Kompong Cham

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Hey Everyone! It's been a little while since we had decent internet, so I've backdated the posts to match the days we were at those places. (today it's September 29th here)

On our last night in Siem Reap we went to Pub street with a few of the people from our group and our guide. We went to Temple Club, and she knew almost everyone there. They have a promotion where you get a free t-shirt for each pitcher of drinks you buy... I think we left with about 7 t-shirts between the 5 of us, but we had loads of fun. I danced up a storm with girls from all over the world, and Trev maintained control of the pool table all night.

The morning of the 25th we boarded a public bus for Kompong Cham. The ride was about 5 hours on bumpy roads. Hangover+bumpy roads=carsickness for Trev. We arrived around lunch and checked into our hotel, which was right across from the Mekong river. It was the funniest/worst hotel yet. We went for lunch at our local guide's house (Mr. Tuol). As it turned out, it was the same family Trev had had dinner with 4 years ago! After lunch we picked up bicycles and rode to the ferry dock. We took the ferry across to a little island in the Mekong. The ferry wasn't much more than a fishing boat with boards laid across it to make more area. We rode our bicycles to a little village where there is a monastery that has a free English school. We got to join in and help the students practice their English. I'm not sure if we were good teachers or not, but it was a great experience. I can imagine how hard it would be for me to learn Khmer (they have some different vowels and consonants than we do), so I know how hard the students are working to learn English. After the school we stopped at a local's house to sample some fresh pomelo and visit for a bit - it tasted great and was so refreshing. As we were riding back to the ferry people were coming out of their houses to say hello and kids wanted high-fives as you rode by on the bike. The people were amazingly friendly. When we arrived back to the other side of the river there were lots of families out celebrating time together, like they do every Saturday night. There was some hilarious karaoke and line-dancing! Trev still wasn't feeling 100% so he went to bed early and I went for dinner and watched an awesome lightning storm across the Mekong.

It was another early bus ride the next morning.

Love, Court

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