Following a very harrowing weekend in Phnom Penh, this week has been a busy one. We've been doing something every day so we're not sat in our room twiddling our thumbs surrounded by Cambodia's absolutely immense culture.

After our extremely tedious/monotonous yet exhausting journey back from PP, we had an evening's dinner and traditional dancing show to attend at the "Koulen Restaurant". I think it was the all you can eat buffet that enticed me more than the peculiar dancing (hehe*), but it was a really good evening all in all. I'd never seen a bigger buffet in my life: endless, catering for everyone it seems. Being a huge fruit-foodie, the dessert buffet was my favourite part, plus the coconut ice creams were an all round winner. The bottomless pit that is my stomach was satisfied as a result of my over-indulgence (definitely needed to lie down afterwards*). The dancing was… interesting. Apsara are very slow movements, in a sequence of sketches acting out several love stories. How they bend their hands that far back I will never know. There's a live band, with traditional wooden instruments, and all the costumes are beautiful: lots of sparkles and colours. It's advertised everywhere in Siem Reap so I feel it's a good bit of culture to see!

Caitlyn had booked us on a cookery course for both Tuesday and Wednesday. I love cooking and obviously haven't done any in a while, so I was really excited to learn about and make the national dishes here. We were whisked off in a relatively "posh" tùk tùk to the Sojourn Hotel about 30 minutes outside of main-town Siem Reap. The hotel's set amongst a rural village with it's sole focus on helping the local community. It's the most beautiful hotel, with several "villas" (more like mini wooden huts), a luxurious swimming pool and spa, and fantastically hospitable staff (all of which are village girls that the company have trained). There are fresh flowers in water bowls scattered throughout the hotel and it's openness to the environment is so relaxing (blissful*). A spec of luxury in the Cambodian countryside.

To begin our course, we went on a tour of the village. Along the way, our guide Tani pointed out the natural fauna that we'd be using in our cooking later on: basil, aubergine, turmeric, lemongrass, etc. Everything we used would be sourced from this village, organically grown and native to Cambodia. We were given the opportunity to see a real rural family's kitchen (in exchange for 2kg of rice as supplied by the hotel). The family participation in the classes enables the vulnerable families an opportunity to receive a days rice or vegetable parcel to help supplement the families diet (especially as there's a lot of growing, often malnourished children). All the families volunteer for the programme and welcome the visit we make. It's amazing how basic the kitchens are, and just how dangerous they are too. In the two houses we saw, both had open wood-burning fires in the corner of their, very dry, palm-leaf and wooden houses; the roof above the "stove", as you can imagine, was black! The mothers in these families stay in the kitchen all day to avoid fires devastating their houses; they simply prepare food all day (so stop complaining Mum!*). One of the women had 10 children, 3 of which had tragically died in infancy; all were still at home and dependable on their parents. The abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables available in each of their gardens is enviable.

The cookery classes were fantastic. It's an outside kitchen with as many as 6 cooking stations overlooking a romantic lake full of water-lilies. On Tuesday we had an afternoon session from 12:30-3:30. We cooked 3 courses: fresh rice-paper spring rolls with sweet/sour sauce, Cambodian Curry (coconut-ty), and Nom Tong Noun (Cambodian-style wafer pancakes). The following day we made Khmer Mango Salad, Fish Amok and Sticky Rice Flour Balls. I'm not the biggest fan of fish, but this was incredibly tender, fresh and utterly delicious (compliments to the chef*). I'll definitely trying to recreate these when I get home, sadly not to the same standard because England's weather won't permit for all the delicious tropical fresh ingredients they have here (praying for Sainsbury's imports*).

We're finally seeing some of the seasonal rains, which are (praise the Lord*) bringing the temperature down to somewhere that resembles normal…well.. it still hits 40 most days! It makes doing anything that involves physical exertion that little bit easier (note: bit*). There's generally a huge build up of humidity throughout the day and then at approx. 4pm a huge thunderstorm. For me, thunderstorms are usually exciting, but these tropical ones take things to a new level; thunder that makes you question whether or not there's been an earthquake. It's a welcome change to the climate though; sun throughout the day and rain to cool it down for the evening - perfect!

On Thursday, as part of our three day activities with "beyond. unique escapes", we had an opportunity to do a "Day in the life". Having seen a lot of the rural scapes of Cambodia, and immersed myself in working with lots of children from the poorer parts, I was a bit pessimistic as to how this would be any different. I thought it was a rather pretentious trip; something that short-term travellers come and do so they've experienced the "real culture". But, I was so wrong. The village is around 45 mins outside of SR by car. We arrived on familiar red-dirt roads to a small village: Kom Piemh (translated: bluebird). This village is very small: 1000 people, 200 families. According to our tour-operator-man there are very obvious classes: upper = 50 people, middle = 100 people and lower = 50 people. All the people here are farmers, no mechanisation, all done by hand. Together with the tropical climate (and lack of other water sources, e.g. natural lake), there's merely one harvest per year, when the villagers must get all their rice for the year. It is, indeed, a very hard life for the people of this village; most of which are subsistence farmers.

Upon arrival we were immediately rounded onto two ox-carts towed by bulls. I, being the smallest (ironically the tallest too) in our group of six, was chucked on the back pretty much clinging on and feeling every bump in the road on my coccyx (ouch*). We went down the narrowest of paths too; footpaths to you and I, so the bumps and near capsizes were frequent (surprised I'm not bruised*). We arrived at a family, classified as the a lower-tier/class. There were 11 people in this family, the two parents and 9 children (varying from 2-22). Looking around we saw the basic means of living that these people had, one roomed huts with a palm-leaf woven roof (which was falling apart in several places). This family merely had one field to grow their produce on too; currently redundant as it's the dry season and rice growing requires a lot of water. We were given the task of weaving palm leaves for a new roof (in preparation for the rainy season) to occupy our morning. Being ever the competitor, I got really quick at weaving, and finished my 6 sections long before the others in our group :). It was actually really therapeutic just sitting on the ground, under a tree with a breeze simply weaving with the family going about their daily activities. We were also witness to the construction of the family's new house, another simple structure next to their original huts: made merely of large bamboos and shallow foundations.

We were taken to the kitchen-area of the house; the table also acting as a bed for everyone in the evening. On the said "table" was a bowl. It wasn't until later that I realised the dish was full of red ants and their larvae; a protein-filled everyday cuisine here in Cambodia. I would've been fine had they asked me to eat just an ant or two, but our guide insisted on mixing it with fermented fish paste and herbs and using a wholly unsanitary chopping board and knife to create this disgusting concoction. Needless to say, I politely declined the offering. Whilst eating our lunch (not the ants!), I observed how the family dynamic works here. Interestingly, it is the woman who does most of the graft: cooking, cleaning, chopping wood, etc. (female liberation eh?!*). I was also concerned as to what the family get in return for their incredible hospitability and willingness to let us pretty much invade their livelihood for the day. Alongside the company, they run a charity known as HUSK. It is this charity which endeavours to aid the community: from providing water purification/filters to each home to school funding, etc. Sustainably, the families aren't simply given money and instead helped through different projects.

After lunch we went on a long walk of the village and saw the incredible transformation of the Buddhist monastery and local Khmer school; all funded through donations from the village people (no outside or charitable investment!). It's amazing how the village has managed to make such a huge developmental change in a matter of years! Further on in the village we came across the HUSK English School, which is a free school for any local children to attend, indeed teaching English. The building here is amazing. It's made from recycled plastic bottles (stuffed with any plastic, e.g. sweet wrappers, plastic bags, etc.), encased by some chicken wire and then plastered with concrete and painted. The sustainability of this building is futuristic.. why haven't we done this already?! It's good to see how recycling here is actually doing some good in these communities. There are posters too which show how a certain amount of plastic bottles can buy uniforms, stationary, books and other such things that would ultimately aid this village no end. At the moment, it's holidays at the school and one room is used as a centre for some villagers to come and make fair-trade souvenirs/handicrafts that are available in some places in Siem Reap - both the Peace Café and Sojourn! I feel like the money we paid to come on this trip is being used sustainably and really making a difference in this community, which is so much better than my earlier misconceptions/prejudice.

Thursday evening there was a street party for Khmer New Year! Happy were hosting, with lots of loud music, free food and alcohol, dancing, flour throwing and (very weird/lack of rules traditional) games! Twas a really good night minus the flour I had thrown in my mouth (bit of a burning sensation on the skin too - perhaps menthol?!).

We went temple excursion-ing on Friday! Anna and I hired a local guide to take us around the main small circuit of the Angkor temples because we wanted to know what we were looking at! Setting off early, at around 7am, in a bid to miss the busloads of tourist groups and get some good pictures, we started at Angkor Wat. We spent around 2 hours looking around and climbing. WHY HAS NO ONE WARNED ANYONE ABOUT CLIMBING? If you're in any way afraid of heights, suffer from vertigo, then don't even both trying to climb the almost 90-degree steps up to the top of Angkor Wat! Shaking like a leaf is an understatement, and that's coming from someone who didn't think they had a huge "fear" of heights! Following AW, we ventured on to Bayon: the temple of faces. It was getting towards peak time for the tourist invasion so things were getting a little bit busier. Bayon's got several temples surrounding it, so we had a look around those too and moved on by tùk tùk when we got past Elephant Terrace! Our final temple of this trip was Ta Prohm, the Tomb Raider temple! This would've been amazing had it not been so ridiculously busy. Why do people feel the need to have umbrellas up? (Can you not wear sunscreen or a hat?*grrrrr). I mean it's not raining, we're in the searing heat, kindly move away from my photo. The colossal tree roots overwhelming some parts of the temple look fake but utterly picturesque. Anna and I have a few cheesy/cheeky tourist snaps from the day (go have a look! note: wear trousers that actually fit, mine are far too big, I was constantly pulling them up and I look like a heffer in photos!). Unfortunately, Ta Prohm's undergoing massive reconstruction so there's a lot of unsightly building work; the beauty is still evident though. The sheer vastness of the architecture and complexity of the carvings is unbelievable; something that a photograph does not justify. We only did the small circuit because Anna has already been a bit "templed-out" on a holiday back at the end of last year, and I've got to do them all again with Mum next week (yay*).

Our day at the temples was quite exhausting; we arrived back at Happy at around 2pm (so we spent 7 hours exploring!) and I crashed! Feeling a bit revitalised from my nap, Anna and I headed out to Siem Reap for dinner. We went to a self-grill restaurant. It was amazing! Finally got some nutrients from meat!! After our meal, we headed out to a couple of bars: buy one get one free $1 drinks - ridiculous! Not being massive drinkers and being knackered from our day at the temples, we headed back reasonably early frozen yoghurt in tow (missed you!*). …………

I managed two months in Asia without getting sick, and it's all come back to me with avengence. Despite being pampered in the luxurious spa at Sojourn hotel, Saturday was not the best of days (gah!*). We arrived and were treated like princesses, foot scrub and massage (complimentary) with a lime soda (why oh why did I have to be sick on this day sdksahkj*). Everything was so relaxing, my facial smelt divine (tantalising my taste buds*) and my manicure equally as pleasurable.. if only I could've fallen asleep, but good ol' tummy kept reminding me it wasn't happy with the incessant cramps and pains (I resent you.*). After our treatments, we were given a delicious ginger and honey tea. I spent the rest of the day by the pool under an umbrella, lying face down on the sun bed trying to make the most of the oasis here whilst attempting to ignore my stomach upset.

Despite my fragility, and I'm still not feeling 100% today, I've got lots of things planned for next week! Let's hope I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed for all those excursions; I'm going to be vegetarian from now on! Mum arrives on Wednesday and I've created a jam-packed schedule for us over the following few days until we jet off somewhere new the following Sunday!

HAPPY KHMER NEW YEAR! I hope you're all well at home, love and miss everyone! I hear the weather's finally getting a little bit better: just in time for me to come home. Keep Posted & have a look at the photos!

Love,

Jordanna xx

P.S. www.huskcambodia.org. It's the amazing, sustainable charity here in Cambodia that I saw in practise; the work their doing is incredible!