Mr. Mao

I got in a taxi yesterday and, like countless other drivers, the man had Mao's face on a trinket hanging from the rearview mirror.  This always perplexes me.

There are many wonderful things Mao did for China as a nation: abolished polygomy and concubines, got rid of foot binding, promoted the role of women in society and generally eradicated many other archaic customs.  However, in the West, he is most well-known for other, more detrimental, actions: The Great Leap Forward (estimates say up to 30 million people died, mostly from Mao's policies bringing pointless starvation - to put this into perspective, Holocaust estimates are around 11 million) and The Cultural Revolution (politically motivated punishment/executions) spring to mind.  

In China however, even with increased access to Internet and sites like Wikipedia, Mao continues to be revered almost as a god.  He, of course, embraced and perpetuated Communism in China - the materialistic side of which has since been overturned.  Current China embraces a bit of Mao's authoritarianism combined with Deng Xiaoping's introduction of capitalism.  

As a result of Mao's staunch Communistic views, I always find humor in seeing his face used as a marketing tool or trinket to be sold.  If he had a grave (and wasn't immortalized in his Tiananmen Square viewing center), he'd surely be rolling in it.

Thinking about this, I started the following conversation with the taxi driver:

April: "That's Mao Zedong?"

Driver: "Yes."

April: "Do you think Mao Zedong would recognize China today?"

Driver: "What?"

April: "I don't know, in China today people have money, they can go where they want to go and do what they want to do, they can study abroad and use the internet, do you think Mao would recognize China now?"

Driver: - - - Silent and thinking- - -

a minute passes....

April: "I mean, I know Deng Xiaoping would recognize it because a lot of this was his idea, but what about Mao?"

Driver: "Deng Xiaoping would definitely recognize China....(long pause for consideration)....Mao would too...."

At this point in the conversation the old man rattled on for about 5 minutes at a very loud volume explaining why Mao would recognize our version of China.  He got really fired up about it and I'm sure had a lot of interesting things to say.  But, to my dismay, he was speaking too fast and using vocabulary I didn't understand.  

I start Chinese classes again next week and conversations like this are the main reason why.  There's so much more to learn.

Day 7: Ho Chi Minh

Since Stacey had to fly all the way back to New York, she left a day earlier than the rest of us.  So at 3:30am we were up to see her off and wish her a safe flight.  Save travels, MVP Stacey!

The guys and I decided to travel an hour outside of the city to see the Cu Chi Tunnels.  Before leaving, we started off with a delicious bowl of "pho", the most common breakfast, lunch and dinner in Vietnam.

Digging began on the Cu Chi tunnels in the 1940's, during Vietnam's war with France.  During the American war they were expanded to stretch from Ho Chi Minh to the Cambodian border.  According to Lonely Planet, in the district of Cu Chi alone, there were over 250km of tunnels.  These tunnels included hospitals, kitchens, sewing rooms for making uniforms, and rooms for making weapons.  During the American war over 16,000 people lived in the tunnels including both soldiers and families.

 The tunnels had a large part in the eventual American pull-out.  The Americans built a base in the area, but unknowingly placed it right on top of an existing tunnel network.  It took the troops months to figure out why they kept getting shot at in their tents at night.  According to the Lonely Planet, "The US and Australian troops...launched large-scale ground operations involving tens of thousands of troops but failed to locate the tunnels' hidden entrances, some of which were under water.  To deny the VC cover and supplies, rice paddies were defoliated, huge swathes of jungles bulldozed, and villages evacuated and razed.  The Americans also sprayed chemical defoliants on the area aerially and a few months later ignited the vegetation with gasoline and napalm.  But the VC remained safe and sound in their tunnels.  Eventually the US began sending men down the tunnels.  The 'tunnel rats' sustained appallingly high casualty rates in underground fire fights.  After this the Americans began using German shepherds, trained to use smell to locate trapdoors and guerrillas.  However the VC began washing with American soap and wearing the uniforms of captured US troops to throw them off.  Many dogs were maimed in booby traps and the operation was called off.  Finally, in the late 1960's, American B-52's carpet-bombed the whole area, destroying most of the tunnels along with everything else around.  The gesture was militarily useless by then because the US was already on its way out of the war.  The tunnels had served their purpose."

Upon arrival at the tunnels we watched a (propaganda) video about typical life in the tunnels, highlighting various peasants that were crucial in defeating the Americans.

One entry point to the tunnels

A trap involving a rotating door and bamboo spikes

The original tunnels.  Our guide said that during the war the Vietnamese were much smaller due to a lack of nutrition and that today most Vietnamese could not fit into the tunnels.

Examples of many of the traps used during the American war

Land mines

B-52 bomb crater

The tunnels have been more than doubled in height for tourists.  They were still very cramped and pitch black inside.  It's crazy to think that people stayed underground in them for weeks at a time.  Our tour guide was born in a hospital nearby, but remembered living in them with his parents when he was a child.

Early the next morning we woke up and headed back to winter in Beijing.

Day 6: Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh

Currently, Cambodia elects officials under a democratic process, however they also have a royal family in place, which resides mainly in Phnom Penh.  The king serves primarily as a figurehead, with little actual power.  Today we went to see the Royal Palace and grounds where King Norodom Sihamoni lives.  

We passed this friend on the way to the Palace.  (Check out his sandals!)

A Cannonball tree, considered sacred among Hindus.

The Royal Palace was built in the 1800's and is composed of large grounds with many buildings all serving unique functions.  There is a dance hall, a practice hall, a banquet hall and the royal treasury to name a few.  The most famous building is the Silver Pagoda, which was well-preserved from the Khmer Rouge.  The floor is covered with 5000 silver tiles weighing 1kg each.  There are countless buddhas inside, but the most noticeable is the beautiful one covered in 9584 diamonds, the largest of which is 25 carats.  Unfortunately, we weren't permitted to take photos inside the buildings.

The Throne Hall

Our guide, Ken, really wanted me to try on the traditional Cambodian dress.  This is one long piece of material that he made into pants.

A color for every day of the week.

Our guide, Ken

After visiting the Royal Palace we ate breakfast and then hopped into a car which Tony had been nice enough to arrange.  We drove 3-4 hours to the border of Cambodia and Vietnam and then had to get out and walk across the border.  There was another car awaiting us on the other side.

Leaving Cambodia

Entering Vietnam

After a few hours we were back in Ho Chi Minh.  We walked around the city, got dinner and enjoyed drinks and fabulous views atop the Sheraton Saigon.

Statue of General Tran Nguyen on horseback

View from the rooftop of the Sheraton Saigon

Day 5: Phnom Penh

When I realized Cambodia was a real option for us, I emailed a good high school friend, Brett.  He met a Cambodian girl named Soriya in college and later married her.  He is fluent in Cambodian and has spend considerable time in the country, helping the government transfer the country's entire hospital system onto computer and more recently doing HIV/AIDS work.  Brett sent me an unbelievable list of recommendations and advice, which was very helpful.  Thanks Brett!  

One of the recommendations he sent was for a tuk-tuk driver in Phnom Penh named Tony.  Early Thursday morning we gave Tony a call to see if he was available.  So excited to meet friends of Brett's, within 10 minutes he had arrived at the hotel and we all piled on his tuk-tuk. 

We knew we wanted to see The Killing Fields, but Tony thought we may be interested in visiting a shooting range along the way, which definitely peaked the interest of the guys.  They had fun shooting an M-16 and Russian made AK-47.  I had fun looking at the chicks, chickens and ducks around the property until I was reminded about Bird Flu and told the birds were being raised for shooting practice.  The owner of the property was an ex-Cambodian soldier...which gave us the feeling that he hadn't bought many of the guns in his possession.

Stacey prepping herself for the blast

After the shooting range we drove for about an hour to The Choeng Ek Killing Fields, which is the most well-known of countless similar locations throughout the country.  This was the site outside of Phnom Penh where over 20,000 people were executed and buried in mass graves after being tortured and held at S-21 prison.  It is an eerie place to say the least.  In memory of the victims, they have erected a stupa holding the skulls of the nearly 10,000 corpses that have been exhumed.  Due to a lack of ammunition, the Khmer Rough (KR) killed the majority of their victims without bullets.  Many of the skulls reveal fatal head trauma.  Our guide described the gruesome acts of the KR at this location, including killing babies by hitting them against one particular tree and beheading people slowly by using the (not quite) blade-like edge of large palm fronds.  

After hearing such horror stories and understanding the number of innocent voices that were silenced in Cambodia during that awful time, it was particularly bittersweet to hear the voices of children playing outside at the school just next door.  The sound of their songs was a stark reminder that life goes on.

The Memorial Stupa

Clothes of victims found in mass graves

Unearthed mass graves

The tree which was used to kill babies

After The Killing Fields, were were eager to fill in the pieces by visiting the S-21 prison that our tour guide had continually referred.  Tony also thought this was an essential of any trip to Phnom Penh, so we made our way to the former high school turned horrific torture center by the Khmer Rouge.  S-21 is just one of many such prisons, but is most famous for the perfect records kept.  Little is known about the inner workings of the KR, due to a killing of all possible defectors, so S-21 has filled in a lot of the gaps behind the atrocities committed by the terrible regime.  Each prisoner had their picture taken upon incarceration, while holding a number which indicated year, date and number per day.  Certain days saw up to 700 people incarcerated.  Many of the pictures show people in KR uniform and around 100 of the S-21 prison guards who had heard prisoners confess and could no longer be trusted.  Being incarcerated at S-21 meant probably torture and certain death.  Only 7 of the 20,000 people held there over the 4 years of the KR survived.

Rooms where 14 prisoners were found dead when the Vietnamese overtook Phnom Penh.  Pictures in each room depicted the victim upon the Vietnamese army's arrival.

When these buildings functioned as a high school, this was a piece of exercise equipment.  Khmer Rouge used it to torture victims and then dunked their head in the large urns below.

Photographic documentation of inmates the day they were imprisoned.  It was shocking to see how young most of them were.

The cells had no doors which was a definite form of torture.  Prisoners had shackles on their feet which prevented them from being able to move very much. 

The Khmer Rouge installed barbed wire over the openings of the balconies to prevent inmates from committing suicide.

A map showing the original migration of people out of Phnom Penh and then a later resettling by the Khmer Rouge.

Dusk at S-21

Our tour guide in S-21 gave us a very informative tour of the grounds, and at the end was very open to our many questions concerning Cambodia's history and her personal experience under the Khmer Rouge.   

When the Khmer Rouge won the civil war and came to power in 1975, our guide was 10 years old and living in Phnom Penh.  The 2 million citizens of  Phnom Penh were told to evacuate because America was going to bomb the city and ALL did so within 24 hours.  She was one of these people and was separated from her mother and sister.  The following is from www.dithpran.org.  Dith Pran is the survivor on whose story the movie "The Killing Fields" is based.

 On April 17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They forced all city dwellers into the countryside and to labor camps. During their rule, it is estimated that nearly 2 million [some put this estimate closer to 3 million] Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution. 

The Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia to year zero. They banned all institutions, including stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion, and the family. Everyone was forced to work 12 - 14 hours a day, every day. Children were separated from their parents to work in mobile groups or as soldiers. People were fed one watery bowl of soup with a few grains of rice thrown in. Babies, children, adults and the elderly were killed everywhere. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they didn’t like them, if didn’t work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they showed sympathy when their family members were taken away to be killed. All were killed without reason. Everyone had to pledge total allegiance to Angka, the Khmer Rouge government. It was a campaign based on instilling constant fear and keeping their victims off balance.

After the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge, 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border camps. Ten million landmines were left in the ground, one for every person in Cambodia. The United Nations installed the largest peacekeeping mission in the world in Cambodia in 1991 to ensure free and fair elections after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops. Cambodia was turned upside down during the Khmer Rouge years and the country has the daunting task of healing physically, mentally and economically.

After the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia our guide was reunited with her sister and they eventually found her mother, who she said looked 30 years older.  Her father had been killed.  Her main question was one that also struck me: How could Cambodians do this to Cambodians? It struck a sharp contrast from the insanity of the Nazis killing Jews because they targeted a particular group.  But Pol Pot target his own people, and I think for many Cambodians this is the fact that makes understanding and moving on nearly impossible.