Cambodia... Again!!

 I seem to have a thing for going places twice. USA? Twice. Italy? Twice. And now? Cambodia twice!! I again managed to secure a spot on the school's Cambodia trip, this time as trip leader and Year Level leader for the Year 10's who would be going. What made this trip special was that my son was in Year 10 and came along on the trip, so we shared some incredible memories together. This trip followed the exact same itinerary as last years, so I won't rehash all that we did. What differed was at the Treak Village this time students ran an expo with drama, science, and art classes for the students across our time there. We also took a tuk tuk ride, and had an amazing guide called Pisa who even sang for us all. We also had a student hit her head which meant a night in a Phnom Penh private hospital, but all was ok, thankfully.

We tried crickets instead of tarantulas, and we still enjoyed all the same amazing sights and people. I loved going a second time, knowing what to expect and my around the markets and the sites we saw. Knowing to buy that $1 fan on day 1! Knowing to get Browns coffee daily and to make the most of that rooftop pool!

Cambodia Trip Day 10

Our final day in Cambodia and we toured the National museum, Royal palace and Silver Pagoda. We then spent the afternoon at still more markets bargaining and shopping before an overnight flight home to Melbourne. All students and teachers in tact! Such an incredible trip so different to anything I have ever seen before. What a beautiful and interesting country that has experienced so much history and difficulty.

Cambodia Trip Day 9

A somber day today as we visited the Toul Sleng museum of genocidal crimes and the Killing Fields of ChoeungEk. A number of us shed tears as we were moved by the stories of the atrocities suffered at these sites. The tree where children were beaten and killed broke my heart, and the number of bones kept in the mausoleum was overwhelming. We met one of the survivors of Toul Sleng and purchased his book. It was a lot to take in, and we spent some down time afterwards at the pool and then took a cruise on the Mekong river to gain some pep and happiness back in our steps. 

Cambodia Trip Day 8

 We spent today at the Free the Bears Sanctuary doing their keeper for a day program where we made enrichment toys for the bears and threw them in to see them enjoy! Back in Australia it was grand final day in the AFL and we got regular updates from my Dad back home to keep the kids in the loop!

Phnom Penh Sunset

Tour Guide Mak

Cambodia traffic!

View from breakfast roof of hotel

Cambodia Trip Day 7

Today started with a blessing from a Buddhist monk who tied a red string around my wrist for good energy. Then we explored the temples of Banteay Srey and Mebon before putting 22 tired teenagers on a flight to Phnom Penh and checking them into the new hotel. Not as fun as the roof top pool in Siem Reap, but pretty amazing just the same!  

Cambodia Trip Days 4-6

The next 3 days were spent at a local community school called Treak Community Centre.  The staff here were welcoming and friendly, and students and teachers alike we spent time with the students of the school, playing, teaching, helping build bricks for further buildings and development and so on. It was such a great community service component of the trip for the students, who saw how others live, so differently from their own privileged, private school lives. This was poverty, extreme poverty in many cases, and walking through the village back to the bus was fascinating, seeing beyond the tourism to real Cambodian life. 

In the evenings we spent a fair amount of time shopping and bargaining at the night markets, eating amazing Cambodian fare, and on one night, we went to the PHARE circus - such a treat! The circus is made up of performers who use theater, music, dance and modern circus arts to tell uniquely Cambodian stories; historical, folk and modern. It was a highlight of the trip for many of us. 

At one of the markets we found some unusual street food. I ate scorpion, tarantula and snake, as did many of the students. It was strange - tarantula leg was SO chewy - I could not eat an abdomen though. The snake had tiny bones that got caught in the teeth, and the scorpion was crunchy and yum! 

Cambodia Trip Day 2

Today we experienced the phenomenal Angkor Wat Temples. There is a reason these are one of the seven wonders of the world, and we spent a day exploring a number of different temples, including climbing the main site. Our guide Nak was super knowledgeable about the sites and the history here is just incredible. 

In the evening, we attended the Aspara Dance Show, which was pretty cool. It was a sit down dinner with a Cabaret style show featuring dance and sing that told stories of traditional Cambodian tales. It was a fun night, I think my fave was the crickets dance!