South East Asia Part 4

Cambodia

Fast facts
Population: 14.5 million
Life expectancy: 62 years
Infant mortality rate: 55 per 1000 births
Adult literacy rate: 76.3%
Number of monks in Cambodia: 60,000
Bombs dropped on Cambodia: 539,000 tonnes
Number of psychiatrists in cambodia: 26

We arrived to Cambodian land after a three day beautiful journey on the Mekong Delta from Vietnam.Along with our two new friends Jesse and Dan from Melbourne we haggled  our way into our first Cambodian tuk tuk to find somewhere to stay. My first impressions of Phnom Penh was that it was chaotic yet  charismatic and actual quite beautiful for an Asian capital city. Our  journey in the tuk tuk was no longer than five minutes, yet my senses are on over drive. I couldn't help notice how much quieter it was  compared to Vietnam. Of course there was still traffic surrounding us  but we able to have a conversation and hear ourselves think!
We searched around for accommodation and found a lovely place to stay  called Longlin. The standard of accommodation was definitely lower than  in Vietnam. It more similar to Malaysia, as the majority of places had  shared bathrooms.
As soon as we had checked in, we headed out to explore. The people  were overwhelmingly welcoming, big smiling faces shouting "hello".
That evening Berwyn had I went to a recommended restaurant called "Friends" good cause dining. Friends is a brilliant restaurant. Not only is the  food the best we'd had in Asia but its a fantastic idea.   The 
'friends' charity offers former street children a helping hand into the hospitality industry. The waiters were students and the chefs too!  Next door to the restaurant was a 'friends' shop, 'buy stuff...change 
lives'. The shop sold beautiful jewelry that the Cambodia parents had  made out of newspapers. The parents making and selling these items was  allowing their children to be on school.  'adults earn...children 
learn' concept. Which is a huge campaign running throughout Cambodia.

Our first full day in Cambodia we booked a Tuk Tuk for the city tour.  The city tour consisted of S21, The Killing Fields, Royal Palace and  Museum.
The first stop was S21 museum. This was a school, but in 1975 the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and renamed it 'Security Prison 21'. The classrooms were converted into tiny prison cells and torture chambers. Most rooms still had torture tools lying on the ground for everyone to see, and they'd kept some bed sheets that still blood stains on.
Outside there was a rule board, one rule was ''Whilst getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all' number 6.

 Opposite the board was another torture area. The frame was used to hang the victims until they were  unconscious, then the prison officers would dunk they in water and begin questioning again.They were forced to name family members and where they were living. Then they would go and be brought into the prison. The prisoners were living through hell. They couldn't even try to kill themselves. Around the prison were fishing nets, so if prisoners try to jump off the building they wouldn't be able to die. The majority of prisoners who were brought to S21 were teachers, doctors, anyone academic. They brought anyone with soft hands, wearing glasses or could speak another language. They wanted all the intelligent people dead. And all the others they worked to death in the rice fields. An estimated 17,000-20,000 were imprisoned at S21.
Visiting S21 was extremely difficult. I couldn't comprehend how it all happened so recently, and how humans can be so disgustingly vile to even be able to create the tortures that they did. Every torture was unbelievably horrid. They mainly used pliers, they pulled off finger nails, teeth and women's nipples. Out of 17,000 prisoners, 7 survived as they were judged to have useful skills. 3 survivors are still alive today.

After a pretty silent tuk tuk drive the 4 of us arrived at the 'Killing Fields'. This was an area about 17k outside of Phnom Penh. Here the Khmer Rouge killed 17,000 people between 1975- 1979. Mass graves containing, 8,865 bodies were found here. The way the tour is laid out is excellent. Everyone is given their own audio tape for $5, available in many different languages. I thought this was a brilliant idea to explain such a dreadful place. The audio tape explained each different grave or site. The tape also had some survivors experiences. At this point in the tour you were able to sit in front of a lake on a bench and just listen. Taking in all the heartbreaking stories. It was a very sad experience. Many visitors had tears running down their faces. Including me. It was truly awful what went on in that field. They used farm equipment to kill the victims.
Towards the end of the tour I arrived at point 15. A tree.  A tree where they killed the babies. They threw the babies against the tree until they were dead or some near dead and were left to die in the grave. That was the worst thing I had ever seen. The last section on the audio tour is a sample of Khmer music. This was played during in the killings to drown out the sound of the screams.

After seeing the Killing Fields we payed our respects at Choeung Ek memorial by laying flowers and lighting joss sticks. We then headed back to the hotel and didn't complete the rest of the tour. We had seen too much and just need to go and contemplate it all. 

A few days later we arrived in Kratie after a 10 hour bus journey. Along with a stinking toilet and cockroaches. Kratietuk tuk ride through the beautiful country side of Cambodia. It was stunning. Hundreds of happy welcoming children waving and shouting for out attention.
When we arrived it was a tiny little harbour type area with no other tourists. It was so peaceful. Just a few local women selling a fresh sugar cane drink in bags. Very delicious and refreshing! We boarded our tiny fishing boat and quietly paddled through the still river water. Within minutes we were surrounded by the dolphins. Truly beautiful! Such a special experience we will never forget. 

After spending 2 nights in Kratie we headed to Siem Reap. I assumed that we could just go directly across land as we were already half way there. However I was wrong. There was no through road. We had to go back on ourselves! So we prepared for another long and slow journey. The first bus was a mini bus with the locals. This was a great experience...the bus had its own DVD player which was playing 'domestic violence style' music videos, followed by Khmer Comedy...! The locals found it hilarious! The worst part was the volume was on full blast down my ear so I couldn't hear my iPod one bit, so I gave up and tried to enjoy the Comedy!!
Eventually we arrived in Siem Reap. We stayed in a brilliant guest house called 'Popular'. We loved Siem Reap. Lots of lovely markets and restaurants. Pub Street has a the good restaurants and bars on.
On the weekend we met up with Lucy as she was i Cambodia on holiday! Was great to see a face from home. 

This was the first Christmas Tree for us to see! Very exciting...but strange as it was so warm!

On Monday we begun our work at ACODO Orphanage. Our friend in Bali had volunteered here before and said it was a really great place. I was quite weary about going. Expats in Siem Reap and some organisations have a big campaign happening at the moment trying to shut down some orphanages in Cambodia. I thought I might find it very difficult and especially hard if I didn't agree with how things were run.
We were met by two lovely volunteers Chris and Natalie from Bristol. Natalie was a social worker and Chris was a painter and decorator in their past jobs. They had volunteered a few things but this time had committed a minimum of a year. They love it!
We gradually met all they lovely children and learnt some of their shocking history.
After the rota was completed it was decided that I would teach the intermediate class and Berwyn would help build a new floor.

Everyday we had a delicious lunch with all the children and the staff- the food was great. All the children can go up for food as much as they like!

 The children have 3 nannies who are Khmer and one cook- called 'mummy cook'. Who is married to the president. The staff are very hardworking and love the children so much.
There are 74 children in ACODO from 1 years old to 21 years old.

Teaching was a great experience. They were so willing to learn and excited for new topics! In my first week of teaching I was teaching from their class book which was kindly donated to them from a Singaporean School.
In the morning the children go to school. All the children have sponsorship for education which is fantastic! Recently they have all moved to a new private school called New York. State schools in Cambodia is free up until the age of 11. However, the schools are awful. The children are lucky if the teacher turns up. When the teacher is there they charge the children to teach them, and it costs huge amounts for a exam or test. So for ACODO having their children in private education is fantastic! A few of my students we showing off their school books to me- they were showing me that their work had actually been marked. As they had never had this before!

Every evening evening ACODO puts on a local Khmer dance performance. Some organisations don't approve of this any it could been seen as exploiting children. However, I am not a professional but what I saw was brilliant. They children were so happy. And each child only performs twice a week. When it isn't their night to perform their sitting in their sit wishing they were on stage! Some children in ACODO  are quite shy and don't do very well in lessons because they are way behind on learning and many haven't been to a school until arriving to ACODO. Some of the children become so confident on the stage and really begin to shine!
Many tourist restaurants have local Khmer dance shows, so they children learning this dance is also giving them a trade for later life- and its one of the best paid jobs in Cambodia.
And of course the children that don't want to dance...don't!
ACODO has recently invested a lot of money into the farm. The farm is situated 60k outside Siem Reap. They hope that one day ACODO will be self sufficient from the farm, selling fish, rice, crops etc.Therefore, it won't have to reply on donations and they show will not need to be on every evening.
One weekend we visited the farm with older children to help with the rice harvest. It was a brilliant experience! They children loved escaping from the city for the weekend and we all had lots of fun!

 

The next week we were meant to make our way down to the coast of Cambodia to Sinoukville- but we couldn't leave! We'd had the best week! And knew that a week on the beach just wouldn't compare! So we stayed!

Second week was great- I begun to teach my own lessons. I did poetry week! I taught them a poem about Cambodian history called 'Behind the Smile''. It was very beautiful. 

Then the students tried some of their own. I thought this was great way to show the students that writing feelings down can really help and can even make excellent poetry. Some of the students did really well! I think they enjoyed learning about more interesting concepts rather than the work book they had, which had really irrelevant exercises in.

 Berwyn did a fantastic job on the floor and even did lots of extra bits- they were so grateful of all his help. He was a lot more use than the rest of us volunteers!

Then end of the week approached very quickly! Too quick in fact.We bought the children and staff a lovely coconut milk and raisin cake- which they loved! We watched the last show on Friday evening and said our goodbyes. It was soooo sad. Much more sad than I had anticipated! 

I promised the children I will return one day. I will not break that promise! 

After Siem Reap we headed to Battanbang west Cambodia. Battanbang is famous for 2 things, firstly it still has a Bamboo Train and secondly the killing Cave.

We only had one day here so we hired a tuk tuk for the day. We went with our new friends Jamie from Scotland and Rosie from Australia. 

In the morning we visited the Killing Cave. Where the Khmer Rouge threw thousands and thousands of people. Extremely sad. The clothes of the victims were hung up like flags in and around the cave. There were also 2 shed type things- one with babies and children's bones inside and the other with adults.

The cave was now in a very peaceful area. Surrounded by beautiful temples. We had a lovely guide called V who was 12. She showed us around the mountain- with the cave and temples. She made what could have been a very sad experience really enjoyable. Her nature was beautiful. She played hiding games with us, constantly jumping out and trying to scare us. And pretending to be a monkey hiding in all the trees! I will miss her.

 

The afternoon was spent speeding though Battanbang's beautiful country side on a Bamboo Train. We loved it! We had so much fun- such a great experience,one of my highlights for sure!

Every time the train came head to head with other one we all had to jump off while the driver dismantled the train!! The other train passed and we all got back on! So fun!

Our last couple of days arrived so quickly. We got a bus from Battanbang to Phomn Penh, as we had a flight a catch to Bangkok, Thailand.

Looking back over our time in Cambodia with many many smiles and found memories. 

I have loved every single day in this country. The people have been to hell and back and still overwhelm me with they kindness. 

Constant smiles, laughs and touching conversations will never be forgotten.This place is on the top of my list to return to.

SE Asia Part 3

Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi at 6am on 2nd November. The guide book is full of warnings about scams...yet we landed face to face with the most popular! The bus driver and the so called manager come out from the hotel where we said we wanted to go and they said it was full. We should have stood our ground and checked it out ourselves, however at this point we had been awake for over 24 hours and were both exhausted. The so called manager showed us his other hotel, which was fine so we didn't argue and took the room.
Hanoi is a sea of motor bikes, and the noise from the roads is crazy. To us the roads look like a death trap but as you study them more and more you see its organised chaos, and it works perfectly. There will be over 50 bikes coming towards you but you just have to walk straight across the road at a steady pace..not too fast and never stop or its game over! It took a while getting used to it.
Hanoi had a great feel to it. Lots of little roads full of street food cafes but its tricky to see them through the amount of traffic. The hussle and bussle of the city life surrounds a beautiful and perfectly still lake. In the middle of the lake is a beautiful Temple. Named, 'The Temple of Literature'.

 On our first evening in Vietnam we went to the theatre to watch a Water Puppet Show! It was really good and such a great experience. The band and choir were stage left and on show through the entire performance. The puppets were beautifully made and moved incredibly. They even had a fire breathing dragon!

From Hanoi we arranged a tour to go to Ha Long Bay.  I cannot describe how beautiful  Ha Long Bay is, it wouldn't do it justice. Its a world heritage site where 3000 or more incredible islands rise from the stunning still waters part of the Gulf of Tonkin.
We took part in the Hanoi Backpackers Tour- which was basically a huge party boat. We were with great people all our own age. In the day time we jumped off the top o f the boat into the emerald waters...and then we kayaked around all the hidden lagoons and beautiful caves.

In Hanoi we booked a 'jump on jump off' sleeper bus. The bus included 6 stop offs and lasted one month, costly us only $49.

Our first stop was Hue. The bus journey took 18 hours in total. The bus had beds on rather than normal seats. Our first experience was fine. Although its a very long time, it surprisingly went a lot quicker than we predicted.
Hue was  a great little place. We had a lovely hotel for just $8 a night. A lady who worked there called Hong was very welcoming and became a very good friend of ours.

We experienced Hue market which was wonderful...it sold so many beautiful things, and the fruit and veg section was great!
The next day we did a cooking course together. So when we arrived in the morning we headed straight back to Hue market to buy all the ingredients for the dishes we were going to make. We bought fresh garlic, onions, shrimps, pork, chilies  beef bone, and fresh rice noodles.

It was a great cooking course as it was only Berwyn and I. We made fresh and fried spring rolls, Hue speciality pancake. Which is a deep friend really crispy pancake filled like a spring roll with pork and shrimp too. It was yummy! We are definitely cooking it when we get home! The third dish we made was Beef Noodle Soup- Pho. Probably the most popular dish in Vietnam- very delicious.

       












The next day we planned to leave Hue, but the rain came down and literally didn't stop! So when we woke up to leave the roads were like rivers and there was no traffic on the roads which was the strangest part! We were stuck in Hue. They had turned the entire towns electric off because the water level was over the main wires. So all we could do was wait....

Hoi An was the next stop down the country. The bus took 6 hours this time, so not as long as before. Hoi an is famous for its tailors. Unfortunately we didn't get anything made as it was still really expensive and anything we bought we would have had to lug around with us. So we figured we'll wait until India!
We found Cafe 43- which was fantastic- amazing food and the local fresh draft beer was 300 Dong which is about 14p!
We took a tour to My Son- which is beautiful old Hindu Temples, but nothing compared to Angkor Wat we were told!

On our last last day in Hoi An we did another cooking course- it was a lovely posh restaurant called White Lotus and was fantastic! This time we made, 'Papaya Shrimp and Pork Salad', Çau lau (which is a local noodle dish where they use water from a special well to cook the noodles in) and finally 'Fish Claypot'.

From Hoi An we had to get on another night bus which took 12 hours. When we entered the bus we all chose our beds whilst the bus driver was shouting at us all because he wanted the westerners to sit by the stinky toilet but we were all refusing. After 2 hours we stopped for a snack and toilet break for 10 mins. When we all got back on the bus I realised that a Vietnamese lady had nicked my bed and thrown all my belongings out! I told her it was where I had been sleeping but she just looked at me like a was stupid and turned over so I just gathered all my stuff and headed for the only empty bed left which was on the top deck with no safety bar. I climbed up and tried to get settled as I knew I still had 10 hours to go!

At 5am we arrived in Nha Trang.Nobody knew where abouts we all were so we just had to jump on the back of motor bike taxi's and pray they would take us to a nice safe hotel. Luckily they did!
Nha Trang is the touristy beach area of Vietnam. The beach was beautiful and there were lots of nice restaurants. One afternoon Berwyn got brave enough to Para sail down the coast! He loved it.

We decided to do some diving in Nha Trang as we hadn't dived since Malaysia. We chose a great dive company called Sailing Club- it was brilliant. Our dive master was a lovely girl from Wales! We saw an octopus on the second dive- so that was great! Just diving in Vietnam was a great experience alone!

 After the beach we headed up to the mountains, Da Lat. It was very beautiful. The days were still hot but the evening got really cool. We even had some red wine at night to warm us up!
We took an easy rider tour. Which is basically a motor bike tour with a man who was in the army so he has great English and is very knowledgeable. My guy was called Tin Tin! He was brilliant. We went to lots of great places. From a flower farm to a minority village to a silk factory.

Mui Ne was our next stop. This was another beach town but very quiet and less built up. It was beautiful,the  sea was full kite surfers.

We went on a day trip around Mui Ne which included fresh water springs, Sand Dunes and visiting the fishing village. During our walk in the springs Berwyn noticed a field which was doing Ostrich rides for the equivalent of a pound!


 

 

 The Sand Dunes were quite spectacular. Although they were ripping everyone off by trying to get us to use an overpriced quad bike! So we opted for the other choice which was a sledge, that was much cheaper....but a load of rubbish!! We didn't move anywhere, but we laughed about it!

Finally after six mega bus journeys down the coast we arrive in Saigon, now called Ho Chin Min City right at the bottom of Vietnam. We felt so relieved and satisfied that we had completed our epic journey from the very top of Vietnam to the very bottom!

HCMC was another wild city- with millions of motor bikes- we found out that there is an equal amount of motor bikes as there is people in HCMC!

It took a while to find a nice room as the standard of rooms had  dropped compared to the rest of Vietnam, but we found a nice one in the end, owned by a lovely family who didn't speak any English but they were so smiley!

One day we took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels.These were the tunnels that the Vietnamese soldiers used during the wars. The tunnels were tiny and really hot. Berwyn went inside and lasted until 40 metres. It said it was really difficult and extremely hot. Even though our guide said that they had made them bigger for tourist and have even added air holes!

 

After seeing the Tunnels we headed back to HCMC and visited the War Remnants Museum. This was extremely disturbing. The section on Agent Orange was awful. They displayed hundreds of photographs of people, families, children and babies that had suffered from the gas. There were even preserved fetus's on display. It was a really difficult afternoon, but I'm glad we went and saw what we did. I even thought to myself that in hindsight I would have preferred to have visit the museum at the beginning of our time in Vietnam rather than the end of our trip. I felt that we would have perhaps understood the people more and knowing more about the dreadful time that they went through, and what they are still living with today.   

As we were fast approaching our visa deadline we searched around HCMC for ways to travel to Cambodia. We found that we could travel along the Mekong Delta, which would take 3 days and 2 nights. We thought that this was a great option as we had taken our fair share of buses! And flying makes you miss out on the scenery so much.

The trip was beautiful. We visited so many wonderful places.We saw amazing floating villages, and went to see how they make coconut sweets which was really interesting . There we also sampled Rice Wine, Banana Wine, Coconut Wine and Snake Wine...my favourite was the Coconut one!

We also visited a fruit farm, watched local traditional performance (which was interesting to say the least!!) 

Night 1 of the tour we opted to stay in our first Vietnamese Home Stay. We were collected by a tiny boat with a couple from Estonia and a guy from Sweden. The boat trip to the Home Stay was incredible. Every sight was untouched beauty. There were no other boats on the still calm river- just us, and the sun was going down. All the homes on the river bank were still under water from SE Asia flooding.

When we arrived we were greeted by Huong who was the father. He showed us around his beautiful home and introduced us to his mother, wife, and children. 

In the evening we all sat down in the courtyard for a wonderful feast. Just before  we started we were joined by 3 other girls who were running late. Two of them Becci and Donna were from Liverpool and the other one Ruth was from Ireland. The girls were great fun! We made our own spring rolls and there was a huge selection of small dishes and one huge fish in the centre of the table.

After the meal Houng spoke more about his family life and we learnt how they live. He showed how they clean the dirty river water with a big crystal thing, which makes the water clean enough to drink, cook with and clean white clothes! Then we sat back around the table and Huong gave us some 'Happy Water'- which is also known as Rice Wine..and pretty lethal! So we all stayed up for quite a while drinking Happy Water and having a great evening.

The next morning we had to get up at 5am as we were going for a tour of the village. I had an awful hangover but got up anyway as didn't want to miss the opportunity. We took a ting canoe over the river to get to the market. When we thought it was already full of locals they piled us lot in....we all had to stand with awful hangovers and no balance! And when you thought it couldn't get any worse...another girl jumps on with her bicycle!

After the tour of the village we said our goodbyes and thank yous to the extremely kind family and off we went- along with the bed bugs I had got from the mattress I slept on!!

Our last in Vietnam was great, still on the Mekong Delta we explored even more and visited a Muslim minority village where they showed how they traditionally make silk and all the beautiful clothes. In the afternoon we arrived in Chau Doc which is on the boarder of Cambodia. Here is a huge Pagoda. A Buddhist Building, a p;ace for the monks to spend there time. It was very beautiful- the best I have ever seen. It felt like a really special place. Back in England a very close friend Lorraine had passed away and Theresa my great Aunt was extremely ill in hospital, so here I lit a Joss stick and send a prayer for them both. As a local lady said that the Vietnamese travel huge distances to this place to say prayers for loved ones. 

Our final evening in Vietnam was in a not so nice hotel..but it was fine as all our friends were staying there too. WE went out to a local restaurant which was really simple but great fun. We sat with the locals and had a very fun night!

The next morning we left the hotel before 6am and headed on the boat to Cambodian boarder. Everyone was a little nervous and didn't know hat to expect as we had all heard horror stories of them charging way above the price for the visas. Luckily everything went really smoothly and our first impression of Cambodia was a positive one! All the children were shouting 'hello' and waving and the adults smiled, from that point we knew Cambodia was going to be a very friendly place!