Last weeks in Cambodia

Trip Start Dec 06, 2006

Trip End Sep 2007

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Flag of Cambodia Kep, Cambodia
Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The last few days in Pursat were pretty quiet as most of the staff and a group of students had gone to Kep on the coast of Cambodia. Then it was Khmer New Year and the school was closed. We did manage to have a nice evening at Mlop Svay restaurant with some of the staff. Some of the staff couldn't come though as there was a really bad fire at the market and lots of relatives had a stall there. The building was completely destroyed, some luckier stall owners managed to save some of their stock, but for some people everything was destroyed. We went to see the results of the fire the next morning before we left, it was completely ruined and was a sad way to end our stay. Nearly every family in the town had a relative who earned their living there.

Leaving Pursat was really strange, although we felt it was the right time to leave, it was difficult to say bye to the staff and students

a woman

. We both hope that some of the students there can help Cambodia, they have real potential but its not going to be easy for them. We are still deciding who to sponser, if anyone reading this would like to sponser a student the link is http://www.sustainablecambodia.org

We then stayed a few days in Phnom Penh catching up with Todd and Kyla who had been volunteering at the same time as us. Phnom Penh lost its charm after a few attempts to cross the road. One of the photos is in the centre of Phnom Penh, completely chaos. Travelling round by cyclos (bikes with a chair in front) and a really good Indian restaurant on the lakeside were the highlights.

We went on a trip down to Kampot and went on a tour in the national park there. We went on the back of a jeep up to an old French Hill Station, it was the worst road ever but going up through the jungle was really fun, saw lots of birds and insects but three legged tiger that apparently lives there was hiding that day. Kampot itself was a dusty ghost town that really didn't have much charm so the next day we headed back to Phnom Penh the day after.

The visas for Vietnam were easy to organise so we only had to wait a couple of days more in Phnom Penh (and just a couple more visits to the Indian) before getting a bus to Ho Chi Minh city

baby

. The photo of the lady is one of our first sights in Ho Chi Minh. We arrived during their holiday for Independence so Ho Chi Minh was much quieter than normal. We really enjoyed the city, the War Remnants Museum was really interesting, so many striking photos of victims of the war, but not as one-sided as we had expected. It was great to see older people exercising in the city parks, all doing the same stretching and power walking, all wearing the full training outfits. The younger people played badminton and there were kids playing everywhere, something you just don't see in the cities of Cambodia. It was difficult not speaking a word of Vietnamese. Although we hardly spoke any Khmer, it was at least enough to get by. I tried to order noodle soup and got sugercane in hot water!!! Really awful and I had to have some out of politeness, at least it was dirt cheap! We travelled there with Todd and Kyla and we all took a tour to Cu Chi tunnels were people lived for almost 20 years to hide from the fighting and bombings. The tunnels are tiny, you can walk (ie crawl) a section of them to get an impression, some people couldn't even fit down them. The guide was a girl from England in her twenties though, bit disappointing. We also took a tour to the Mekong Delta. After these two tours, we had all really had enough of being taken to places where kids sing for you instead of going to school, women queue to row you down a stream whilst trying to get you to where the conical hats for photos, trying to get you to pose with snakes living in a tiny cage etc etc. Very difficult and expensive to travel independently but these tours spoil a really beautiful country. The Mekong Delta itself was great though, lots of waterways and different boat trips, and they made great coconut candy! We also had an evening out on a boat on the river and went for a day to see the ex-pat lifestyle (a friend of Kyla's) where we had great western food, learnt more about Vietnam and went swimming in their compound next to Ho Chi Minh city. In all, we really liked the city, the traffic was bearable and you could get great Vietnamese coffee.