Phnom Penh

We arrived at peak hour in Phnom Penh on Saturday night and I must admit I was a little overwhelmed at first. The traffic was just incredible - I mean compared to Manila it wasn't too bad (because the traffic here was still moving at least). We found our hotel after a little hiccup. Our Cambodian friend was a bit concerned because she thought we were staying in or near a hotel known to be frequented by pay by the hour prostitutes. Thankfully we were at the wrong address. We were going to be spending five nights here and I was torn between trying to see as much as I could (as Em had seen most of the touristy stuff here already), and resting and recuperating (from my heavy workload as part of the logistics team :). I think we got the right balance in the end.

Sunday we checked out the National Museum which was quite interesting. There were a lot of artefacts from the Angkorian empire and information which supplemented what we'd seen and been told by our guide at Angkor. We were surprised and then proud to find an animation that was created by Monash University. 

We checked out the river front and there were many pubs and eating places. There were a lot of dodgy looking foreigners hanging about the place and it didn't have a very nice vibe.

On Monday we met up with Em's friend Srey Touch who she'd met on her first trip to Cambodia as part of a team from York Street Church of Christ. She showed us the Russian Market where we made some clothing and genuine DVD purchases. I'm still not sure why it is called the Russian Market - There were no Russians to speak of nor any Russian items for sale. Okay, thank you Google - apparently it is called the Russian market because of its popularity with Russian ex-pats in the 1980s.

Srey Touch & Naomi

On Tuesday we visited Choeung Ek one of the more famous sites in Cambodia also known as the Killing Fields. It's hard to say how it went, I mean I still feel sort of numb to that whole experience. Basically you wander around these mass graves with an audio player plugged in and it gives you the background and some first-hand accounts of what took place. It is estimated that as many as 3 million people were killed during the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge. I think the population of Cambodia at the time was around 8 million - it said on the audio - imagine if one in four people where you lived were wiped out. People were killed for wearing glasses, for being literate, or popular, having talent or for having soft hands... I would be a goner! Words just fail me, I can't fathom that this could happen, that people could do this to each other. One of the worst things is that basically the world sat idly by while all this was happening. Developed countries such as the US, UK and Australia supported the Khmer Rouge's seat at the United Nations and even provided financial aid to them. This is not ancient history we're talking about, we're talking about between 1975-1979... I was surprised to see that Pol Pot was still killing people still in 1997. Atrocities, although perhaps not to this scale, are still being committed by human beings everyday - Why does the developed world depose one dictator and let another reign unhindered (and/or even support them?!). Anyway as you can tell it got some cogs turning and I'm still processing a lot of this.

The memorial stupa

New life at the mass grave site

Em (and our tuk-tuk driver taking a leak)

We headed to Central Market for some retail therapy which was larger than the Russian Market and had large areas of jewellery and technology. Even though there were a lot of stores, it felt like they were selling a lot of the same or very similar items.

We caught up with a friend who we'd met with T.A.B. who took us out to dinner at a local restaurant. She works at a University and is a vocal campaigner for equal rights for women. She is at the forefront in Cambodia of challenging gender roles, norms and stereotypes. She said that if a man has an extra-marital affair it's basically accepted, however if a women did this she would be ostracised from her family and her whole community. It's these double-standards which she is directly challenging. I was very inspired by her because she won't accept that the way things are, are the way things have to be - and she is taking action to initiate change.

Yesterday we headed back to the Russian Market and did some souvenir and present shopping and then caught up with Srey Touch and her family for tea. All you can eat buffet for $4 per person... BARGAIN :)

This morning we fly out to KL at 11. I am sad to be leaving but also very thankful that I have had this experience. One of my favourite bible verses is Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. I believe that God is working in me and using things like this trip to help me be the man he wants me to be and to achieve His purposes for my life. My beliefs and what I value are being challenged - and that is okay. I think Em would say that God's purpose is for us to move to Cambodia... I guess we'll just have to wait and see, I'm grateful that he sees the bigger picture.

So long Battambang

I'm not sure where to start this blog post. The good news is my tummy issues cleared up and I'm feeling 100%. The last week went by in a bit of a blur. At the start of the week I thought it might drag on a bit but we're now in the nation's capital, Phnom Penh and last week seems almost like a distant memory.

I'm so thankful I got to experience Battambang. I feel like I got a bit closer to experiencing the 'real' Cambodia. We got to mingle with the people, to hear some of their stories and share albeit a small chunk of life with them. The people here are absolutely beautiful.

Next time you take a trip somewhere - overseas or around our great country I would encourage you to head off the beaten track. You will be amazed at what you will find. The best stories aren't in the tourist areas or markets - they're with your 'everyday' people.

I guess I'm being a bit philosophical... I wasn't planning on doing that yet.

I spent most of last week with the 'Logistics Team' and had a ball with a couple of other blokes who were accompanying their wives & partners. We were kept busy with trips to the local stationery store PBC, photocopying and other errands. I had been appointed the 'official' photographer so every so often I would whip around the workshops and see what quality photos I could create.

The Logistics Team

Don't get me wrong it was busy when the workshops were on but after they'd finished each day we had something social on most afternoons and/or nights.

Tuesday we got along to the Smokin' Pot restaurant for some cooking lessons. It sounds a bit suss but let me assure you it's all above board. Our instructor took us to the market where we purchased the ingredients for the three dishes we were going to make - chicken/fish amok, beef lok lak and chicken and basil stir fry. There were live fish trying to make a run for it and two that got konked in the head and formed the basis for our fish amok. It's hard to forget the sound of a cleaver cracking a fish's skull... but hey it was all part of the experience. We also purchased some morning glory which most of us found amusing but it was a green herb which wasn't what we first thought of... The class was fantastic and the best part was being able to eat what we'd cooked and getting a recipe book so we can cook the food at home.

It was interesting talking to the instructor who was also the owner of the business. We found out he gives the leftover food to street kids. While we were there some street children who looked like they were aged between four and seven ate at a street-side restaurant. He said that an NGO pays for the children to eat there regularly. He was telling us that a lot of these NGOs pay their staff well and they are provided four-wheel drives to drive (there aren't many cars in Battambang so it's pretty noticeable). He felt that the money that was spent on the four-wheel drives could be better spent actually helping people.

Wednesday night we went to circus Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) which means 'The brightness of art'. I was just blown away by the talent of these performers. PPS supports children who are extremely vulnerable and who are victims of child trafficking, family violence, poverty and disease. There were no animals, just children and young people throwing themselves into art, beauty and all that kind of stuff. There were a few stuff-ups and that was totally cool, but after each one they would have another go until they nailed it.

Thursday night I was under pressure from Em to get some pants for the closing ceremony on Saturday. I had been measured up on the previous Friday for a tailored pair but kept forgetting to pick them up, and when I did go this night they were closed. I went to one store and tried to communicate what I wanted but in the end it was too hard and I went back to the hotel. I thought about it some more and tried another store at the market. I got a pair of 33 waist pants and when I tried them on back at the hotel they were a touch too tight. I thought I'll head back to the store and get a pair of 34s and they should be sweet... back at the hotel I tried the 34s on and they were tighter than the 33s... doh! I went back to the store a third time and got the 33s and I will just need to lose some weight. I thought I might lose some going up and down those stairs at our hotel but had no such luck.

Friday we visited the Hope for Cambodian Children orphanage just outside of Battambang. I was a little bit apprehensive because I didn't want to be an orphanage tourist but this orphanage is one that Teachers Across Borders supports. I didn't feel comfortable taking any photos but the kids were really cute. Most of them have been impacted in some way by HIV - either their parents have it, or they do, or both. The other orphanages in Cambodia discriminate against them on this basis. I was surprised to find two Filipinos heading up the orphanage. They also had volunteer social workers from other countries who help assess the suitability of homes for children's reintegration to their communities. It didn't sound like the government provided much in the way of financial or practical assistance however, someone from the government did visit homes with the social workers, I think to keep an eye on things.

Friday was our fifth wedding anniversary and we headed out for a romantic dinner... with the whole T.A.B. team at the University of Battambang! We had a lovely meal cooked by trainees from the hospitality department of the University. Em and I and a few others headed out to check out the Battambang night life. We headed to a place where there were a lot of ex-pats and then to a traditional Khmer club which was very enjoyable. The locals embraced us with a few of them clunking glasses with us and showing us how to dance traditionally. We then headed to a trendier bar but it was absolutely dead... We eventually ended up at Sky Club and Em and I had an awesome time breaking it down with the locals. We spent some time up the front on the podiums (which were either side of the DJ). There were no small people to pick up and I would like to say that I feel I was very restrained (I had Em's eagle eyes watching me the whole time). It was a fully excellent night and one we won't be forgetting too soon.

The T.A.B team, Battambang, January 2012

Saturday saw the end of the workshops and the closing ceremony. The ceremony was delayed due to the director being held up by another engagement. The participants and facilitators received rewards for what had been a hard, but rewarding week of workshops. I was pretty proud of what all the facilitators had done and hopefully it will be of lasting benefit to the teachers who attended, and thus their students and potentially the educational outcomes for Cambodians in Battambang and provinces.

Teachers receiving their scarves from the Director 

Participants with their certificates

Battambang

Sitting listening to the dulcet tones of Cambodian wedding music is where I write this post. I've been a bit unwell so I am just taking it easy in our hotel room - I need to be in close proximity to the toilet... too much information?? Sorry :\

Being on holidays I'm no longer a slave of Monday to Friday so I would have no idea what day it was other than being able to check on the laptop. It occurred to me today that I hadn't really said what we were doing over here. I think it's worth mentioning.

Em is facilitating some workshops for Cambodian teachers from across the country in the area of literacy with Teachers Across Borders. There are around thirteen workshops being conducted covering such areas as maths, science, early-years education, school leadership, school administration and Khmer language - there are more but that's all I can think of. The workshops are happening from today through to Saturday - they go to school six days a week here... eek! The teachers are from all over Australia and range from having several years of experience right up to those who have many years of experience in a variety of roles including school leadership and administration. There are around 300 Cambodian teachers attending with each workshop having between 20 and 35 participants. All of the teachers are donating their time for this worthy cause and my hat goes off to them.

Em and Matt running their workshop

I am just helping out where needed but everything is well organised so there's not heaps to do. I have been appointed the 'official' photographer and have been taking some snaps. Today was the opening ceremony and our teachers were welcomed by directors from the POE (Provincial Office of Education) and the provincial Teachers Training College. It was interesting sitting at the back of the ceremony to observe the different cultural norms. Mobile phones rang regularly throughout the proceedings and the Cambodian teachers had no issues with answering a call, despite 'VIPs' giving what seemed to be important speeches (they were in Khmer so I have no idea what was being said). After a while the audience just started talking amongst themselves when I think they thought it was time to wind up. Our teachers of course, were very well behaved.

We arrived in Battambang (pronounced Bat-am-bong) on Thursday after about a 2.5 hour trip from Siem Reap. The next day the teachers met with their translators and went stationery shopping - which I think most teachers enjoy and Em LOVES.

Battambang is Cambodia's second largest city but to me it definitely feels less commercialised and less touristy than Siem Reap. The kids here are not as used to foreigners and come up to you and say hello. There seems to be a bit more of an industrial focus here with shops selling hardware and tools. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of clothing and food shops but less of a concentration I think. One thing Battambang doesn't have when compared to Siem Reap is the t-shirt selection... but Em assures me when we get to Phnom Penh it will be t-shirts aplenty.

On Saturday we hired a moto and I had a BLAST. Em was a bit hesitant at first because of the traffic and seeming lack of (or lack of observance of) road rules. I had to get my passport for the hire so I rode back to the hotel by myself... and got lost. To those of you who know me well, this will come as no surprise. I eventually got my bearings and got to the hotel and back to the hire place without too much drama. Before we hired the moto I did some reading and found basically a crash course to riding a moto in Cambodia. The main rule was to NEVER STOP MOVING - this worked for me the whole way through. Somehow the traffic here just works. People go round others and stay out of the way of vehicles that are bigger than theirs. It was just something that I wanted to do and I'm glad we did it.

We took a trip out to Banan temple, a temple about 20 clicks out of Battambang. It was of course impressive and it was nice to be able to appreciate it without the hordes of tourists that were marauding around Angkor, Siem Reap. I continue to be blown away at the Angkor people's dedication to their gods and the detail that they put into the structures they built to honour them. Oh, that was the other thing. Apparently decent maps here are overrated, so we had 3 maps that didn't clearly tell us where to go. So we just headed off in what we thought was the general direction and miraculously found a road with a turn off to Banan. There were some caves around the temple that were used by the Khmer Rouge and an old gentleman gave me a tour. The caves were a lot bigger than I expected with many large caverns. The old man said that he had been a soldier and had met an Australian and an American and both had offered for him to leave the country and go with them, but he said he didn't want to leave his family and fled to Thailand instead. I was surprised to see a sign warning about mines on our walk to the caves because I thought they'd all been cleaned up.

On the way back we ran out of petrol but I wasn't too stressed because they had roadside stalls the whole way that sold petrol out of used soft drink or alcohol bottles, every 100 metres or so.

That night despite feeling pretty tired we went out for tea and after, headed out with a few other group members. We ended up at Club KO and sat at a table surrounded by locals. One of the men on another table was quite 'happy' and decided to generously top up all our pots of draught with Guinness. Hmm, interesting. There was singing throughout the night and Lissie our tuk-tuk driver, who the group has befriended over the years said that people request songs from the various singers. Just about all of the songs were quite downbeat and a bit mopey, not the sort of thing you would expect at a club but that's just how they roll here in Battambang. Lissie ended up taking us to Sky Club. Now this club was a bit more pumping with their 'doof doof' music. A few of us couldn't get over the fact that they let children into the club. There was what I thought was a child kickin' it in the dance area - I may have attempted to pick him up but he ran away. I was later informed he was a short-statured person who was aged about 20... how embarrassment. His group was very gracious with this crazy foreigner. The DJs knew all the English they needed to know for example, 'put your hands up in the air', 'everybody scream' etc. etc. They played a techno version of Baby, (by Bieber) so I was happy... I mean, no... wait.

Sunday we went on the bamboo train - I use the word 'train' very loosely here. It was basically a bamboo platform on wheels powered by a small petrol engine. The line was pretty straight but every join in the track could be felt on the behind. There is only one line of track so if anything is coming the other way, the lower priority train/s need to be disassembled and taken off the track to allow the oncoming trains through. We were taken on a tour of the local brick making business at the end of the line. Our guides were a couple of young girls who were very cute. My guide shyly asked me for a dollar at the end of the tour - very entrepreneurial!

Our tour guides

In the afternoon a few of the boys took us out on motos to Phnom Sampov, a significant, religious site - both for the shrines atop the mountain and also the bodies which have been laid to rest there. There were many, many Buddhas up there and also chambers where there were still human remains. It was extremely sobering thinking about the loss of life, and still hard to believe what humans can do to each other.

One of the many shrines

There was a girl hanging around at Phnom Sampov who kept telling us stories and cracking herself up.

Got to wear some pretty awesome head gear when I was on the back of the moto

Siem Reap Part 2

Well, I can't believe it's our last night here in Siem Reap. The last four days have been tiring but very enjoyable.

Monday afternoon we paid a visit to the Children's Sanctuary which is an orphanage established by a couple from Dean, just outside of Ballarat. We dropped off some things being that we were on our way through. The children of course were gorgeous and my heart just broke for them and their circumstances. It is awesome that people genuinely want to make a difference and rather than complaining or just talking about it, they put themselves 'out there' and took action to help these kids out. About fifteen children live at the Sanctuary and they are grouped with a nanny to provide stability, consistency and love and to replicate a familial home environment. Some other people were visiting from Australia and they did some brief teaching before we all played with the kids in the yard.

having fluffy balls piffed at me

tunnel ball

getting some IT assistance

As it was time to head off the kids started their own little 'concert'. They started singing the alphabet, B-I-N-G-O, hokey pokey, twinkle twinkle, heads shoulders knees & toes, five little ducks etc. etc. It was great - one little kid in particular was going off tap.

hokey pokey

The next day we headed off to Angkor. There are apparently over one thousand temples in the area and I think we saw around six. The biggest temple in the area is Angkor Wat. It is the big kahuna! I could not get over the size of these things or the detail of the carvings on just about every surface. We had a very informative guide who knew just about everything there was to know - who was fighting who, the reasons they were fighting, which god was which etc. I think the bulk of the temples were built between the 9th and 12th centuries. Some took one-hundred plus years to build others less than fifty. If you ever come over here Angkor is on the must-see list for sure! There were literally hundreds, possibly even thousands of people venturing around the complex. Em said that when she came here in 2003 there was barely anyone around.

Em feeding the elephant

nosing it up with Buddha 

nature overtaking man-made creation

these dudes are apparently Chinese because they have beards...

@ Angkor Wat

chillin with the monks

we think our guide fancied himself as a bit of a photographer - I must admit he got some cool shots

Us and a lot of other people waited a few hours for a sunset THAT NEVER CAME...

I was glad this sign was up because I was just gonna wash my hands in the urinal after using it

It was an amazing day, and hard to take everything in. The sheer size, detail and stories behind every building and every wall were enough to make my head explode. I figured they could have saved a lot of time had they not put so much detail in to just about every brick. Apparently the bricks were carted by elephant. They had holes which had been drilled so iron bars could be inserted to help with transport. The magnitude of the temples was hard to fathom had they been built with the technology that we have, let with the very basic tech that was available in those times.

There were a lot of little kids trying to flog off stuff to the tourists - I was tempted many times to buy something off them for $1 US. They were selling everything from postcards to bracelets to musical instruments to lonely planet guides to Cambodia.

Speaking of little kids, tonight we went out to the floating village. This is located on the Great Lake or Tonle Sap. There are around 2000 people living on houses which are literally floating on the lake. The lake is 140km long and increases in size exponentially during the wet season. During the wet season all the houses are towed deep into the bushes to ensure safety from the waves.

both these kids for some reason had snakes (which apparently didn't bite) and the girl was asking for 'one dollar, one dollar, one dollar'

On the way out of town we almost got wiped out by another tuk tuk. Our driver had locked the brakes up and was trying to stop Flinstones style! We also had to take a detour I think because the road was being resurfaced. The road we took was extremely bumpy and had a lot of areas with loose and deep sand so it was pretty hard going for our driver but he did a good job. It worked out well in a way because we got to see some agricultural areas which we would not have otherwise seen. The floating village was basically hundreds of houses and other buildings which were moored against the bushes growing in the lake. The village is quite established and had a primary school, English language school, catholic church, bar and shops. It's hard to believe that this is how they live...

the houses are mounted on rafts kept afloat by empty fuel drums

hundreds of tourists were ferried out to make the most of the sunset, there were at least 3 viewing platforms set up for this purpose

Our guide said that all of the villagers are Vietnamese. I sensed that they weren't really wanted here. He also said that the Cambodian government assists them a fair bit when they have limited access to food and resources.

Earlier today Em and I went to the market again and tried out a fish massage. Em got used to it in the end but my feet must have been too sensitive and I never fully relaxed. The fish eat the dead skin off your feet and are meant to provide a massaging sensation. We also got a 'proper' massage that cost $8 for an hour.

We had a brief tour of Artisans d'Angkor where local artists carve, paint and sculpt their wares.

Tomorrow we head off to Battambang where Em will commence her workshops. We're travelling with some other teachers who we've met up with in Siem Reap, in a minibus. I feel like we only just arrived but still am looking forward to seeing some other parts of this beautiful country.