'Charrrrr'

I am now called 'chaarrrrr' and have started teaching in a orphanage just outside Siem Reap, I have two classes, one at 8am (hmmmmm), and another at 2pm. I only have about 8 children in each class which is nice because I can help them more and their english is already a pretty impressive. I was hoping to be teaching the abc and colours of the rainbow but I actually have to use my brain and make detailed and challenging lesson plans so they don't get bored and run out of my class....

Today 3 of them suddenly got up in the middle of the class and said 'char, i have to go, back in a few minutes...' whislt running out. I thought it was a little joke. Very amusing...new char and all that but they did come back in 'a few minutes' all carrying huge bundles of grass...then came and sat back down... random.

I had a little giggle when my student wrote 'my name is piseth but I want to change it to fanny boy'.

Missing people already...

I'm missing lots already and have a Cambodian Sim that actually works this time sooo please text moi!! +85577906517. I don't have anyone's numbers saved so let me know who it is! Or comment on this, I want to know who's reading these....if anyone. xxx

To Siem Reap...

We got the boat to Siem Reap from Battanbang which is reccommended by the LP as one of the must do's in Cambodia. On the ticket it had a picture of a speed boat, but the little wooden boat did just fine. It took a good 6 and a half hours, through many floating villages, so many children playing in the water, even drinking it...and waving at any opportunity. The scenery made up for the numb bum, sitting on a hard wooden seat for the whole time, speedily grabbing the material sides of the boat down so not to get taken out by the bushes and branches that our boat went through the middle of...! WHen we eventually arrived, about 20 men jumped on our boat...(asking if we wanted tuk tuks, motos etc etc) 'TUK TUK LADYYYYYY' everyyyyyyyyyy time.

Luckily we had 3 people with ours names on signs, oops a little mix up! Went with one and he took me to my new home.

First impressions of Siem Reap were all good, the volunteer house is cool, sharing a room with a lovely Scottish girl, Jenni. Great big room with an en suite + cold shower. Ohhh how I miss the power shower, and a nice towel that doesn't smell of damp! anyhoo.....put up my pics and made myself at home!

Siem Reap is a cool place...some say it's a little touristy but I'm so glad as I can get whatever I need.........cheese being the main necessity!

I have my own bike and its lovely to cycle everywhere, down the dirt roads to the volunteer house to 'pub street' in the centre!

Bamboo train of Battambang

After being stuck in touristy Sihnoukville due to flooding and Lou's potential dengue fever we headed to Battambang, there we hired motos and drivers for half a day through the dusty and very bumpy countryside! Amazing little villages with wooden hut houses on stilts surrounded by animals, water buffalo, rice paddies and children. Farming villagers, mostly women are working hard in the heat collecting rice from the rice fields, shouting hello and waving as we passed! I felt like a bit of a celebrity...

We visited a temple on the top of a hill, where we were led by our child that the moto driver found in the village to take us up. 'Here I've found you a ladyboy' he shouted as this little boy with longish hair came to take us up the mountain....we decided to call him Moglie and he enjoyed racing up leaving lou and I having a few moments in the heat and then skipped all the way down after we had seen the caves that were used by the Khmer rouge to kill people. It was very peaceful at the top and around the caves, people had made flowers from pieces of material as a mark of respect for those who died there. We were stopped by a monk who asked us for a little english lesson, he asked me things about the language that I couldn't even answer.....may need to refresh my english language skills before I start teaching!!

Ont the moto again and we ended up on the bamboo railway, this was a highlight of Cambodia so far! The train is basically a raft made of bamboo placed on wheels that goes along a rickety track. Where there are gaps/uneven parts of the track the 'train' bumps straight over it making a very scary loud noise! It was a rather frightening experience for lou and I with our sensitive ears who don't even like fireworks! There was a little commotion when we came across a train coming our was(there is only one track for traffic in both directions!) luckily, having 2 motos on ours gave us an advantage along with the 'train' in front being packed full of about 30 khmer women who had just finished working n the rice fields (there were 6 people on ours) those coming our way had to dismantle their train and take it off the track, along with bag after bag of rice/sugar, wait for us to pass and reassemble back on the track! There was a bit of a 15 min discussion as to who got off but they were all laughing about it and enjoyed having a stare at the white people that we are.

To the jungle...

My first experience of 'real' Cambodia begins when we enter the jungle...near to the South Cardamom Mountains. We met Hilary and Pollyanna who were doing BUNAC'S volunteer Cambodia already for their weekend break from teaching.

5 hours bus from Phnom Penh, then off the bus after counting 4 bridges (our instructions) over and over again to be stranded in the middle of nowhere in pouring rain! Polly found Mr Lei - the boat man who took us to Rainbow Lodge (google it). The most amazing bungalows in the middle of the jungle!

We went on the 'little walks' around the lodge with a map that had been drawn on Microsoft paint!! We made it to 'butterfly bench', 'big rock' and 'big rock 2' (Pollys fave) I desperately wanted to find 'log' but we think we missed it which was obviously disappointing!! Constant leech checks were needed and between us we mad about 8/9 sucking our skin at various points of the walk!

We made it back to civilisation, well, rainbow lodge and decided upon doing the 'overnight camp' that was advertised in the lodge book. Looked great, you stay on a beach and set up camp, sleep in hammocks and eat a BBQ...we decided to read through the guest book for recommendations, we flicked through and to our surprise didn't find any. We then read comment after comment thoroughly worrying that those who took part in this adventurous expedition did not return!! Eventually we found one so that was it...we were going! Thinking it was going to be only a 10min boat ride, off we went. 40minutes down the river, we came to some rapids that the little wooden half sunken boat would not make it past. So we moored on a big rock (big rock 3!) and clambered over many a rock to set up camp in a sodden edge of the jungle... Mr Lei and his son were fab and set up the camp- a tarpaulin, over head, 4 hammocks and a bbq in a clay pot along with extra coal and firelights on sticks.

The moment when Mr Lei and son left, really sunk in the fact that we were going to be stranded in the middle of the jungle (one with 'bears, tigers and crocs' as Polly had informed us our of the lonely planer earlier in the day). This camping excursion became a JUNGLE WILDERNESS SURVIVAL EXPEDITION! Polly manned the gourmet BBQ with fish, pork and prawns that were bought along with us (maybe I should say 'hunted' - sounds more expeditionary!). Food was great, we even managed to make a cup of tea. Night fell earlier than I had hoped and there we were, pretty terrified, pretending we were all very brave and loving it! We made a pact that none of us would scare each other. During dinner Lou went mute and lost her appetite! She then asked if we could all go to bed. Polly and Hilary told her not to be so silly. It was 7pm!!! Luckily the girls had done BUNAC'S summer camp USA and knew far too many campfire songs. This was great and drowned out the night time noises that surrounded us in the jungle. Camp songs turned to musicals, musicals turned to Disney. 'I like the flowers; was the round for toilet breaks to scare away snakes. Let me just make this clear - the toilet was about a foot from Hilary's hammock, on the floor. She was not very impressed with her 'sess pit bed!' for the night. When we finally got into our hammocks it felt quite safe and cosy. Mine was a little wet but I felt safe from tigers! I'm sure I felt something brushing past my hammock throughout the night, it may have been the wind that got up. Lou and I were worried that the tarpaulin would blow away! The girls sang themselves to sleep, I especially enjoyed their Les Mis rendition of 'on my own' before putting the ipod on. I woke up during the night because the rain had actually stopped!! well, for all of 4 minutes and then it started again.

The excitement of seeing Mr Lei and his sons in a bigger boat this time was all very exciting as the rapids had got so much bigger during the night we thought they wouldn't make it up the river to fetch us and we'd have to stay there another night!!!

High of the day - waking up still alive and not being eaten by bears or tigers
Low of the day - The rain had soaked everythingggg!

Fantastic experience with the 3 girls!!!