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» Viet Nam & Cambodia
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Angkor Wat Towers 
Cho Lon Market - Sai Gon, Viet Nam 
The Mekong Delta - Sai Gon, Viet Nam |
Trees at Angkor - Angkor, Cambodia
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The Falls at Kulen
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Sai Gon, Viet Nam
My travels have been enriching, enhancing, marvelous education. They
have taught me to be more aware, more sensitive, more quiet. To
appreciate the FLOW of another culture - to gently dip in a toe
to the stream of another and then smoothly slip into the river,
carried by the current of another place and people. New perfumes,
new colors, new textures, new movements.
Cho Lon Market (Chinese market Sai Gon,
Viet Nam)
I am shaken by the visual imagery. Shaken by the darkness of the
fruit isles. The small people squatting by baskets larger than they
- a great bounty and yet they are slight and poor. Beautiful reds
and greens and yellows in the eerie light - the darkness. I feel
so foreign - as though I invade their intimate world with my camera.
I thank them.
Angkor, Cambodia
Understanding between people does not come from politicians but,
from people to people - respecting each other - listening to each
other. Here I ride with a polite, gentle Cambodian. He tells me of
his peoples history and love of the Temples. We talk about how things
may change. Monkeys run about, clouds gather, water buffaloes wade
in the moats of Angkor Wat. This is a beautiful and holy place. My
heart is stirred the wonder of it all.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
I have also felt physical sensations I've not known before. The Cu
Chi tunnels and Tuol Sleng prison broke my heart and choked my throat.
Man's inhumanity came roaring forth - screaming in my ears - filtering
into my brain. My heart aches. My body is sickened. I have to get
away.
After the prison we are silent for the ride to the airport. But not
as silent as the thousands of faces that peered back at us from all
those photos on the wall. Not as silent as the empty brick cells
with their shackles on the floor. Not as silent as the barbed wire
wrapped around and around like wrapping paper. The grass grows up,
the buildings are quiet.
 A
country forgotten by many was once a glorious capital.
Wracked by the horrors of a war not so long ago, Cambodia
bears the scars of limb and spirit and stone. Yet the
pages of history reveal a time of cultural splendor
at ANGKOR. Traveling back 1200 years I stand amidst
the splendor of the ancients. Temple mountains soar
up through the jungle canopy. Between light and shadow
their presence looms, captivating me, fixing me in
a sublime moment. Breaking out of the trees the landscape
shimmers with water and reflections.
I travel in an attempt to discover ethnic detail. And in my travels
I am met with connecting threads. Universal symbolisms and mythologies
are quietly revealed. Ethnic details speak more boldly. And yet what
calls to me across the ages is the same voice that speaks to me as
I travel today. It says "We Are One." |
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