Thursday, June 30, 2011

Khmer Rouge to Royal Palace

Nick ponders at S21
Today we had our first day in Phnom Penh. After breakfast at the hotel we traveled to S-21. S-21 was originally a high school however during the Khmer Rouge regime it was converted into a Prison camp. Over the four years of the Khmer Rouge Regime it held over 20,000 prisoners and only 7 prisoners survived. Now the prison camp has been converted into a memorial museum. As we toured the museum we were confronted with testimonies from the survivors as well as stories from the guards about how they indoctrinated by the Khmer Rouge. Along the way we also saw pictures of how the prisoners were treated. This experience was very challenging as it was really the first time many of us had been confronted with the harsh reality of Cambodia’s history. This was disturbing as none of us could understand how another human being could treat others like that.
Georgina explores the cell blocks

After S-21 we traveled to Tabitha to receive our briefing for the house building tomorrow. We met Jan, the founder of Tabitha, and she told us what was expected of us as Tabitha representatives. She was both a passionate and inspirational person. After receiving our Tabitha briefing as well as a lovely embroidered scarf to wear while house building, we had an opportunity to shop at Tabitha. They had some lovely silk products.

After shopping at Tabitha, we had pizza for lunch, and some of us stopped at the ice cream shop on the way back to the hotel for some relaxation. Some of us decided to sleep while others had the option of going back to Tabitha, or visiting the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace was a good example of how Cambodia throughout history has had several religions. It was a fascinating place to learn about the Royal Family and its influence in Cambodia’s history. It was interesting to see the combination of Khmer architecture with the influence from the French Colonial days. We visited the coronation hall, the silver pagoda which had 5329 silver tiles with a 90kg gold Buddha. We finished our tour of the palace with a visit to the elephant house which now held hundreds of silver elephant statues.

On returning to the Hotel we had free time until devotions. Following devotions we went to dinner which was Chinese and Vietnamese food. After dinner we all flocked to the supermarket to buy our energy drinks and salty chips for house building tomorrow. After buying the shop’s supply of Gatorade and other sports drinks, we returned to the hotel.

At the hotel we debriefed about the day, made arrangements for tomorrow and after a very emotional and tiring day we are all looking forward to a good night’s sleep and unfortunately an early morning. 

Liam McGovern 


Jan Ritskes leading the briefing at Tabitha
Royal Palace

Matt, Aiden and Nick at the Royal Palace
One of the views from our hotel

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Siem Reap > Spider Village > Phnom Penh

Tamika with a live tarantula
Hello everyone! DAY 6 has just passed us, and admittedly, it was quite an uneventful one in terms of the rest of the trip.

The day mainly consisted of the group sitting on a bus for 6/7 hours, making our way up to capital city Cambodia, the mighty Phnom Penh, which is situated on the Tonle Sap River.


We left the hotel at roughly 9 am, after our goodbyes with our awesome tour guides, we set off to on our new buses. After a couple of hours of travel, we pulled into a rest stop area for lunch, which were sandwiches and banana bread provided by the Blue Pumpkin Cafe.

Fruit for sale at Spider Town
Between listening to music and playing ipods, the bus trip was quite fun, but we then pulled into the SPIDER VILLAGE!!!!!!!!!! Everyone jumped out of the buses to experience some extreme heat. We further proceeded to having tarantulas crawl up our arms and on our faces. Some people even ate them!!!! (fried of course)


Finally, after 6 hours on a bus, we had made it to Phnom Penh, and it was and is just stunning!!! We were greeted to our hotel with drinks and a nice pool session. 
Dana with a mangosteen- yum!

Dinner was good, we also saw soccer and what we thought was 'Cambodia Zumba' being performed and enjoyed on the street.


We then finished the day with a good devotion from one of or teachers, Mr Williams.

Special mention to our bus driver, as today, every time I looked out the front window, we were either driving in the middle of the road or on THE WRONG SIDE!!!!!
Fried tarantulas (some students ate some!)

Please enjoy the photos as provided by the legendary Mr Jones and know that everyone is safe and having a good time. I hope this blog filled you in on the day we had.

Cheers,

Mark Panopoulos






Fried crickets

To the right of our hotel
Opposite our hotel
Out for dinner


Dinner guest - geckos!
Hotel pool

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Floating Village and Orphanage Visit



Today we had the lovely opportunity of going out to the Vietnam Floating Village. We got up as usual, had breakfast, packed our day packs and were on the bus by 8:30am! It was a 25 minute bus trip down south through Siem Reap to the Floating Village. As you looked out the window, while moving on the bus it would go from superb massive mansions, to one bedroom houses made from bamboo cane, to people living in cardboard boxes on the street. It was pretty confronting, and that was even before we got to the Floating Village.
 
When we got there we got given passes and had to walk down a very steep ramp to the river. As we walked down some lady was taking pictures of us, we didn’t know what it was for at first but then Mr. Jones told us that they would put our pictures onto plates so we could buy them, but we shouldn’t feel obliged to buy them as they would just scratch the picture off and use the plate again.
I think only one person bought one.
Anyway we got onto these very open boats and went putting down this lake through the Floating Villages. On either side of us, all we could see for miles was rows and rows of these floating houses. As we got closer it became apparent that the houses were first boats, and then wooden floors built onto the boats, and cane walls with stick roofs. It was amazing to see how happy these people were, even though everything they owned could fit inside one of these small boats.
There were also floating shops, which were pretty amazing. There was even a floating water irrigation thing, where the people could get clean drinking water, and even a floating basket ball court!
We were told these Vietnamese people were refugees in Cambodia, and they could own their own land but not get citizenship. We were also told by our guides that in the summer the lake is 1.2 meters deep, but in the rainy season the lake got up to 12 meters deep.
Shaun gets a boat massage
We eventually got to the end of the village and the lake was so big that it looked like you were staring at the horizon over the sea. We got off the boats and got onto a floating barge, which had a shop on it, as well as a type of pond for catfish, and a crocodile farm. There was also a little boy offering his pet python up for pictures with it.
We got back on the boat and got some amazing back and neck massages off the boat boys. They were really rough and bad but hey what can you say.

Josh (Blue Steel) and model friend
We got off the boats and back on the busses and back into Siem Reap, where we went to an Italian café, and FINALLY had some western food. We got Pizza! :D

After lunch we had a siesta where mostly all of us went to the pool for a dip J. There were some very funny moments, like when Dana McMullen dominated Jen Williams in a friendly shoulder wrestle, and when Mark Panopoulos was penguin sliding and completely took out Josh Bailey, and Josh Ray from Arden got smashed on a plant trying to penguin slide! :D

Mrs Urquhart's new handbag
After the siesta there was an optional trip to an orphanage where a woman from Nowra, Claire, vollentarily teaches english. On the way out we caught tuk-tuk’s, this way we got to see everything. This trip was also very confronting and emotional, as a lot of the kids on the Cambodia trip made a conection or bonded with the Orphans. Whilst there, we played a nice friendly game of soccer (the orphans were so goood!) and we were shown around the orphanage. It started to rain really heavily, so we played soccer in the mud J. It was sad to leave the kids behind, but we raised up to $280 to help Claire buy school supplies, and other things the children need.

We got back home soaking wet, and got our feet and shoes hosed out the back of the hotel. We had a great time eating (expensive) western food. Mine and Emily’s Table ended up coasting $228 all up! WOW!  It was very good though because we got to bond with the other studentd that we hadn’t talked to yet!

That’s all for now, signing off from Georgie and Emily!!!
From The Cambodia Crew (insert cool hand movements here) ;)


Tonle Sap Lake
Downtown Siem Reap
Chres Village Orphanage School - soccer with the kids
Duck-duck-goose

Making new friends
Cambodia Crew with the orphans
Tuk tuk breakdown on way home in the rain

Monday, June 27, 2011

Tomb Raiders

Ankor Wat at sunrise
This morning we got up at 4am and left the hotel at 4.30am to see the sunrise at the Angkor Wat Temple. Although everyone was looking forward to the beautiful colours, it was too cloudy to see the actual sunrise. We did, however, get some good photos of the temple and its reflection on the pond. After we decided the sun definitely wasn’t coming up, we went back to the hotel for a well-deserved quick hour of sleep before the day really began with Ta Prohm Temple, the famous temple from the Tomb Raider movie.

The Arden Crew - sunrise
It was luscious and green as it was situated in the middle of jungle: the “jungle temple”. It was riddled with large trees growing on top of the buildings and we got lots of group photo opportunities. The natural and man-made elements worked together to produce quite a mystical atmosphere, although it was steaming!

After making it through a sea of vendors to get back to our bus, we drove to the Cambodian Landmine Museum. This was interesting but also horrifying to read stories, see deactivated bombs and learn about the violent history of Cambodia. This was also inspirational as there were also articles about a former child soldier now deactivating landmines. It was also encouraging to see that there was a facility at the museum which helped rehabilitate, educate and treat landmine victims. We also enjoyed shopping in the gift shop.
Ta Prohm - The Jungle Temple

After another Khmer lunch we went to the Artisans of Angkor Silk Factories and got to see how the silk we had been buying had been made. We got to experience just how time consuming making silk was and why it is so expensive! After another shopping experience in the silk factory gift shop, we had a refreshing ice cream in the hot afternoon. Some people tried to eat silk worms but many did not particularly enjoy the taste!

During free time, some people went to get a fish pedicure/massage. It was a new and strange sensation which actually made our feet feel great!

In the evening, we went out to dinner to two separate restaurants with more traditional Khmer food.

After a long, hot day and for some, a very early start, we are all exhausted and ready for bed.



Evan thinks he's a 'Tomb Raider'!

Arden Raiders

NAC Raiders

SAS Raiders

Treasures!

The Cambodia Crew

Landmine Museum

Lunch at Khmer Restaurant - Ankor Wat

Silk Farm

Georgia (aka Violet Beauregarde)

Tuk Tuking

Fish Massage (only $2)