Volunteer teaching on Koh Rong Samloem

We travelled down to Sihanoukville on the South Coast using the ever so deluxe bus again - only 4 hours this time. We met our contact here and then travelled 2 hours by boat to reach the tropical and largely deserted island. to spend the next 2 weeks teaching English to the village children. I have only one word for this experience - Amazing!
Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC) set themselves up here about 2 years ago to research the reef and abundant fish life to find out what damage is being done. They realised that the villagers were in need of help too and if they were to educate them in protecting the reef it would be important to work with them. So the organisation work very much with the islanders and have worked very hard to build a good relationship with them. The village has been there 12 years and when MCC first arrived it was filled with rubbish, like most other places. The walkways between the houses and main passage through them was rubbish upon rubbish upon rubbish. They cleared this with the islanders and have been educating them on how to dispose of rubbish in a more environemtally friendly way. It is now sand and beach again and the Islanders work together and take it in turns to recyle cans and plastic bottles, etc.

The village

Our little friend from the pier. We went there every day so became friendly with the family.

On our last morning the old man brought us breakfast to share with him.
He couldn't speak any English but we all got on very well.

There are approximately 160 people living in the village and about 80 of those are children. The village is like one big family and as with most South-East Asians the family is of huge importance. All generations live together in one house; the village has a chief and there are elders.  They sleep generally in one room in hammocks, on cots or on the floor. There is larely no electricity until the generator is put on so cooking is on a wood burning stove. They eat rice, vegetables, seafood and lots of coconuts. When children work, all the money goes back into the family. There are two main livelihoods for the men - fishing and jungle work (most of the island is densely covered by jungle).

The pier where John and I would retire to most afternoons to drink a diet coke in peace!

The men used to drink all the money away and gamble but MCC have been changing this and providing jobs and important income for those families that are most needy. They gave a job to a villager who used to unecessarily cut down a lot of good trees to sell firewood so that now he only needs to do this from trees already falled and only a small amount for his family and the village.  MCC have been successful in educating the Islanders on the environment, over fishing, cutting down trees, health, etc. There can be approximately 20-30 voluteers now on the island at one time mostly diving and carrying out reef surveys so this has brought in additional income for the islanders also. Nearly every other house is also a small shop. One woman used to make 30USD per month and due to the volunteers now makes 300USD per month. We were told to spread the wealth so you don't always spend money in the nearest or the same shop each time.
 The teaching was interesting. It was not part of the school day as I had assumed it would be. Most younger children go to school between 7am and 11am then they can come to English at 11.30 am in the schoolroom with us for an hour if they wish. There is also another session in the volunteers main bungalow in the evenings at 7.30pm. The weekends are free time. The older girls just come in the evning because they work during the day. This meant that varying numbers of children came to each session, sometimes 12 and at other times anything up to 30. Their ages ranged from 6 or 7 up to about 14 so this was very difficult in terms of differentiation.

The school with two classrooms

John playing What's the time Mr Spider? - they don't know what a wolf is!!!



Numpteen working hard

Evening classes

 

The school room

There seems to be very little discipline in the school and children wander in and out the school room when they get bored / have to go somewhere, etc! In their spare time they play football on the beach when the tide is low, or play volleyball, sing karaoke (a big favourite with all the village!), pick berries, or do their chores such as washing, cooking, cleaning or looking after their sister's and brother's.

Picking berries at the weekend

We were staying in a very basic bungalow with a veranda on the volunteer site next to the village which had no running water, so it was cold bucket showers for us! We only had power during the eving from about 6pm until 11pm when the generator was put on. The sea was about 5m away from our hut and all meals were taken together in the main bungalow where the family lived that cooked and cleaned for us.

Our luxurious Bungalow!

Our tiny bedroom

The bathroom complete with a bucket of very cold water!



The communal bungalow where we ate and took lessons in the evenings



Our room mate - Gertrude the 1 foot long gecko that shared our bungalow. She could be very noisy!

The food was great but we'd had enough of rice by the time we left! We also had a lot of spare time where we swam, I went running (such hard work on sand and in that heat!), played with the children, sunbathed, walked around the village or planned for lessons. As we had no internet and largely no mobile phone it was 2 of the most relaxing weeks I have ever had in my entire life!
We absolutely loved the experience and now that we have left we miss the locals very much as we made some good friends and felt completely at ease there. 

Sunsets from our bungalow

On Long beach - nearly always deserted

Taking the older girls and teaching then to snorkel

Pnomh Penh - a laid back capital

We travelled the 6 hour journey to the capital by deluxe bus. Perhaps not deluxe by our standards but it had a toilet on it and that was good enough!
Despite being the capital city Pnomh Penh is still very laid back like the rest of Cambodia and one of the most pleasant bug cities we've stayed in. We took a stroll by the River Mekong on the first evening and ate in a lovely restaurant that seemed a little like jamie Oliver's 'Fifteen' as it is a charity which teaches street children how to chef and serve tables. The food was delicious, service faultless and they couldn't have done a better job.

The next morning we went to the Grand palace and then hired a tuk tuk for the afternoon to visit the sights a little further out.

The Grand Palace

We made 3 stops, the first beind the happy gun club. When we arrived it was very surreal, like arriving at a restaurant as you were met, ushered to a table and handed a menu. Except the menu wasn't for food it was for the choice of guns you could fire. There was everything you could possible imagine from an AK47, M16, M60 to a bazooka and a grenade launcher! John would have liked to fire the bazooks (wouldn't every boy?!) but at 350USD for one go we decided this was a bit beyond us so we settled instead for the much more reasonable 25 rounds on an AK47 (40USD). You were provided with ear guards and led into the room with taregts at the far end. We both fired single shot first of all (it had quite a kick), then John had a go on full auomatic which, of course, he loved! We were glad we came here as a first stop on the trip as we may not have wanted to shoot if this had been last on the list!

John with his AK47

The next stop were the Killing fields which were extremely peaceful and now set up as a memorial for the millions who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. There was a very informative display here which was shocking to say the least.

The memorial at the Killing fields just behind the 'magic tree' - a tree with speakers attached
 that would play loud music to drown out the sounds of the killings.

Even more shocking perhaps was our next stop, S21 which was the prison that the Khmer Rouge used before taking prisoners to the killing fields to be put to death. There were a variety of cells left as they would have been and lots of very shocking photos. This was a depressing afternoon but very interesting as an awful part of cambodian history which has had such an effect on the people even now.

S21

One of the larger cells that would hosue many people

The small brick cells

Cambodia - first stop Siem Reap

After spending a couple of fairly unpleasant days in Bangkok, we flew on to our next country. As we approached from the sky what struck us most was how flat the land was. There was very little hassle on arrival - an unusual surprise for Southeast Asia! The taxi driver was friendly and helpful, the hotel staff were welcoming and helpful - everyone smiles...what a breath of fresh air!
It was mid afternoon but feeling excited to be there we decided to waste no time in getting out to explore the country. We booked onto an hour's quad biking at sunset in the paddy fields. Both having quad biked many times before we were disappointed to be told not to go too fast. However once you started this wasn't an issue as the scenery was much too important to miss at high speeds! A fantastic trip as each pair had our own guide so it felt very much like a private tour. We ambled through small rural villages and as in India, we once again felt like celebrities as children came running out of their houses, smiling, waving and shouting hello. We stopped in the paddy fields , as locals worked around us, to watch the sunset. A magical welcome to what was already turning out to be an amazing country.

Stopped in a a village

Working hard!

Sunset in the paddy fields

Angkor Wat and the rest of the ruins of Angkor beckoned the next day. Once again we rose early in order to leave at 5am to be there at sunrise. It was pitch black when we arrived at Angkor Wat with hundreds of other tourists streaming into the complex. Most of these congregated around the lake but we found a quieter spot a bit further away and waited. It wasn't a perfect sunrise but the atmosphere was eerie as the light emerged behind the temple silhouette and the birds started singing as if on cue.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

We hung around and got a coffee at one of the stalls and by the time we went to explore the temple the rest of the tourists seemed to have disappeared. A bit sad we thought that they had only come for the photo. We didn't mind though as it meant it was quiet in the temple as we wandered around.
A couple of hours later we found our tuk tuk driver waiting for us and we moved onto the rest of the Angkor complex. As we approached the South gate and drove through the bustle you could have been transported back in time as monks wandered past and lumbering elephants plodded through the gates.
We spent the next couple of hours walking around and climbing the ruins amongst the trees. It was a very peaceful morning exploring The Bayon and the terrace of the elephants, etc.



 The last stop on the circuit was Ta Prohm which you might recognise from Indiana Jones films and Tomb Raider. This was a true Indiana Jones experience as tree roots grow up around the tumbling stones. A whole 7 hour day of sightseeing completed by lunchtime and very much worth it.

Siem Reap itself is a lovely place to stay with a heavy French influence. Lovely restaurants and cafes to watch the usual Asian sights go by!

Christmas and New Year on Phi Phi island with Jodi

We travelled on to Phi Phi to meet Jodi who surprised us by arriving early an  standing at the jetty with a board saying 'Bully's!' I nearly walked straight past her to be honest! It's been two weeks of sunbathing, relaxing and generally chilling either on the beach or by the pool, which has been lovely. A holiday withing a holiday! Lots of good company, laughs, shopping, sun and nice food and drink!
The island is very small with no cars or motorbikes so you have to walk everywhere. A bit like a much more developed and touristy Sark basically with warmer weather and sea! Since Phi Phi was devestated on Boxing day about 6 years ago the island has been rebuilt and is thriving. The sea is crystal clear and the beaches are beautiful. Phi Phi don is the main island where we were staying and Phi Phi leh is the smaller island that you can visit but you cannot stay on. We had a few cloudy days and lots of very hot sunny days with a little bit of rain mixed in there too.

Tonsai bay

We hired a longtail to take us round the smaller island for half a day and visited Maya beach which was made famous by the Leonardo Di Caprio film, 'The beach.' Beautiful but visited now by far too many people and they charge you 200 Baht just to get on the Beach!

Maya beach from 'The beach"

 We snorkelled and swam and then moved round the island for some serious snorkelling. Loads of fish and amazingly clear water. 

Jodi and I snorkelling

We visited the blue lagoon and passed the Viking caves and then headed back.

Blue lagoon



Viking caves


On Christmas eve John went scuba diving a couple of times on the reef and really enjoyed it but decided it was not something he would do often due to the weight of the tanks. We celebrated at a delightful gala dinner at the hotel beach bar, fireworks, a kung fu show, thai boxing display and fire show.

The gala show!

 On Christmas day we opened our pressies on Jodi's veranda (thank you to everyone who sent something over and to Jodi who spoiled us rotten!) and wore our hats from our crackers, then we sunbathed and ate Pizza for dinner!


Pulling our Christmas cracker!



John looks happy with his presents!

On New year's eve poor John wasn't very well so had to stay in bed while Jodi and I celebrated by dancing on the beach with a Thai bucket!

Our Thai bucket!

It's been a fantastic couple of weeks  with a great friend and it's been lovely seeing a familiar face and catching up with all the gossip from home!