Day 7 - Phnom Penh Sightseeing

On Sunday, October 23 we had a free day to sightsee Phnom Penh.  We took a tuk-tuk about an hour outside of Phnom Penh to the “mountain”.  Oudong was the original site for the capital city of Cambodia from 17^th century until 1866.  There were many temples, stupas and other buildings on the tree hills.  Once on the top the view of the countryside was beautiful.  Stupas have the remains of important people in them – the ones on these hills have several Cambodian kings:  King Monivong (1927-1941) and King Ang Duong (1845-1859),

unidentifiable food

As Eric, Janice, Dorthe and I got out of our tuk-tuk we were swarmed by many Cambodian children attempting to use their English with us and trying to be our tour guides.  Being a Sunday we tried to lose the children by walking through the street market first, however, we did need their help to figure out all the “strange” interesting foods we were viewing.  And in the end each one of us had our own tour – 4 boys all friends! 

We actually walked up the back stairs only 136 stairs (versus the front stairs 563) and then walked the remaining stairs in increments!  At the top of the first set of stairs was a large temple with a giant golden Buddha in it.  We also saw many smaller temples with Buddhas, some stupas, some animal temples and 3 huge stupas made for Cambodia’s kings.   The views from this height were breath-taking.  In one direction were just beautiful green fields (though the boys informed us that those were killing fields) and there was a large factory owned by the Chinese.  In the other direction you could see Phnom Penh and the flood waters.

Royal Palace

We also went to the Royal Palace for a quick tour.  The highlights were the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda.  The Royal Palace is used for the residence for the king, a venue for court ceremonies and as a symbol for the Kingdom.  The Silver Pagoda is different than most pagodas (where monks live) as its entire floor is made of silver, there are many precious Buddhist and historical objects there including an Emerald Buddha.  But unlike most pagodas no monks live in this one.

I ended my day with a mojito at the Elephant Bar in the Raffles Hotel (Le Royal) and dinner at an Italian restaurant called Pop Café de Geogio. – Both recommendations from Andrea!

Jenny, Jill, Dorthe at Elephant Bar

House Building with Tabitha

Janne - founder of Tabitha

 Morning of Day 4: We went to Tabitha and met the founder of Tabitha Janne Ritskes who started Tabitha in 1994. She gave us a good overview of Cambodia’s history.  She also told us the do’s and don’ts in the village where we were going to build on Saturday.  Things such as, not to touch the children younger than 2 and now to pick them up or tell them they were cute.  As these would put an omen upon the family and they would have to give their child to us to take home.  She also warned us about the flood waters and viper snakes.

Tabitha Cambodia is a non-profit organization.  All funds are used to help the very poor in Cambodia through programs that focus on personal and financial development.  It was started in 1994 and has now reached over 500,000 people.  Tabitha has many programs such as, the Savings Program, Family Partnerships, Water Wells, Piglets, Cottage Industry, Patchwork Quilts and Housebuilding.

House #1

Day 6:  House Building – We all got up and had a simple breakfast.  It was about an hour bus ride to the village where we were building.  It was a beautiful day!  Everyone was healthy and ready to finally do the build.  There were 25 of us so 5 teams of 5.  Each team had one of the 5 guys on it and one of the 5 teachers who had done a Tabitha build before.  My team consisted of Carl, Abby, Kristy and Jasmine.  We were a great team and had a lot of fun building.  There was a nice breeze for most of them time.  Each of us bearing the white Cambodia build t-shirts and the Tabitha checked scarf, we had our hammers and work gloves in hand, we balanced our steps on some floating boards until we safely reached our first house.

My job nail nails into the floor boards.  Our first set of nails we almost impossible to get in straight but then we got longer nails and I was feeling a little more successful!

Despite the 1 foot of water which you could not see through each group built 2 houses in about 5 hours.  We had no injuries and everyone was able to do what they could.  10 families were extremely happy on this day.  The family has to save / give $30 towards the house; which takes them about 2 years to save.  2 years!  We (Tabitha/the house builders) raise the rest of the money.  Each house costs about $1000.

Family of house#1

Thought of the Day: 

~ Hard labor is not my forte!  ~

Day 5 – PIO (People Improvement Organization) School

This morning we took about 9 tuk-tuks to the PIO main office to drop off our CIS (Canadian International School) uniforms -20 (10 kg) bags of clothes.  Then we continued to the school on the dump.  Yes this school is next to the city garbage dump and serves 315 children and their families who are forced to scavenge on the dump.  There is also an orphanage of 55 children ages 3-18.  CIS has been involved helping this school for about 7 years. 

Phymean Noun was a former United Nations worker and she started this PIO.  She was honored CNN’s Heroes Award in 2008 - http://articles.cnn.com/2008-05-29/world/heroes.noun_1_trash-dump-trash-heap-poorest-children?_s=PM:WORLD  She told us about the NGO and we had a tour of the orphanage.  Then we all had brought things from Singapore to do an activity with the children.  Dorthe and I had straws, pipe cleaners and clay for the children to explore and create with.  Others did face painting, water colors, cards, making masks.  Afterwards the children of the orphanage performed some traditional Cambodian dances for us.

After lunch, we all boarded 4 buses for our 4 hour caravan ride to the province of Pursat.  We stayed in a sketchy hotel in the middle of nowhere before going to the village to do our house building the next day.

Day 3-4: Phnom Penh - Killing Fields and S-21

Day 3:  Day 3 we travelled by caravan buses from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.  It took about 6 hours.  Seeing the flooded lands and homes was depressing.  Many people had to have their cattle out on the street.  Even though some houses were on stilts the water was still high.  Families usually have their live stock under the house and cook under the house.

Day 4: Afternoon: the Killing Fields and S-21

Taken from Phnom Penh Visitor’s Guide (www.canbypublications.com):  “From April 17, 1975 until January 7, 1979, the brutal, ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge regime controlled the whole of Cambodia, then known as ‘Democratic Kampuchea.’ The Khmer Rouge was headed by Saloth Sar, who went by the nom de guerre Pol Pot.  During their short reign, between one and two and a half million Cambodians perished, some killed outright, others dying from disease, malnutrition, neglect and mistreatment… though the Khmer Rouge were driven from power in 1979, they retreated to the mountains and border areas, persisting until their final defeat and dissolution in 1998…. Pol Pot died in 1998, never having faced justice.”

Well this was a depressing day.  We solemnly walked along dirt paths through overgrown grass and weeds which now covered the many ditches which too recently held Cambodian bodies.  We each had a headphone to listen to the awful, heart-breaking stories of the people brutally executed at this killing field called Choeung Ek.  More than 17,000 men, women and children were killed here under the Khmer rouge regime (1975-1979).    

Next we toured Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, aka S-21.  Our tour guide was a 42 year old woman whom was 8 years old was ordered out of Phnom Penh and was sent to a small town.  Her father and brothers were murdered and her and her mother walked for 3 days until they reached Vietnam.  She lived there until she was then sent back to Cambodia.

Before 1975, Toul Sleng was a high school but in 1975 when the Khmer rouge came into power they turned it into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility.  Those who were educated or had some connections were tortured to extract the desired confessions and then executed.

2 of the 7 survivors of Toul Sleng are still alive today and one of them was at the museum while I was there – Mr. Chum Mey.

There are many books one can read to learn more about this brutal genocide.  The one I am reading right now is called First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and another one is Voices of S-21 by David Chandler.

Thought of the Day:  ~What is so surreal is that I was alive at this time – their horrible history was really not that long ago.~

Day 2: Caring For Cambodia to Angkor Artisans to Silk Worms

We ventured out before the sun rose this morning to take a short bus ride to a school to serve the children breakfast.  It was an organization called Food for Thought with CFC (Caring For Cambodia).  The school is for local Cambodian children and CFC is one of the many NGO (non-governmental organizations) in Cambodia.  We spooned many bowls filled with soup with rice to these children and tried to interact with them during breakfast.  We were supposed to be spread between 3 different schools but 2 of them were closed due to the floods.  After breakfast we played with the children and had a tour of the school.  Megan, a woman from Texas, told us about how the school operated and the basic needs of the students and teachers.

For the rest of the day we had a free day to wander around town.  Dorthe, Janice, Eric, Jenny and I hired 2 tuk-tuks to see the sights.  We first went to Artisans Angkor and had a tour of craftsmen/women at work. Artisans d’Angkor trains Cambodians in making traditional Cambodian products.  In this workshop there were many deaf people working on copying paintings.  So although the products are reproduced, they are reproduced one-by-one.  The main focus is ornamental sculpture from soap stone and sandstone, lacquer ware, silk weaving and silk painting.  And of course there was a lovely gift shop which I happily supported!

Next we toured the main garden/park near the palace (which wasn’t very impressive) but in the tall trees in the park they were packed with hundreds of bats!

Then we rode in our tuk-tuks out of town to a silk worm farm. This farm was also connected to Artisans d’Angkor.  It was very interesting.  We saw the mulberry bushes in which the worms feed upon.  A cocoon life cycle takes 47 days!  We saw all stages of the larva, worm, cocoon and then how the people boiled the cocoon to extract the silk thread.  No wonder silk is so expensive!

Jenny and I enjoyed a nice cold beer on our way home in our tuk-tuk. We all had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and ended the day with a foot massage!

Thought of the day:

~One single balloon can open the language barrier into a room full of fun and no barriers!~

Cambodia - Day 1 - Angkor Wat to Floating Homes

 Cambodia – Day 1 – Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat and Floating Village Boat Tour

We arrived the afternoon before (Oct. 16) to a city full of water!  Fortunately the water wasn’t in our hotel but the street our hotel was on had about 2 feet of water on it.  It wasn’t until our last day in Siem Reap that we saw the pavement of the road!

Ta Prohm

What a day!  All 21 of us boarded 2 buses which drove us to the temple of Ta Prohm.  Ta Prohm or Rajavihara – meaning Royal Monastery is unbelievable.  There are massive 300 year old strangler fig trees and silk-cotton trees here which are almost swallowing the temples.  It was constructed in mid 12^th-early 13^th century A.D. when King Jayavarman VII was ruling.  This temple also is famous for the one used in Angelina Jolie’s movie Tomb Raider.

While we were all looking around and this security guard became my instant tour guide and suggested many places for me to take photos which I would have never found on my own!  Of course, a small payment was given in the end.  He showed me this small face carving among the roots of a tree that was supposedly just appeared naturally.  He jumped the barrier fence and went for a close up photo of it for me!  He also showed me a tower in the temple where if you stand in a particular spot and slap your upper chest area it echoes with a strong bold sound.  The overall detail of the temple and the massive rooted trees almost brings an “out-of-this-world” feeling to it!

Angkor Wat

Next we went to the massive temple of Angkor Wat (wat means temple).  This temple is absolutely breathtaking both architecturally and artistically.  We hired a tour guide which significantly helped us understand this famous temple.

bas-relief

Taken from my Siem Reap Visitor’s Guide “It is a massive three-tiered pyramid crowned by 5 lotus-like towers rising 65 meters from the ground level…  At the apex of Khmer political and military dominance in the region, Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat in the form of a massive ‘temple-mountain’ dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu.  It served as his state temple, though the temple’s uncommon westward orientation has led some to suggest that it was constructed as Suryavarman II’s funerary temple…. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall measuring 1300 meters x 1500 meters.  The temple itself is 1 km square and consists of three levels surmounted by a central tower.  The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings.  Nearly 2000 distinctively rendered apsara carvings adorn the walls throughout the temple and represent some of the finest examples of apsara carvings in Angkorian era art.  But it is the exterior walls of the lower level that has the most extraordinary bas-reliefs, depicting stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historical wars of Suryavarman II.” (www.canbypublications.com)  Apsaras are heavenly numphs or goddesses, also known as devadas.  Bas-Reliefs - a raised sculpture technique.

In the afternoon we took an hour bus ride to board a boat to tour the Floating Villages.  Since the rivers were overflowing it was a little difficult to distinguish between the houses on stilts and houses which were floating!  Either way the impact by the floods was clearly seen here.  Although it was heart-breaking to see all these families’ homes mostly covered in water, I felt that everyone’s house was a perfect “National Geographic” photo opportunity!

Thought of the day:

~A smile is a universal sign which goes a long way.~

Ancient History to the 80s

I had a good cultural weekend this weekend.  A friend of mine from the school had a private tour guide take us around the Terracotta Warriors exhibit in the Asian Civilizations Museum.  The terracotta army was buried near the tomb of the First Emperor of China and over 7000 warriors were unearthed in 1974.















Then other friends from school, Debra and I went out for dinner dressed up in our 80s clothes then went to an outside concert called Retrolicious!  It was SO FUN!  Great 80s music and videos and dancing.  We saw the Human League, Belinda Carlisle and Bananarama!

All the performers expressed how hot they were!  Yep every day is like the middle of July in Washington, here!
It was another great weekend!

Amy's Private Island Birthday Bash!

When one can boast, “I am going to a private island for the weekend.” I can honestly say the bar is set quite high.  Well to my greatest pleasure the private island in the middle of the South China Sea exceeded my ‘bar.’ What an unbelievable weekend I just had!

Andrea and Jill

My friend Amy (whom I met through our mutual friend Theresa) was celebrating her 39^th birthday in style!  She rented this island in Indonesia called Pulua Pangkil (Pulua means beach or island?).

We all met at the ferry terminal at 5pm on Friday afternoon.  There were 20 of us.  I had met some of the gals from a previous outing in Singapore.  My friend Andrea joined me too.  There was also Amy’s cousin Joe (an ER doctor in Beijing), Preeti’s friend Matt who happened to be in town, some great people from the UK and Australia who all lived in Singapore.  Just a really good mix of people who all didn’t know everyone but by the end, all really great friendships were formed.

We took a long 2 hour ferry ride on a local boat to Bintan (an island in Indonesia) went through customs there then loaded a bus to take us to another ferry.  Then rode that small ferry (just for us) for about 30 minutes.  Now all this is happening in the pitch black darkness of the evening.  As we approach this island of Pangkil,( one of the girls couldn’t even find it on her GPS on the phone), you see this beautiful beach with tiki torches ascending from the beach into the dark jungle.   We then had to load onto a dingy boat to be brought to shore.

Bags and flip flops in hand, we feel the fine grains of sand squishing between our toes and we are greeted by the staff giving us some fresh juice (which we all add some vodka to) and we are escorted to our “Swiss Family Robinson” rooms.  There were 20 of us and we were separated into about 8 houses.  All made of wood and thatched roofs.  Andrea and I were in the main house which as just above the disco ball, bar, eating area and relaxing couches.  Perfect! 

We all freshened up and then met for dinner about 9.  The food was fantastic on the island.  We had breakfast, lunch and dinner and there were snacks all the time! And then continued to celebrate being Friday on an island till the wee morning hours!

As Saturday morning came, Andrea and I, were up at the crack of dawn along with Lyndon, Petahn and their 6 month old Noelle.  Seeing the island in the daylight was breathtaking!  Andrea had discovered all the gems first – finding the pool at the other end of the island was a great find!  

With coffee in hand, I also went explored this beautiful island.  Our house was at one end of the island and so you pass all the different tree house looking accommodations.  Each one of cabins had views of the beach/sea and a hammock hanging underneath their cabin or a deck with chairs.  The entire place just blended so nicely within the natural surroundings of the island. 

After passing all the “palaces” you come to a fork in the path and go left through mangroves, tall palm trees, and lush jungle like trees all lined with tiki torches.  Oh by the way you never had to wear shoes on this island, nice combed sand everywhere.  

After the secluded walk through the jungle you come upon two huge boulders which you have to duck through, once on the other side there is this beautiful pool.  The pool was also made to fit in amongst its natural surroundings.  Cozy chairs, driftwood chaise lounges, a bar, another bedroom and a path to the sea! 

By 9 am I was on my bed having a full body (and much needed) massage! We spent most of the day napping, reading, chit-chatting with everyone, swimming in the sea and pool – just relaxing!

Saturday night was the designated birthday celebration.  We were asked to bring something white to wear which made the  evening feel classy!  After cocktails and drinks the delicious chocolate with mocha icing birthday cake arrived and champagne was served and some speeches were made! 

We all then walked out to the beach where a huge bonfire was lit and then we all watched with awe at a beautiful display of fireworks, just for us! 

The night continued on well into the night!  Sunday morning brought late-risers, more massages, more relaxing, reading, swimming.  

Me and birthday gal Amy

Andrea and I took some kayaks and paddled around the island too.

We left our world of paradise at 4:30pm and I was all the way home by 10pm.  I tell you this has got to be one of the best birthday parties I have ever attended!!!!

Andrea and I are thinking of renting it for our 40^th birthdays next spring.  Anyone want to join us????