Kep Trio!

So the 4th Annual Kep Trio came to a close yesterday morning with closing ceremony at the CVTC (Community Vocational Training Centre) near the Red House. There were performances from the Youth Clubs, David Pred's speech thanking everyone, a performance by some of the kids from school and prize giving to the winners of the races (Prizes such as a training course on preventing domestic violence for the community, donating a cow, 30 chickens...the usual.)

Tiny Toones Performance

The art certificates were completed and the art auction set up at the Sailing Club. Definitely didn't raise a whopping 15,000 dollars on the auction art like last time but any donation helps. In all, it was a big success and like David said, the team carried it off without any glitches.

Pictures!

First Stages of Swelling

Teaching English

Ho Chi Minh

Kep, Rabbit Island, Vietnam

Rabbit Island


Rabbit Island is a small island off the coast of Kep. It has only a few bungalows lining it's beach and the most palm trees you will ever see! Its a great place to relax on the weekend, work on a tan and not spend a fortune. There are no locals hustling you to buy things on the beach and the bungalow is only $8 a night :) We went last last week and are going this coming weekend.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam


Ho Chi Minh is definitely underrated! Quite a few backpackers have told us that Saigon was just traffic, and a boring city - we found it to have a great environment with little backalleys, tall oak-like trees lining the streets, and to have a fun nightlife. Unfortunately we visited during Chinese New Year meaning many of the shops were closed - we did however get to visit the famous war museum. Definitely have to go back to do it properly but we had alot of fun!

Kep


It is all quite stressful coming up to the Kep Marathon next week - the art certificates need to be organized but I'm sure it will all work out in the end. The kids have been great - eager to draw and sometimes making 3 pieces in one lesson, lets hope everyone appreciates their hard work :)

Other Notes


Got stung by a wasp/demon the other day and successfully shed tears in class..I don't know what it was but  if a bee sting is like a tiny butter knife stabbing you, this was a ninja sword. Finger progressively swelled until it could not be bent and spread to the back of my hand - do not fear, it is all better now (well moving towards that direction). Fun times in the wild. Unfortunately I missed the Man vs. Wild ep where they teach you to deal with stings...although if it were Bear Grylls he would have probably eaten the monster way before it had time to attack.

Pictures of Chamcarbei/Kep - First Week

If a picture says a thousand words, here is 5000 word essay I've written.

Primary School Building

Kindergarten Classroom

The Red House

Recess

Kep sunset

A Different Kind of Life

Hellooooooo,
Currently on a borrowed laptop in a small office a 20 minute bike ride from the red house and 35 minute bike ride from the school we are going to teach at. Here in Kep Cambodia we stay in Champka Bey (incorrect spelling) - Sally, Anna and I share a room in a house on stilts with no running water and electricity for 3 hours a day.

Last night we arrived, brought our ridiculous sized suitcases up the stairs, ordered some food (not very practical but desperate times, desperate times!), watched the movie Youth in Revolt and then collapsed into a deep sleep. I forgot how cold Kep was during the night! Wind blowing, it feels like Europe.

I'm really excited to start teaching/helping the community. Our schedule is classes from 7:30am to 10:30am (kindergarten) and 1:30 - 4:30 (primary school) everyday as well as other projects such as jewelry/craft design and marketing, community development, helping organise the Kep marathon taking place on Feb 19. We have 2hours worth of Khmer lessons a week, and will spend some days of the week teaching the teachers/staff at the school from 4:30 - 5:30 pm. During school time we are also doing alot of sports/art with the kids!

Pha, our lovely cook, cooks us meals 3 times a day - except for Sally who has her own food regime :) Mainly consisting of pasta. So far no major injuries - we've all been taking our Malaria tablets and wearing the sexy bike helmets. We will probably be on our bike for at least an hour a day - if not more. Tomorrow we are having dinner at Kep with Vy and Mr. Morley will be arriving.

We have yet to experience a shower since coming to Kep, but are looking forward to use the mysterious dark pond water in the bathroom. I will bring my laptop the next time I come to the office and try to upload some pictures.

Until then, ciao!

Back to Cambodia!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay


(that's how happy I am about revisiting my second home, Cambodia!)

It's time to begin the second half of this journey in Kep, Cambodge. We (Anna, Sally, and I) are leaving at 6am tomorrow to Phnom Penh. Looking forward to visiting Tiny Toones and Youth School, as well as other Phnom Penh favourites (lucky supermarket, russian market, meekong river, riverhouse)

Hopefully the internet access in Kep will allow me to blog every so often :)

Peace

Khmer Prince and Princesses

The Cambodge group decided to go all out and get a traditional Khmer makeover! We had a great time wearing ridiculous amounts of jewelry, a ton of makeup, fake eyelashes, crowns and much more..

We are picking up the professional photos today!

Water Festival Stampede

345 dead at Water Festival stampede as panic on the bridge to Diamond Island caused many to be suffocated, trampled, electrocuted (by wires they climbed on to) and drowned. An extremely devastating event to Cambodia, described as the worst tragedy since the Pol Pot Regime.

We were on the bridge two days before walking across to Diamond Island (where there is a fair ground). At one point in the night we were trapped in the crowd, felt somewhat like a moshpit with people pushing and only after awhile did we realize small children next to us (and decided to turn around) - so we can only imagine the chaos yesterday night must have been.

We consider ourselves extremely lucky and last night we were thinking about going to Diamond Island after the Tiny Toones performance but decided not to.

Gap Year group on the bridge on Saturday night

Bridge yesterday after stampede

kids kids kids!

Being a volunteer teacher, you can expect to be jumped on, tugged, hugged, squeezed by small minions so full of energy it's as if they chug a case of redbull every morning! That being said, I'm going to miss them so much! 

Kep Pictures

farm animals!!

building a house!

Jumping in a rice paddy field

KEP + CAMBODGE CREW LOSE 3 MEMBERS?!!?

Hello people!
I feel really bad not updating this blog and I know all bloggers say this but we've been really busy! Also, I've started writing a diary (to all none of you who are interested) but yes, I have. I'm really proud of it because so far in my life I think all my attempted diaries have finished at around page 2 - this being because ofcourse, there was really nothing particularly interesting to say (how sad). However, there is a silver lining to this rambling and that is that since I've been here I find that I write about 5 pages in my diary about each day.. (mega exaggeration but you get the point!)

Anywho, I visited my next home (4 months or so starting January) ..KEP!!!

The Red House

Yes, exciting times. To be honest it was indeed more rural than I had imagined (which was rather stupid of me seeing as I had plenty of information hinting at its isolation) but also alot more beautiful. I'm not sure if I'm becoming a hippie or a over emotional sappy kind of person but I really can't begin to describe the feeling of being one with nature (cue to throw up from an overdose of corny). Just riding the bicycle down the small path with endless rice paddy fields on either side, the cooling wind all over, and the fresh air swimming in your lungs makes you want to give up all your belongings and live like a caveman. That's why I have decided to stop writing this blog and never touch the "internet" again.....jokes.

Bathing in the pond

In Kep we stayed at the Red House with Inges, Sofie and Michael..three other lovely volunteers who I am very much looking forward to chilling with in the near future. The night we arrived we experienced the electricity switching off at 9pm (having been on for 3 hours) and as a result the darkest night you will ever see..or not see I guess. Nothing quite like looking up to a blanket of stars and wondering if all the light at home in Singapore is really worth covering up the shiny dots that mesmerize you for the longest time. We built a house for a young woman of 20 with 2 children while we were there. We were having loads of fun laying on the concrete floor, fixing the aircon system and finding the best channels on the flat screen tv.....naht. We did however thatch the roof and walls of the small bamboo frame hut much to the delight of the future owners (well so I assume...their expression stayed the same the whole time). We also did some agricultural work outside Red House, planting pumpkin seeds and onion stems.

On a very sad note on Monday Victor and Max left Cambodia! Their presence will really be missed as they are genuinely sweet guys and we all had sooooo much fun together! No paragraph can really show the number of times I have laughed until I cried with the gang, how both Victor and Max provided us with so much entertainment and always added a lightheartedness to the group. To be more specific I had such a great time hanging out with them at Rudi Boa, our crazy times in Sihanoukville, just cracking up on tuk-tuk rides, having someone to annoy in the guys room, hearing them practice their BABY BABY BABY OH renditions, going shopping at Luckies, Russian Market, and that huge 5 storey shopping centre, and a lot more! As they got into our tuk-tuk Ida and I burst into tears, which is rare for me (although no one would have believed it seeing the state I was in) - it was a very emotional time! Yes, I cried like a baby but just thinking how they wouldn't be at the breakfast table the next morning is extremely depressing. You don't really know how close you get with the volunteers on a gap year until you're in one, and whenever one of us says the cheesy 'we're a family', this Cambodge group is telling the truth. I laughed until I cried from the start of this trip and come full circle, I cried until I laughed when the group lost 2 friends.

Tomorrow we are losing another friend, one which we haven't known for very long but is still very much part of the crew and has shared many a good time, Chris 'badass' Kelly! He has brought a great energy to the group and will be missed!

Note: *No one else leave or I will kill you.

*I'm being serious.

Will try to post more often,
Tien :)

Sihanoukville

Erica, Ida, Max, Victor and I went to Sihanoukville for the weekend and had the best time! The beach was surprisingly stunning and there were really fun beach parties to go to. I would recommend going to Sihanoukville  if you are traveling in Cambodia because it really feels like a mini paradise :)

Killing Fields

This morning we took a 45 minute tuk-tuk ride to the killing fields. The killing fields is an eerily calm piece of land where the Khmer Rouge took many victims and innocent families to be killed. There is a commemorative memorial holding hundreds of skulls, bones, and clothes of the many people murdered. It is really a very strange place, as the scenic ponds and greenery make it hard to believe so many terrible things occurred on the very ground your walking on. However, the you are reminded of the truth as you see numerous mass burials and step on clothes of the victims in the ground beneath your feet (the rain has washed and uncovered many remains, most have been collected and put on display)

There are many frightening spots in the killing fields such as the tree where executioners smashed babies and young children against, the "magic tree' where they blasted music from loud speakers to block out the screams of pain, and the burial sites of 'bodies without heads' and 'women and children without clothes'.

Flooding

Phnom Penh has recently experienced a high rainfall and flooding. The streets to Boeng Kok Youth School and the volleyball court outside the school were flooded from last monday.

More Siem Reap Eye Candy

Here are some photos I took in Siem Reap, click on the photo to enlarge!

Bayon

Bayon

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat Siem Reap

Hey all 2 of you that read this... apologies for not updating in awhile (especially sorry to you mum, since you claim see if I've posted every morning - much appreciated). We like to keep ourselves busy so I often forget that I have a duty to blog!

Anywhooligans, we went to Siem Reap last weekend and visited the almighty Angkor Wat. The temples we visited were worth of their World Wonder titles as their serenity and architectural elegance leave you somewhat breathless.

So this is how it went...

Erica and Angkor

It's a friday night and we are looking forward to some hours of sleep before our 4am wake up call to see the Angkor Wat sunrise. We finish dinner early and head back to our inexpensive hotel room. All seems well until we lay in bed. The night was restless as the lack of aircon power left us sweaty and the buzzing mosquitos created the horrible dilemma of taking off the blankets to cool us down or protecting ourselves from unbearable mozzie bites. Might I add we were all pleased to find a cockcroach inhabiting our dodgy bathroom. That aside, waking up at 4am was easy and well worth it.

The sunrise was perfect. We ran past other tourists, racing against time to catch the sky's warm reds and purples. Finally we found a nice spot (quite dangerous though) on a ledge of the structure facing the three peaks of Angkor Wat set against a spectrum of colours. Erica and I fiddled with our dslr cameras and managed to take some nice photos.

We had hired a tuk tuk for the whole day, visiting Bayon (temple of faces) as well as the temple with huge trees (seen in Tomb Raider). We had a great time taking jumping photos, sitting on a donkey (Erica), practicing the catwalk down the long hallways and stone paths, pretending to be on a tomb raider mission, breakdancing at the picture spots (victor), getting lost and separated from the group, wearing headscarves to shield the sun, finding out we had the worst shirt tans possible, feeling tired and realising it was only 10am, taking turns listening to the extremely detailed tour guide, fearing for my life as I climbed the ominous steps up to the higher platforms, arriving back at our hotel rooms and having a relaxing ciesta.

We went out later that night hoping on the promising travel guide descriptions of Siem Reap night life. What we found was somewhat disappointing, however, the group is always determined to have a great night - and some of us decided to bring the party to Siem Reap by taking over the dancefloor at a club called The Temple. That included Ida Knutsen, the star of the night - who displayed some never before seen dancemoves. The group got a little too excited when Justin Bieber's 'Baby' song started playing (to which the lyrics have been massacred by Will and Max), as it has been one of the songs of the trip. Along with other quality hits such as the Cambodian 'I'm So Sorryyy', Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'. The bus ride home included hitting a goat, speeding, pitstopping at a restaurant with boiled turtles and listening to repetitive Khmer music...everyday things really.

Siem Reap was a fantastic experience and visiting Angkor Wat has made appreciate Cambodia even more - and it's keen eye for tranquil beauty.

On a random note..
The Cambodge group has become CS-obsessed. CS (counter strike) has taken over our lives and some of us even skip teaching just to lan somemore....just kidding! But we do like to have to occasional lanning session..and even indulged in a real life CS game this weekend - all in a day's hard work. The weekend has been very relaxing, apart from a fun night out on Friday. Many of the peeps have university applications to do so we spent a few nights in ordering burritos and whatnot. Mr. Morley came to visit and we all went out for two lovely dinners in the last few days.

Tiny Toones is currently moving locations to a new and improved school with a much bigger dancefloor. It's the end of September and every start of the month the timetables in Cambodian schools change. This is quite frustrating as a teacher as the children who had class in the morning suddenly switch to the afternoon and vice versa. Ah well, being teachers here we have learnt to adapt to their school systems!

On Wednesday I'll be flying back to Singapore to eat some sushi, go shopping, bathe in hot water, watch tv, maybe see my family..maybe not...joking! - I miss them all very much and am looking forward to spending time with them before another two months of Phnom Penh. I hope this uber long post is enough compensation for my lack of posting and I promise not to do it again!

Thanks to anyone else who reads my blog too, all 1 of you!

Something you have to see sometime in your life! Paradise, is that you?

A month and a week in Cambodia!

This friday + weekend we:
- Made a presentation on Cutting Edge Tests we created
- Bought face masks (Ida and I have yet to see the results :)
-Went out for drinks at Corner 33
-Went swimming at Eureka Villas and played some pool volleyball
-Had some uber nomlicious dinner at a French restaurant La Croisette for Victor's 18th
- Went to HEART OF DARKNESS
-Had pastries and sandwiches at The Shop (yummy!!)
-Went shopping at Lucky Supermarket for some supplies
-Threw Victor a surprise birthday cake party with champagne woo woo 18!! (presents included mine and Ida's TOP SECRET package, full of advice and goodies ;) )
-Planned somewhat for our trip to Siem Reap next weekend...so excited.

HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY VICTOR TRISNA a.k.a. hunky monkey.

Boeng Kok Lake Friends

$4 Massage

On the weekend, Erica, Ida and I went for a $4 massage across the road. It lasted 1 hour 20 minutes and was what we agreed to be the most interesting massage we've experienced so far. They started with the legs - a fairly normal beginning...until they began lifting us in the air on their knees, walking on our backs, and doing the knuckle slaps on the edge of our faces. We had a really good time and a laugh, twas a bit more strenuous than imagined! We also changed behind what we thought was one sided glass only to find that the people outside could and were watching what we were doing. Good times..

Hanging Out At Tiny Toones

It's really nice to be building a friendship with many of the kids at Tiny Toones! I have a group of little homies including Chomrong, Thong Thong, Chun Lei, Meng, Srey Pov, Borey and others :) Even though they hardly speak any english we are able to communicate and make jokes.