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.

Siem Reap

Well we arrived in Siem Reap yesterday. It reminds me a lot of the Philippines where mum comes from, although being a provincial town it's nowhere near as busy as Manila.

Oh I forgot - a photo from KL. A phone near the toilet just in case you get stuck!

We were picked up by a driver from our hotel in a 'tuk tuk' which is a very popular mode of transport here.

The traffic is just amazing. There doesn't seem to be a strict observance of road rules but everyone seems to get to where they need to go without too many issues. There are not heaps of traffic lights but their ones over here have a countdown timer - both for the red and green, which is cool.

We went to the market earlier today and saw the sights and smelled the smells! There were heaps of stalls with everything from food to shoes, sunglasses, collectables and t-shirts. I thought this t-shirt was pretty cool...

not sure whether these food sellers just plonked  themselves there or whether they were paying rent

I wanted to try some shoes on but I was scared that the pile might collapse... and kill me

I just love checking out other cultures and seeing how other people live. Anything from food, transport, hospitality - I know it's pretty obvious but it's just different and it's just really cool to experience it. People have been really friendly and they love it when we have a crack at speaking Khmer.

I think in Australia we should definitely get more motorbikes - and stack more people on to them.

4 people is the most I've seen on a moto... I'm aiming for 5.

Tomorrow we are checking out some temples at Angkor Wat. It will be a big day but I'm looking forward to it. The last time I went overseas was 15 years ago and Em was laughing at me yesterday 'cause I'm just lapping everything up like a little kid. I don't mind, I'm having a blast - it's good to be away.

stone carving of Angkor Wat which took 5 years to complete

Chilling at KL

Just kicking back with Em at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
I've been having a great time. We flew Malaysia Airlines over and after my last few plane flights being on cheap domestic carriers, it was pretty cool to get food and beverages I didn't have to pay for. I tucked into everything because my philosophy is that I may as well get my moneys worth. They gave us ice cream bars for dessert and the hostess was saying they were very 'hot'. We had to laugh because the ice creams were incredibly cold - it was minus 50 outside and I wondered if the ice creams were just attached to the wing or something. My tongue stuck itself to the ice cream and I thought at one stage I could be in trouble, but once it thawed it was all good.

Em was worried because I was indulging in everything that was offered (alcohol included) but I kept things definitely in check... burp!

We arrived at KL around 8pm local time and once we figured out how to get to our hotel we were sweet.

The hotel is practically located at the airport. We saw in the new year in bed as we were both pretty cactus.

Well we're off to Siem Reap now, Em wants to board so will update you soon.

PS. We stole a baby already... Nah that's just my nephew Oscar!

Reality

The reality is reality is too painful.
This is why we spend so much time trying to escape reality.
Escaping reality is futile also, because the reality is...
Reality is reality.

At some point you have to either acknowledge what 'is' or you will spend your life trying to escape it. Escaping reality doesn't change what 'is' - it merely takes you in another direction so you can avoid dealing with what the reality is.

When we acknowledge reality we have something we can work with.
In accepting reality we say, 'Well things aren't great, in fact they're @#$%'.
Maybe that's the reality.
From here, hopefully we can get to the point of 'Things are @#$%, now what do I do?'.

The question, 'Now what do I do?' is something that you can work with. Words can be spoken and action can be taken in order for things to be different.

What is the reality that you do not want to accept today?
What is it that scares you about accepting this reality?
What could be different if you tackled it rather than running away, escaping, distracting yourself etc. etc.?