We flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, a popular resort town which is the gateway to the Angkor region.

Our first visit was to Angkor Wat, the largest temple complex in the world, built aroun 1150 AD.

Lots of steep stairs everywhere.

A group photo.

There are intricate carvings everywhere. Some are the Apsara Dancers.

The next day we saw  Angkor Thom, former city with the Bayon (with all the faces) temple.

There was one temple with really narrow steep sandy steps–pretty cool.

We got to ride around the temple complex on an elephant.

At Ta Prohm, the trees have taken over the temple complex. Made famous by the movie Tomb Raider.

Our lunch included rice with red ants. They are popular because they taste tangy.

I took a tuktuk to church. Glad to see the familiar sign.

I walked around the Old Market. Lots of kinds of rice. People eating food in their shops. A wide variety of merchandise (mostly for locals, but some souvenir shops).

Everyone else had earlier flights, so I hired a tuktuk to take me to the ruins–including the far away ones–I spent 5 hours cruising through the countryside. It was very interesting.

Pre Rup–was brick style, with knee-high narrow steps

Banleay Srei–pink sandstone, smaller, intricate carvings, gorgeous, but 1 hour out of town:

Riding through the countryside.

East Mebon–rural, big elephant sculptures:

Ta Som–face towers:

Neak Pean–island temple, boardwalk to get there, horse sculpture .

Preah Khan–like Ta Prohm but bigger, trees encroaching, 2-story building

Fish pedicure for $2–kind of crazy and ticklish and included a can of soda.

We had meetings for a few days in the capitol, Phnom Penh. Traffic was crazy. It makes sense that so many use motorcycles or scooters to get around.

The wiring is crazy–the circuit breakers are outside the houses and get tripped all of the time.

This is one way to get your fabric where it needs to go. They have a strong textiles market.

Also, poverty everywhere:

We had a variety of meetings at the American Chamber of Commerce, a visit to the US Embassy, meetings in the Special Economic Zone where they are trying to lure foreign companies. All of the companies mentioned how corrupt the government is and that makes it hard to do business without bribery. The government even has an anti-corruption unit to help.

We had a tour of Laureltin Diamonds where they cut and polish small diamonds. I was pretty excited for our tour of a candy factory–Aparti (a subsidiary of American Licorice Company, maker of Red Vines). I was hoping for Willy Wonka style but with licorice. I was disappointed that we only got to see and sample production of a coffee flavored hard candy. We had to get suited up properly for the tour (including white crocs).

After dinner we took a tuktuk to the night market. Walking home along the Tonle Sap river we saw lots of people sleeping on the sidewalks, including this baby in a little net:

The hotel didn’t want us to bring durian fruit into the hotel room because it smells so bad. I tried a sample of durian fruit ice cream–not so tasty.

After a morning visit to the Ministry of Commerce–government guys talking about the improvements and opportunities in doing business in Cambodia, then meeting with Young Entrepreneurs including breakout sessions, interesting chatting in the round table breakouts, one IT guy has a brother in the MISM program at the University of Utah.

We had a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum–which was a school built 1975, then Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and torture camp. Most were sent to the killing field nearby. About 2 million Cambodians (1/4 of the total population) were killed between 1975 and 1979.

We went to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. They have a memorial stupa (tower) with 10,000 skulls. There are marked mass graves and still bones and clothing jutting out of the dirt.

The worst part for me was the execution tree where they would hold the babies by their feet and bash their heads against the tree to kill them. Then they tossed them in the mass grave with the naked raped mothers. A sobering experience.

I had the chance to spend about a week in Myanmar/Burma.  It was a grueling trip to get there from a conference in Kona, Hawaii: 5 am Friday – 3 pm Sunday–two nights in Chinese airports (Shanghai and Kunming). I had pre-purchased a Visa for Myanmar so it was easy to get through the airport, and pre-pay for a taxi. Traffic was crazy. The roads haven’t kept pace with the increase in the number of cars.

The view of the Sule Pagoda from my hotel in Yangon. Fun fact, although they drive on the right side of the street, 90% of the cars have steering wheel on the right–old Toyotas from Japan.

Because our bus was Japanese, the steering wheel was on the right, and the door on the left. We had to exit into oncoming traffic. They still use some vehicles (like the fire truck and bus above) from the 1940s.

For the traditional US Embassy visit, the Ambassador and her staff came to our hotel. They talked about challenges Myanmar faces due to years of isolation and sanctions, how the new NLD party took over in April 2016 (from military) and they are making very slow progress. They elected Aung San Su Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who had been under house arrest from 1989 – 2010 (also the daughter of the general who liberated Burma from the British–and Japanese–in 1947).

3rd grade class

stream by the school

drinking fountain

We visited a Monastic school. Parents can send their children (mostly boys, but some girls) to live and go this school to become monks. Buddhism and monks are a big deal in Myanmar. About 89% of the people are Buddhists and everyone is expected to contribute food and donations. They pride themselves on being very tolerant of other religions. There is a Muslim mosque and Hindu temple next to the Buddhist Sule Pagoda. However, they are on the human rights watch list because of their ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in the north of the country. It’s pretty bad.

We visited to UFMCCI chamber of commerce and discussed the challenges of being an emerging market. They said the last three markets in the world are Cuba, Myanmar, and North Korea.

The next day we also had several business visits, including Coca Cola HQ, and the American Chamber of Commerce.

We toured the Shwe Dagon pagoda–most famous landmark in Yangon, Buddhist shrine and 100 m tall stupa. It was an adventure walking around. You have to find the corner for the day of the week you were born, then pour water 9 times.

Tourists are actually very safe in Myanmar due to heavy government monitoring and fines, so I walked through the wet market to get to the Strand Hotel, and around the waterfront.

They still have a telegram office:

A quick run through the airport in Thailand.

We drove to Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland which is a part of the UK and used the British Pound and Miles (in contrast to the Republic of Ireland which is a part of the European Union and uses the Euro and Kilometers). In general, Catholics call it Derry, while Protestants call it Londonderry. Some parts of town still have high fences separating the two communities.

There is a cool city wall (wide enough to walk on) around part of the town. Outside is an area called Free Derry where civil rights protests were held (including Bloody Sunday in April 1972). More about U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.

We drove to Giant’s Causeway, 40,000 interlocked hexagonal basalt columns (lava/ice formation), and hiked around the top of the cliffs.

We made it to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge by the last entrance time.The bridge is 100 feet above the rocks and waves, and connected fishermen to an island to fish. We saw lots of dolphins.

In Belfast we took a Black Taxi Tour with a guide who grew up Catholic in Belfast and lost two uncles and a cousin in “The Troubles,” their name for the 40 years of violence in Northern Ireland, which was for long time since WWII the worst violence in Europe.  He took us to the Protestant side of the city and showed us murals painted on houses glorifying their paramilitary groups. There are still security gates in the area that close each night.

He also showed us pictures of huge five-story wooden bonfires that the Protestants light every July 11/12 to commemorate William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne (William had told his supporters to light bonfires or torches to signal where to land when he arrived in Ireland with this armies, hence the bonfires on July 12). Some people also burn effigies of the pope.

We saw the Peace Wall on Shankill Road, one of over a hundred peace walls in Belfast now. It looks like it is 30 feet high or more to block projectiles being thrown into the Catholic neighborhood.

The Nationalists tend to be Protestant and want to remain a part of the UK. The Unionists want the both parts of the island to be united into the Republic of Ireland (and separate from the UK, also predominantly Catholic).

We walked around the Christmas market, went to City Hall, and St. George’s market, a large indoor marketplace filled with booths.

The Titanic Museum was very interesting, offering lot’s of interactivity and multimedia. It seemed part attraction (it even had a ride at one stage), part museum.

We went to the Ulster Museum, which has art galleries, natural history and archaeological exhibits and a really well-done exhibit that documented the troubles.

We went to the Grand Opera House to see a pantomime play of “Cinderella.” We had good seats, and the show was very entertaining. A pantomime involves interaction with the cast and the audience, ad-libbing, and lots of local references and in-jokes. The star of the show was John Linehan, who’s stage name is May McFettridge, who played the fairy godmother. He has been performing in pantomimes at the Grand Opera House since the early 1990s, and there is a bust of him in the opera hall.

We walked around Stormont, seat of government for Northern Ireland before going to church Holywood Road Ward.

Drove to Trim Castle. It was closed for the week of Christmas, which wasn’t on their website. We still enjoyed walking around the outside.