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Published: August 18th 2010
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Pisay
Pisay. A girl at the orphanage. Hey everyone, I haven't as yet got around to posting a blog, so here is the first attempt, I hope it works!
So after a very sad goodbye at the airport Jewels and I were off to Bangkok...the flight was ok, nothing to rave about apart from we were able to play tetris and compete....iPhone skills pulled off thats for sure!
So we got to Bangkok and we went to our very first sleeping spot, which was in the back streets and like 40 minutes out of the city in the slums, we were a little horrified but got a good sleep...
The weekend we spent in Bangkok, ending up changing our hotel to a better location in the city centre, it was great there, we had a tour around the city, not what we were expecting, but the Tuk Tuk's are true scammers in Bangkok and we were taken to many jewellry and tailor shops for this particular Tuk Tuk man to get free gasoline tickets....was pretty funny to say the least!
From Bangkok we headed to Phnom Penh...Cambodia is definatley on my list to visit again, as many countries along the way will be i'm sure!
We got picked
on the boat
on the boat to Rabbit Island up at the airport by another Australian girl who was working with the Kapachea foundation which organises our volunteering program and she took us to our host family's house, the Savut's. Here we stayed for two weeks and it was sooo enjoyable, making a great friend, Meg who was also volunteering and was travelling from America by herself. The family was awesome and thehouse was great as well, more than what we expected, we both had our own bedroom and bathroom and were very well looked after....Mrs. Savut got us to call her mummy, which felt kind of strange, but she did never let us go hungry, she made us sooo much food!
So we arrived in Phnom Penh on teh Sunday, had a city tour on the monday and went out for dinner wth other volunteers that night, we got to see some of the sights and had an abunmdance of Kmeh food and beer that night for only $4...was a treat!
Tuesday we got collected from our host family and got taken to our orphanage, Meg came along as well. Our orphanage was suprisingly so well set up, they had sleeping dorms for 105 kids ranging from 5yrs
to 18yrs. Also at the orphanage was a very new educational building, this was to teach these children and many from out of the orphanage many skills, from IT, mechanics, sweing and hairdressing....it was soo good! Not that all our kids which we eneded up attempting to teach english got to go into this centre, some of the money from this centre helped the orphanage. So on this day we were introduced in the orphanage and told we were to teach english, suprise to us, but Jewels and i attempted it!! he he
This day we also went with Meg to see her orphanage, which I'm glad we did, because our orphanage was oo advanced it was relieveing in a way and also shocking to see what Meg's orphanage was like. It was very dirty, many younger babies and the kids when we got there were having their hair washed for knits...it was very unhygienic and very few resources.....
That afternoon we started at the orphanage and it was soo awesome, we played a lot of games, the kds were amazing, all willing tolearn and all quite smart. Over the two weeks we taught them and got to know them,
they were gorgeous kids, with so much potential. At the beginning of the second week we had just got right into it, but then two french 19 yr old boys started at theorphanage, they were teaching teh kids french as they knew very little english and were going to teach the boys martial arts, which Jewels and I didn't think was necesaarily what these kids needed to be taught after seeing them tackle each other in the yard, but each to their own!!! 😉
The two weeks in Phnom Penh were awesome, we went to the beach, Kep, in the middle weekend, it rained all weekend but we enjoyed fabulous seafood dishes and cheap cocktails.
We tried to see a bit more of Phnom Penh the second week before ending our volunteering experience, so we headed ou for dinner a few nights and drinks....but all nights seemed to end on a bad note after being interigated by street kids selling books to opium, it was so confronting and something I have never experienced before! But street kids are very common here......
We had our last day at the orphanage on Friday just gone and made morning tea for the kids,
fairy bread and tim tams and chips, they loved it. We also gave them some sports equiptment which they thrived on. They were awesome kids and it was sad to say goodbye to them as it was to our host family.
Saturday we headed to Siem Reap, Jewels and I and Meg our new Seattle friend who is soo lovely and fun, she slotted in so well, first of many friends we'll make i'm sure!
Got to Siem Reap about 2 or 3 and headed to the temples to see the sunset which we didn't wait for as we were to keen to ride the elephant. We walked up a hill to the temple and rode the elephant down...was soo much fun. That night we headed out, played some drinkning games with some spanions and Tuk Tuk'ed home to our hostel. Sunday morning we all wanted to head to the temples very early to see the sunrise, which didn't happen as we were a lil' tired from the night before, he he! But Sunday was filled with temple sighting, it was amazing, these places were insane, Angkor Wat was ooo incredible, but very tiring! That night we headed out again
for dinner, had a feet fish massage, which was sooo icky...and we also ate a taranchula that night, I know..it wasn't so pleasent, we only ate its legs! he he gutless!
Sunday we started the day with a horse ride at the happy ranch in Siem Reap, I was a bit hesitant to go with two very experienced riders, but i think i did pretty well, those early years of riding paid off somehow! It was soo much fun, rode around for about an hour around surrounding villages.....with a tiger woods look alike. he he
Sunday we also said goodbye to our friend Meg, she had to head back to Phnom Penh to again volunteer, but we have definatley convinced her to come to Australia in the next few years...and Happy 60th Normi for Sunday, I missed it, but was thinking of you all day!
So its just me and Jewels now, we spent today being very very hungov and last night bumming around. We went to the landmine museum today, it was ages away from where we're staying but so worth it....these countries have been through so much in recent times, but the people here remain to be sooo
beautiful!!!
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Stace and Brendy
Stace and Boy
looks great rooey, those helmets are pure gold!