Chasing Travel Adventures

On Friday, March 17, 2023 we headed to Palestine, Texas for the Dogwood Festival and Parade. First, we made a stop at the Local Diner in Coppell for lunch with friends who were also heading southeast of Dallas to Palestine. Friday evening we joined about 20 friends for dinner at Switch Brick-Oven Pizza and Wine Bar in Palestine. Most of us out-of-towners had stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites as we have in the past.

The Palestine Dogwood Festival Parade is an annual event held in the Historic Downtown and the Old Town district. This was the 85th Festival, making it the longest running Dogwood Festival in Texas. This year, parade morning was a little chilly, in the low 40s, so the crowd was not as large as in past years. There were still many adults, children, and toddlers bundled in jackets and blankets for parade viewing.

We have attended for the last 7 or 8 years with our SSR friends and joined in the parade. This year there were 11 SSRs in the parade. The crowds enjoy seeing the trucks and commenting on the look and colors of the trucks with some expressing their favorite color. Of course, if it’s not “Yellow” I am willing to lobby them to change their minds.

After the parade, we headed to Davey Dogwood Park where the Dogwood trees were in full bloom. Driving the 5+ miles of the park’s winding roads, we enjoyed one of the better bloom years that we have seen. After a couple of photo ops, we headed to the Bradford Cafe in the little town of Montalba. This cafe is known for its homestyle cooking. Many of our group enjoyed the hamburger steak with gravy and onions and others, including us, enjoyed a fabulous burger. We ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger with Onion Rings. After our lunch, we headed in different directions to head home.

Looking forward to the 86th Dogwood Festival.

Additional information on Dogwoods and the Davey Dogwood Park

Dogwoods are valued not only for their beautiful spring blooms but, their branches grow horizontally for a unique dimension. In the Fall the green leaves turn to a colorful orange-red, with clusters of bright scarlet fruit. In the winter, the scaly bark of the trunk looks like alligator skin. Typically an understory tree they can reach up to 40 feet tall and some can survive over 150 years. Dogwoods do best in a well-drained, slightly acid, sandy loam soil which is why they do well in East Texas. The abundance of blooms is related to the amount of sun received.

History of Davey Dogwood Park:

Two friends, Charles Wooldridge, power company manager, and Eugene Fish, bank president, having a casual cup of coffee in 1938, were talking about the unique beauty of the dogwood trees in the area. They agreed that Palestine should have a dogwood trail. They worked with the newspaper that day on publishing an article inviting out-of-towners to visit and view Palestine’s natural abundance of dogwoods. Over 20,000 visitors attended that year after an article appeared in a few Texas newspapers. Attendance doubled the second year. In 1944, local oil man, M.A. Davey, a nature-loving benefactor purchased over 250 acres of land where some of the trails were located and deeded it to Anderson County for a public park.

Legend of the Dogwood:

According to online sources, the dogwood tree has taken on symbolic meaning for many cultures. In Christianity, it is said that it was used by the Romans to make the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Legend states that at the time it grew tall and strong oak-like tree. The dogwood was ashamed of its role and begged forgiveness of Jesus, who transformed it to have slender and gnarled branches that could never again be made into a cross. So that this would not be forgotten, he made the dogwood flower into a cross with blood-red stained nail prints at the edges with a crown of thorns in the middle.

Native American legend also gives testimony to the cultural impact of the dogwood. According to Native American folk lore, a powerful chief demanded rich gifts from suitors for his four daughters. The gods were angry with his greedy behavior and turned him into a small tree with low branches that would never grow tall. His four daughters are still attendant in the four petals of the blossom.

Today was dedicated to Temple visits. Our first temple stop was Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was constructed during the early to mid 12th century but never fully completed. It is a religious temple originally built for Hindu worship but later transformed into Buddha worship. The temple grounds are on just over 400 acres. It is an amazing feat of engineering. The ground base is sand and it is surrounded by a moat to help maintain support and structural integrity. It is constructed with sandstone and each are dry fitted with no mortar or other substance used. Our next stop, Angkor Thom, was just a few minutes away. Angkor Thom was dedicated at the end of the 13th century. Angkor Thom has a larger land area that was a city inhabited by up to 150,000 people. The Temple that we visited in Angkor Thom was much smaller that Angkor Wat and was falling down in places. The carvings in the sandstone were not as well preserved. Our final temple of the day was Ta Prohm Temple that we visited in late afternoon when there were less crowds. Ta Prohm Temple dates back to the late 12th to early 13th century. The sandstone blocks were directly stacked one on top of the other and not staggered like a brick pattern. The structure is also crumbling in many places. Ta Prohm Temple is probably best known for the many trees that are growing on top of the structure with many roots snaking along and down the temple. Many of these roots are creating extensive damage.

This morning, our boat tied-off at the river bank and and we headed up an approximate 400 foot hill to visit the pagoda at Wat Hanchey and a Pre-Ankorian Temple dating back to the 7th Century. Walking around on top of the hill, we went over to tour the Monastery. There were a number of Monks at work planting in the garden as well as unloading a truck full of donated food supplies (rice, water, etc). The Monks live entirely off donations and they are willing to share with anyone needing assistance. It was explained that homeless, orphans, elderly with no other means are welcomed and cared for here. There is a lot of work to upkeep the area and the monks are constantly busy. The Monks and others that live on this hilltop Monastery total about 200 people. Once our visit was complete, we descended the 303 steps to return to the boat.

The afternoon excursion was a visit to an AMICA village. Funded by an NGO that provides free education to children, provides clean water to each residence, and teaches the village women crafts they can make to sell at the local village shop. When we arrived the children were excited and ready to show their exuberance. The teacher, a local villager herself, volunteers to educate the children and help the women learn a craft in order to make a modest wage. You could see the passion this women has for her community. After learning from the teacher about her work with the school and the village women, we were taken for a tour of the village. The kids eagerly latched onto a traveler, some had two kids to a person. It seemed as we walked, the number of kids increased exponentially. The first stop was a visit to a home where two weaving looms were set up, one cotton and one silk. Next was a stop at a local shop where the kids sang a couple of songs and our guide rewarded each with a bag of chips or candy. There was a women making bamboo spoons and another threading bracelets and necklaces for sale at the village craft shop. We headed back to the schoolhouse and boarded the bus for a short drive to the Wat Nokor temple, a 12th century Buddhist temple that was built on the ruins of an even more ancient temple. Walking through the ruins, damage from fighting between the Viet Cong and the American soldiers’ gunfire was prevalent. It’s unfortunate so much damage was caused to the site during the war. With these images in mind we headed back to our boat for our final night on-board and the Captains Farewell Dinner.

Our afternoon excursion took us to the village of Ankor Ban. Ankor Ban is one of only a few villages that was not burnt or destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period. Again, the villagers were very friendly and happy to see the Americans visiting. Our guide stopped numerous times to greet and talk with them. We stopped at one of the houses and visited with an older woman that shared she had lived in this village her entire life except during the Khmer Rouge period. She was forced to move to a nearby village so the Khmer Rouge army could use her house for their people. She went on to tell us that the building next door was used for the re-indoctrination (brainwashing) of citizens. Once the Khmer Rouge were forced out, she was able to return to her village and home. She currently lives there with her daughter and family. She was happy to give us a tour of her home.

Started the day with a visit on-board with the Cambodian Passport Control and Visa officers. Formalities out of the way and our passports stamped we are ready to visit Cambodia.

Our first location was the Royal Palace. We were very fortunate that we could visit the Palace as it had just opened from Covid lock-down 2-weeks earlier. Beautifully kept Palace grounds and buildings. There was a perfect view of the Palace Residence and a blue flag indicated that the King was in residence. We visited the Silver Pagoda built for the King in 1897. The floor is covered in 5,329 solid silver tiles about 10” x 10” and weigh about 2.5 pounds each. At current silver prices, it is estimated to be worth $5 million US. Photos were not allowed in the Silver Pagoda. We also visited the Royal Regalia building where we were allowed entrance on the first floor that has replicas of the King’s Golden Crown and copies of the costumes worn during Royal Visits and on certain days of the week. There is one for each day of the week. Our next destination was the National Museum that houses one of the largest collections of Angkorian art. There were a large number of old sandstone statues in very good condition based on their age. Also on display, was a Royal Boat Cabin from the 19th century and an old wooden loom that holds the Guinness World Record for producing the longest hand woven scarf of 1,149.8m (3,772ft 3in) in Phnom Penh Cambodia on 1 July 2018. We ended our morning excursion with a visit to the Central Market. The Market is well organized and a lot less chaotic than the markets visited in Vietnam.

The afternoon excursion was to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, better known as S21. Originally, this site was a school that was converted into a Torture Detention Prison. This was a heart-wrenching visit because of the genocide that was committed against an estimated 1.7 - 2 million Cambodians by Pol Pot and the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Out of respect to the real people who suffered here I will avoid posting explicit details and photos. You can research further information by a Google search for this museum and the Killing Fields. The movie “First, They Killed my Father” by Angelina Jolie and “The Killing Fields” directed by Roland Joffe are based on this event.

Our day started with a morning excursion to Cai Be, a village of close to 300,000 people. We focused on an area close to the Catholic Church. Our first stop in a quiet area of the village was a family run candy shop that specialized in coconut caramel sweets, rice paper, rice cakes, and sticky rice wine. The only automation that I saw in any of these process was while stirring the coconut milk and sugar to make the coconut caramel sweets. This saves someone from having to stand over a hot vat constantly stirring until the caramel is the correct color and consistency. Once the caramel is ready, it is formed into small balls and then placed into molds to be stretched and shaped. Once cooled, it can be cut into bite size pieces, wrapped with a piece of rice paper to help prevent sticking to the wrapper during the long hot summer months, and finally hand wrapped to be sold. We watched a couple of ladies in the shop making rice paper. They take a thin rice paper batter, spread it evenly over the cooking surface (similar to crepes) and steam for 30 seconds. Once cooked, it’s moved over to a cooling table, then placed on a rack and set outside to dry. The ladies make about 600 of these every day. We were shown a still for distilling rice wine and were given a taste. It is very strong! Probably the most interesting of what we saw that visit, was making puffed rice treats. They start out with a hot vat, add sand to it and heating to high temperature. As they stir the sand, the coconut oil is added to prevent sticking and work it throughly. Then the fun part! Then rice is added and the hot sand allows the rice to heat and start popping like popcorn! Once the rice has finished popping, it is dropped into a sieve to remove the sand then another sieve to remove the rice hulls and then added to a big bowl with coconut syrup and coloring, and finally added to a big mold. It is then evenly rolled out, measured, cut and packaged. Outside the candy shop, there was a public works project to add a concrete road/walkway and adding rock and wire netting to slow river erosion. There was a barge loaded with 6,000 tree poles, with a group of 8 men to unload the barge. They are paid the amount equal to $270, split between them, to unload these poles. They said it takes about 7 hours to unload and they had just started around 10am and the temperature was 80+ degrees with over 70% humidity.

Back on our water taxi, we headed to the Cai Be Catholic Church built between 1929 - 1932. This church has the tallest bell tower in the region. It’s a beautiful church that still has the original pews and stain glass windows inside. During the war, the church was used as a hiding place by the guerrillas as they launched attacks on the Americans from there. The American helicopter gunships would eventually fire at the gorillas. Some damage to the church still visible today with bullet holes in the walls and in some of the windows

Our afternoon excursion was to Sa Dec visiting a Caodaist temple, the local market and the “House of the Chinese” made famous in the book “The Lover” by Marguerite Duras. Caodaist is a newer religion dating back to the 1920s that drew from the beliefs of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Christianity. The local market has everything anyone would need from fruits and vegetables, meats, seafood, clothes, shoes, housewares, and more. If it was needed a shop or stall in the market had it. The market was packed. Not only did you have to weave in and out of the crowds and dodge the shoppers stopped to buy, you also had to watch out for all the scooters going up down the rows of shops.