Feb 6, 2012 - Last days in Takeo

A few more photos and memories to share from our life in Takeo. From our usual breakfast restaurant, every morning we would watch the saffron robed monks heading out from the pagoda, usually in twos.   They are not permitted to eat from sun- up to sunset nor touch women. They come and stand silently in front of a house/business.  The occupants come out with either food or money, raise their hands in a prayer gesture and the monks intone a blessing.  They are often quite young boys who may be living in the temple for a few years.  Obviously...

Feb 6, 2012 - CHOICE in Phnom Penh

Our last two days in Phnom Penh have been spent helping CHOICE (Charitable Humanitarian Organisation in Cambodia by Expats).  It was started in 2006 by an Australian man Ross who resolved to help the poorest of the poor. He supports four small villages by providing them with some food and basic necessities once a week and providing them with clean drinking water every second day. The people in these villages are squatters who have either lost their land or never had any, and who live on the dusty roadside with dirty water canals and rice...

Feb 2, 2012 - Snippets from Takeo

We never cease to be enthralled by the market and a visit there is never quick!  The pictures can't capture the sounds, smells or heat - all added extras.  We have been searching for all manner of things and people are so helpful, leaving their shops and escorting us to where they think we might find an item.  Care for lotus flowers, weaner pigs, live chickens or ducks, fresh fish (ie still alive and flapping), meat portions including entrails, banana fritters, water balloons, breadfruit, rivets, dental floss - it's an amazing...

Jan 27, 2012 - Weekend in Kampot

Cambodia celebrates Chinese New Year with a long weekend so we decided to head off to Kampot for the weekend.  Two other volunteers from NFO joined us - a NZ girl, and a Welsh girl.  We "lived it up" for the weekend in a very nice hotel $29 per night including breakfast -very expensive! We took a mini bus trip one day to visit caves where Hindu shrines are inset into the caves.  Next stop was at a pepper plantation where we saw the pepper vines growing and the pepper corns hanging.  There are 3 harvests a year when the pepper corn stalks...

Jan 21, 2012 - A Day in the Life of Caroline and Sven in Takeo

It's amazing how quickly you can adapt to new routines and how little you miss things that once you thought were important.   Our alarm goes off at 7 am, though mostly we are awake before this, and we jump on our bikes for a one kilometer ride towards town.  We share the road with a few cars, trucks, vans, LOTS of motorbikes and LOTS of bicycles.  It is right hand drive in Cambodia but road  rules seem to be optional!   We have our favorite restaurant where each morning we have pee bou moeun, num bang and Khmer coffee (2 eggs with bread -...

Jan 12, 2012 - NFO and Little Po School

We are settling into our life here in Takeo..and enjoying every day with new sights and experiences.   NFO orphanage (New Futures Organisation) is run by Neville (an Englishman).  NFO also has a guest house about 2 km from the orphanage where volunteers can stay.  We stayed there initially but found the little room very hot at night so have moved to another guest house with a bigger room - fan, cold water for US$7 per night.  Neville arrived in Takeo as a volunteer about 4 years ago to assist at the orphanage, but detected that the manager...

Jan 7, 2012 - Schools in Cambodia

We have had a whirlwind four days of visiting primary schools with Denise Arnold (Cambodia Trust, Tauranga), each night returning to a guest house in Kampot.  17 of us travelled in 2 vans, including two translators who administer the Trust here.  At each school, Denise (and the rest of us) were warmly welcomed.  We all helped distribute school uniforms to some of the children and books and pens to others. How delighted they were with their new books! Denise also had a meeting with the school Director (Principal) and teachers to ask them...

Jan 3, 2009 - Kampot

A very sleepy town is the small riverside town of Kampot which rests on the Kampot River. We stayed for two nights here and liked it, unfortunately the main reason for coming here, the nearby Bokor National Park, is closed thanks to some developer by up the park and, erm, developing it. This limited our sightseeing activities to Kampot itself so we had a stroll around the town and took in its part French Colonial / part Khmer Rouge destroyed run-down charm on a very hot day. The riverside walk was pleasant enough and we ended up having an...