Conclusion Part 1

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So. Unfortunately to all of you beautiful readers out there this shall be my final blog of South East Asia. My trip of this beautiful, exotic, weird and wonderful continent is approaching its final stages. However, (huge) from the great responses to my extraordinarily brilliant writing, I may take up writing during the rest of my university career and so it is possible that there will be more to come...



Back to story time.



The last week or so has been an absolute roller-coaster. We had our final week at the orphanage which was amazing and I cannot tell you how great an organisation NFC is. As I think I have previously mentioned, this has probably been the most eye-opening experience of my life. The kids there are amazing people. The young ones, who have surprisingly good English made our time there so much easier as they provided constant entertainment and conversations for us! For the rest of them, they are all so hard-working, it doesn't even compare to people in England. I cannot emphasise enough how disgusted I am with some people in First World Countries, mostly those who free ride the governments systems and claim benefits out of sheer laziness. It is repulsive. People in Cambodia have no support. You work or you die. Most people work 7 days a week - forever. If you're lucky, you get a Sunday off. The average wage is around $100. A month. Put that into perspective. And for those people who think they are being clever and assume their living costs are so much cheaper too... They aren't. They are not equally cheaper in proportion to the wages. It is an extremely poor country. I saw many 85 year old women cycling to and from work. They work to survive.



We are so lucky.



These amazing children that I worked with have an opportunity to better their lives by attending private education (sponsored by people in Europe) and possibly attend University (sponsored by whoever can help). University fees are around $500 a year in Cambodia for most degrees - just to give you an idea. There are 28 children and seven caretakers living at NFC, only about twice the Katz's house size if you have ever been fortunate enough to visit. There are basic facilities: shower, toilet, 2 small classrooms, eating area outside, water filter system, kitchen area (3 large clay pots with hot coals), 2 dorms (girls and boys), an office area for senior staff and a computer room.



I don't really know what my point is, but I am trying to put Cambodia into perspective for those who have never visited and the conditions people are living in.



I also want to ask if people would think of donating again. I shall be running again at some point this year in order to raise more money, but feel free to donate to NFC at anytime. Just search NFC (New Future for Children) website on google and they should pop up. If you want further information about donating to specific things e.g. New kitchen for them; sending a child to university; or anything then please ask me and I will put you in touch with an amazing guy called Socheat who is the director there.



Back to proper story time.. Haha!



Our send off was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever had. Only real men cry. I'm a real man. It was so difficult to leave all the children, young and old, that we had become so close with over the last six weeks. For me there it was especially difficult to leave a young boy called Penh. He is 13 years old, probably the best English speaker in NFC and is just unbelievable. He is a brilliant artist, a kind and caring person and a genius. He doesn't really have anyone who is into the same things as he is at NFC and so he seems like he is by himself in this big family of children - even though he isn't really because all the children get along better than children in normal families. Everyday when I came in he'd come and say hello and give me a hug and in the last week he kept on calling me his big brother, so for me, as you can imagine, it was impossible to say goodbye without a few tears. There is no doubt in my mind that I shall try and help him in anyway I can in the future and whoever else I can as well.



There were also far, far happier times on that last night. Myself, Emma, Verity and Shyam 'sponsored' the final evening, so that all of the children and staff could eat better food than they normally have! We had fried chicken, rice, sweet chilli sauce and thai curry. It was insane compared to the food we'd been having before! Before dinner, all of the children dressed up in their smart clothes and performed Khmer dances for us - the Coconut Dance and the Stick Dance - which were sensational and I have video that I shall be showing everybody when I am home. Post-dinner, we all danced for about two hours to a mix of Western and eastern music which was hilarious - I had to bring my towel along it was that sweaty. Bloody heat. Us pale-skinned red-heads aren't used to it. Overall, it was a wonderful send off and I can't thank NFC enough for having us for six weeks.



After the evening, it was also time for Emma and I to say goodbye to Verity and Shyam who were flying home the next morning and who are probably back now! This was a less emotional goodbye (no offence guys) but a sad one nonetheless. It soon after hit Emma and I that we had gone from 40 to 2 in a couple of hours. Which was great but depressing at the same time - who'd wanna stay with just Emma for one week, she's a weirdo! Only joking 😊



Unfortunately for us, for the last two days, it has been non-stop pouring it down. We made our way to Trat, a stopover town, as we had planned to visit the exotic island of Ko Kood - a little getaway for us - just across from the bigger, more well-known Ko Chang. Of course, things never seem to go right for us! Arriving at Trat, in the most torrential rain of all time, we had no internet and had no clue where to go. Then again, unlike my mother, Emma and I are extremely easy going as you know and trust just about anyone, so we hopped in a tuk tuk, which took us to the centre of Trat. This tuk tuk was not like ones we are used to though. It was kind of like a tiny truck that had wet, wooden seats slapped down into the back of it without care. As we drove towards the city centre, rain inevitably came pouring into the tuk-tuk and on top of that, there was a leak right above me. Perfection. After a 20 minute watery journey, we arrived at a shithole. Please excuse my awful language, but it was literally that and I hope you are all reading with a smile on your face and Nana isn't too angry I swore. Zoiks. We looked at the first of two awful hotels the tuk-tuk would show us and looked at each other. "We don't think so" we both thought. After arriving at the second, we decided to jump out and ask to use the wifi whilst Emma cleverly pretended to be interested in the rooms there. After looking on the wonderful trip advisor, we found a lovely place called Artists Place which did prove to be lovely when we arrived.



However, we had no way of getting there! There were no tuk-tuks and it was monsooning. Luckily, the corner shop we were next too sold rain jackets - emma and I left both of ours on the first tuk-tuk of course! So we both put them on and tried to get them over our bags too but of course, being the fattest man in Thailand, I just ended up looking like a Britney Spears wannabe, with a raincoat only covering my moobs and the top of my back! Anyway, the hotel wasn't that far away - we thought - so we went for it. If you can imagine going on Tidal Wave in Thorpe Park over and over again, this is pretty much what we were walking through. Saying this, I've never seen two happier people than us. This is genuinely what I live for. It is all part of the fun and there is no point moaning. Everything turns into a great story... Saying that, what a great story this is.



After swimming through the storm and having a nice evening at the hotel, we woke up only to more rain. After a couple of hours of discussing, we decided there wasn't actually any point heading to the island of Ko Kood in this weather, so we bottled it and we're currently on our way back to Bangkok on a minibus for a week of massages and pampering! Hahaha. Absolutely hilarious.



I may do one final update after our last week, but that concluded our travels in Cambodia and now back to the Capital of Thailand, and a bit more civilisation!



Keep giving me feedback on my writing! I'd love to hear and it really helps to boost my ego even more!



Love you all,



From The Tremendous Tobela and of course The Em-mazing Emma xxxxx

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