Kampot and Kep 26 – 28 May

From Sihanoukville we moved further down the coast to Kampot. Here we stayed at a chilled out place by the riverside. Our room was a three sided bungalow set in the garden, with a curtain as a fourth wall for privacy. This was quite idyllic setting, however we later learned that the main building was in fact a former snake temple; explaining the cool designs on the balustrades, and also the fact that there had been several snake sightings in the area, which made us feel a little less secure.

The bar at this hostel turned out to be a popular hangout for a bunch of expats; it felt a little like ‘central perk’ from ‘Friends’, or the bar from ‘how I met your mother.’ It was a great group of people hanging out and working at the bar though, and we hung around there a bit just chilling out.

We also rented a motorbike and scooted around, checking out Kampot, which is actually filled with some great old colonial buildings, from the time of the French, and nice little shops and cafes. One café we went to was run by the deaf community, and you ordered by writing down your choices, or signing them (signs for certain things provided in the menu).

We definitely felt the presence of the rainy season at this time, but decided to brave the rain with a day trip on the motorbike, down to Kep, armed with our cheap ponchos (basically like wearing a massive plastic bag, and just as noisy). Kep is a seaside town well known for its seafood, particularly crabs. We arrived at the crab market, and saw all the local ladies, fully dressed and knee deep in the surf hauling up cages full of crabs. Just down the road were rows of restaurants, serving said crab and other seafood. We sat ourselves down and proceeded to feast on delectable crab with kampot pepper. Interestingly, kampot pepper is apparently famous in the culinary world, and will soon be awarded ‘geographic indication;’ therefore allowing no one else to use the name ‘kampot pepper’ unless it’s grown in kampot (as with champagne, brie, etc.).

From Kampot we bid farewell to Cambodia and headed for the Vietnamese border.

Sihanoukville 20 - 26 May

Our next stop was Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southern coast. We had heard that some areas of Sihanoukville were over-touristed and a little sleazy, so instead sussed out a chilled out beach to stay at; Otres beach. 

On our first day here, we went on a boat tour arranged by an American guy living and working at Otres. There were seven of us on this mini tour, and we had a stunning day for it. We visited Bamboo Island, a gorgeous island uninhabited apart from the one guesthouse’s cluster of bungalows. Here we swam and snorkelled about, went for a walk, and had a delicious seafood barbecue on the beach. We also went cliff jumping before heading back to the mainland.

Early one morning (around 5am) I woke up to a rustling noise in the thatching of our bungalow room. I thought it was a mouse or rat or something, so put on my glasses to investigate. To my astonishment, I saw a hole which had been made by parting the thatching, and through this hole, a large, human, eye staring at me. I shouted “hey!,” and a male voice replied “what!” before the eye retreated. I jumped out of bed and raced around to the outside to spot the peeping tom. All I saw however was a retreating back strolling away into a paddock. I was a little disturbed by the thought of someone apparently watching us as we slept. We changed places that day anyway, so no need to worry about a return visit. I did mention this to someone later however, and they explained there had been some robberies lately; probably our peeping tom was scoping out our room and valuables and would return later to pinch them.

We strolled down Otres beach’s one road, and settled in at Everything is Everything, another bar/restaurant/guesthouse. Our bungalow here was right on the beach, and caught the all-important cooling breeze. While the amenities were basic here, the location and the atmosphere was superb and we found ourselves staying a few days at Otres. Everything is Everything is run by two Aussie guys, and the whole vibe was super relaxed (also partly because it was the low season – for a couple of days it was just us staying there).

There were quite a few nice little guesthouses, restaurants and bars at Otres (although hard to find local food), and a great crowd there. Chatting to some of the expats who have ended up living and working in the guesthouses there, we could see the appeal. Towards the end of our stay at Otres however, the weather really started to pack in which was a shame, so we moved on, bidding farewell to our relaxing sojourn at the beach.

Sam Bat Village, 15 - 18 May

We were sitting on a park bench enjoying some local fruits whilst looking out over the river that runs through Siem Reap when a gentleman introduced himself as Waha. He explains that he is the director of a small school, located an hour out of town in a village called Sam Bat.
The purpose of the school is to give children in the area that cannot afford school English lessons.
Some of the children are orphans whose parents have either passed away or went to Thailand to make more money and never returned. The name of the school is under privileged school Cambodia. You can volunteer to help teaching English, and for $5 USD a day you get shelter, water and 3 meals a day.
We looked at the pictures and took a flyer, the next few days we saw the temples and explored the town centre and decided to extend our stay in Siem Reap and spend 3 nights in Sam Bat.
The following day we took a tuk tuk an hour of town, off the main road and down a dirt road through many small villages, it’s interesting how differently people live just an hour out of town. Modern concrete homes are replaced by wooden stilt houses, the cars disappear and so does the power.

We arrived and met our fellow volunteers David and Sjoerd from the Netherlands.
We took a walk with Waha and a few of the local boys. We climb a small bamboo structure in a field as it catches a nice breeze and spend an hour or so talking to Waha he tells us about his school, his mission, the children and their stories. Waha explains that there are 3 classes a day ranging from 1-2 hours. In between these times the children are at home helping. Not all the children go to all 3 classes, some make it to 2, and some to 1. 

 

After this it’s time for lunch; a family living next to the school made our lunch of small fried fish and rice which was very tasty.
After lunch the children started turning up with pens and books in hand, with huge smiles but a little too shy to say hello. Once sat down Waha gave them some info about us in Khmer then encouraged them with  “Good…” then an almighty “GOOD AFTERNOON TEACHER!” roared through the classroom.

We found the classes a little frustrating as we didn’t speak Khmer we couldn’t ask them if they understood and couldn’t explain rules such as “A” vs “An” but I think after many examples and big circles on the board they got it. It seemed a little bit like the children just mimic what you say without understanding what the words mean, and with the language barrier it’s hard to figure out how well they understand. But in saying that there were the more advanced classed where the children spoke pretty good English so it seems like it works.

That night we slept in the newly constructed library building which is a small concrete building with a tile floor which with a few thin reed mats made for a surprisingly good sleep. Unfortunately the next night and the days following there was a wedding party down the road which had super loud booming music from 5am till midnight for a few days on end, which is surprising seeing that there is no power in the village. So with the heat and the music sleep was a little harder; fortunately between classes there was time for naps, my favourite nap spot the bamboo stilt hut we had met at earlier.

The next day Bruno from a local NGO was visiting and he and Waha were discussing a proposal to supply the children with uniforms. Waha had to create a proposal document outlining the details of the request and the goals of the school. This was difficult as his English while good didn’t translate to formal documents, also without a laptop this didn’t look easy. Bruno explained to me and Waha that if any one of the criteria or documents didn’t make it to him by X date the project would be scrapped as there are many other projects that need funding. So I volunteered Hannah’s excellent written skills and suggested that I get a ride back into Siem Reap to pick up our netbook.
We went back into town I shared Bruno’s tuk tuk as he was heading home and Waha followed on his motorbike. Waha had some things in town to do so we decided on a meeting point and after I gathered the netbook, some medical supplies, and some flip flops and clothing from a nearby 2^nd hand shop (some of the kids didn’t have shoes and their clothes were torn and mouldy); Waha and I met up. By now it’s night and very dark, as we were heading out to the village on the main road we got a flat tyre. Now in New Zealand this means calling AA or hoping you’re near a garage. In Cambodia, like a lot of south east Asia, there seems to be a bike repair shop every few kilometres.
We arrive at someone’s home and he opens up his garage. 15 minutes later we had a new inner tube and we are on our way. A few kilometres after the turn on to the dirt road it goes flat again (maybe something sharp was still lodged in the tyre) and we find another fellow to change it for us.
By this time it was around 10pm we have been gone for near on 5 hours and I was sure Hannah was getting worried. About a kilometre down the road the chain on Waha’s motorbike starts to make slipping noises and it gets to the point where it stops and the bike makes a lot of noise but doesn’t go anywhere. So after multiple failed attempts to wake up local repairmen we start walking the bike with quite a few kilometres to go. We come across a group of tipsy locals that Waha knew and after maybe 30 minutes of group discussion and pulling and prodding the bike they gave up.
Waha called the family that lived next to the school and soon after two guys turned up on another motorbike/scooter. We all jumped on his bike; one guy on the front, then me behind him and the other behind me; we must had looked like an oreo on a bike. The guy on the back reached behind him and grabbed Waha’s hand and pulled him while he was on his bike, and with this human tow rope we finally made it back to the school, what a long trip but a truly south east Asian experience.
Once we got back it must have been 11pm and everyone was waiting for us so we could go to the wedding down the road. We arrive and most people had left but there was still a group of maybe 15 men dancing, and with drunken excitement they quickly invite up us to dance. With twirling hands and bopping up and down we danced away I paired up with the fiancées father; our dance consisted of facing each other and bopping up and down with the music clapping and a paddy cake style hand clapping game. We retired home and finally made it to bed only to be woken up at 5am with more wedding music. The next day classes continued as usual and in between some games with the children; mostly the south east Asian version of hacky sack, which is a group of flat plastic disks and a group of feathers poked through them; it works really well, makes a reassuring sound when kicked and the feathers ensure the unit comes down controlled which makes it easier to hit. 

A game of hand tennis

Meanwhile Hannah spent most of the day with Waha on the netbook writing up the proposal for the uniforms.

writing the proposal with many proof readers 

We spoke with Waha about his plans for the school and he mentioned that he would like another small building for computers as the school had just had a generator donated. This being a topic I am interested in I had a long discussion suggesting that he uses ex lease laptops or something similar as the generator was fairly small (as we found out we couldn’t charge our netbook while the family watched TV). So on the way back to Siem Reap we stopped by a hardware shop and brought 160kg of cement to donate to the project. This isn’t a lot as Waha said they will need around a ton to get started but every small bit helps.
I won’t forget our time in Sam Bat; the great feeling of being somewhere and having such friendly locals that aren’t trying to sell you things but are glad to see you and the HUGE smiles on the children’s faces.

Schools out

Cheeky and shy

You can view the school site at http://underprivilegedschool.blogspot.com/
If you’re looking to do similar work in other countries visit http://www.workaway.info/

Battambang 10-11th May

We arrived in Battambang from Phnom Penh and after being dropped at the bus stop we turned up at our guesthouse, named ‘bus stop’ – very confusing. An Australian-owned place that advertises “the coldest beer in town” – what is it with Australians and their beers needing to be the coldest?

The next day we turned up at the bamboo train locally known as a norry, BattamBang is one of the only places left in Cambodia that has these. During the 80’s and 90’s there were hundreds if not thousands of these things whizzing around the country. Of course before the Khmer rouge shutdown the railways in the 70’s these tracks were for actual trains and as the country recovers and repairs the seriously neglected tracks the bamboo trains become more scarce. In construction they are simply a steel frame sitting on steel wheels and covered with a bamboo base powered by what seems to be a go cart or scooter engine, which propels them down the tracks at speeds up to 40 km/h

40 km/h doesn’t seem that fast but with the low centre of gravity, the lack of suspension, sound deadening, walls, and by the looks of it nothing but a bit of wood for brakes it soon gets more exciting than you’d expect.

When another “train” is met coming the other way they both stop and one helps the other to lift their train off the tracks drives past and then puts it back on again.

moving out of the way for oncoming traffic

At the other end of the track we arrived at a small village full of eager locals for you to get out of the heat and enjoy a drink. Children create animals from flax and proudly show you around their village (of course for a small fee)

She was taking pictures of me so I got to take one back

When we got back we found an evening cooking class which involved a market tour, which along with the normal fare of meat/veges/ fruit also had fried crickets and cockroaches.
We sat in the kitchen of a family run restaurant and chopped and bashed under the supervision of the husband, while the wife and children attended to the patrons. We created a fish amok which is a yellow fish curry that is steamed in banana leaves, a sour soup and popular Lok Lak which is diced beef done with black ground pepper topped with a fried egg served with rice.

Sour Soup

Beef Lok Lak

It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh and see local life that doesn’t revolve around tourism.

The next day we left for Siem Reap.

Phnom Penh, 6 - 9 May

Arriving into bustling Phnom Penh was a shock to the system after chilled out Kratie and Si Phan Don. We adjusted to the new pace and noise however, and enjoyed exploring the city.

The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda were great to see. The bits we were allowed to see in the palace weren’t as lavish as you might have expected. The Silver Pagoda however and its multitude of heavily adorned Buddha images were quite extravagant.

We also visited the Killing Fields and S-21; the former was one of many places where ‘enemies’ to the Khmer Rouge were taken to be executed; while the latter was used as a prison during the same time. Both of these museums were harrowing – especially as you remind yourself that all of these horrible events took place a mere few decades ago.

We were surprised at the amount of NGOs in Phnom Penh (actually, in the rest of Cambodia as well). From restaurants or cafes offering employment and training to women previously in the sex industry, or former street kids, to retail shops selling products made by people with disabilities, or illnesses. The amount of organisations out there to help people disadvantaged in some way and who don’t receive the support they need from the government is amazing. Being able to patronise these businesses also makes you feel like you’re helping in some way, while sipping on your coffee or buying a t-shirt. Interestingly however, talking to an NGO worker a few weeks later he told us that around 10% of the NGOs working in Cambodia left last year, as they were sick of dealing with the corruption prevalent at all levels of organisations and government departments.

It was nice wandering around the waterfront, and easy to navigate central Phnom Penh on foot.

As we were in Phnom Penh, the rainy season was just beginning, and it was our first introduction to the impressive downpours and pandemonium this creates in the city. A few times we were caught out and had to shelter inside wherever was close.

Walking on water in the Royal Palace grounds

Cambodia: Kratie, 4-6 May

After crossing the border into Cambodia, our first stop was Kratie, further down the Mekong from Si Phan Don. We took a tuktuk tour around some key sights in and around Kratie with a friendly local driver. This included some impressive temples, one of which was the 100 pillar temple.                                                                                                 

We also stopped to look at a floating village nearby. The village is populated by poor Vietnamese people who, owning no land back in Vietnam, erected their homes in the river and made a living from here. When the wet season comes, they take down their homes and rebuild further around the corner as the level of the river rises.

On our way to see the floating village, we stopped in a local village, much to the delight of the children, who swarmed into the tuktuk with us and came along for a bit of a ride. Some of them took turns taking running jumps on and off the tuktuk as it made its way through the village. Every village we passed through on our trip we encountered gorgeous smiling kids waving and shouting out ‘hello’ at us, which was quite endearing.

Other stops including watching and talking to some women planting the rice paddy fields, and trying local palm sugar juice (not such a fan of this). Then we went to cool off at the local swimming hole. Turns out this was actually a set of quite strong rapids. Bamboo platforms are erected over the rapids for hanging out, picnicking, hammocking, and also to
cling onto so you don’t get swept off down the river.

In the late afternoon, we headed out on a boat to spot Irrawaddy Dolphins. These dolphins are quite rare and pods can be found in the Mekong around Kratie, as well as near Si Phan Don. Previously, they had been hunted. Although protected now, their numbers are still quite small. We did manage to spot quite a few as they briefly came up for air before slipping under the surface again. It was also a beautiful sight with the sun setting across the river.

Although our tour had officially finished, our tuktuk driver wanted to take us to his friend’s school to help the kids with their English. We went along and were stood up in front of the class, telling them about where we came from, etc. The kids were far too shy to interact with us, but it was a funny experience with thirty or so enthralled faces staring up at us and occasionally giggling about the way we looked, talked, or did something or another.