Tuol Sleng Museum
It’s commonly referred to as S-21. It was where the Khmer Rouge tortured their prisoners in Phnom Penh. It is a very graphic museum. I wouldn’t have wanted to have ever been held a captive there. I think I would have told them anything they wanted to know and made up lies for the rest. Unfortunately, they probably would have continued to torture me just because they didn’t believe me. Woe is me…
Silk Lesson
This lesson and the person she with whom she was working gave me a great lesson in how silk was produced, taking me from the eggs, to the worms to the cocoons to the silk moth and back to the egg stage. Considering their English wasn’t great and my ability to speak any other language is non-existent, I thought they did a rather marvelous job getting me to understand how ti all happened. Of course, what they were doing at an arts and crafts fair at the Angkor Wat Museum was to show how silk production happens. I felt really smart after talking to them.
Guillotine
If I’m not mistaken, this is a real guillotine that was used to chop off real heads. I think it was in use for several decades. That’s a lot of heads. The guillotine is on display at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. I think they’ve stopped using it.
War Stuff
In Hanoi you can find the Vietnamese Military History Museum. The Vietnamese are very proud of the fact that they defeated the French in the 1950′s and the Americans in the 1960′s and 70′s. As an American who had friends and family that were involved in the Vietnam war, the whole thing was a bit hard to swallow. That being said, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam exists. Whether the majority of people living there agree with the policies and procedures of their government is moot at the present time. There won’t be any elections there in the foreseeable future.
Me in Hanoi
That’s me in front of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Why did I go there? The books said that it was the best museum in Hanoi. Was it? I don’t know. I didn’t get to see all of the museums in Hanoi. But, of the ones I did see, it was the best. Did you know there are 54 ethnic minorities in Vietnam? Okay, maybe that’s not the exact number, but it’s close.
Hong Kong Map
So what’s the point of the above map? Well, today is the first day that I have ever made one of my own maps on Google. I did it to try and get some orientation of the city of Hong Kong. I placed markers on the map for the following tourist attractions: Chi Lin Nunnery, Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Lan Kwai Fong, Ocean Park, Star Ferry, Ten Thousand Buddha Monestarty, Tian Tan Buddha, Victoria peak, Stanley Market Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Wong Tai Sin, Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong Science Museum, Temple Street Night Market, Chungking Mansion and the Clock Tower. What I will now do is find a good place to stay near the center of the attractions and plot my entries and exists on the subway system so that I won’t spend all day trying to figure out what I’m doing when I actually get to the city. Plus, with a map, I can group attractions as well as have a better orientation for the city. I’ve started making maps of several cities. This one is of Hong Kong.
Atrium Art – OKC, OK
It’s called the Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower and it stands in the atrium of the Oklahoma City Art Museum. It’s one of the largest glass towers ever created by Dale Chihuly. It stands 55 feet tall and is 6 feet in diameter. It is comprised of 2,100 individually blown glass parts, held together by a seven piece steel armature, or spine, with 2,100 individual forks. It weighs 10 tons. I’ve always thought it’s one of the most significant pieces of glasswork I’ve ever seen.
Ethel at Ringling Museum – Sarasota
In Sarasota, FL we found the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Ringling Museum of the American Circus. We also visited Cà d’Zan – Venetian for "House of John" – which was the waterfront residence of the Ringlings, built in 1926. All three are located at the Ringling Complex in Sarasota. This was on our winter sojourn in our motorhome to Florida during the winter months of 2007 when we were evaluating our desire to become wandering gypsies. 02/2007
Ethel and Ernest
This is Ethel in Key West with the statue of Ernest Hemingway that is outside the Key West Museum. I’ve read a couple of his books. I plan to read more. 02/2007
Me – Corvette Museum
I’ve owned a few Corvettes in my day. This is the one car that "trips my trigger" and almost makes me violate one of the Ten Commandments. At one time in my life I could actually tell you the year a given Corvette on the street. No longer. But, if I had one car I would want to drive just for the sheer pleasure of driving it, the only one that comes to my mind is the Corvette. 08/2007
