Khmer Delight!

Cambodia is a country with a horrific past, but the experiences we’ve had suggest it has a brighter future and very kind welcoming people. We spent almost 2 months in the ‘Khmer Kingdom’ with time shared between volunteering and traveling. Arriving in Phnom Penh from Thailand, we jumped straight into volunteering with Jo training up a ‘Speech Advisor’ based at the Children’s Surgical Centre and Sam helping a small charity set up some new research. There is no formal Speech Therapy training in Cambodia, and in general, the country lacks the capacity to train many new professionals because the Khmer Rouge wiped out most of the skilled older generation in their attempt to create Year Zero.

Getting used to the 9-5 volunteering schedule, we utilised our weekends to see as much of the capital as possible and got to know a few other volunteers working in the city (we also met up with a family Jo knew from Swansea). The city itself is a pretty relaxed place with lots of western amenities, meaning we could celebrate St Patricks day in an Irish pub! We also spent time reflecting on the horrors inflicted by the Khmer Rouge by visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide museum and the ‘Killing Fields’. The atrocities committed are respectfully documented for future generations to see, but the country is moving on despite prolonged law court hearings trying to level justice.

Finishing volunteering, we started our travels in the North East, Battambang, famous for its bamboo train. The train is little more than a platform of wooden slats on two rollers, built for transporting locals and their produce to markets. It's a true on/off experience because when you meet another 'train' coming in the opposite direction, one of them has to be taken off the rails so the other can pass. With motors on board, the bamboo structures get up to at least 20 miles per hour, which when you’re only a foot away from the track feels pretty fast! The rest of our time in this area was spent on bikes exploring rural villages famous for their rice paper and banana crisp production.

Moving on, we visited the world famous temples of Angkor in Siem Reap. The bus journey to the city even included us sampling deep fried grasshoppers! Not bad actually if you don’t think about what you’re eating. The temples were very impressive, especially Ta Prohm and our secret find, Ta Nei, where the lava-like tree roots have molded themselves around the centuries old stone, making it unclear what is supporting what! Despite being very touristy, our three days at the sight were very enjoyable and even included a rendezvous with one of Jo’s old school friends :-)

In a bid to see more of the ‘real’ Cambodia, we headed South West to Chi Phat, the Cardamon Jungle, where a beautiful rural home-stay awaited. We met Mrs Samnang, our home-stay mother, who walked us to her home through a gorgeous riverside village where all wooden houses are built on stilts and cows, chickens and pigs roam free with very cute but grubby children shouting “hello Mister, hello Madame”. We ate and slept in the family’s home, washed in the outhouse with a bucket of cold water and were awoken each morning by cockerels at 4am and children peering through our bamboo door slats at 6am!

We timed our visit to Chi Phat to coincide with Khmer New Year, which is like our Christmas and birthdays rolled into one. The village welcomed us to celebrate with them and we ate an amazing collection of local food, attended many get-togethers and visited the pagoda with our host family (which turned into an all-out disco)! Feeling very lucky and honored to have this exposure to such an intimate celebration, we thought it couldn’t get any better, but it did with a visit to a another home-stay in Traepeng Reung. Although this home-stay was not as picturesque because it was near a main road, the community was even more welcoming! So much so, that within 5 minutes of visiting the local pagoda where the locals were playing ‘party’ games we were blasted with a face full of Talken powder - a local way of saying “Happy New Year!” We both joined in with games from our childhood, a sack race and tug of war for starters, and saw one of the nights in with traditional Khmer dancing, a little like line dancing with fancy hand movements :-)

A trek into the jungle was another memorable experience due to being ‘attacked’ by leeches and because what we thought was just a round trip to a waterfall turned into a huge party with 30 locals singing, dancing and getting completely soaked fully clothed. And yes, there were also copious amounts of VERY STRONG rice wine, angkor beer and local whisky! The chief of the community even got Sam to drink a shot in a small air pocket under water which was followed by him being pulled down the rapids by a group of children, great fun!! Not all events involved alcohol however, we also experienced some moonlight lobster fishing where the fisherman speared 12 langosteens in total. These were barbequed and eaten at the river the same night, along with 2 crabs (sorry veges)!

Finally, heading to North East Cambodia we stopped in Kratie and explored the Mekong river island of Koh Trong. Again we were confronted by the generosity and friendliness of local people, being invited to eat watermelon with one elderly couple who insisted we take two more for our walk to keep us going! Continuing up the Mekong to Stung Treng, we cycled around another river island and got caught by a pre-monsoon storm in one of the villages. Continuing up to the Laos border we stopped off in Preah Rumkel for one final home-stay and saw the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins in their natural habitat. The home-stay wasn’t as good as the others, but watching local people washing their clothes and bathing in the Mekong as the sun set concluded our time in Cambodia nicely.

All in all we enjoyed our 2 months immensely, having engaged in worthwhile volunteering, visited many beautiful sights, immersed ourselves in excellent 'community-based ecotourism' and met so many lovely people. Much of the good nature seems to stem from not taking life too seriously, with people very much going with the flow - something we hope to take back with us to the UK. The older generation do seem to have some sadness in their eyes (a consequence of a not too distant genocide), but generally speaking they are warm people with a real energy for fun! Laos (often touted as the most chilled-out country in the world) will have to pull out the stops to beat Cambodia on this account!

As always, more photos below and also on facebook ...

First impressions from the bus, very rural indeed!

The capital has some great markets and the best rickshaw drivers ever :-)

Phnom Penh is a city of contrasts though, with much rural life on the doorstep of development

Phnom Penh has a great variety of food on offer ...

Outdoor aerobics was a definate favourite of ours!!!

We managed to find a great room during our volunteering, with a private balcony!!!

Jo's volunteering was hands-on, Sam's was lap-top based!

Tuol Sleng genocide museum, very sad indeed!

The children in Battambang know how to have fun though :-)

The Bamboo train was great

Miscellaneous meat barbeques were a common sight! 

Meeting monks at pagodas was always interesting :-)

Many familes eek out a living making rice papers for spring rolls

This boy happily shared his deep-fried grasshoppers with us on the bus to Siem Reap!

The temples of Angkor were definately worth a visit

Ta Phrom was our favourite, with the jungle claiming back the temple!

We explored with a friend of Jo's from school (great to see you Louise and Jim)!

Offerings like this are made by each household for Khmer New Year

We stayed in a home-stay in Chi Phat for the first few days of the celebrations

As ever, we met many likelable energetic children :-)

Arriving in Traepeng Rung, we were both given the talken powder treatment!!!

Fun games were played with much joy :-)

Sam came second in the sack race!

Sharing food, drink and good times at the waterfall was a fantastic way to celebrate!

Drifting down the 'rapids' was great

Outdoor cambodian discos are the way to go!

The river villages in the Cardamon jungle are beautiful :-)

We saw many jack fruit (in the tree) and pineapples (on the ground)

We (well our fisherman) caught 12 langosteen by moonlight!

They were pretty big and VERY tasty with chilli sauce :-)

Had to get one Mekong sunset shot in!!!

The rural villages of Ko Trong and Ko Trang were such happy places

Watch that buffalo!

Preah Rumkel was really scenic, especially when we saw the dolphins (no photos sorry, they were too quick)!

These two children terrorised us for hours on end!

Sam boarding the boat on the way to Laos :-)