Kampuchea House, Cambodia (pt 2)

With thirty six kids and only two weeks to get to know them all, I wish I could have stayed longer! I had an amazing time getting to know these beautiful children. Even though many of them couldn’t speak much English, they’d still do their best to communicate; using what little words they knew with all sorts of gestures to convey their message. A lot of them struggle to say my name, I think because a few of the sounds in my name are not common in Khmer, so it confuses them. 

  

The kids love reading. Sometimes they’ll read to us in Khmer, and sometimes we’ll read to them in English. I’m not sure how much they actually understand, but they seem to love it, regardless. Some of them quite like repeating the words after us, and I recently discovered that Nu (who my family is sponsoring) is a very good reader! She read a book with me, only stopping at the difficult words; she knew ‘me’, ‘the’, ‘letter’, ‘be’ and other relatively simple words. The book was repetitive so she picked up on more complex words like ‘favourite’ reasonably quickly.

Another thing they all love is hand claps. When I were in primary school “Apple on a Stick” was a very popular hand clap, so we’ve taught it to them. Most of them can do all the actions, and one of them even has some of the words down. I just wish I could remember more hand claps!! They enjoy “If You’re Happy And You Know It”, and some of them now know the words too.

The boys seem to enjoy tickling us! Although, it is really more like pinching!! That said, tickling as compared with their rough play amongst themselves seems not so bad. 

Slightly off topic but interesting: on our last weekend in Siem Reap Sokhoeun took us out for dinner...the strangest and most interesting meal I’ve ever had. Initially a small bowl that smelt like raw fish was placed in front of us. Sokhoeun added peanuts, chilli, lemongrass and lime juice; suddenly it smelt marginally better. Luckily, it tasted much much nicer than it smelt! This was our dipping sauce. Then cooked beef and raw veggies were set down, for us to dip into this strange sauce. Lastly, fried rice was added; the most delicious fried rice in the world. I have no idea what they put in it but it was incredibly scrumptious. Later on something completely foreign to me was set down. We thought Sokhoeun said it was ‘beans’ but found out the next day it was actually BEES! The tiny cooked bees would pop in our mouth, and spurt out very fish-like flavours. So weird. Then lastly we were told to try canton eggs...which we later found out were turtle eggs! We cracked it open, and it looked like jelly. Then we put a little bit of pepper on top and sucked out the egg. Salty. Thick. Odd. I probably wouldn’t eat many of these foods again but I’m glad we tried! Interesting experience. 

The final day at the orphanage was heaps of fun! Some other visitors from Australia were there for the day. They’d brought some presents and we had some too, so plenty to keep the kids entertained! We bought a couple of skipping ropes, which the kids love. Or at least some of them did! Quite a few of them were scared of it.. Knowing that it was our last day the kids were extra affectionate and amazingly neither Jo or I cried when we said goodbye!

Tomorrow morning we’ll be packing up and heading home! Even though I’ve had an incredible trip I can’t wait to get home after seven months away from all my family and friends.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

We generally get home from the orphanage around 4-4:30pm and we take days off every now and then which means that we make the most of Siem Reap. We’re staying in the Old Market area, which is a great spot to be. There are markets and restaurants everywhere. We go to a market almost every night, and have managed to get our bartering down to a fine art. Things are so much cheaper here than Thailand! A meal is generally less than $2; and a good meal too! We often eat at the markets, or street stalls. All the food is delicious! Tops that we paid $2 for are $1 here. Sunglasses that we paid $3 for are $1 here. Wishing we’d not shopped so much in Thailand! But still happy with all our purchases. Fingers crossed our bags won’t be too heavy for the flights home..

Sticky rice in Bamboo

Another thing we love doing here is eating. Khmer (Cambodian) food is delicious! It’s quite like Thai, but generally less spicy. When we’re at the orphanage they cook for us, and it is always amazingly tasty. We’ve had Lok Lak, which is apparently a traditional Khmer dish. It’s basically beef and onions over lettuce, with rice (almost everything is with rice!) My favourite meal at the orphanage was another dish which I didn’t catch the name of.. It was served with all the food separated, and up to us how much of each we’d put in. There was a few greens, some noodles and an amazing chicken with tangy sauce. Soooo good. On the drive between Siem Reap and the orphanage each day we always pass a billion places selling sticky rice, which comes inside a piece of bamboo! Needless to say we tried that one in a hurry! Kind of weird.. But good. We’ve also been to tons of restaurants; from Indian to Italian to Thai (can’t get away from Thai! Yum yum yum). Belinda took us to a Khmer restaurant for Amok, a traditional curry. It was super rich and creamy, but the flavour was amazing. Tonight Sokhoeun (the Orphanage Director) is taking us to a very Khmer restaurant, where we wouldn’t be able to order without his assistance, because nothing is in English, and no one there will speak English!

We’ve discovered that massages are not nearly as good in Cambodia as they were in Thailand. We’ve had some veeeery interesting experiences here. Each time we go for a massage we pay slightly more, hoping that higher cost = better quality. 

On one of our day’s off we did a ceramics class. I was really looking forward to it, but it was quite a let down. We had about an hour on the pottery wheel, which I’d never used before, and I loved trying it out. The teacher would show us how to start, wait until we had a vague shape, then just take over and finish it. I really enjoyed experimenting with it, but each time I asked how to do something, he’d just do it for me, so I never got to learn anything. And I don’t really feel like I actually made anything! Disappointing. 

A much less disappointing excursion was our quad biking!! We spent ten or fifteen minutes getting some instruction and trying it out on the nearby roads with someone guiding us. Then once we were comfortable we set off into the countryside! We rode around, initially on a highway, then mostly on dirt tracks. Some of them were smooth and even, but most were bumpy, which just made it more fun! We were lucky in that we had a beautiful sunset that night. We stopped a few times for photos, with local kids occasionally jumping in. We also saw a lot of cows. At one point I got stuck being a large group of buffalo who were taking up the whole road, and just a little bit later a baby cow was running along next to me.  

Another afternoon we asked our tuk tuk driver to take us down to the lake. Lake Tonle Sap. We paid a ridiculous amount to hop on a boat for an hour or so. We thought we’d be going around the edge of the lake for a bit, seeing various things. We hopped on the boat and went through a “floating village” which wasn’t actually floating, because it’s the dry season. But still, very cool, with houses up on ten metre stilts. Then our driver took us to a restaurant (which was floating!) and we were forced to sit there for 15 minutes, while our driver apparently had something to eat. Felt like a bit of a tourist trap, like they were gonna keep us there until we ordered something! But we didn’t give in. Eventually we got going and finally made it to the main part of the river, at which point our driver said “Ok, we go back now?”. We thought we’d only just begun but apparently we’d seen everything. Picking up on the fact that we weren’t particularly satisfied he stopped off at the village on the way back and told us we could look around. It’s much different to any other village I’ve ever seen, with everything raised so high above the ground. Overall, it was good but we paid far too much, which makes me unsure if it was worth it..

Today is Saturday, and we’re having a day off from the orphanage. We’re planning on sleeping, getting massages, and going shopping. Tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage & then Monday I fly home!!!

I love Siem Reap, I would definitely come back one day.

Kampuchea House, Cambodia (pt 1)

The whole gang!

Jo and I have two weeks in total in Cambodia; one week down, one to go. We’re staying in SIem Reap but the main reason for our visit is to volunteer at Kampuchea House, a home for orphaned and deserted children. The orphanage is about an hours drive outside of Siem Reap, near a small village. There are 36 children, and I think about 9 or 10 adults living there. We have been fortunate enough to coincide our trip with Belinda’s (from Australia, works for Kampuchea House) so she often drives us out to the orphanage.  When she’s not around or busy with other things we get a tuk tuk out there, which takes a bit longer but there’s always so much to look at, making it interesting for us. Recently we’ve seen a lot of dead animals strapped to carts attached to motorbikes, being transported along the highway. Almost makes me consider vegetarianism. 

Chayna & Rea wearing our sunnies!

The orphanage was started by a few Australians; a friend of my mum’s friend works with the orphanage and that’s how we got the gig! Everyone there is so lovely. The kids are incredibly polite, and every time we arrive they come running towards us; similarly, every time we leave they give us hugs and wave until we’re out of sight. 

Initially we were told we’d be teaching English, but there’s not really any organised time for us to “teach”..Instead, we play! We play table tennis, we do drawings, play board games, we often just make up games! It’s fun. Most of the kids don’t speak much English, but they’re adorable and very keen to be entertained. 

CUTIE!!!!

The kids all go to school, except little Samnang, who is only two years old! The primary and secondary school are combined, going up to grade 9. Then a bit further down the road there is a high school for grades 10-12. The high schools spend most of the day at school, but come home for lunch. All the other kids do half days of school, which seems to be the most common way in Cambodia. Some of them go from about 7am to 11am then the rest go from about 12pm until 4pm. This means that there are always kids around for us to play with!

We asked if we could see the school and they promptly arranged it for us. I was surprised to find that there were only about thirty students in each classroom; I was expecting over-stuffed classroom with minimal supplies. I guess I was half right. They sit at quite small and old desks, and only have a few books and pencils each. The good old black board is still in use; though, they were using black boards at UMass, so maybe it’s just Australia that’s put them in the past! 

We watched a couple of minutes of a grade nine (ish) maths class, and although the talking and writing was in Khmer (their language) numbers are written the same as ours, so we could follow. It seemed like he was essentially teaching out of a textbook. But I was quite impressed with the way he went through the problem; didn’t seem much different to what teachers would do at home. However he would ask individuals to stand up and read their method out to the class, which seemed intimidating but I suppose that’s their way of teaching here.

One of the many pictures Pich's taken of herself!

Each time I get my camera out the kids are all over it. They let me take maybe three or four pictures before they decided it was time to take over the camera. I often get it back 200-and-something pictures later! Usually when it’s out of battery or has no more space. Mostly they love taking pictures of themselves. Very cute.

The tough choice..

On another day we had a “girly” day, but I think the boys loved it as much as the girls! A few of Belinda’s friends had sorted through their jewellery and given Belinda what they no longer wanted. We laid out all the necklaces and bracelets on the table and the girls came up one by one to choose something they liked. All the boys were at the side, pointing and shouting out which ones they thought the girls should pick. At the end, when there were a few left over the boys got to take some too! It was like Christmas for them, they loved it.

Thai, Rea & Ith with their necklaces

Then we got out some nail polish and painted everyone's nails. Again, the boys were joining in! I had one of the girls paint my nails with a bobby pin, drawing flowers! She did an incredible job.

Painting Nu's nails

So far I’m loving it! But we’re only half way through our time here, so there’ll be more to come...  

Temples of Cambodia

The main reason we're in Cambodia is to volunteer at an orphanage.. But I'll get to that another time.

Yesterday we took a day off from the orphanage to see the temples! The temples are the biggest tourist attraction in Siem Reap. There are more than 300 temples in the area, and around 5000 throughout the country. However they also think that there’s probably more which are still undiscovered. We were told to get an early start because it gets so hot during the afternoon. We set off at 8am and after stopping at a ticket check point (where they take a photo of you to put on your ticket) we arrived at Angkor Wat.. The biggest Hindu temple in the world! It was pretty damn impressive. It’s falling apart slowly; all around the grounds there are piles of rocks that have fallen. We were told they fall all the time, so we should keep an eye out! 

We hired a guide we told us all about the history and the architectural features. He particularly liked pointing out the ladies sculpted onto the walls, who were all pretty much the same but with different hairstyles. Must’ve explained that at least ten times. Needless to say I remember that little fact, but very few others. He also showed us many bullet holes, and bomb markings left during the Civil War. 

We climbed some veeeery steep stairs up the top of the Wat. To do this you had to respectfully dressed, so I pulled my dress down as far below my knees as possible, and Jo put pants over her shorts. And this is not the kind of weather where you want to be wearing pants over shorts! Soooo hot. Luckily, the view at the top was worth it.

The next temple we ventured to was Ta Phrom, a temple in the midst of a jungle. It also just so happens to be where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed! While it was nowhere near as big as Angkor Wat (and not nearly in such good condition; it’s practically fallen apart) it was incredible. There are trees there which have grown all over the temple. Apparently they are a special type of tree which will grow on anything, so they climb up the walls. Their roots are humongous. I’m surprised the temple hasn’t completely fallen apart. 

Two temples down, three-hundred-something to go!

Bangkok

Relaxing...

We got an overnight train from Suratthani (the nearest train station to Koh Phangan) all the way up to Bangkok. It took around 12 hours and really wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t sooo cold. They really pumped up the air-con! When we arrived at 6am, we went to bed and eventually made it out to explore the area in the afternoon. We found lots of street food and massage parlours; both of which we tried out, of course! And perhaps a manicure/pedicure too. We went to a nice, if slightly pricy, restaurant for dinner. Yes, $7 per meal, that’s pricy! But it was delicious. I’ve fallen in love with Thai curries. After dinner we went to the local night markt. So different to all the other markers we’ve been to. They just want to rip you off..instead of starting at $5 for a pair of knock-off sunglasses, they’d start at at least $20. Surely no one falls for that. We managed to easily get them down to $2. 

Our very own PAD THAI!

Early the next morning we headed off for a Thai cooking class. This was probably one of the biggest highlights not only of Bangkok but of Thailand. As no one else had signed up that day we got a private class! This meant that we could pick which meals to cook. After making our selection we headed to the market to buy all the ingredients. Over a four hour class we made pad thai, two soups (Tom Yum & Tom Ka) two curries (Green & Penang) a papaya salad, and a sticky rice/coconut/mango dessert. I was most excited about pad thai but ended up being most impressed by the dessert. Jo and I are officially in love with sticky rice. With any luck I’ll come home a professional Thai chef. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Afterwards we went to the Grand Palace. It was not like anything I’ve ever seen before, I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s full of beautiful buildings, most of which are decorated with gold. And there’s an amazing temple; the temple of the Emerald Buddha. Inside almost everything is gold, except of course the Emerald Buddha. It’s stunning. I read briefly about the history of the little Emerald Buddha, how he has moved between many countries over time. He’s not very big but he sits perched in the middle of the huge temple. 

The following day we went to the Chatachuk weekend market. I reckon it’s the biggest market I’ve ever been to. They had everything you could possibly imagine; from shoes, to jewellery, to homewares, to food, to massages. Yes, we got another massage, a foot massage. Not a good one. We shopped until we ran out of money, then spent the remainder of our last day in Thailand lying by the pool. 

Goodbye Thailand... And hello Cambodia! My last stop!

Koh Phangan

The journey to Koh Phangan was one of the quickest and easiest we’ve had in Thailand. The ferry wasn’t too late, the water wasn’t too choppy, and we even managed to get a seat. When we arrived we ordered lunch (pad thai!) and cocktails to have by the pool. The weather was perfect, so we spent most of the day lounging around. Eventually we pulled ourselves away from the pool and explored the nearby markets. We both bought painfully bright tops to wear to the Full Moon Party (the following night) and had an incredibly yummy & cheap meal at the night bazaar. I may have had pad thai again...

Our second day in Koh Phangan was our busy adventurous day. Yet again we signed ourselves up for a tour. We’ve been finding that when we do the tours we get a lot more done than we would on our own. It’s also usually very well priced and we get to meet a few new people! This tour took us to many random places... 

1.       A quick boxing lesson. Boxing is incredibly popular in Thailand.  I had a few tips on how to use my feet and knees to hurt a guy..where it really hurts. I’m ready to defend myself now!

2.       A waterfall. We took our shoes off and climbed up along the beautiful waterfall; fresh water! Loved it. Afterwards we stopped for a quick dip in the nearby dam.

3.       Archery. On my first attempt none made it on to the board, second attempt three (out of five) made it! Quite proud!

4.       ELEPHANT TREKKING!!!! We got a half hour ride on a gorgeous elephant. It’s quite a bumpy, unsteady ride, particularly when they go into the water! I never realised elephants were so hairy.. Afterwards we got to give our elephant food and hugs. They’re so gentle. I love elephants! However, the guy running the trek was holding a rather sharp-looking tool, which had me worried. He never used it on the elephants but just seeing that he had it and could use it made me uncomfortable. 

5.       Snorkelling. This was definitely the best snorkelling I’ve ever done! We swam out about 100-200m and saw loads of fish, mostly quite little but some almost as long as my arm.  We saw a few jellyfish which I attempted to steer clear of. Snorkelling never appealed the me that much, but I really liked it. However, I didn’t find Nemo.. Or Dory for that matter!

6.       Canopy. When we saw this on the list (accompanied by a picture) we assumed we would be doing a zip-line ride but it was actually a high ropes course with a few zip-lines throughout. We were in the middle of the jungle, so in the few moments that I wasn’t completely freaked out by how high off the ground I was..I admired the view. I did something similar in Singapore.. The one in Singapore was much harder but definitely not as high. 

7.       Herbal sauna. This was the hottttest sauna I’ve ever been in! Before entering you had to throw a bucket of cold water over yourself, and then you’d come out to do it again every 2-3 minutes. I think that had something to do with opening your pores. It also smelt like tea, which was obviously the herbal part of it. Definitely something I would never have thought to try if we’d not done this tour.

The following day was probably the laziest day I’ve had in months! We slept til the early afternoon and achieved very little til it was almost dark. At this point we ventured out for a massage! I had a back shoulder & neck massage, then a foot scrub. The whole time I was getting the foot scrub (while lying face down I was unsure about what she was actually doing. It felt like she paper-mache’d my feet, then took it off and massaged with various creams. Both the massage and the foot scrub were incredibly amazing, and I paid a total of $12. Needless to say, we were back in the morning for another massage. This time round I tried a full body massage, which I didn’t like as much.. I’m too damn ticklish!