Monkeys in the Palace

S-21 Prison and the Kiling Fields

The Khmer Rouge were a group that controlled Cambodia for four years. During those four years they eliminated 1.8 million people. The people were Cambodian farmers, landowners, rich people, doctors, lawyers, moms, dads, children, soldiers, etc.—and some foreigners. The S-21 was a secret prison devised by the number one leader, Pol Pot. 15,000 people passed through this secret prison and only seven survived. (This site was found by Vietnamese soldiers when they invaded Phnom Penh and defeated the Khmer Rouge. Some Vietnamese soldiers went to a section of Phnom Penh and found 14 recently murdered men in the buildings. They left and reported their find to their commanders.) These thousands of prisoners were taken, blindfolded, to a place outside the city, now named the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields looked like a plain with hundreds of shallow pits where the prisoners were buried after they were killed. They were killed by having their heads smashed by shovels, picks, bamboo sticks, etc. Visiting this place was a scarey experience. Everyone in Cambodia is related to this history. Everyone has ancestors that were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Nobody can understand why this happened. Right now the Cambodians are having some trials for some of the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders that have been caught. Not including Pol Pot who was captured awhile ago, but died under house arrest in 1998, before the people could give him a trial. These are some pictures of S-21 and the Killing Fields:

This millipede is giant!

This is how big the millipede is to my hand:

Rainbow Lodge in Koh Kong, Cambodia

We went to this great jungle lodge. There was forest all around. This is what the huts looked like from the outside. Inside was really nice. There was a big bed with mosquito net around it. Sadly, there was no TV. But, there was an awesome tennis racket. Inside the wires was the plastic shape of a spider in his web. And it could ZAP mosquitoes! My dad did that all day. But I got some turns too.

Before we left Rainbow Lodge, one of the owners (his name was G) said, "Do you want to see a giant spider?" And of course I hesitated...who wants to see a giant spider? But then I said, "Yes" We walked down to his house and on the path to his house a web about the size of a TV screen. In it was a spider as big as my dad's hand! The name of it is a Golden Orb Spider. (See the picture)

Trip to temple of giant Budha

We went to this amazing temple that is known for it's giant 42 karat gold Buddha. The name of the temple is Wat Po. It was like a maze - there were different small temples inside. In certain special ones you had to take off your shoes to be respectful to the Buddha. It was crowded and I got a cramp in my foot.This is the Buddha's head.         












This is a sleeping Buddha.

(It doesn't look like he's sleeping)




                                                                                                                           

This is the Buddha's feet
     
(don't they look fancy?)




                                                                                                                       

Changi airport in Singapore

There was this awesome 3D game zone built into this pillar. I played Mariocart and a Transformer game. The Transformer game was like Battlefront with a beam gun, RPG gun, a shotgun and a machine gun. While I was there, we went to fern garden with really friendly fish.
like picture (left)  >^..^<