From Siam Reap we headed to Kampong Cham – the 3rd largest city in Cambodia. It is very off the tourist track and was refreshing to be pretty much the only westerners around. We hired bikes and cycled along the banks of the Mekong River to pick up the ferry across to a small island in the river called Koh Pen. We cycled across the island and loads of kids came running out yelling hello – I discovered that I am able to cycle a bike across a potholed dirt track whilst yelling hello in Khmer and high fiving kids J We visited a local school and took some gifts of books and pens etc for the teacher to distribute to the kids. One of the girls had brought balloons and the kids were very entertained with balloon keepy uppy! We then visited the temple which every evening holds free english classes for the kids on the island run by a NGO and the monks. We were split off into classes and we all ended up doing a bit of teaching – Chris got to pronounce the alphabet and I got to read a postcard from their textbook whilst they repeated. Not rocket science but they’re doing a great job with very little resources and funding available. That evening we ate a local house where they’d cooked us a fabulous meal of local dishes including deep fried tarantula… ewwww… pretty much everyone tried a bit – Chris ate a leg but I declined the offer of spider eating. Gah.
From Kompong Cham we caught the local bus to Pnomh Penh where we had a couple of hours to kill so spent it in the shopping centre eating and internetting. We then picked up a charter minibus to take us to a tiny village in the hills called Chambok. There we stayed overnight in a local farming house – mattress on the floor and mosquito net to keep out the nasties. I’m doing much better with the bugs that I thought I would but still not too keen on the bigger ones or the ones that bite! It was really fascinating to see how rural families live and how they’re even running a local ecotourism centre to protect the area around a nearby waterfall. The kids were very eager to talk to us and laughed a lot at our attempts to speak Khmer – they’re English attempts were much better J
After a traditional Khmer breakfast of rice porridge, pickled cucumber and omelette, we got back into the hottest minibus in the world to drive 3 hours south to Sihanoukville – Cambodia’s first seaside resort. Again, like Siam Reap, the place is still small and developing and the rest of the coastline is pretty unspoilt but is already earmarked for development. We’ve had 2 ½ days here to ‘rest’ but we’ve been pretty busy – took a boat trip yesterday to Bamboo Island – a very unspolit island off the coast with proper picture postcard views. We stopped to snorkel on the way but the visibility isn’t great at this time of year because of the rain – still saw some pretty fish and coral and a lot of evil black sea urchins. Today we visited some waterfalls – our guide organized for one of his friends with a jeep to take us and we managed to fit 7 of us plus the driver in – Chris and Pete had to stand up in the back J We got a lot of laughs from the locals even though they’d probably have managed to fit twice as many in! We had a quick dip in the waterfalls before heading back to the beach for some afternoon sun/rain bathing. Most of us got pedicures on the beach from the locals who apparently are multiskilled in manicures, pedicures, threading, massage etc etc and are very keen for you to try (and pay for) all of them. It’s quite an effort to insist that you only want your toenails painted!
This place is a little heaven and I’m going to miss it – Pnomh Penh tomorrow and back to reality…
From Kompong Cham we caught the local bus to Pnomh Penh where we had a couple of hours to kill so spent it in the shopping centre eating and internetting. We then picked up a charter minibus to take us to a tiny village in the hills called Chambok. There we stayed overnight in a local farming house – mattress on the floor and mosquito net to keep out the nasties. I’m doing much better with the bugs that I thought I would but still not too keen on the bigger ones or the ones that bite! It was really fascinating to see how rural families live and how they’re even running a local ecotourism centre to protect the area around a nearby waterfall. The kids were very eager to talk to us and laughed a lot at our attempts to speak Khmer – they’re English attempts were much better J
After a traditional Khmer breakfast of rice porridge, pickled cucumber and omelette, we got back into the hottest minibus in the world to drive 3 hours south to Sihanoukville – Cambodia’s first seaside resort. Again, like Siam Reap, the place is still small and developing and the rest of the coastline is pretty unspoilt but is already earmarked for development. We’ve had 2 ½ days here to ‘rest’ but we’ve been pretty busy – took a boat trip yesterday to Bamboo Island – a very unspolit island off the coast with proper picture postcard views. We stopped to snorkel on the way but the visibility isn’t great at this time of year because of the rain – still saw some pretty fish and coral and a lot of evil black sea urchins. Today we visited some waterfalls – our guide organized for one of his friends with a jeep to take us and we managed to fit 7 of us plus the driver in – Chris and Pete had to stand up in the back J We got a lot of laughs from the locals even though they’d probably have managed to fit twice as many in! We had a quick dip in the waterfalls before heading back to the beach for some afternoon sun/rain bathing. Most of us got pedicures on the beach from the locals who apparently are multiskilled in manicures, pedicures, threading, massage etc etc and are very keen for you to try (and pay for) all of them. It’s quite an effort to insist that you only want your toenails painted!
This place is a little heaven and I’m going to miss it – Pnomh Penh tomorrow and back to reality…
No comments:
Post a Comment