Yukon Jay - 小祥

没有写中文

阿姨，我刚才有给你写个email，如果你没办法看的话，我在这边再写一次。
我这几天都在上班。 前两个星期我只有休息两天，那我现在又连续得上八天得班了。 我老板都是有事所以他需要我加班。 那我这个星期只有上三天的班，我可以好好的休息。 我下个星期就要开学了。 今天我妈还陪我去大学买书呢。

我最近在这上面放的照片都没有写中文是因为我每次写中文的时候，都要花很多很多的时间。 现在是我比较有时间， 我又没有上课，所以我花那么多时间写中文是没有关系的。那因为这些照片是外国的地方，我不知道他们的名称是什么。 所以如果你要我写中文的话，是很难的。 我不知道怎么写。 但我拭拭看。 有写的话就会写得很少。

Cu Chi Tunnels

Been pretty busy lately... mainly because I'm working 8 straight days and only had 2 days off the last 2 weeks. I dont mind working this much, mainly need the money for school, but because I'm working by myself it gets very stressful when customers all come at once for their orders. After tomorrow I have a few days off and only working 2 more days till I start school.

I made reference to the Vietnam War in the last blog so I thought I jump right ahead to my trip in Vietnam and show pictures of the legacy the Americans have left in Vietnam. The Vietnam War in Vietnam is called The American War... so I'm gonna call it that since the pictures are in the perspective of the Vietnamese.

The tunnel netowrk of Cu Chi became legendary during the 1960s for its role in facilitating Viet Cong (VC) control of a large rural area only 30km to 40km from Ho Chi Minh City.

The network, parts of which were several storeys deep, included innumberable trap doors, specially constructed living areas, storage facilities, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centres and kitchen.

The tunnels made possible communication and coordination between the VC-controlled enclaves, isolated from eachother by South Vietnamese and American land and air operations.

The tunnels were built over a period of 25 years (goes way back during the French occupation), which began some time in the late 1940s. They were the improvised response of a poorly equipped peasant army to its enemy's high-tech ordnance, helicopters, artillery, bombers and chemical weapons (many Vietnamese today still suffer from the effects of Agent Orange).

Unable to win underground with chemicals, the US army began sending men down into the tunnels. These "tunnel rats", who were often involved in underground fire fights, sustained appallingly high casualty rates.

A series of setbacks and defeats suffered by the South Vietnamese forces in the Cu Chi area rendered a complete VC victory by the end of 1965 a distinct possibility. VC strenghth in and around Cu Chi was one of the reasons the Johnson administration decided to involve US troops in the war. The USA's first action was to establish a large camp in Cu Chi district. Unknowingly they built it right on top of an existing tunnel network... took months for the 25th Division to figure out why they kept getting shot at in their tents at night.

The USA declared Cu Chi a free-strike zone: minimal authorisation was needed to shoot at anything in the area, random artillery was fired into the area at night, and pilots were told to drop unused bombs and napalm there before returning to base. Finally, the late 1960s, American B-52s carpet-bombed the whole area, destroying most of the tunnels along with everything else around. Americans resorted to massive firepower, eventually turning Cu Chi into what the authors of The Tunnels of Cu Chi have called 'the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare'.

And lastly, there's me blindly staring right at the sun....

The Darkest Side of Humanity

Ever since I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, I asked myself whether I should show these pictures to people because they are disturbing and uncomforting, to put it mildly. This is Asia's version of the Nazi regime and holocaust, however, the fundamentals behind the revolution emulate that of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). But after watching NBC's Inside Edition story on this topic (and after talking to Jon), I decided to put these pictures up....

I dont understand the complexity of Cambodia's history, but here's what happened in simple terms. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted; its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Within 2 weeks of the Khmer Rouge coming to power the entire population of teh capital and provincial towns, including the sick, elderly and infirm, was forced to march out to teh countryside and undertake slave labour in mobile work teams - preparing teh fields, digging irrigation canals - for 12 to 15 hours a day. Currency was abolished (maybe that's why the currency is mostly in US dollars instead of riel) and postal services were halted. Except for flights to Beijing (China was providing aid and advisers to the Khmer Rouge), the country was cut off from the outside world.

In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country.

This is the high school that was turned into the prison.... now called the Tuol Sleng Museum.

Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge was meticulous in keeping records of its barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after torture. Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were also held at S-21 before being murdered. The museum displays include room after room of photographs covering the walls from floor to ceiling virtually all of the men, women and children pictured were later killed.

When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, it found only 7 prisoners alive at S-21. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as Vietnamese forces were closing in on the city. (Let me get this straight... The US government waged war against the communist Vietnamese who had done nothing like what the Khmer Rouge is doing, and yet the Americans turned a blind on what was happening in Cambodia? And of all people, it was the Vietnamese who fought Pol Pot and his regime. Like they haven't suffered enough after fighting the Americans... now they had to fight Pol Pot and put up with his gorilla warfare.)

Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women, children and infants (including 9 Westerners) who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek. They were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.

More than 8,000 skulls, arranged by sex and age, are visible behind the clear glass panels of the Memorial Supa, which was erected in 1988.

The remains of 8,985 people, many of whom were bound and blindfolded, were exhumed in 1980 from mass graves; 43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched. Fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits.

Angkor Wat

For the second time on this blog I have posted a picture of Angkor Wat. First time was when my cousin Cindy visited this place... and now it is my turn. Reason why I went back to southeast Asia was to see this.... I just had to see it for myself.

The main attraction for visitors to Cambodia is undoubtedly Angkor and the Angkor Wat temple complex. Angkor Wat literally means 'city of temples', and it is the biggest religious structure in the world. Billed as the eighth wonder of the world, it was built in the 12th century and is now one of the most enduring architectural achievements in the world. Shrouded in legend and mystery, this once lost city boasts 1000 archaeological sites and covers an area of 170 square miles.

As I walked along the causeway toward the intimidating structure, the feeling I had was just indescribable... sends a chill down your back. The lighting and exposure from this shot is quite different from the other pics... looks kinda weird.

Take a note of the 3 towers because I will have a picture taken from inside the towers..... (how can you not notice the towers eh?)

Do I need to say those towers are extremely high.... not to mention the steps are steep!! When climbing the steps you need to have your hands holding on to the steps right in front of your face. While I was climbing on the left side of the steps... these 3 Japanese girls were climbing on my right side. One of them froze halfway up there and started crying... had a tough time getting her down as she was afraid to go up and down. I wasn't even going to go up at first but I kept telling myself I've come a long way just to see this, I might as well go up and worry about getting down when the time comes.

This is the view from the towers once you have made it up there. Now the trick is going down... Since I am afraid of heights, it took me at least 10-15 mins to find a good set of stairs to climb down (there's at least 6 sets of stairs) and actually going down.

One of the things to do in Angkor Wat is to have the chance to talk to monks... most of them do speak a little bit of English and they are more than happy to converse with you because then they can practice their English. I met these two monks and chatted for a while. Very friendly guys.

This is by far the most amazing, peaceful, and overwhelming place I've ever been to. The only other place I can think that might be better is Tibet... I hope to be there sometime within the next 2 years.

Angkor Thom 吳哥窟

I'm just now starting to download pictures from Cambodia and Vietnam onto my computer. Freaking a lot of work you know...... I brought with me 4 of the 128MB memory cards and was able to take 152 pics on each one.... I used all of the 4 cards... so that's about 608 pics I have to go through and rename. I just finished the first card.... it was annoying.... forgott one of the place names and still dont know what it is because there's just so many different small temples and ancient buildings.

So here's some pictures of Bayon inside Angkor Thom, just outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia.... beautiful isn't it? :) I'm only posting 3 now... will post a few more in a few days. These pictures are a teaser.... saving the best till next time.
我们在高棉第一个看的是在这些照片里。 这地方叫吳哥窟。 我不解释所以就让你们看一看照片。 对不起！

我在过几天还会多放些照片。 请大家视目以待。 我可能不会写很多中文， 要我解释太难！ 很多地方我都不知道中文叫什么。

Joey and I had just entered Angkor Thom through the southern gates and the first place is called Bayon. This ranks 2nd place after Angkor Wat as the most popular of Angkor's many temples.

Bayon has a collection of 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling, gargantuan faces of Avalokiteshvara. Some scholars suggest they may contain a representation of Jayavarman VII, the Mahayana (one of the 2 branches of Buddhism) Buddhist king continuing the devaraja cult of his Hindu predecessors.

As you walk around, a dozen or more of the visages are visible at any one time - full-face or in profile, almost level with your eyes or peering down from on high.
注意墙壁上的脸在笑

Life adjustment

It has been a while since I updated. There's really not much going on here. Just trying to get use to life back in Canada again which has been hard sometimes. While on the plane, there's a map of our flight path from Asia to North America on the screen.... just looking at that map of Asia I feel like I'm leaving something behind, a part of me behind.... not just my relative in Taiwan.

So again, not much happening... Been watching the Olympics, chilling with friends, movies, and also reading Another Quiet American, a book I picked up at a bookstore in Bangkok. It's about an American who had just finished his undergrad majoring in East Asian Studies at Princeton and was hired to work in the tourism ministry in Laos.

Also been working quite a bit lately... my boss gave a bunch of shifts the last minute. This week we're renovating the store, and next week he is taking time off because his friends are staying at his house. I worked all this week and will be working 8 straight days next week..... I need all the money I can get at the moment for tuition and books.

好久没有在这儿写了。 现在没有设么事的。 第一个星期就在家习惯习惯。 这边的生活比台湾和别的亚洲国家生活差太多。 我发现这边的人好会花钱哦， 都没想到别人都没有钱，也在饿肚子

这儿几天就在家看国际奥林匹克运动会，看电影，跟朋友玩，还有读本书。 这本书是我在曼谷找到的。 除了这些，我这个星期都在上班。 下个星期我老板有朋友去他家看他所以要我帮他看店。 他要我上八天的班。 上班会是很多可是我现在也想多上班因为要开学了。 开学以后就没办法多赚钱。

I am home 回来了

It's almost 7am and here I am wide awake.... thought I might have gotten over the jetlag when I slept from 1am till 4pm but I guess not.

Anyways, I am back!! It has been a good trip... not great because as most of you know, Joey had appendicitis on our last day in Cambodia before going to Vietnam overland, and had to be evacuated to Thailand for surgery. Stressful day because I had to deal with insurance company to see whether they will pay for the evacuation... took them bloody 6 hrs to say yes. Can you believe the evacuation cost more than the surgery itself? And the insurance company haven't even agreed to pay a penny for the surgery yet.... now that I'm back I get to deal with all of that too!!! Woohoo!!!!

Overall, the sites and places I've been too have been a lot better than last year. I'm talking about Ankor Wat, Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia... as for Vietnam it was getting to Ho Chi Minh in the flesh and the garment factories.

现在是大概差不多早上七点，刚起来， 不想睡的。 我回来的第一天晚上， 就是这边的星期天晚上，从一点睡到第二天的下午四点呢！因为我睡了一整个晚上，我想说我已经没有时差了。想得太好了， 今天睡得少。。我今天还要上班呢。 我的朋友问我可不可以帮他上他的班。

今年出国我感觉比去年没有那么好玩。 那是因为有压力 （压是个简体字，看得懂吧？），弟弟在高棉生病的时候，在高棉的医院等了一整天，等保险公司说要不要帮我付飞机钱，从那边到泰国。 为了这个，我们到晚上八点才坐上飞机，到了泰国就马上开到了。

除了这事情，我感觉今年看的东西比去年看得比较有意思。 今年看的古迹比较有意思而也欣赏。

我妈还没有回来的时候问我说看可不可以把电脑弄说可以打台湾用的中国字，我是说没办法，除了说把整个电脑都弄成中文。 这样的话我电脑就看不懂了，而也不能用拼音。 我跟我妈在去一些中国店问一问吧。 我也感觉说台湾用的中国字比较好看呢！

舅妈，我这次回台湾有加了三到四镑！ 好可怕。 没关系，我们吃的牛排太好吃了，比北美的牛排还好吃呢， 又便宜！台湾吃得太好了。