Sunday 05th Oct
We duly waited for our 0900hr transfer to arrive. At 1100hrs a pick-up truck (which I will refer to as the “coop”) emerged packed to the gunnels with goods and chattels and then topped off with about ten people. Our luggage was summarily tied on (somewhere) and after much debate and discussion by phone we reluctantly climbed aboard the pre-reserved four seats (ha!). This is worthy of mention as the four seats were in fact two (although sold as four). Thus three of us had approximately the same space as battery hens have in the UK (poor sods!). As you might image we were not too keen on this arrangement and the prospect of a minimum six hour journey with at least half of the time travelling on dirt ‘roads’. I wondered how the supersized Americans (the ones we always end up sitting by on long flights) would have coped - no, they wouldn’t even be able to get into the “coup” cabin. Jan was stoic in that she didn’t even have a seat as the designed two seater space had only a gap in between into which we crammed sufficient towels in order to provide some degree of comfort. We made a few stops on the way for ‘refreshment’, tackled what seemed insurmountable jungle tracks and eventually emerged into this vista of green with trees and, what can only be described, as an English country scene - surreal but true!
We were greeted at our hotel by Tricia and Wanda (the two volunteers we are replacing) and Andy (Tricia’s non-volunteer accompanying husband). After a very quick wash and brush up we went for a drink at the (only) local bar then ate a nice meal at an adjacent restaurant and then to bed. At about 0400hrs we were awoken by a time challenged rooster and eventually stirred to meet ‘the team’ for breakfast at 0700hrs. Working hours are 0730 until 1100 and then 1400 to 1700; all those midday naps!
The week was made up of a variety of activities. We should say the school visits (very interesting and a complete contrast to home and pristine learning environments) were the highlight but the team building by way of jungle trekking on an elephant takes some beating. We ‘pillioned’ out on motor bikes to a local P’Nong hill tribe village to start our adventure. Initially the only elephant we could see looked a bit sad. However, when the others arrived there was much greeting and intertwining of trunks. It seemed to us that they were really pleased to see each other and we swear they were even smiling! Ours we called ‘tusky Trevor’ - no-one else wanted him as he was huge and seemed the most ‘long in the tusk’ but he was great. We were amazed at his sure footed agility on some steep inclines and narrow treacherous paths - feeling his way with his trunk and even going on automatic when his ‘driver’ leapt off for a drink. Meghan and Sandra (another VSO volunteer who will continue in placement for another year) had the naughty one while the ‘boys’ Veasna and Votera (Volunteer Assistants/ translators) giggled away to strains of the Titanic theme tune played on their mobile phone. Meanwhile Wanda did a fair impression of Helen Mirren with much regal waving to anything we passed.
After a couple of hours trekking through the jungle we stopped by a river for lunch. The elephants were freed from their ''baskets'', allowed to roam about and rest for a couple of hours. On their return their mahouts guided them into the river and gave them a good wash and scrub up which they seemed to enjoy thoroughly. They were even seen to be flicking themselves nonchalantly behind their ears with bamboo branches - very cool behaviour.
In the evening we went to an ‘inside’ BBQ cooked on a charcoal burner which served up an interesting array of anatomical parts from different animals. The Khmer idea of vegetarian is somewhat different to that in the UK in so much that being vegetarian means that the meat is taken from a dish (or you only eat a little). They really do eat snout to tail and ALL in between. I think the concept may take some time to be understood (if it ever is!).
We had a really good week in Sen Monorom and now look forward to settling into our placement.
Our return to Phnom Penh was much more comfortable and we were accompanied by Tricia but it still took seven and a half hours - numb bums on our arrival. A series of meetings based at the VSO office went without much incident, although more numbing of ‘gluteus maximus’ ensued. It did enable us to start tracking down necessary placement items e.g. tinned butter, flour, gin! We enjoyed a little R&R in the capital and returned back (Wednesday 15th Oct) to the entertainment hub of Cambodia, namely, Kampong Cham, to complete the final bout of language training, oh joy! (We have to note at this juncture that our teacher or our ‘bong reean’ Dara, is good and has a keen sense of humour which makes it almost bearable. We do try but it seems our brains are full of so much other trivia the language is proving difficult!
We duly waited for our 0900hr transfer to arrive. At 1100hrs a pick-up truck (which I will refer to as the “coop”) emerged packed to the gunnels with goods and chattels and then topped off with about ten people. Our luggage was summarily tied on (somewhere) and after much debate and discussion by phone we reluctantly climbed aboard the pre-reserved four seats (ha!). This is worthy of mention as the four seats were in fact two (although sold as four). Thus three of us had approximately the same space as battery hens have in the UK (poor sods!). As you might image we were not too keen on this arrangement and the prospect of a minimum six hour journey with at least half of the time travelling on dirt ‘roads’. I wondered how the supersized Americans (the ones we always end up sitting by on long flights) would have coped - no, they wouldn’t even be able to get into the “coup” cabin. Jan was stoic in that she didn’t even have a seat as the designed two seater space had only a gap in between into which we crammed sufficient towels in order to provide some degree of comfort. We made a few stops on the way for ‘refreshment’, tackled what seemed insurmountable jungle tracks and eventually emerged into this vista of green with trees and, what can only be described, as an English country scene - surreal but true!
We were greeted at our hotel by Tricia and Wanda (the two volunteers we are replacing) and Andy (Tricia’s non-volunteer accompanying husband). After a very quick wash and brush up we went for a drink at the (only) local bar then ate a nice meal at an adjacent restaurant and then to bed. At about 0400hrs we were awoken by a time challenged rooster and eventually stirred to meet ‘the team’ for breakfast at 0700hrs. Working hours are 0730 until 1100 and then 1400 to 1700; all those midday naps!
The week was made up of a variety of activities. We should say the school visits (very interesting and a complete contrast to home and pristine learning environments) were the highlight but the team building by way of jungle trekking on an elephant takes some beating. We ‘pillioned’ out on motor bikes to a local P’Nong hill tribe village to start our adventure. Initially the only elephant we could see looked a bit sad. However, when the others arrived there was much greeting and intertwining of trunks. It seemed to us that they were really pleased to see each other and we swear they were even smiling! Ours we called ‘tusky Trevor’ - no-one else wanted him as he was huge and seemed the most ‘long in the tusk’ but he was great. We were amazed at his sure footed agility on some steep inclines and narrow treacherous paths - feeling his way with his trunk and even going on automatic when his ‘driver’ leapt off for a drink. Meghan and Sandra (another VSO volunteer who will continue in placement for another year) had the naughty one while the ‘boys’ Veasna and Votera (Volunteer Assistants/ translators) giggled away to strains of the Titanic theme tune played on their mobile phone. Meanwhile Wanda did a fair impression of Helen Mirren with much regal waving to anything we passed.
After a couple of hours trekking through the jungle we stopped by a river for lunch. The elephants were freed from their ''baskets'', allowed to roam about and rest for a couple of hours. On their return their mahouts guided them into the river and gave them a good wash and scrub up which they seemed to enjoy thoroughly. They were even seen to be flicking themselves nonchalantly behind their ears with bamboo branches - very cool behaviour.
In the evening we went to an ‘inside’ BBQ cooked on a charcoal burner which served up an interesting array of anatomical parts from different animals. The Khmer idea of vegetarian is somewhat different to that in the UK in so much that being vegetarian means that the meat is taken from a dish (or you only eat a little). They really do eat snout to tail and ALL in between. I think the concept may take some time to be understood (if it ever is!).
We had a really good week in Sen Monorom and now look forward to settling into our placement.
Our return to Phnom Penh was much more comfortable and we were accompanied by Tricia but it still took seven and a half hours - numb bums on our arrival. A series of meetings based at the VSO office went without much incident, although more numbing of ‘gluteus maximus’ ensued. It did enable us to start tracking down necessary placement items e.g. tinned butter, flour, gin! We enjoyed a little R&R in the capital and returned back (Wednesday 15th Oct) to the entertainment hub of Cambodia, namely, Kampong Cham, to complete the final bout of language training, oh joy! (We have to note at this juncture that our teacher or our ‘bong reean’ Dara, is good and has a keen sense of humour which makes it almost bearable. We do try but it seems our brains are full of so much other trivia the language is proving difficult!
3 comments:
Hey guys, looks amazing! Hope you're still having fun in Pnomh Penh, sophie xx
Yo Keith,
So whats "beer" in Khmer then?
Have traced your wanderings so far on Google Maps.Google Earth does a great Phnom Penh but Sen Monorom and Kampang Cham are still invisible to the rest of the non-vso world.Although Google Earth does feature photos of your favourite bridge!
Take care Col.
Good to here its all going well.Fridays are just not the same without a b********g for a poor pass, Clarkey must be geting old !!
still have all your work safe and sound ,will pass it on to Joe Sometime.
Things much the same at camp KES!!
take care mate.
Deano
Post a Comment