Anyone who has travelled with me knows that I’m not a big fan of monkeys. But sometimes they are just so damn cute I can’t help myself.

These photos are from Wat Phnom, a Buddhist shrine set on the top of a hill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Some things change, and some things stay the same. Unfortunately, one of the things that hasn’t changed is the way that much of Asia treats its animals. I remember being shocked over a decade ago when I first came to this part of the world. I witnessed enough animal mistreatment that I actually created a whole section of my photo album with abuses I had observed.

The most blatant example of this so far into my journey came in Nha Trang.  Jen and I spent the day at Vinpearl Land, which is an island which makes an attempt at being a Vietnamese Disneyland. We rocked the waterslides, rode the amusement park rides and bumped bumper cars among other things. They had a “circus” in the afternoon that we thought we’d check out.

The circus consisted of dogs and monkeys dressed up and doing stupid tricks. The dogs were brought out in cages (really? a leash wouldn’t suffice?) and the monkeys remained tied up for the whole performance. One monkey was blindfolded and forced to run across a tightrope and slipped off near the end which sadly caused the mostly local crowd to erupt into laughter. The dogs rode tiny bicycles and were swatted with a riding crop when they didn’t remain in position. It made me sad to see animals treated in that fashion, but I’m sure it won’t be the last time.