Wow. So much has happened in the last few weeks, I’m not sure where to start! We spent a week in Siem Reap and then caught a boat to Battambang. That was an interesting trip! There were about sixteen of us crammed in on a small, barely seaworthy-looking boat…..and we spent the first hour tilted so much to one side we both thought we were going to end up in the river! The next six hours were uncomfortable but interesting – we passed by so many villages that are right on, if not in, the water, which was incredible to see. Then the river got so shallow that we were almost constantly stuck in the mud, and a little boy would stand on the tip of the boat, grab a huge long stick from the roof, stick it in to the mud, and push so the boat would slowly drift back into the water. Pretty narrow in parts too! But seven hours later, we were there. Battambang was a great place to visit, not too many tourists, though I always got an uneasy vibe walking after dark there. We were there for two nights and on the second day we went on a mammoth bike ride – we thought, yup, 12km to the temple, we can do that easily. What we didn’t know was that 10km of that road was red dirt, with cars barrelling up and down, kicking up so much dust that we could barely see – or breathe, for that matter! It didn’t help either that it was in the full sun and there was no shade whatsoever. It was testing, to say the least!
We caught a bus to Phnom Penh the next day, and spent two nights there before catching a bus to Sihakonville on the coast for some beach time. I enjoyed part of that town, and didn’t enjoy parts of it – it was awesome to be able to swim in the beach (not that it cooled you off much, it was sooo warm) and we spent five nights there, so it was great to be able to have some time to rest……but on the other hand, it just felt slightly off because there were tourists everywhere, bars lined up and down the beach, and in particular it wasn’t unusual to see 50-60 year old white men with 20 year old Cambodian girls. I just cant get used to that, and in Sihakonville you see it all the time.
We then had to catch a bus to the border town of Koh Kong to get new visas – we dropped our bags off at a guesthouse and then got a tuk-tuk to the border, exited out of Cambodia, walked the 20m over the border into Thailand, entered Thailand, went over the street and exited Thailand, then walked the 20m back to enter Cambodia. We’d heard lots of stories about overcharging for visas, especially them insisting you pay in baht instead of dollars (which is quite a bit more expensive), so we went in with the exact amount in dollars tucked into our passports. Didn’t stop the lady processing them to ask for a $5 tip though! Crazy! But we both really liked Koh Kong, it was a really small, relaxed little town, and we ended up staying there two nights before getting a bus to Phnom Penh.
We met Christian and Gerhardt from the Children Planet project that night in Phnom Penh, and then travelled up by minibus to Evergreen Community (where we’re staying at the school, just outside of Stung Treng) the next day. We’ve been here for a week now (though the other two have gone back to Austria already), and it’s such a beautiful place – the school and the house is well off the main road, and it’s so incredibly peaceful. There are three separate classrooms scattered about at the moment, and they’re in the process of constructing the school building, which is coming up fast and should be finished in the next few weeks. This week we’ve been doing some teaching – we each assist in a class from 8am to 10am, then from 2pm to 4pm (mine is younger kids, about 6-9 years old) and then we take the adult class together at 5:30pm. The kids are adorable and they are warming up to us really fast, it’s so cute! The days are exhausting though and it’s so hot in the middle of the day (often almost 40 degrees) but there’s not much you can do about that! Riding the motorbike into town for an ice coffee is our escape!
We’ve been staying here at Long Lypo’s (the Cambodian man who started the school here) home and it’s been basic but wonderful, however there’s no privacy whatsoever so we’re going to rent a guesthouse/hotel room or small house in Stung Treng and then bike up here for school. It’s also a bit safer hygiene-wise for the rainy season, when malaria and dengue fever become a big problem. The house is on stilts, just a wide open dirt area underneath where they do the cooking, and three spaces/rooms upstairs – no doors or windows, so sleeping under a mozzie net is a must! Aside from teaching, we’ve got lots of work to do as far as documenting every child (there’s about 250 in total, but they don’t all come every day…..the class I help with usually has about 20 kids) and getting that information back to the guys in Austria. We have to sit down with Lypo and the other teachers next week and work out a day-by-day schedule for which classes we are going to help with, and what time is allocated for admin work, etc.
So all in all it’s going really well. I really love this place and feel quite at home here already. Two and a half months in Austria and already a month in Cambodia…..who would have thought! Loving it but home is never far from my thoughts xoxoxoxxoxoxoxo
