Preaek Tuek Chhu River, with many old Frenchcolonial buildings which have been converted into guesthouses, bars orrestaurants. 

Amongother things, the town is known for its durian fruit. But I kept referring tothe statue of one in the roundabout near our hotel as a pineapple. 

Afterchecking into our hotel, D and I set out on a mission. Betweenleaving the house in the morning, riding the tuk tuk, then switching to theminivan, I lost my umbrella somewhere. We were told there was a greatpossibility of rain the next day, so I thought I better buy one, somehow,somewhere.

Weleft the hotel and walked the two blocks to the night market, which like othermarkets in Cambodia, sold anything and everything. Inside were even severalkids’ amusement rides. 

Wewandered around a bit. None of the sales persons knew much English, but D hadbrought her umbrella to show them what we were looking for. The first one wefound was a long Mr. French umbrella. It might be handy if I needed a cane, butwould be cumbersome when not in use. The vendor dug around and found acollapsible one, but it still wasn't short enough to fit in my purse.  

Ikept wandering and found some kids’ umbrellas in several different colors. WhenI asked the woman to see them, she just opened the pink one which would not bethe one I would pick. But when I saw it, I fell in love. It had an adorablehippo in the jungle on it, and for six US dollars I couldn’t pass it up.

Iwas so happy. I’ve never even owned my own umbrella. I basically hate them andthink they are highly overrated and don’t even protect you from the rain thatwell. But there I was, the proud owner of Hippo. 

Ourhotel for the two nights we were in town was called the Neakru guesthouse.  Our room on the second floor was large andclean, with a large window overlooking the city and a balcony just outside ourroom. 

The beds were comfy. 

And the bathroom was – shall I say – adequate. There wasa leak in the ceiling above the toilet which made relieving oneselfdisconcerting.

Iwoke up in the middle of the night and had to go to the bathroom. I lay in bedfor the longest time trying to figure out what was in the room which I coulduse to protect my head from the dripping ceiling. My vinyl folder holding mytrip paperwork? Did they have a tray under the ice bucket like many hotelshave?

Think,Chris, think! 

Duh!There was Hippo sitting so happily in the corner, waiting faithfully to be putto work! 

Iwas so proud of myself and so relieved – and dry – when I crawled back intobed.

Kep, Crabs and other things - Cambodia blog entry #9

 

Alongthe Gulf of Thailand and less than twenty miles to the Vietnam border is the quaint town of Kep, Cambodia. It is the capital of Kep Province in southernCambodia, has a population of 35,990, and is 107 miles south of Phnom Pehn. 

Beforethe time of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, Kep was a mansion-lined beachresort town that the French from Phnom Penh would escape to on the weekends.During the war, the mansions were pillaged or destroyed. There are stillmany that remain today, a ghostly reminder of the past. 

Afterthe fall of the Khmer Rouge, Kep became a seafood hot spot, mostly known fortheir crabs. 

Alsoavailable to buy in the seafood market is durian, known as “the king of fruit.”Durian has a spiny, thick husk ranging in color from dull green to yellow-brown. Its edible interior is a soft, custard-like pulp that can bewhite or yellow. But it is best known for its nasty odor, described assmelling like sulfide, blue cheese, or even sweaty gym socks. 

Ourguide K bought one and cut it open. I didn’t think it smelled that bad - just kinda funky - but I still wasn’t willing to try it after all the horror stories I had heard. The otherwoman with us, Helen, tentatively took a bite. The look on her face wasprecious. She totally kept it together but handed the rest of it off to him,saying in a reserved tone, “that's was enough. I'm done”.  Then she scrambled for a mint in her bag. 

Knext bought some tiny squids and waited for the vendor to fry them. He chowed downon them with glee. I would've tried a bite, claiming earlier that I would eatanything that was cooked done, except I couldn't picture biting a leg off thebaby. If someone had a scissors, maybe I would have snipped off a leg - wouldonly be like a baby green bean - but no, not chewing off an appendage. 

Wewandered down to the end of the pier and the pounding waves reminded me so muchof Lake Superior, even though it was warmer than Michigan’s UP. I was socontent. 

Fromthere it was a short drive to Kep Beach. We walked in the sand and got our feetwet in the waves. I was still content, even though my feet were damp and sandythe rest of the day, and I was as unphotogenic as ever.

TheWhite Lady statue sits at the end of a pier waiting for her husband – a fisherman– to return from the sea. She is a symbol of unconditional love and patience. 

TheKep Crab statue is not a random crab – he is a blue swimmer crab. Surely, anycrab aficionado would see that right away.

Lastalong the beach was the Lady and Fish statue, of which I could find noinformation online. Which is a shame as she is beautiful. 

All in all, a very good afternoon. 

Know that God has it under control

God says, “Be still andknow that I am God. I will be praised in all the nations. I will be praisedthroughout the earth.” (Psalm 46:10, International Children’s Bible)

I’ve been trying to share as much of my trip toCambodia as I can, including here on my Sunday morning post. But I had a reallystressful week. Besides the support from my dear husband, I kept hearing God’svoice, “Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I have thisunder control, turn your troubles over to Me and relax.”

I looked up Psalm 46:10 in lots of different versionsof the Bible and they all used the exact same words. Except the Messageversion, which gave us other words of hope.

Attention, all! See themarvels of God! He plants flowers and trees all over the earth, bans war frompole to pole, breaks all the weapons across his knee. “Step out of the traffic!Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, aboveeverything.” (Psalm 46:8-10, The Message Bible)

Hope you had a good week and that this coming week iseven better for you.

Laughter at La Plantation - Cambodia blog entry #8

 Afterthe last few very heavy posts, I thought I should add some levity to yourFriday. 

Ourfirst Wednesday in Cambodia, back on September 18 (how was that over a monthago!), we hopped in a van for the ride to Kampot and Kep. I’ll share more onthose two cute little towns later, but I thought I’d start off that area of thecountry with our tour of La Plantation Pepper Farm.  

Builtby a French couple in 2013, La Plantation employs over a hundred localsyear-round and an additional 150 during harvest. They provide their employeeswith three meals a day, medical coverage, and a pension, as well as schoolingfor the children of the workers. 

Anda beautiful place to work.

Ourguide told us lots of other details but I was zoning out by then. Pepper growthand production sounds fascinating, but it had already been a long day and Ireally wanted to take a nap.  

Butafter hearing all about the Kampot pepper, we walked to the next pepper field –black pepper, I think it was. 

Youhad to jump or take a long stride across a ditch to get to it so I think only fouror so from our group of 16 went across. D was one of them. One of the guys onthat side suddenly slipped in the mud by the plants and fell down. Most of usgiggled but the woman next to me knew him. And really started to guffaw. Whichof course fed my inappropriate chuckles. 

Thenout of nowhere, D sneezed. Enough heads turned her way that she had to respondwith “it's just the pepper”. Which just about put me - and everyone else - on the ground in peals oflaughter. 

Wefinished the tour and headed in for the pepper tasting. D and I really weren'tinterested but K talked us into. Naturally, the silliness continued. At onepoint, D took a peppercorn she didn't want and started to throw it out thewindow behind her, then realized that the window wasn't open. We lost it andpoor K had to walk away, shaking his head, probably thinking, crazy AmericanWOMEN!

Itfelt so good to just laugh and be silly after the couple of taxing days we’dhad. There would be more silliness in the coming days.

S-21 Prison - Cambodia blog entry #7

Afterour visit to ChoeungEk Killing Fields, we went to S-21 prison museum, also called Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Ihave no words. I feel I should just leave a long empty page here. No pictures,no words. Because there is nothing I can share which will convey the somber,horror of this former school.

Ican share the faces of those imprisoned, tortured, dehumanized, and ultimatelykilled there. You can look into their eyes and feel the breath catch in yourthroat. You can swallow hard and divert your head. Try to erase those hauntingfaces from your vision. But you can’t.

Theirlives deserve to be remembered. But as it is, I could only look at one wall ofthem. I had to skip a lot of the rooms altogether, as well as the audio clips themuseum supplied.

Instead,I sat in the previous school yard and imagined the laughing voices of thechildren who attended it prior to April 1975. Carefree, happy kids thinkingtheir whole lives were ahead of them.

Instead,politics snuffed out all of their dreams. The Khmer Rouge, or mostly the childsoldiers they indoctrinated, committed unspeakable atrocities, while the worldwas led to believe it was still the Civil War that the country had beenstruggling through and of course there was still Vietnam.

Somuch was involved. So much crap.

We’vebeen hearing for our entire lives about the unrest in the Middle East, and theyare at it again. But all over the world, millions of innocent men, women, andchildren have suffered and ultimately died for reasons no rational person cangrasp.

Thankyou for bearing with me. Next post, on Friday, I promise to present morepleasant places we visited in Cambodia.

Just Do Good

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcomeevil with good. (Romans 12:21,  NewInternational Version)

Friday’sblog post was pretty dark and the next one I post will be even darker. Butthese are the words of the LORD which we must remember. Somehow when we aresurrounded by evil, when the world is falling apart, when we don’t understandthe sinful nature of wicked people - we need to do the best we can. Be kind andcaring, show love to others, live as Jesus did. Don’t let hatred pull us down,instead do good.

Our Scriptures tell us that if you seeyour enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him adrink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get thebest of you; get the best of evil by doing good. (Romans 12:21, The Message)

Killing Fields - Cambodia blog entry #6

Tuesday,September 17, was our trip to hell. The thing is we came back out into theblazing Cambodian heat and rain to live another day. Unlike 2 millionCambodians who didn’t live through the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to1979. 

Again,I cannot believe that at the time, my 12-year-old brain only knew of theVietnam War and that when the US pulled out, we gave up on the country and letthe communists have their way. I didn't know that Cambodia had been an innocentvictim of war just because of its location. And there I was, 50 years agothinking only of some 12th century temple in the jungle. 

So,that Tuesday when I was in Cambodia last month, our first stop of the day wasthe Killing Fields, where 8,895 bodieswere discovered after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. It is believed that manymore were buried there as fragments of human bone continue to surface. It isonly one of 300 such mass grave locations throughout Cambodia. 

Thetour of the grounds was chilling, and it wasn’t from the rain showers whichfell on us most of the morning. 

AsI left the main grounds to walk around the pond on the east side of thegrounds, I listened through my headset to stories of survivors and witnesses of these atrocities. The rain fell steadily on the borrowed umbrella I held overmy head. It all felt so very surreal.

Howwas any of this possible? How did Hitler’s Holocaust happen? Or Rwanda or Darfur?How can any human being subject another human being to such absolute and uttercruelty and dehumanization? And how – why is it still going on right now, inthis year, in places around the world? 

Twolast thoughts.

Believeit or not, after sharing all of this, I skipped one thing on the grounds of ChoeungEk. It was even more horrific than any of this. If your curiosity gets thebetter of you, click this link.

Andlastly, we weren’t done for the day. My blog post next week is even moresobering.

Palace Grounds - Cambodia blog entry #5

 Mondayafternoon, after wandering the Central Market and touring Wat Phnom, we stoppedfor a tour of the extensive grounds of the Royal Palace. It wasn't on our mostrecent schedule, but K said we had time. However, it did take way longer thanwe had imagined; our tour guide was very knowledgeable but sometimes went intotoo much detail. 

TheRoyal Palace is the residence of the reigning monarch – King Norodom Sihamoni.Since 1993, the king of Cambodia has been an elected monarch, making Cambodiaone of the few elective monarchies in the world. The king is elected for lifeby the Royal Council of the Throne, which consists of several senior politicaland religious figures. Candidates are chosen from male descendants of King AngDuong, who are at least 30 years old, and are from the two royal houses ofCambodia (the House of Norodom and the House of Sisowath). The current king’s fatherand predecessor was Norodom Sihanouk.

Following are the notes I took, with some supplementation from the internet. 

Therewas a beautiful Banyan tree next to the Victory Gate and the dancing hall. 

Also called Preah Tineang Chan Chhaya, the dancing hall or Moonlight Pavilion was built in 1913. 

 

TheThrone Hall or coronation hall hosts the coronation and other special occasionsand was built in 1919. We couldn't go inside or even take pictures of theinside. There are three different thrones inside used at different times bydifferent people. It got me very confused. 

I loved all the details. 

Thegrey building is the Pavilion of Napoleon which was being redone when we werethere so we couldn’t go inside.  

Thisunique palm tree comes from Madagascar and is called Ravenala or the traveler’spalm. Not a true palm tree, its fronds grow in the pattern of a fan. 

Theroyal treasury room displayed costumes for royalty and even commoners when theygot married. The clothes were very fancy and would be rented, not owned, by thebride and groom. There were a lot of other items crammed in the small building,but this is where I started to lose it. I was getting so hot and weak. Therewas a fan in the building so I focused on staying in front of it, whileeverything our guide said sounded like an adult talking in the Peanuts cartoon. 

Whenwe came out of there, we crossed a small sunlit courtyard and then went underthe roof over the Ramayana Frescoes. That’s when I started seeing black spots.“Can I seat down here,” I asked, pointing to the floor. Not that it matteredcoz I would either sit right then or pass out full blown.   

 Isat down and immediately just laid back on my side on the cool tile. The otherskept walking, but I asked K if he'd wait there until I gathered myself,drinking water and dribbling some on my face.

 

Typicalguy, he said, “it will be even hotter at Angor Wat”. How helpful is that! 

Anyway,I felt better after a few minutes and tentatively sat up. Soon I was able tocontinue the tour with our little group. 

Thelast building we went in was the Silver Palace, aka temple of the EmeraldBuddha. The Silver Pagoda is a highlight and is named for the silver inlaidfloor. There was only a section of it exposed, the rest being covered withcarpet, but you could hear the tiles crinkling as you walked across the floor.Along with cases full of artifacts along the walls, there were several large,ornate Buddhas in the center of the room. I assume that the largest one was theEmerald Buddha. (And maybe I was still out of it, coz I remember taking pictures inside, but I have none on my camera! Or maybe we weren't allowed to take pictures inside and I was really still spaced out. As it is, I stole the picture of it below from Denise.)

Justbeyond that and a replica of the Angkor Wat was a small refreshment stand,where I bought a cold water and drank it in the shade. Thankfully, I was back to my usual self.

Who Walks Beside Me?

         Peoplemay plan all kinds of things, but the Lord's will is going to be done. (Proverbs19:21, Good News Translation)

I know I’ve written about this before, butnow that I have finally returned from my dream trip to Cambodia, I felt I hadto share this one more time.

I first learned about the temples atAngkor Wat when I was in sixth grade—fifty years ago. I was mesmerized, andthough the dream wasn’t always at the forefront of my mind, I knew that somedayI had to go there.

Flash forward to January of 2020. On awhim, I googled volunteer trips to Cambodia and came across the culturalimmersion trip for grown-ups over age 50 with Projects Abroad. I sent theinformation to my friend Denise, and it didn’t take her long to get back to mewith a big smiley face. She was game, and after a little more research, wesigned up.

Then COVID-19 hit, and we had to cancel.

The fall of 2021 held potential, but thepandemic was still causing enough uncertainty and inconvenience, so we canceledthe trip a second time.

The following year, COVID-19 had abatedenough that it was safe to travel, but my daughter wanted to return to Kenya,so Denise and I joined her.

It looked like 2023 would finally be myyear until my back went out in April, and the rest of my body fell apart afterthat. We canceled just weeks before our intended departure.

Ahh, 2024! Fourth time is apparently thecharm.

I had been thinking that God simply didn’twant me to go to Cambodia. And I get that—this wasn’t going to be a volunteertrip, mostly just a vacation to an almost entirely Buddhist country. Therewould be no Sunday morning Christian church service and certainly no sharing ofthe Gospel (not that God has blessed me with that gift!).

Would my fascination with all the Buddhistand Hindu temples lead me spiritually astray?

The answer is that no, it did not. Quitethe opposite. This fantastic trip reminded me that I serve an amazing God whowill never leave me or forsake me. For some reason, God wanted me to completemy dream trip this year and not any other.

And as you will see as I continue bloggingabout this trip, He walked beside me every day.

Andthe Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you; He will notleave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8, NewKing James Version)

Our First Two Stops - Cambodia blog entry #4

         Though Sunday, September 15, was our firstfull day in Cambodia, it wasn’t until Monday that we actually got out andstarted experiencing things on the ground, instead of riding by in our tuk tuk.

First though, here’s a picture of our tuktuk, in case you were wondering what it really is. I’ll post a blog about allthe different ones we rode in during our two-week trip, but this is the one weused in Phnom Penh. Our driver was a sweet man named Wo-Tea. He didn’t knowmuch English, but K was almost always with us and otherwise pointing,  handgestures, and the few words we knew in common worked.

We went to Central Market first. What amaze, filled with hundreds of vendors, hawking everything from watches to silksto fruits to fish. Also called Phsar Thmei, it’s a massive, mostly-indoorshopping center, which has everything you could want to buy.

Built in 1937, in the art deco style, by aFrench architect, it is a bright yellow building with an 85-foot-high centraldome, with four tall arch-roofed arms branching out diagonally across theblock. In between each of those halls, is an opening for more vendor’s stalls leadingout to the street. (I plucked this photo from Google, full credit to whoevertook it. I hate borrowing pictures from the internet, but I left my drone athome.)

Supposedly when it was built, thearchitect designed it with open air windows at the top, which were intended toallow air currents throughout the building to cool it. It didn’t feel like thatwas working to me. But the architecture was beautiful. 

Just like in Kenya, you can't even stop tolook at something without being pressured by the vendors. First stall westopped at I bought a scarf for four dollars, because I knew I wanted one. Thenwe wandered. D and I separated, and I couldn't find the way back to where we hadcome in. It's arranged like a wheel with eight spokes and after a while theyall look the same. Finally found my way out, and they were all waiting for me.

Next stop was Wat Phnom temple, a Buddhisttemple (which are called wats). It is the tallest religious structure in thecity, with a total height of 150 ft.

It is a historical site that is part ofthe Khmer national identity. The pagoda is named after Lady Penh from the storyof the discovery of the five statues: four Buddha statues and one Vishnustatue.

Set on top of a tree-covered knoll, WatPhnom is on the only hill in town. According to legend, the first pagoda onthis site was erected in 1373 to house four statues of Buddha deposited here bythe waters of the Mekong River and discovered by a woman name Penh. The mainentrance to Wat Phnom is up the grand eastern staircase, which is guarded bylions and naga (snake) balustrades.

We saw hundreds of pagodas throughout Cambodia.A pagoda is a tiered building with multiple eaves and ornate details, that is often usedfor religious purposes. Pagodas are common in many parts of Asia, including India,China, Japan, and Thailand. They are often Buddhist and can also serve ascommunity venues, schools, and places for sharing knowledge.

This is the stupa of Ponhea Yat who wasthe last king of the Khmer Empire and the first Khmer king of the post-Angkorperiod, from 1421until his death in 1463. A stupa is a steeple-shaped mausoleumholding the bones and ashes of the deceased, usually placed around the groundsof a pagoda. They can be made of sandstone, laterite, brick, and more recentlyof cement, and some are huge.