The end of Takeo, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

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Well it's been quite a few weeks since my last update, when I had been at the orphanage for a ten days or so. I have LOTS to fill you all in on!

After a couple of weeks at the orphanage I had arranged to go on a short trip up to Siem Reap to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle who were there for a couple of days at the same time. I got a lift to Phnom Penh with Neville, the orphanage coordinator. Mark and Rebecca who were leaving for New Zealand the next day also came along. We all checked into a hotel on the riverfront and had arranged to meet up that night with a load of people from the orphanage and Donny a volunteer who had left a few days earlier. We all met up at Bojangles, a restaurant along the riverfront that serves really good food! It was a great night and a perfect way to say goodbye to Mark and Rebecca. The next morning it was a six hour bus on to Siem Reap. I managed to find where Jan and Pete were staying as I couldn't get hold of them on the phone. After a couple of drinks at their hotel we took a Tuk Tuk into town and had a really nice meal where Pete and I sampled some dried water snake! They had booked to go on a day trip to see the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake just outside Siem Reap so I decided to join them the next day before i headed back to Takeo.

The floating village of Chong Kneas was a few miles out so we jumped in a minibus and rumbled out there. A tour guide organised a boat for us to ourselves which was brilliant! There are two villages, one on either side of the lake. One is Khmer and one is Vietnamese. It was a really interesting day on the river seeing all the different things that can be floated and I got some photos that I'm pretty happy with! In the afternoon I went back to Jan and Pete's hotel and used the pool for the afternoon which was lovely and a nice break from the craziness at the orphanage. I left the next morning and managed to get all the way back to Takeo in one day!

One morning I decided to go down to the orphanage early in the morning when they get up. They get up each morning at 5 to do exercises, well I say exercises, they're more like swaying motions but who can blame them, I wouldn't be very happy to have to get up at 5 to do exercises! So Emma and I walked down at quarter to five dodging dogs and then stood outside with the kids doing their swaying with them, it was a really fun morning and back to bed when the kids went to school. On the way to the orphanage one day l I saw a guy who I had met and chatted to at the concert in Takeo a few weeks before. I had another quick chat with him and he asked me if I would mind going to his house one night so that he could practice his English which I gladly agreed to. So a couple of nights later i popped round in the evening. It was a really great couple of hours just chatting to him. He told me all about what he did as a job (history and geography teacher at the local secondary school) about his family and also about his experiences during the time of the Khmer Rouge. He said that he was taken to Wat Phnom which is about an hour from Takeo and forced to work there for the duration of the war. Some of the things he talked about really brought it home to me about the whole situation. Its only when you get these personal accounts from everyday people that it makes it comprehendible instead of just numbers and details at the tourist sites and guide books. He seemed so happy that the country "is now peaceful" and that tourists are coming here to experience the culture and the friendly people.

In the last week before I left the orphanage all the volunteers decided to organise a talent show for the kids so we came up with a few ideas about they might be able to do. They had a week to practice anything that they wanted to show and we were going to do a few bits and pieces in between. (I did some juggling with a few rocks that found that were roughly the right size...) It came to the day of the show and we were a bit worried that no one was going to be doing anything but the kids absolutely shone! It was mostly down to Nou (the coordinator of NFO) that everything got into place and she deserves a mention for all her hard work! It was the best afternoon/evening ever and everyone was amazing! There were dances, songs sung, stand up comedy and a fashion show. I haven't really got many photos of it as I was filming it all but hopefully I can find some from some of the other volunteers. After that we all went out for a night of karaoke still on a high from that afternoon! All the volunteers went out on a couple more karaoke evenings over the last two weeks that I was there. Sian (one of the other volunteers) and I have decided that we have karaoke tourettes as we can't help ourselves from singing insanely loudly over any song that comes on the screen. Some really awesome nights out at the karaoke bar are always followed by a trip to "The Secret Garden" as we have named it, the bar that you have to knock on the gate for them to open up after hours. On one night after coming back from The Secret Garden we saw a snake across the path which caused great excitement!

My time at NFO was coming to an end but a group of the volunteers were also leaving at the same time to go to Phnom Penh and then on to Siem Reap. I decided to go with them and making it my third time in Siem Reap! It was a very emotional goodbye with all the kids lots of hugs and them waving down the road to us. It made it slightly easier as i knew that I will definitely be going back there soon!

We got a lift up with Neville again the next day to Phnom Penh and went out again at Bojangles that evening which was awesome. The western food there is so good. I had a chicken breast in a cream mushroom sauce with sauted potatoes. After Bojangles we had decided that we wanted to hit a local club in the city so after a few drinking games at a riverfront bar it was off to 'Spark'. It was definitely an experience with us being the only Barang (foreigners) there we were getting a lot of triple takes and people dancing with us. A really great night but unfortunately they didn't let you take cameras in so I have no photo evidence of what went on.. The next day the girls wanted to go and see S21 and the Killing Fields as they hadn't seen them yet and it proved to be a very long and emotional day for everyone so some relaxation time was needed that evening. We headed out to a restaurant down from our guesthouse, had a nice meal and a few beers with some time to reflect on the day. The next day was much more lighthearted as two other friends from the orphanage arrived in Phnom Penh and we decided to have a pool day. We found one hotel that in the book said that if you spend $5 on food or drink during the day you got to use the pool for free. We turned up at the place and it looked pretty nice but we were turned away as they thought that we might be drinking and would be rowdy.. even though we were the only people there! So we tried another place which had the same sort of deal and it was even nicer so it all worked out in the end. We all had an awesome, relaxing day by the pool in the sun drinking cocktails and eating nice food, that is until the thunderstorm came in the afternoon and put an end to it.

Next stop Siem Reap! After saying an emotional goodbye to Johnny who was staying to sort out his Vietnam visa we booked on to the VIP bus headed North and after a pretty nice journey we checked into "Popular Guesthouse" which was pretty good and to be our home for the next few days. Camilla, Michaela and I decided that we wanted to do a cooking course while we were there so the next day we turned up at Le Tigre restaurant for our crash course in Khmer delights. We each chose two dishes, a starter and a main that we wanted to try our hand at. We ended up all choosing different ones and then trying to listen in on what each other had to do. I made Papaya salad as a starter and Beef Lok Lak as a main and the girls chose Banana flower salad, deep fried spring rolls, Fish Amok and Khmer Chicken. The kitchens were right on the top floor of the restaurant up some tiny stairs which provided a welcome breeze! The two ladies teaching us were lovely and had lots of patience, which was needed with me! I did manage to finish my preparation a little early (due to their simplicity rather than my skills I think) so the lady showed me how to make roses out of tomatoes, carrot decorations and flowers out of chilies and spring onions. Very pretty if I do say so myself! The food was absolutely gorgeous and we splashed out on a couple of glasses of wine to go with it. We had made so much food there was no way were going to be able to eat it all so we got it to take out and have for dinner later but as we were walking back to the hotel there was a young girl asking for money so we gave the doggy bag to her instead. I'm sure she needed it much much more than us but I do wonder what she thought when she opened the bag to find a four course meal inside!

After an uneventful next day looking around the market and doing a spot of shopping we arranged to go for a sunrise start at Angkor Wat. Up at 4 the next morning we bundled into our two Tuk Tuks and made our way down to the huge complex of temples. The sunrise was beautiful over the iconic towers of Angkor that are seen everywhere here. We visited the main Angkor Wat first and then on to the stunning temples of Angkor Thom, Takeo and Ta Prohm, where Tomb Raider was filmed and the jungle has reclaimed the stones. We realised that we had just enough time to make the the long drive out to Bantai Srei which is absolutely beautiful but in the heat Michaela and I were struggling and thought we were going to pass out at one point! So while the others carried on around we retreated to the outside of the temple where we found a group of landmine victims playing traditional music in the shade. It was amazing and I managed to get a couple of videos of them. (I will try to put one up but I'm not sure whether it will be fast enough to do...) A night out was organised as well to 'Angkor What?' bar in town which was brilliant fun and lasted long into the night.

The next day Sian received some bad news from home and so her and some of the girls spent the day trying to organise her flights home as soon as possible meaning that her trip suddenly was cut short. I think it seemed very surreal to her that she would be going home so soon. We had a day until she could get a flight home so we all stayed on an extra day and decided to have another pool day before she left to cheer her up and make sure her tan was topped up to make everyone jealous! This time the pool was even nicer than before! At the top of a really plush hotel this time it was either pay $5 to use it or spend $10 on food or drink. We all decided that we could easily rack up $10 worth each and so some nice drinks and food were ordered and we spent the day doing not much at all!

It was an emotional goodbye as everyone went their separate ways on their trips as we had had such an amazing time over the last month together! Such a good group of people and all with similar senses of humour and tastes we matched perfectly! So now I'm back on my own for a while, but many more adventures to come!!

I'm in Siem Reap at the moment still but will be getting a 12 hour bus to Ban Lung in the Northeast of Cambodia tomorrow morning at 5.30. Can't wait!

Right, next blog will be coming in a week or so when I get around to it. Speak to you all soon!

P.S. I have become pretty seriously addicted to "Cooked Fatboy" breakfasts in Siem Reap which consist of a steak, chicken breast, sausage, tomatoes, hash browns and a baguette. I hope i can get some help with this when I return home...

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Comments

[anonymous]

Hahaha LOVE the Misfits t-shirt. All sounds amazing, jealous doesn't even cover it. Weird to see the temples and Angkor What? Bar again (bet you bought another t-shirt). Don't suppose you popped into Lingi to say hello? ;). Have fun and look after yourself up north xx PS. YOUR a cooked fatboy.