Ordinary life of volunteering

We traveled by Tuktuk to the place where we would stay for 3 weeks. 20 min far away from the bigger city Siem Reap, surrounded by green rice fields, cows, chickens, Palm trees, fluffy clouds and blue sky, we arrived at a simple Cambodian house. A dog and a little naked boy welcomed us. We got a small room with a thin mattress and checked the “toilet” and bucket shower. We were really excited about living 3 weeks without running water and a proper toilet. In the evening we met all the other volunteers and got explained how life works here.

The next day was our first day of working at school. Jeff started a project, building a football-pitch for the kids and I tried out the teaching. The kids are unbelievable cute and willing to learn. I am proud to be part of this school and their lives, also if it is only for 3 weeks. After work we went home and enjoyed the dinner that Radys wife cooked for us. And once again Cambodian kitchen is delicious.

In the weekends we had off and could do some sightseeing in the area or go out with the people from school and Radys house. We visited Angkor Wat, I was waiting for this already the whole Asia trip. We went there for sunrise, we were a bit to early so we had time to eat a pancake. Having a pancake at 5 in the morning and watching the sunrise over one of the most beautiful and inspiring monuments is just fantastic. We wandered the entire day between temples and ancient ruins. Words just can not describe how beautiful and mysterious this was.

One day we decided to go to a temple which belongs to the Angkor area but you don’t have to buy a ticket for it. It is on a hill in the middle of the jungle, more then 600 steps lead to it. At the bottom of the hill we met a tourist policeman. He wouldn’t to let us pass if we don’t pay 1$pp. Really nothing is for free in Cambodia. After reaching the top exhausted and sweaty, we were blown away by the view. You could see hundreds of km far, sun was settling and the moon was already out, big and bright. On the top were the ruins aflame. Just wonderful.

3 weeks passed by so fast. And it was so sad to leave Radys house and the school. We will miss our new friends. Thanks to all the volunteers, it was a really great time with you.

The capital of Cambodia

we stayed in the center of Phnom Phen at the laughing fat man hotel, which is literally ran by a laughing fat man. A cozy place in the middle of a pulsing city. Surrounded by bars and restaurants.

Phnom Penh made a big impression to us. If you walk around you see stunning temples, beautiful buildings, expensive cars and fancy hotels and restaurants. But around the corner of the kings palace or any other fancy building there are dozens of children begging for food and money. In the night you see them laying with their siblings on one little blanket in a dark corner of the street.

Restaurants are full with old western men in accompaniment of young Asian girls. Girls trying to escape poverty and build up a better life.

In all this poverty Cambodian people are always friendly and trying to please you. If you look back on their history, which is full with war and killing, it is just amazing that Cambodians are like they are.

The last war is still so recent and made such a big influence on the country we decided to find more out about it. We took a TukTuk to a place 20km away from Phnom Penh.

This place is called the killing fields. In the 70s the Khmer Rouge (a communist party) gained power and took over Cambodia. During their leadership the killed 20% of Cambodians population, which is more then 1,5 mio. They brought them to the place called the killing fields. Men, women and children were killed there in cruel ways and buried in mass graves. We got an audio tour and spent there 3 hours listing to the stories of survivors and explanations about the war. This time at the fields was so touching and heavy. It is just 30 years ago, so recent and so scary.

After a few days in Phnom Penh we have to move on to Siem Reap. Unfortunately Jeff wakes up sick on the day we left the city. A terrible bus ride through a beautiful country later we arrive in Siem Reap and were picked up by Rady. The director of a local English school.

Update

Check our new photos under the Vietnamese flag in the Photo Gallery!

Goodbye of Betsy

The last day with Betsy was not a nice road. Just highway but it needed to be done to make Ho Chi Minh city. Ho Chi Minh city also known as Saigon is big and crowded. It's the only city in Vietnam that really gives you the feeling of being big or better said massive although it has only 7 million inhabitants.

After more than 2500 km it was time to change transportation again. For selling Betsy we called the guys where we bought it from and of course it went as smooth (read as totally not) as when we picked Betsy up in Hanoi. But 10 phone calls and 3 times discussion about the price and refund later we successfully sold Betsy.

Helpless without our bike we booked some tours to see the surroundings of Saigon. We went to the famous cu chi tunnels which were used during the American war as hiding place. The Vietnamese did an impressive job with making whole villages underground. The tunnels being so small that western people can not enter them. To give the tourist (like us) an impression they made a special tourist tunnel and some kind of small theme park around it. Here you can see everything about life in that period. We made it to through the 150 meter tourist tunnel and where soaked. It's soooo warm in the tunnel you can't imagine.

To end our Vietnam experience we went for a 3 day tour to the Mekong delta in the south of Vietnam which will end in Cambodia. This trip turned out to be a rush through the delta. We saw a lot of places we could not really link with the delta. They only thing we really learned is about the “happy room”. Every tour guide we met proudly told about the room where you go stressed in and come happy out: The restroom hahahaha. (Most of time it was only the guide that was laughing which made it actually a bit funny)

We also visited the biggest floating market of the Mekong Delta. It was nice to see how Vietnamese people do the trading on the water. Everyone comes with his boat and hangs outside what the offer for sale on a long stick, so everyone can see it. It was mostly pineapple, potato, salad and dragon fruit.

Our last morning in Vietnam was long, waking up at 5:30 to hop on a boat to Cambodia. With some short stops at a fish farm and a minority village, we arrived at 10 at the border which we crossed over water. After both border offices and a new visa we are heading to Phnom Penh by bus.

Dalat

Dalat is located at 1500 m above sea level and so a bit colder than the rest of Vietnam. In the evening it was only 15 degrees and we felt like in need of a winter jacket. If you have around 30 degrees for two months 15 is really cold. Its built on hills and is divided by a river. Dalat has beautiful architecture, a lot of influence by the french. It is really a beautiful city.

Besides the temperature we had a warm welcome. The hotel staff was nice and we met some motorcycle tour guides. Although we are traveling ourselves by bike the tour they had to offer sounded interesting. This would be the opportunity to visit all the things we saw on the side of the road for the last three weeks. We went the next morning on the back of the bikes and saw a coffee-, a flower farm and a silk factory before we got all the insights of rice whiskey making.

The whiskey distillery had a bit of a side business, weasel coffee. Weasel coffee is really expensive because the animal only eats the nicest coffee beans plus the enzymes in the stomach makes the taste even better. It sounds interesting but the reality is a sad sight. The weasels are put in really small cages where they move their body nervously from right to left.

One of the nicest things that day was a walk down a really dangerous path, it was really slippery, wet and we had to crawl over stones. This path ended behind a waterfall. It was amazing to stand there, hear the water rushing down and fell the water spray.

The coffee capital

Buon ma Thuot is surrounded by coffee plantations and is also known as the coffee capital of Vietnam. We just came in after harvesting so lots of pieces of road were confiscated for drying coffee beans. We booked two nights in a resort called the coffee tour, so expected actually to get a tour. Unfortunately there was no tour.

Instead we grabbed our map and took Betsy for a spin towards Yok Don National park, hired a guide and hiked through the forest for an hour or two. The park is mainly dry deciduous forest and has a lot of wildlife. If you some spend some more time there you could see monkeys, deers, snakes, elephants and more. We were really excited to see an elephant in the park until we noticed it was chained. The elephant was there for tourists to ride on. Fortunately Yok Don is not really known by tourists. After our 2 hour hike we stopped at the river and took a local boat back to the entrance. When the guy arrived with his boat he had to close some holes with fabric first and empty the boat from water. We thought that it wont sink if he is still on it and so we trusted the guy and enjoyed our little boat ride through the jungle. On the way home Caro did her first longer drive with Betsy and she did a pretty good job racing through the countryside.