well i have just bought some dodgy fireworks for only $3 for our birthday beach party tonight, so who knows if i will survive the night.
it's been pretty busy since my last post when we were in siem reap. that night we had another birthday in the group, so we went to the home of our group leader Yong, who's family lived just around the corner. his mother made a giant meal for us all, and there were kids everywhere. afterwards, there was a birthday cake, but i'm not sure if much of it got eaten, as it all soon decended into a giant cream fight with the kids [to the tunes of jingle bells playing in the background. - it was all a bit surreal] . then some more beers appeared and we all got into the dancing. by the time we left, we were absolutley buggered and drenched in sweat and sticky from all the cream. kids have so much dam energy!
the next day we headed to khompom cham [i think]. [the road now was perfect smooth tarmac. bangkok airways obviously dont fly this way] we were meant to ride bikes over the bamboo bridge crossing the mekong, but it had been taken down already due to high water level, so we headed off to see some temples instead. i wasnt too excited at the thought of more temples, but when we arrived at the first one, there was a performance underway by some local orphans of traditional khmer dancing. during the khmer rouge rule, it was nearly lost as all the dancers were killed [around 3 million people were killed here over 5 years by pol pot] and now they are trying to bring it back by teaching the kids.
afterwards we were talking to the monk who runs the programs, and other projects that they run with the orphans and other kids. he gave me his business card so i can look him up later, as i definatley want to come back here and do some work with children.
the next temple we went to was pretty spectacular, built on the top of a giant hill overlooking the town. we went for a walk behind it and came upon a school teaching english, run by monks. i soon found myself alone in front of a class of 40-50 kids aged around 12-20 who wanted to practice their english. the monk teaching them kept trying to get me to give them some secret magic way of understanding english better, as they were all struggling to learn. they asked me to write my name on the board, so i turned and wrote "my name is kane" and when i turned around i found them all copying it down in their books. i eventually was able to leave, to find the rest of the group waiting for me downstairs.
last night we stayed in small local community who are developing eco-tourism and homestays. it was similar to Pan Deng where village we stayed in thailand, but it was all a bit more developed and organised, so i guess i didnt really find it as exotic.
thismorning we went for a walk through the jungle and swam in the waterfalls. it was a nice feeling to be cold for once. however after 2min of the walk back we were sweating again.
we are now on the coast, it's a town starting with S and i cant remember the rest. we have 3 night here to chill out. were having a big party tonight for one of the girls birthday, and when we went to pick up the cake i found some fireworks. it should be fun! except the instructions arent very clear and i have to hold it and twist it to set it off................
