North East Cambodia

Thursday we left for a journey to the North East of Cambodia. This region is home to diverse landscapes and peoples, it's the wild version of what you see in the other parts of Cambodia. We decided to go to Kratie, a village right next to the Mekong river and Ban lung, the capital of Ratanakiri. 

We left early in the morning and only arrived in Kratie in the evening. That was such a long trip! It's normal to take so long if you take into account the bad condition of the roads and the fact that we travelled from Siem Reap in stead of Phnom Penh (which is the normal travel route to that region).

We met two Danish girls (Inger and Anna) in the bus. During those meetings with other backpackers you realize how small the world can be! Anna works together with Mathias, my floor mate during my Erasmus exchange in Amsterdam! :) We decided to visit Kratie togther, so the next day we took the ferry ($0,25) together to Koh Trong. Koh Trong is a small island situated in the Mekong river. Local people live there, including a floating village. You can rent a bicycle for just $1 to explore the place in an enjoyable way. During our stay it rained all night, so the road turned into one big mud pool! Therefore, we returned for lunch after one hour of slogging, sweating and laughing.

Kratie is thé place to be to see the freshwater Irawaddy dolphins. These specific dolphines are an endangered specie throughout Asia. 50 years ago they were with 1000, nowadays only 70 dolphins remain in the Mekong River. They have a bulg forehead and small dorsal fins. During the rain season, you can be unlucky not to see any of them but we did! I was so glad! :D To end our lovely day, we experienced a beautiful sunset at the riverside of the Mekong!

Take a look at the bulg forehead instead of pointy  

Sunset at the Mekong River 

The next morning we took a early bus to go to Ban Lung, Ratanakiri. This province and city is well-known for their wild and rural surroundings, but especially for their adventurous activities. The environment is completely different compared to the other places in Cambodia because of the hills. Besides that, Ranatakiri also has a rust-coloured affliction because of the Vulcanic ground. Therefore everything (the ground, houses, their cloths,...) is covered with a red dusty blanket. 

We booked a really cool guesthouse for just a few dollars! It was in the middle of the nature with a view of the jungle! A tour guide took us to three different water falls (Chaa Ong, Kinchaan and Ka Tieng) in the morning, which was awesome to see! While walking to our destination, we crossed paths with 2 local people riding an elephant on their way back to the village. Of course, we took our time to approach the lovely animals ;) The last waterfall had a cave and if you wanted to take the risk (which I off course did) you could climb down and enjoy a power shower underneath the falling water! It was a super experience! 

Power shower!

After lunch we visited a local village. The inhabitants don't feel Cambodian, they live separated in their own community. The majority of the men live in the jungle and the women make their own clothes and scarves. We continued our journey to the Beung Yeak Loam (also known as the most best natural swimming pool in Cambodia) to take a dive in the breathtaking blue water. The crater lake is believed to have been formed 700.000 years ago and some people swear it must have been formed by a meteor strike as the circle is so perfect. During our stay we where approached by a group of young Cambodian boys. It seems like they didn't see a lot of Western girls before, because they couldn't stop looking at us and taking pictures of us... :)

Birthday party with the orphans

Together with Firqin, Christina and Isabel we decided to organize one big birthday party for all the orphans, since most of the orphans either don't know when it's their birthday or they never celebrated it before. A birthday party isn't a birthday party without a cake, so we drove to a local bakery this morning to buy one. Once we arrived we saw that they didn't have any cakes for sale that day. Luckily the Cambodian people are flexible so they immediately started baking one, that was ready in just 30 minutes! It saved the day! 

Before I came to Cambodia, I made little dolls together with my aunt and cousin to give to the children. The birthday party was a perfect opportunity to donate the dolls as a present :) The kids where so happy with the home made gifts, balloons and the cake! I took a picture of each child with their own unique doll to show my friends who bought one but on some pictures it may seem that the kids are unhappy with their gift. The other volunteers said that it's a normal situation because the kids smile the whole day but when you want to take pictures and ask them to stand still they look sad and don't understand whats happening because we can't speak their mother tongue.  

First days in Siem Reap

On Friday we took the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The drive normally takes 5 to 6 hours, but we arrived 9 (!) hours later! The reason were the elections, which will take place next week. Hundreds of tuk-tuks, motos and busses drive around the city with flags and music to support their favorite candidate.

After the long drive, we finally arrived at 4 o'clock. The next 5 hours, I want to forget as soon as possible!! It was a real disaster to find the correct hostel where the other volunteers were staying. After a lot of frustrations and a tear (I was very tired also :p) we decided to stop our search (I eventually slept at the hotel where my friends were staying) and just go for dinner and drink in the city center. Siem Reap is soooo nice to hang out!! :D I'm really glad with the city I'm staying in for the next 6 weeks!

The next day we visited Angkor Temples, WOW!! It's really inspiring how those buildings where constructed and used for! It's difficult to write down what you see, because you just have to experience it by yourself to have the full impression! We took a tour guide (crazy guy), which is an added value in my opinion. 

In the evening I finally settled in the right accommodation and took a rest to reflect on the last days. I was told that we were going to the West Baray Lake (a giant reservoir constructed during the Khmer Empire), with the kids from the NGO the next day, nice! :) The administration is not complete yet so I'm not sure I will be teaching these kids, but who does not want to go for a swim with cute Cambodian kids? With 2 kids on our lap we went off with the bus. It was a lovely day with no tourism, only a relaxed atmosphere and 33 happy kids faces! I also tried Nom Chang, which is glutinous rice with beans wrapped in bamboo :)

I'm looking forward to what the next weeks will bring! 

Phnom Penh (16 - 19 July)

First Impression

From the first second you arrive, you only see one big chaos. There aren't any traffic rules so the street is a mixture of tuk-tuks, passengers, cars, and motorcycles driving in their own preferred direction. But after a few hours, you start to see the structure within the chaos created by honking to each other. A unique experience! 

Historic Phnom Penh 

After a day of rest, we decided to go to the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek) and the Tuol Slen Genocide Museum. Both places are sites you can visit to experience what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 when the Khmer Rouge regime came to power. The communistic party led by Paul Pot was striving for a pure new regime by killing the people who where seen as a threat. Most of the victims where intellectuals, teachers, lawyers, doctors but also people with glasses or with soft hands. These traitors were 'collected' and brought to a remote place to be killed. The other part of the society had to work 12 hours a day as slaves to keep up with Paul Pots wish: to become an independent land by tripling the rice production. 

In total one third of the population was killed (3 out of 8 millions people died). Even though the atmosphere nowadays is calm and peaceful, the aftermath is still very obvious in daily life: the majority of the survivals are traumatized and victims are also discriminated in their own town. At the killings fields, bones still pop up when it's rain season. I had a look around myself and indeed, I saw a bone between the roots of a three... :s

Sightseeing

In the afternoon we dropped off Béatrice at her NGO (A New Day in Cambodia), where she will volunteer for 6 weeks by teaching local children mathematics and giving them computer classes. At the accommodation she met a group of international students from Brazil, the Netherlands, France,.. that where also helping out at the AIESEC internship. I was so glad for her that she had friends to support her and help her integrate in the culture!

In the evening we went to the River Side, which is a long 'avenue' next to the Mekong river (the water is brown because of the dirt). It's place full of restaurants and bars to hang out in the evening, cosy place to see when you're in PP! ;)

Before heading to Siem Reap on Friday, we had one last day in PP. Time to visit some other must-sees! First we had a swim at the swimming pool in the hotel because the climate is so hot but most of all veryyy moistly! After our refreshment we decided to visit the Royal Palace. A beautiful complex consisting out of white and yellow building which refers to their religion (Buddhism and Hinduism) all decorated with gold.  

During our visit at the Royal Palace, the sky turned black which predicts a monsoon rain so we decided to leave the complex and go to the roofed Russian Market.  It's called 'Russian' market for the simple reason that a lot of Russian people go to this market. Millions and millions of clothes, bags, watches, food, head phones, ... everything is there! Off course you can't expect that a Gucci or Longchamp bag is real, it's all fake production but that does not take away the fun experience while wondering around and checking out all those things!

The day has ended, we went to sleep and now I'm blogging in the bus that will take us to Siem Reap, where my NGO is! I'm excited!!

Arrival in Cambodia

After 30 hours of travelling, 3 flights and 2 taxis, me and Béatrice successfully arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia!

Time to sit back and relax with a beer in our lovely hotel together with Victoria and Angelo (Béa's sister and her boyfriend)!

Lots of greetings!