So, on to the third and final part of my recent trip overseas, this time: Cambodia.
I arrived in Phnom Penh in the evening after a pleasant, amply leg-roomed, 1 hour flight from Bangkok and was met at the airport by my friend's dad's fiance Sue. She and her husband-to-be Dave both live in Phnom Penh and work at an international school. Dave was away in the UK and it was the school holidays, so Sue was able to be a tourist with me and show me around PP. After being in Thailand it was a bit of a shock to the senses to arrive in Cambodia. Even in the dark, it seemed rather less orderly and not as well off as Thailand. As we were driving along in a tuk tuk from the airport someone tried to grab my backpack off my lap. Thankfully I had a firm grip on it and grabbed it back... the guy balancing on the back of a motorbike beside us wasn't able to secure it and they drove off. "Welcome to Cambodia!" I thought as Sue and I released our shock with irrepressible laughter for at least the next half hour. My relief was immense (to say the least), but my bag was clutched to my bosom for the rest of my stay!
The general feeling I had that Phnom Penh wasn't a particularly safe place wasn't helped by the tightly locked metal gate, guard dog and double-locked front door at Sue's place. "Oh, women can't go out by themselves at night", says Sue. "Actually, a group of women isn't such a good idea either. There really needs to be a man with you if you're going to walk in the streets at night." Ah.
So, somehow between us we managed to drag my luggage up an impossibly steep and narrow 3 flights of stairs, to Sue's flat. I was somewhat surprised to see that Sue lives without hot water. And without a washing machine. And microwave. Did I mention, no air-conditioning? (it's as hot as HK in PP). Truly, I was awestruck by her hardiness... and she's from New Zealand! Where nothing poisonous lives and where the air is cleaner than clean. What a woman I thought to myself and then I thought to myself... how will I get through the next 3 days??
Ok, so I lived. Sue has fans and the air does start to cool down in the wee hours of the morning. And who needs hot water in the hottest month of the year(?), which is April which is when I was there. And having no washing machine isn't so bad when you have a maid that comes to clean and for an extra few dollars from me, was willing to was my clothes by hand. Sue does her own but I wasn't feeling up to it at that point in my travels. No siree bob.
I had a ball seeing the sights of PP on the back of Sue's moto. I thought it was understandable to be a little bit nervous, given the road rules in PP, or rather the lack there of. It's mostly up to one's self how one goes about negotiating the traffic. Officially it's right-hand drive. But Sue, driving like a true local, went up the wrong side of the road sufficient times that after a while, I was deeply confused at any one moment about what side of the road we should be on. According to Sue, there ARE some traffic rules. Like, Dave, for instance, was pulled over by a policemen and fined for having his moto headlights on during the day. Whereas it's ok not to have your lights on at night, only the King may have his lights on during the day. $10 please. He managed to bargain him down to $2 which doesn't seem so bad. Apart from the fact that the policeman was making up this road rule as he went along, you have to understand that they get paid the grand total of $30US a month and have to supplement their income by other means, one of which is fining foreigners for all manner of ridiculous offenses.
In our short time together, Sue and I managed to visit the National Museum, Phnom Wat (main temple), the Russian Market, the Foreign Correspondents Club for dinner and a number of other eateries... as one does. We also visited the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng Prison to stand in the place where unbelievable horror has taken place. It is a sad part of Cambodian history but one that the people are remembering in the hope that it will be prevented from ever happening again.
I'm so grateful to Sue for our time together. She was incredibly generous in so many ways, including giving up her own bed for me to sleep comfortably on while she shacked up in the lounge room. She and Dave will be getting married in the UK in a couple of months.
From PP I flew to Siem Reap after deciding that I'd had enough of buses altogether. It was a great decision as it was a mere half an hour of flying time which meant that just as we finished our ascent, our subsequent descension was announced. Before I knew it I was settling in to my little hut at Palm Village on the outskirts of Siem Reap town - making plans for the final 4 days of my trip.
My first day in Siem Reap was the first day of 3 public holidays for the Khmer New Year. In the morning I went to a temple in town called Wat Damnak which is where the office of Life and Hope Association is situated. Crossroads loaded a 40 foot container of goods for Life and Hope in March. The container is currently awaiting some sort of clearance in Cambodia before it can leave HK but it will be on it's way (hopefully) very soon. For some reason it didn't occur to me that the L&H office was in the grounds of a temple because it is run by monks, so I was a little surprised to find out that in fact, my contact, Cheun, was one such brightly be-robed man. He greeted me from a good 10 feet away which was very thoughtful of him because my natural urge was to reach out and grab his hand. I suddenly remembered that women aren't supposed to touch monks (or is it the other way around?), so I made a mental note-to-self for later: don't touch the monk!
Cheun greeted me with the warmest smile and lead me to the car where another monk, a driver, and 2 Singaporean guys were standing chatting. The guys from Singapore were holidaying in Siem Reap and wanted to see something a bit more meaningful on their last day there. We piled into the car and drove out of Siem Reap, past Angkor Wat, for an hour, to visit L&H's orphanage. It was very cool driving along chatting with monks, after admiring them around the place as photo opportunities up to this time. Cheun shared with us his experience of the Pol Pot regime, as a 10 year old boy, living in a children's camp away from the rest of his family. He talked about being so hungry he was forced to steal food from the fields where they used to work for long hours each day. They had to grow food that they weren't allowed to eat. His mother died during that time but the rest of his family survived.
The mission of L&H is about educating people, children and adults, as they believe that illiteracy is the root cause of all suffering. The orphanage has about 40 children who we were able to spend time with. We were shown around the place and had a great lunch of papaya salad and skewered beef with rice... After the orphanage we drove past their Junior High school where children from the local area can continue their education for no cost. We drove back in to town to their boarding house where 12 girls live so they can go to high school. They come from remote areas where it would have been impossible for them to continue at school. Life and Hope also has a sewing school where disadvantaged adults can learn skills that will enable them to earn a living.
There are of photos of my visit to Life and Hope here.
The next day I was picked up by Roeurt who is the director of an organisation called RICE. Actually, I'm not sure what RICE stands for. I imagine it is something in Cambodian... Roeurt worked for the UN in Cambodia for over 10 years and he a colleague were the first people to view Pol Pot's body when he died. Over the course of the day, I learned a lot about Cambodia and the government from him. Not surprisingly, the government in Cambodia is very corrupt. It cares very little for it's people, preferring to spend money on big hotels to line individual's pockets rather than basic infrastructure such as roads. There are a number of main roads in Siem Reap which were paved for the first time about 3 years ago and all the funding came from foreign donors. According to Roeurt, Cambodia is rich in natural resources and yet 70% of the population live on less than $1US a day. Government officials are keeping the wealth for themselves and their families.
I loved the work of RICE. It relies completely on foreign donations as the government is rarely willing to help NGOs financially. Roeurt took me to visit their orphanage where there are 30 children, 6 of whom are blind. They teach the blind children to read braille and play musical instruments. Two of the blind children played for me when I arrived; a small 7 year old who sang and played a drum and an 18 year old on the recorder. Half way through their song I had one of those moments when you get a big knot in your throat and feel like balling. (It was a beautiful song). RICE's mission is to provide the orphans with life skills and ensure that they have employment before they leave the orphanage - "otherwise our mission has failed" said Roeurt. RICE also visits rural communities seeking out people who are blind and therefore destitute. They take the blind person and give them skills to make a living. I had the privilege of being taken to visit a blind man than RICE has helped. It was an hour's drive out of town (along a dirt road recently graded by a Singaporean company), to a small village of about 500 people. When they found this man his was the lowest of the low, looked down on by everyone in the village. RICE taught him how to raise pigs. He is able to prepare their food and feed them, he can tell when they are sick by touch and he is able to go to market and choose the best piglets. Now he is the wealthiest man in the village and highly respected! He is the only one to have a house made from cement. It was incredible to meet him and his family.
RICE also goes to local villages and teaches them updated methods of farming. They have a health program where they accompany villagers to hospital to make sure they are taken care of. When people go to hospital on their own they are often left for days without being attended to. If they are in the company of an NGO representative they are seen immediately because they are kept accountable by someone who is considered important... (obviously more important than the villager). There are photos of my visit to RICE here.
For the following day I visited the world heritage site of Angkor Wat and the other amazing temples just out of Siem Reap. The rest of my time was spent reading, enjoying the pool at Palm Village and riding a bicycle around the dirt roads surrounding us. By the time I was packing my bag to leave, I had fallen in love with Cambodia. The people are very gentle and affectionate and I love the pink earth... it gives everything a very soft look and turns a rich salmon colour after the rain. You can see all the rest of my Cambodia photos here.
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