Blogs from Kampong Cham, East, Cambodia, Asia - page 4

Hello everyone! I haven't written in a couple weeks as a result of busy travel through Laos involving gibbons, remote villages, french colonial Luang Prabang, and several lazy days floating in the Mekong and sleeping in a hammock. After a long travel day, I am in Cambodia now en route to Phnom Penh. Over the next couple days I will log on and write about my Laos adventures and upcoming plans. For now: I love you, I am safe, think of you often, and look forward to sharing with you. hugs, Vanessa... read more

On www.travelfish.org I'd read about a homestay experience that sounded interesting. A couple, Don and Kheang offered an experience to see what rural life is like in Cambodia and the reviews of the experience had been great, so when I arrived in Phnom Penh I rang Don and organised a visit. Don is an American that's settled down in Cambodia, with his Cambodian wife and two children Ra and Na. They are a really interesting couple that have both had fascinating lives and it was just so interesting hearing their stories!! Kheang had actually been alive while PolPot was in charge, so had seen a lot of hardship and a lot of change in Cambodia. When I arrived, so I could see a bit of typical Cambodian scenery and also get a bit of an insight ... read more

As I write this entry we have conducted 15 workshops and have 3 to go, not including the 8 week training program which will run up until the day before I leave to go home. So we are well over half-way now! Many of the one-day workshops we have conducted at our Chab Dai premises (where our work office is) in a fantastic training room that has cushions and straw mats on the floor. It has been a great learning opportunity for us to be doing training while sitting on the floor. Much more relaxing! (Unfortunately for the participants too - many have been tempted to doze off particularly after lunch!). During these workshops we bring a caterer in who provides lunch and refreshments Khmer style - very yummy food. For the other workshops, we travel ... read more

Autobusy z Phnom Penbh do Ratanakiri zatrzymuja sie w Kratie okolo poludnia. Poprzedniego wieczoru upewnilem sie, ze bilet mozna bedzie jeszcze zarezerwowac rano. Okazlao sie, ze jest inaczej. Bileto w na autobus juz nie bylo, ale "uczynny" pracownik naszego hotelu zarezerwowal nam miejsce w taxi. Taksowka miala odjechac za jakies 10 do 30 min, gdy tylko sie zapelni (bylo 6 osob, potrzeba bylo 7). Po trzech godzinach oczekiwania i ciaglego uspokajania nas przez goscia z hotelu w koncu nie wytrzymalismy i poszlismy szukac innego transportu.W innym guesthousie poprosilismy o zarezerwowanie taxi, wszyscy zgodzili sie na zaplacenie za jedno puste miejsce i po chwqili przyjechala taksowka. Sporym zaskoczeniem bylo, ze taksowka to zwykly osobwy samochod, a nie minibus oraz, ze w srodku siedzialo juz 7 osob (z ami byloby 9!). Kierowca twierdzil, ze dzieci nie placa za ... read more

Another travel day. From Battambang we caught a bus which took us back to Phnom Penh in 6 hrs. We got Cambodian music videos which we thought were bad until the Cambodian standup comedy came on. That was followed by a bad Chinese vampire movie! We were only in Phnom Penh long enough to find transport to Kampong Cham. Of course we were met by a barrage of tuktuk drivers and so we enlisted one to take us from the bus station to where the taxis for Kampong Cham were waiting. With the five of us and our bags that makes for on full tuktuk. The tuktuk driver was great and in no time had found us a van for Kampong Cham for $20. Two hours later we had a room, cold beer and were ordering ... read more