Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
written 8th January 2009: Cambodia
Got ripped off straight away by the Customs Officer which is saying something if the officials are corrupt! Visa should have been 700baht at the port entry but he charged us 1200baht b******! It was only 950baht if I got the travel agent to do dit and they get commission! OUr bus that was supposed to be a coach with reclining seats, toilet and T.V was a minibus. Everyone will just lie about what you will get although a minibus was fine to us we got it for 9 quid to another country. We got quotes as high as double that and from talking to people we got the cheapest deal with the same transport. Cambodia is very very poor although everything is in dollars instead of their currencey which is Reil. This converted into pounds makes it much more expensive than Thailand! which I cannot understand is it a much poorer country? Average cheap dish here is $2 = 1 pound 50, Where as the same dish in Thailand is 1 pound? We stayed in the best hostel yet a guest house called THE JASMINE GUEST HOUSE ON ROAD NH6! It was so clean, just out of town but fine to walk $10 a night including a great breakfast! Balcony, T.V clean bed WITH SHEETS!. Flushing toilet! Unfortunately we said we only wanted to stay one night and when we changed our minds in the morning they were full! Gutted. Booked into a s***ter more central for $7. free internet but so slow checking email that we left it still going. Got a Tuk Tuk to a horse Ranch called the Happy Ranch and going horse riding round an old Temple for 2 hours tomorrow at sunset. Tuck Tuk $7 for an hour which is double the price it says in the lonely planet. WE are going to Angkor Wat tonight at 5,00pm to watch the sunset for $5. We arrived and we werent allowed in as we were too late! We will do it tomorrow properly another day. We met a crazy woman called Christine: [email protected]. She's teaching in Thailand English, she's lived in Brazil for 30 years but from Alaska, buzes of animal and is going on a course to train elephants, her sons leg has been shot of in some Russian War and he has just been offered a place at Oxford!... what a lady!
written 11.01.09: Cambodia Siem Reap
I love this place! We went on a tour today around Siem Reap Mike went and got us a croisant and a bagetter from the bakery and we checked back into our gorge Jasmine Guest house! Well we left our bags there. Our tour guide was called "soccer" which was easy to remember and it was just me and Mike in a Tuk Tuk. It was actually freezing as teh wind was whipping us from all sides! We went to one of the local makrets just outside the town and we saw all the fermented fish with flys swarming round in the hundreds, I wont be gettting fish again thats for sure! It was good to see how the locals lived and worked and bought from. We next went to an NGO (Non Government Organisation) owned by the French - A Silk Company. The French help the Cambodians alot aparently. It was actually really interesting to see how the catapellar - Moth makes the fabric into little balls and then they boil them to eat the catapillar when they are dead. So much work goes into making these scalves and silk kfarments I couldnt believe it! There were students there learning how to make them by hand using a wheel that they could use at home instead of machinary. We gave the guide a $1 tip and got back on teh tuk tuk to our next NGO owned by the Belgium. This wasnt so interesting, the woman spoke really fast and we couldnt understand a wod of what she was saying basically it was a pottery clay place.
We went to our final NGO owned by an American couple who were making water filters for the family's and villiages of the very poor. First you put gravel, then sand, then dirty water. You have to filter and hose down teh sand B4 you put it in the filter. They are made out of cement of some kind and are very heavy and tony and cost $45 to manufacture. The tour copany we were with donates part of the money paid for to the tour to these filters, we saw this as their logo was on about 7 of them and they were in purple. The company our tour was with called Siem Villa Tours (purple leaflets and building) They sell them to the poor at a very very low price to include shipment. The tour guide told us to look over the wall as there were crocodiles next door. We peered over to see hundreds of them on top of each other! What a site you should check out the picture! They kill them, skin them and sell them to Western Countries to use as fashion accessories! Aweful! Next we had a great lunch served by the Siem Reap Tour Villa by hospitality students. It was very filing and I shouldnt have made the extra effort to eat it all! We had a fruit shake aswell all incldued in the price of the tour which was $30 each from 9.30 - 4.30.
We went to the Caritas Hospital in Cambodia, which houses sick Cambodians who are the poorest of them all. They diagnose their sickness and refer them to suitable hostpitals and care for them when they return. We bought 2 flower broaches from them which the patients made.
After lunch we bought some chocolate and rasberry rolls and headed for the Orphanage. As soon as our Tuk Tuk arrived we were mobbed by happy Children wanting to hold our hand and ask our names, it was very overwhelming! Tugging at our hair and all hugging us so we couldnt move! The owner showed us round the boys and girls bedrooms and where they brushed there teeth and the classroom. All wooden beds shoved together with no seperation or covers or matresses! The Orphange has to pay $150 a month rent for the land and feed and educate the children from donations. Not alot of people know about hte orphange as they donate and spend there time at moe well known established orphanages. This one was called COSA email: [email protected]. The kids perfomed traditional Cambodia dances for just Me and Mike who sat on a chair infront of the well made large stage in the middle of the complex. The dance was done with such modesty and elegance. When a child saw you looking at them she / he beamed with pride. There were kids playing the music with drums and gloconspiel (dont know how to spell that one!) When they had finished we had a group photo, then they all sat down whilst I gave them the sweets a choice of 2 flavours. They all beamed with happiness and politely said " Thank You" and put their hands together and bowed there head in a prayer like form. They were so happy with one little cake sweet each. They rely on travellers and volunteers to teach them English but this month there is no-one to teach them. They asked if I wanted to but we were leaving the next day, I would have loved to have taught them English. We sat down with the owner and dance teacher and made a donation of $20. Not much but something. We said our goodbyes and waved and hugged the children goodbye. I gave 2 girls 2 flowers I had bought that day from the Caritas Hospital and left. It was very sad knowing they had no families to care for them and how vunerable they were. All of them though I have to say were more happy, polite then any of the kids back home. I think the more you have the more greedy and unhappy you are, as these kids seemed very happy!
Lastly we stopped at the Monestry where the monks live and very highly respected. We were shown the tombs where families were burried and teh ferment tower which reduces bodies to ashes. We looked at the incredible building who took about 10 years to build. The monks seem to be living quite comfortably also! Their homes looked delux! They get a hell of alot of donations as families want their ancestors to be prayed for and looked after. That was it, he dropped us off at the Jasmine but they put us in a dull room across the road with a twin bed instead of a double, no T.V or hot water. Not what we paid for or got before. I mean the room is fine, its just we were really looking forward to our old hotel room and chilling and watching T.V to save a bit of money in the evening. He's offered it to us for $2 cheaper so we accepted but personally gutted as accross the road is so much nicer! When you put it in perspective of how all the kids are living in the Orphange and how happy they are with what little they have I feel ashamed of complaining and feeling the way we do about this perfectly acceptable hotel room!
- comments