The Great Wall of Krobie Riel

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Hello my beautiful people! WE FINISHED THE WALL! Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. After 5 weeks of sweat, blood and tears, we completed the Great Wall of Krobie Riel! Let’s start from Sunday though… On Sunday we had a delicious buffet breakfast, for $5! We were sneaky, and decided to take some extra baguettes for lunch, YUM. After a satisfying breakfast, we jumped into an air conditioned, spacious van – the most comfortable mode of transport we have been in so far! The trip was comfortable, and we arrived at a temple (who’s name I cannot remember) which was my favourite! It was really massive, and is one of the only temples that has not had any reconstruction since the Khmer Rouge. It had beautiful big blocks of stones that were the entrance, bordered with broken carvings of the Naga (guardian snake). It was rumoured that up until 1998 two tigers used to live in the Temple – scary stuff. After taking a million photographs and posing with a few token Asian tourists, we headed back to our beloved van. Our next journey point was the floating villages. We entered them via a rickety boat, where I felt very sea sick indeed. These are houses that are built on massive stilts, so when the rainy season comes they will not get flooded. These huts are more susceptible to rain and flooding as they are built by the river. They were, however, a tad disappointing, as it is dry season and the huts weren’t really covered in water at all. It was fascinating to see the stilts, though it would have been more interesting to see the houses engulfed by water (nearly). We sat down and had lunch at the top of a hut, where we served some rice and vegetables. Following this, we jumped back into our van and all had a well deserved nap – the van ride was roughly two hours long. When we got home, we all collapsed into bed after an exhausting sight-seeing day.

Monday and Tuesday was where the hard work started again! Thinking that we’d basically finished, we were shocked to see giant piles of dirt staring back at us. We knew that they were odering some dirt for us, but not ten enormous piles! Somehow, I’d envisioned maybe three or four small wheelbarrows worth.. instead we were faced with what turned out to be like 70 wheelbarrows worth. These were difficult days, and it was hard to find the motivation when we were so close to finishing, yet so exhausted at the same time. On Tuesday morning some of the school children volunteered to removed some of the dirt, while we started to build them a sandpit! Again, what seemed like an incredibly easy task turned out to be one of the most difficult things I’ve done, period. The concept of building a sandpit, around a big pile of sand was much easier in my head than in reality. We had to dig massive trenches through the sand, nail stakes onto large pieces of wood then plant these into the trenches. We then filled the holes with stones and dirt, and secured brackets onto each of the corners to ensure the sandpit was stable. We bought new toys for the sandpit, which we later played with, with the constructors! After we officially finished the wall, we all jumped into the sandpit and celebrated with the constructors – that was fun! Other highlights throughout these two days included – finding tadpoles in the water, standing on an ant’s nest and now looking like I have chickenpox, stacking it really badly in front of the constructors (who then all laughed at me), cuddling Oh’m Gooey’s new flea riddled puppies and much more. On Tuesday night, we decided to treat ourselves to massages. Never again will I go to “holy hands”. The ladies asked Jess and I to strip to our bras and underwear – which was acceptable. Then it got really weird… my masseuse would NOT stop trying to touch my chest! She kept trying to take my bra off and repeatedly asked me if they were “real”. Looking back on that massage, I would almost classify it as a Cambodian lesbian rape!

Today Colleen and I did half a day of work experience at the TLC ( This Life Cambodia) office. We were given the question “What principles of the CROC (Conventions on the rights of the child) are Cambodian prisons breaking in reference to incarcerated children?” Due to my high school love of legal studies, particularly the juvenile justice system, this was a gift of a question. It was really enjoyable to research the information, but at the same time it was shockingly confronting to see some of the statistics. For example, if Cambodian prisons keep going as they are (overcrowded and disease ridden), by 2018 they will be the worst jail system in the WORLD. Another alarming case I read was about a boy that stole 1000 riel (25c) and was put into jail for nearly three years…. He was 16 years old. The director of TLC, Billy, really appreciated the work Colleen and I did, and congratulated us on the layout and efficiency of the information.

We then met up with the other girls for lunch in town, where we went to Café Central and had a variety of delicious dishes. Following lunch, we decided we really needed to treat ourselves, so off we went to the Devetara Spa. Here, we each had an hour long mango body scrub, followed by an hour long aromatherapy massage. These were actually incredible, and the Spa was actually beautifully decorated, easily competing with spas at home in Australia! For our package, plus a flower foot bath, hot tea and fruit, it was only $25! This at home would AT LEAST cost $80, if not more. We walked away feeling reborn, our skin as smooth as a baby’s and smelling like fresh mangoes.

Colleen, Jess, Sophie and I all planned a little surprise for Amy, which was to take her out to an expensive yet tasteful restaurant – NEST, and to buy her a nice voucher for Lemongrass, her favourite massage place. After careful planning with the tuk-tuk driver about NOT saying where we were going, we though it was going to be an awesome surprise! Unfortunately, just before we left, the tuk-tuk driver turned around and said “Nest yes?” SURPRISE RUINED, THANKS UNRELIABLE TUK-TUK MAN! Oh well, we still had a delicious meal! I had sushi, accompanied by a midori & vodka cocktail, with white and milk chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis for desert. For an especially expensive restaurant, it cost me $13 for dinner all up… what we would normally pay for ONE cocktail alone! After our scrumptious dinner, we went to Master Feet, where we all received manicures and pedicures! We are starting to feel like real girls again!! Anyway, it is very late here and I’m actually really tired from our day of pampering! I’ll write my next blog very soon, I promise! See you all in a week! xxx

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Photos

Our Khmer Family!
Oh'm Gooey (next to Amy) and her children and grandchild (little boy).

Contractors!
Our family for the last five weeks <3

Hard work!
Just before we finished wooooo!