Peachy palace in Phnom Penh

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Hello,
Hope all is well with you and things are good. Here's an update
on me, hope it's not too much to read!
Well, here we go again. Time to play catchup on what i've been
doing the past month or so. Hope you're in for a bit of a read,
but hopefully not too long, it just depends when the caffeine
wears off.
I'm writing from the same place that i wrote my last group email:
Bangkok. No, I haven't stayed here the whole time (as i would
have shot myself already), but am back to the travel centre of
southeast asia to go somewhere else.
Last time i ended off my email by saying "I'm off to the
beaches!", which it turns out i was lying. So at the time I was
hanging out with this Kiwi guy, Andy, and we got along well. He
was pretty laid back, and had a laugh that could be heard across
smog stifled Bangkok. We had a good time of watching a movie or
two during the day (lazing hard core) and sitting on the curb
outside 7-11 on Khao San and drinking big bottles of Chang beer
by night. I was sort of getting set to go south, but was enjoying
hanging out with Andy. One morning, after a night out and we had
gotten separated, he knocked on my door and i groggily let him
in, noticing a good amount of dried blood on his neck. Turns out
that when we got separated, and i thought he had just had enough
and went back to the guesthouse, he actually had a bit of a run
in with some locals. He was walking by a bar in a busy area, and
saw the bouncers beating an older thai tourist into
unconciousness. Being a bit courageous with all the chang beer
inside, he got the manager and spouted off a bit about what was
going on, saying that it was a bit ridiculous what was going on.
The police arrived, and an ambulance arrived, and then promptly
left when they found out that the bouncers were actually off duty
cops. Andy continued to walk back to the guesthouse, in a fairly
busy area, made a little less busy by the late time of 3am, and
only kind of remembers sort of freaking out trying to get home
after being smacked. He thinks that he got retaliated on by the
off duty cops, to kind of say 'mind your own business'. So, in
the morning, we went to a clinic where he got 7 stitches behind
his ear, 3 in his ear, where he got hit, and had a large bump on
his forhead looked at where he probably hit the ground after
getting whacked in the back of the head with something. So, he
was a bit shaken, and so i stuck around a bit longer to reassure
him that the clinic was using clean medical supplies and that his
stitches were healing well.
More movies and super-malls for 6 days.
Then, I ended up going to to Phnom Penh, back to cambodia, to go
and stay at his friends place for a month and do some volunteer
work. We arrived there after 2 days on the bus, and found out
that his friend's 'flat' was actually a small palace where 5
people lived. The Peach Palace (cuz it was peach in color).
Mostly aussie's there, and one canadian, and a kiwi. In a rich
neighbourhood, where if people pooled ther money they could
afford, but the average cambodian couldn't dream of ever seeing
the inside of anything so nice. And, even though Phnom Penh has
wandering blackouts, most neighbourhoods get about 3 a week that
last a couple of hours each, we never got any because down the
block was Prime Minister Hun Sen's nephew, and if family got a
blackout, heads would roll. We had 3 floors, all tiled, the top
two floors all had big decks, a maid, and a guard at night. Lap
of luxury. So much so that i almost felt a bit bad.
So andy and i looked for volunteer work. It took andy 3 days as
he had education and experience in organization effeciency
monitoring (not really what it's called, but that's the best way
to explain it). He got a six week contract with Oxfam, paid.
Bastard. It took me almost two weeks, as apparently i'm useless,
even if i'm free. Ended up volunteering with an organizatin
called Habitat. They built affordable housing for low income
families. They loaned money to people, found them cheap building
supplies, or free supplies, and they could pay back the loan with
no interest over a long time. so, this got people four brick
walls with aluminum sheet roof. Very basic, but always better
that leaf woven walls with a holy roof. Most of the recipients
were in a community, or ghetto, where they had been relocated by
the government. Relocated because they were living on the side of
the road that the government wanted to widen and couldn't fit the
people anymore, or they were living in a slum area that the
government didn't like. In the slum area, the government said
"you should move', but the people were kind of poor, and needed
to be in the city to be able to do business to make some money,
so they couldn't afford to move. So, the government started
setting fires at night in the slum area to burn down places and
get the people moving. Good times. So, my job in this
organization was a very interesting one. I got to go to these new
communities and interview people who have a habitat home and ask
them about their experiences and how their home is. Everyone
liked their home, as it was actually thier own property, but,
these areas are far away from the city, so hard to do business
and make money. And, the government didn't provide water or
electricity to these areas, so a private company came in and
hooked it all up, and charges about 5 times the price. A lot of
the communities didn't have clean water, or just couldn't afford
it, no sewage system, so not a clean environment, and some also
had electricity if they could afford it, or just had one light
hooked up to a car battery if they couldn't.
Again, more tales of downtrodden people by a corrupt government.
It's kind of a strict government, but not if you have money as
you can buy your way out of any situation. It's kind of a
catch-22 here. There are a lot of Non-Government Organizations
(NGO's), international and domestic, which are here to help
people, and are helping people, but, with this help, the
government can do whatever it wants because it knows that if it
creates a lot of shit, NGO's will pop up to clean it up. But,
pull out the NGO's and you're only hurting the people as the
government doesn't really care.
So, on the flipside, because of all the NGO's, there is a big
ex-pat scene there. Restaruants and bars that cater to white
people, mostly owned by white people, that is still cheap for
white people, but not to Khmers. It's kind of funny that all
these people are there to help cambodia, but in the evenings it's
off the rich white places. There was definitely a separation of
peoples. But, i guess being from the western world, it's nice to
be able to eat and drink at places that are western, it's kind of
like a white person support group.
Oh right, in the mornings i volunteered at habitat. In the
afternoons i volunteered at this nutrition place. Like a
nutrition rehab place. mostly toddlers, a handful a bit older.
They were there because they were malnourished at home and needed
proper feedings. They're not really neglect cases, just from very
poor family's that can't afford to eat well. So, I just played
with kids and tried not to look like a pedophile, as that's a
problem there. Some people come to cambodia and volunteer at
orphanages just to molest them. Pretty sick, where's a gun when
you need one? it was a good time there, it was just like being at
a daycare. Playing with kids. I was the only guy there, so it was
good that i was able to roughouse with a couple of the older
boys, pick them up and toss them around.
went for a weekend trip to a wedding in Kratie (pronounced
Krah-chay), where they also have some of the dwindling freshwater
irrawady dolphins, so went on a boat in the mekong and saw some
dolphins. And, a Khmer wedding. The bride changes 7 times in one
day, quite extravagant for a poor country. Dancing (khmer style,
which has hula dancing hands and walking in a circle) and
drinking and eating. It was a good time. The guy who got married
wsa a khmer guy who worked on the Irrawady dolphin conservation
project, and is a friend of a girl who was in the palace. So,
that was a nice weekend. A bit busy early morning cuz they start
their weddings early (7am) and then go late with dancing, but
great to see all the traditional khmer wedding outfits. And, the
dudes sisters, 7 of them, each more stunning than the next, did a
tradtional dance which was neat to see too.
Okay, that kind of basically covers it, and i can't write any
more. I think the caffeine's worn off. But to sum up, good times,
hot times (cold showers and no top sheet ever, and
sweating,lots), interesting, made some good friends, and
definitely worth the extra time and money of the experience.
Okay, now to the beaches for a couple weeks, then back through
cambodia (just passing this time, honestly) to get to vietnam.
Peace out

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