Cambodia, Chapter 4: Battambang

Like I said last time, it was a short visit to the nearby town of Battambang as we only had the weekend off. BUT, we definitely made use of our time there! Unlike Pursat it was a bit more westernised which was very refreshing!

As we had very early starts for our orphanage work, we decided to have a little lie in the Saturday, so hopped on a coach around noon – it only being a one and a half hour journey. When we got off the coach, the tuk tuk drivers came at us like nobody’s business! A little overwhelmed, we pushed our way out of the crowds and tried to find a hostel or cheap hotel to stay at, and boy did we! Using my companion’s guidebook, we found Chhaya Hotel and we booked a twin room for 2 nights at $5 a night! Bargain! The next step was to hire a tuk tuk driver for the 2 days we were there, as we figured it’d allow us to see the majority of Battambang’s sights with relative ease. We found Phil Lay, a friendly, English-speaking older driver who promised to show us all Battambang had to offer – and we paid $20 between us for the weekend. Anyway, on our first day we wanted to head to the Killing Caves which were about a 45 minute drive out of town. The hike up there was HORRIBLE. The photo below doesn’t do it justice, but it was worth getting to the top of course - although we actually went up the wrong way and got a little lost, but luckily there was a Cambodian couple about who showed us the way to the cave itself.

As with the Killing Fields I visited outside of Phnom Penh, the caves here were pretty grim. Under the Khmer Rouge, a nearby temple was used as a prison and the prisoners held here were bludgeoned to death then dropped down into the cave. When we visited, there was a monk inside (or at least I think he was a monk) who cleaned and kept the place, and after we donated money, gave us red wristbands. After the cave, we headed up to the temple on the top of the mountain which gave great views of Battambang. When we had finished, Phil Lay then met us at the bottom of the mountain and took us to the Bat Cave (not actual name). He told us that everyday at sunrise and sunset, hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of bats flew out of the cave mouth in search of food. He then showed us a really cool photo one of his past passengers had taken and we were super keen to witness this Flight of the Bats (and we weren’t the only ones with other foreign tourists gathering at the base of the cave when we arrived). And it was amazing to behold! Quite hypnotic actually. SO many bats. Then after we’d seen all the bats leave, we headed to the Night Market for dinner, then later to the Riverside Balcony Bar for a drink (really cute place!).

On the Sunday, we began the day with a FANTASTIC breakfast at the Gecko Café (which we returned to a few times because it was so good – best iced coffees ever). Today’s aim was to see what the bamboo train was as we really didn’t know what to expect from it! It was about 20 minute tuk tuk drive out of town, and cost $5 apiece. You get on what looks like a bed frame made of bamboo which then hurtles down train tracks in the jungle. Pretty good fun! You go down the one-way track for about half an hour with a 10-15 minute break at a little pit-stop where we were hounded by children selling bracelets, and once you gave in to one, three more kids popped up in their place trying to sell their wares. I bought 3.

Post-bamboo train, we headed back to town and Phil Lay gave us a whistle stop tour of Battambang which was interesting. He was also full of really interesting stories and facts about Battambang, Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge regime (as he was 19 at the time so remembered it well). One thing he did tell us that I found really bad was the fact that in Cambodian schools, the children aren’t taught about the Khmer Rouge regime so his grandchildren and even his children don’t believe the stories he tells them about the conditions at the time. Apparently this is because the current Cambodian PM is a former Khmer Rouge party member. Phil Lay also told us about his experiences when the Khmer Rouge came to power. At the time, his family was very wealthy as his father was (I think) a party member, however, when everyone was turned out of their city homes his family had to pretend to be from a labour, working-class background in order to avoid execution and be taken to the agricultural working camps. He said that he lost his father, brother and mother in the camps.

The weekend in pictures:

View of the temple on the mountain from afar

Glimpse of Battambang

The long, steep road up

From the temple on the top of the mountain

Battambang from on high - the areas that look like puddles from afar are the flooded bits
(luckily this didn't interfere with our trip at all!)

Some Buddhist monks

The descent to the cave

The cave
On the right seemed to be pictures of the zodiac with money bowls beside them

The area of the temple used as a prison 

Flight of the Bats - so weird how they flew in the same line out of the cave

A short clip of the bats in flight!

Natassia and I on the bamboo train before embarking

The tracks!

The right of way problem: as it was only a one-way
track, if you came across anyone coming the other way
one group would have to de-rail and let the others pass

Our driver - a very smiley guy

A short clip on the train - 

looks a lot faster than it felt in real life!

(Also, sorry for the poor camera skills)

Left: bracelet selling kids swamping Natassia; Right: the pit stop town

In the middle is a little leaf/grass bracelet one of the
girls made me, she said it was free, so then I obviously
had to buy a few. They'll get ya every time.

Natassia and Phil Lay in his tuk tuk!

From our little Battambang tour: a Chinese cemetery

A roundabout's centrepiece

Drivin' through the floods

Temple building

Temple

The old French Govenor's House (built in 1907)

Well that’s it on the travel front I’m afraid! I’ve been home 3 months now, which is longer than I’d initially planned, but delays with my visa application in China couldn’t be helped. But it looks like I’ll be heading back to China next month for an exciting new adventure!

Until next time!

xoxo

Cambodia, Chapter 3: Pursat

Firstly, apologies for the late post; a combination of laziness and laptop troubles have contributed to this and I can only apologise!

But moving on! After saying my goodbyes to my friends, Serei (a representative of the Cambodia Volunteer Foundation) picked me up and we were on our way to the Green House (my home for the next couple of days). Before I continue, I’ll explain a little about the organisation and how I got involved with volunteer work! The Cambodia Volunteer Foundation (CVF) is the in-country partner of the volunteer agency I actually applied through – International Volunteer HQ (IVHQ - http://www.volunteerhq.org/). I’d always fancied volunteering in an orphanage in a developing country and after fairly extensive research, IVHQ stood out as one volunteer agency I could trust, and it seemed that the money they charge you actually goes to the right place. I chose a two week volunteer placement in Cambodia (location to be confirmed on arrival) – costing around £450 (£200 of this was programme fees, the rest going to the orphanage and towards my food/accommodation on placement). Anyway, after the initial application process (all online) I was put in touch with CVF and led through what to expect. I have to say, the whole way through this, IVHQ (and CVF) were amazing – giving me useful/informative advice about Cambodia, the placement and what to expect, but also replying very speedily and helpfully to any emails I sent with concerns or queries. I will definitely volunteer using them again!

After arriving at the Green House (a little hostel CVF arranged us to stay in) I dumped my stuff, met some of the other volunteers then we went out to dinner – a nice but uneventful evening. The next day our orientation began. It had outlined in the volunteer booklet that training would last two days and would cover a lot of aspects of Cambodian culture as well as the different placement types people would be doing. Day 1 consisted of general Cambodian information, as well as some useful safety tips. Very interesting to learn more about Cambodian – or Khmer – culture. I also found out that I was to be placed in a rural town called Pursat along with only three other volunteers. Also on this day, we had a language lesson and blimey is Khmer difficult! On Day 2 we only had the morning as orientation, then left for Pursat around 12.30 on a 4 to 5 hour coach.

We arrived and Good Lord it was flooded! I couldn’t believe it! All four of us were staying with Dr and Mrs Leng in their home. It was lovely! Initially, I was a little nervous about staying with a local family in terms of their language and what their home may have been like, but I was really happy with where I was placed. And the Lengs were so friendly! Due to the nature of Cambodia’s rainy season, a lot of homes were built on stilts or on slight inclines of earth to avoid flooding in their homes, so we were ‘upstairs’; this floor contained a charming balcony, the kitchen, dining area, our bedrooms (I ended up having my own room) and two bathrooms.

Like a paddling pool down there! And one of the roads we had driven along was like a little stream!

Our home stay!
(And Mrs Leng out front)

The balcony! On the right is what is usually a very productive sewing station; they
seem to make/alter monk robes as their business

We were left to get a little settled, and then Serei picked us up in a tuk tuk and gave us a little tour of Pursat. Conveniently, Pursat was Serei’s hometown so he knew all about it and could answer any questions we had. First impressions: very small and we didn’t notice any kind of western shops/food outlets at all – not a bad thing! It felt like we were definitely in ‘real’ Cambodia, and thinking about it now, I’m glad that was the case because it afforded us a good glimpse of Cambodian life. Here are a few snaps from around Pursat:

A girl and her cow

Main road junction

Cows everywhere

The Ice Cream Man!
And for some reason the jingle he played was an
instrumental version of 'Colours of the Wind' from Pocahontas 

Local mansion

The only tourist attraction in Pursat

Now these kids, without fail, every morning ran out
of their house to wave and shout 'Hello!' at us and then
stand there waiting for us to do something exciting as we
were crazy foreigners. So adorable

The end of town

Just outside town, people seemed to live in small wooden shacks

Serei also outlined our work schedule; one of the other girls and I were paired in one of Pursat’s orphanages whilst our fellow volunteers were placed in the other. We were to work three hours in the morning, have a long lunch break, and then return for three hours in the afternoon before calling it a day! Our jobs would mainly be teaching English and then playing with the kids. Sounded simple enough! When we visited the orphanage only briefly to meet Borin, the director, and a few of the kids I definitely felt like Maria meeting the von Trapp children for the first time.

The entranceway!

The orphanage
(rice outside to soak up the flood water)

The interior! 

One of the bedrooms

Our classroom

The orphanage we were volunteering at was called the Centre for Orphans and Poor Children. Not all children living here were orphans, but those that did have families were placed here because (for whatever reason) their families couldn’t provide for them. I absolutely loved my two weeks here. The children here were so friendly and welcoming and loved playing games and colouring in with you, and it also felt really good to ‘give something back’ as people put it. Honestly, two weeks wasn’t long enough! By the end I was really getting to know the children and their abilities and would have loved to stay longer – but home was calling pretty loudly by this point.

Ali (my fellow volunteer) and the class
during an English lesson

Left: skipping rope fun; Right: pre-paper plane contest!

My little camera man, Roth Na, and I 

Holding their colouring books we bought them
- they were mad about Disney princesses!

The older boy was one of my fave kids: Ly Hemg;
the little girls and boy weren't technically our students
so I never learnt their names! (And then me in the
background with Meline who would NOT let go!)

Meline and I!

Nhainh (aka girl who put a spider on me)
holding a dragonfly

Left to right: Ly Hen, Roth Na, Ly Hemg and Sok Vy
playing with toy cars and diggers we got them

Lackhana (Roth Na's sister) and I
SUCH a smiley and happy girl!

A game of memory

Borin (the director) and I

Volleyball - the boys LOVED it

Video 1: Roth Na behind the camera 

(I got a lot of useless videos like this)

Video 2: Roth Na again, but this time a bit better!

Alrighty, so only one more post about my travels before coming home now: a road trip one of my fellow volunteers and I took on our free weekend whilst in Pursat to the nearby town of Battambang!

See ya next time!

xoxo

Cambodia, Chapter 2: Phnom Penh

After our jam-packed day/morning at Angkor Wat, we decided to take it easy the following morning and just chill and eat before we had to head to Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh. Unfortunately it was raining absolute cats and dogs when we left Siem Reap, so we cracked out the ponchos!

In a fetching bogey green

Again (surprise surprise!) not only did we have to wait around for the minivan for quite a bit, but despite being told the journey would only be 5 hours, it was a lot longer. If I remember correctly, we left Siem Reap around 1pm but arrived well into the night (around 8 or 9pm I believe). The journey this time was quite terrifying though… Not only were the roads riddled with potholes and the rain relentless in its ferocity, but our driver (having such a long journey on his hands) kept occasionally closing his eyes at the wheel. A friend and I seemed to be the only people on board to notice this and so kept it to ourselves. Not everyone needed to fear for their lives did they? After we arrived in Phnom Penh, we still had the task of finding accommodation so searched online then headed off. One VERY annoying thing I discovered here was the cheek of the tuk tuk drivers. Not being anywhere near a hotel, we obviously hired a tuk tuk to take us to one; but because we didn’t have a reservation at the place he took us to, they tried to increase the room price in order to give him a sort of ‘finder’s fee’. We got real annoyed at this so walked next door and stayed there – and a very nice place it was too. After this kafuffle we just headed out to get some food and have a quick survey of our surroundings then went to bed! 

The next day was the day we’d allocated to the Killing Fields. Apologies now that this post isn’t very nice, but it is interesting and something people need to know about I think. Before arriving in Phnom Penh, I had no knowledge of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. In fact this was something that really shocked me: that this happened relatively recently, ending only 10 odd years before I was born. And during this short period, under Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of around two million Cambodians (about a quarter of the population) in a bid to alter Cambodia's political make-up to mirror the communism in China. 

We started with the Choeung Ek Memorial just outside of Phnom Penh, one of hundreds of killing fields around the country. Ticket entry was only 3 USD, but I decided to pay another 3 for an audio guide – very glad I did as it was really interesting and useful, not knowing anything really before I entered the memorial. The buildings that were on the site (processing areas of prisoners for example) were torn down after the regime ended for the building materials, so in place of the structures there are now signs explaining what would have been where. Needless to say, it’s very difficult to express how I felt while wandering around the site, listening to my guide. I think the feeling I experienced most potently was incredulity. It’s so hard to believe something so awful is within human nature. One thing that does make it seem that much more ‘real’ and recent is the fact that even today teeth, bone and clothing fragments are still being unearthed after heavy rainstorms.

Anyway, enough philosophising. I took a few pictures from around Choeung Ek to show people what it was like. 

The memorial itself; the first thing
you see once passing the gate

An example of the signs dotted around - the first one

Left: enclosure of an unearthed mass grave
Right: a close up shot of bracelets that visitors to the site have left, as signs of respect

Mass graves

One of the more gruesome sights

Again, bracelets left as signs of respect

Choeung Ek was built on a former Chinese
burial site, here's an example of one of the grave stones

After the memorial, we headed over to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum – also known as S-21 Prison. S-21 was a former high school turned prison under the Khmer Rouge. Prisoners from here were either executed here or taken to the killing field. As you may expect, the conditions here were awful. The soldiers of the Khmer Rouge had made several alterations to the structure of the classrooms to create individual ‘cells’ with either stone/brick or wooden walls. Of the thousands taken to this prison, only a dozen survived – presumably for their various skills that the Khmer Rouge soldiers found useful. One such survivor, Chum Mey, was actually there when we visited. 

Pol Pot

From the outside
One of 3 or 4 buildings like this

Overlooking the school's courtyard
Within are the graves of the final victims of S-21.
Vietnamese photographers discovered the prison
after the invasion in 1979

The prison rules:
"1. You must answer accordingly to my questions -
don't turn them away
2. Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this
and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me
3. Don't be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart
the revolution
4. You must immediately answer my questions without
wasting time to reflect
5. Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the
essence of the revolution
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not
cry at all
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is
no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something,
you must do it right away without protesting
8. Don't make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order
to hide your secret or traitor
9. If you don't follow all the above rules, you shall get many
lashes of electric wire
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get
either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge"

Left: a classroom in the school
Right: an artist's drawing of how it was used during the Khmer Rouge

One classroom with crudely built brick walls,
dividing the room into cells

One such cell
Each contained a small hole at the
wall where water and human waste
could drain out

Some of the prisoners

On my way out of Cambodia I actually bought an autobiographical book by a Cambodian woman who was a child during the Khmer Rouge regime. A very interesting read and awful to think, as the author says, this was one story but mirrored by millions. It was First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung for anyone interested - I would highly recommend if you want to learn a bit more about what experiences the Cambodian civilians faced. 

Anyway, as you can imagine, after this emotionally exhausting day we wanted to relax and enjoy the lighter side of Phnom Penh so we enjoyed dinner and drinks and the nightlife – which was amazing! We came across one club in particular, Pontoon, which had great tunes and a great atmosphere (surprising amount of foreigners). The next day we pottered about, me preparing for my 2 week volunteering placement and my pals getting ready for their next Cambodian destination. Having resigned ourselves to a cosy night in watching Pitch Perfect we then went a bit mad and decided to go out again – it being the last, goodbye night. And it was fantastic again. Trying to pinch the pennies a little, we began the night with watermelon Smirnoff vodka and Mon Dieu, it was delicious! Cambodia also has an amazing variety of Fanta flavours which we were super keen to try. 

Taste the rainbow! Oh wait...
All nice except the brown one which both tasted
and smelled like that Deep Heat stuff

The next morning I was instructed to phone my volunteer representative when I was ready to be collected, and after a surprisingly teary goodbye, my travelling companions and I parted ways! Boo hoo! But, onto the next – and final – exciting chapter before I returned home to the UK. 

 Bye for now

xoxo