(no subject)
Pre-departure
We departed for Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on the 8th of December at 6.45am Singapore time. This means that we had to be at the airport at 4am!!! Despite th early hour we were pretty upbeat, albeit sleepy, and once we had checked in our luggage, we were on our way.....for breakfast. The majority of the team of 31 went to Burger King while a few of us packed our food from the Toastbox outlet nearby. For some reason, when the China Chinese lady talked to me at the counter, my accent instantly changed and I started talking in China accent. Later on, the whole group laughed at what I did.. Lulz indeed. The breakfast sucked though. The egg wasn't salty and didn't taste like egg, the bread was soft instead of crispy and there was tons more butter instead of kaya. BREAKFAST FAIL! Once that was over and done with, we got onto our plane and departed for Project Kruesa (Kroo-sa) - Family in Khmer (Kh-mai), name of primary language and people in Cambodia.
Day 0
We arrived in Phnom Penh at about 8am Cambodia time which is 1 hour behind KL and Singapore time. From there we met our guide, Willas (sp?) who followed us by bus to our hotel, Townview Hotel. I shared a room with Sheryl who is a 2nd Year Information Systems student. Our room was very nice and CLEAN. Toilet was abit small but THE TV....oh, the tv... how I will miss your 90 channels of pure win.
Once refreshed, we headed down to where Riverkids (the Cambodian association we were working with) was. After a 30 mins drive, we arrived at a slum area (which is still much cleaner than parts of KL city). Our guide, Sophon, took us around the more improvished parts of the village which was near the Mekong river (hence the RIVER in Riverkids). Even in my non-existant heart, I felt a hint of remorse for their poor living conditions especially for those who lived near the now abandoned railway. Litter was piled in a makeshift rubbish dump, there were pools of stagnant water around but still... the people there managed to live happily and were were greeted warmly by the children at each of the 3 Riverkids' teaching centers.
Next, we went to the Olympic market to buy some supplies. GOOD GOD! Every person in the group was more or less traumatised by the market there. It wasn't the cleanliness though, it was more like the lack of things to do and purchase there. For this, we were bored out of our minds for the 2 hours we spent there. From there, we went on to dinner and then back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 1 to Day 4
After meeting at 6am at the lobby, we departed for breakfast at Sorya Restaurant . Then, we went to the Alexandria center to begin our time with the Riverkids.
There, we divided the kids into 2 groups which would do separate activities and then would be switched at a later time so as to experience all the activities that we had planned for them. Here are the things that we did accrding to each day:
1) Day1:
Arts & Craft: Mask Painting
Outdoor Activities: Rubber Bands & Cups, Dog & Bone
2) Day 2:
Arts & Craft: Model Building
Outdoor Activities: Dodgeball, Twister Mat Making & Playing
3) Day 3:
Arts & Craft: Origami
Outdoor Activities: Captains Ball, Human Foosball
4) Day 4:
Arts & Craft: T-Shirt Painting
Outdoor Activities: Ping Pong (paired catching), dodgeball, medley of relays
On the last day, the exchanged gifts with the staff and children of the Riverkids Foundation and shared a Cambodian traditional dance with them whereby we danced in a circle around a table with a flower on it. We played with the kids and hugged and waved them goodbye while saying a sad Aw-kun (thank you in Khmer) to them as we left.
R & R
The next day we were taken by our guide for a tour of Phnom Penh city. She said that Phnom Penh was derived from the names of 2 women who were said to have individually helped to found the city. The city was built twice, once when a king of the Norodom empire (the current empire) moved the capital from Angkor Wat to Phnom Penh and the second time was after the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Sadly, I don't remember much of her explanations because, as with everyone else, I was very tired and was pretending to listen....
After that, we went to the Royal Palace. More specifically, we visited the Silver Palace and one of the Coronation Building. The Coronation building was a seriously majestic sight as the main throne area was adorned with pure gold while the ceiling had some of the most beautiful murals I had ever seen. The murals depicted parts of the story from Ramayana legend. Unfortunately, cameras and shoes were not allowed as it would damage the building and the paintings. Besides that, the Silver Palace is named so because the entire floor and much of the bulding is made of pure silver! In the center of the Silver Palace was a Emerald Buddha sitting on a high tower of pure gold. In front of him was a statue of a King who wished to become a Buddha upon his death. The former was made of 90kg of pure Gold with more than 2600 diamonds in his right plam, chest and forehead.
Lastly, we visited the Khmer Rouge Genocide Museum (previously knowned as S-21 during the period) where thousands of Cambodians were tortured or imprisoned before being taken to the killing fields for execution. Don't really want to talk about it cause it was seriously cruel and WTF cause Pol Pot (the leader of the Khmer Rouge) died of OLD AGE after causing 2 million deaths. BASTARD.
Hence concludes part 1.... will continue after dinner and bath
We departed for Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on the 8th of December at 6.45am Singapore time. This means that we had to be at the airport at 4am!!! Despite th early hour we were pretty upbeat, albeit sleepy, and once we had checked in our luggage, we were on our way.....for breakfast. The majority of the team of 31 went to Burger King while a few of us packed our food from the Toastbox outlet nearby. For some reason, when the China Chinese lady talked to me at the counter, my accent instantly changed and I started talking in China accent. Later on, the whole group laughed at what I did.. Lulz indeed. The breakfast sucked though. The egg wasn't salty and didn't taste like egg, the bread was soft instead of crispy and there was tons more butter instead of kaya. BREAKFAST FAIL! Once that was over and done with, we got onto our plane and departed for Project Kruesa (Kroo-sa) - Family in Khmer (Kh-mai), name of primary language and people in Cambodia.
Day 0
We arrived in Phnom Penh at about 8am Cambodia time which is 1 hour behind KL and Singapore time. From there we met our guide, Willas (sp?) who followed us by bus to our hotel, Townview Hotel. I shared a room with Sheryl who is a 2nd Year Information Systems student. Our room was very nice and CLEAN. Toilet was abit small but THE TV....oh, the tv... how I will miss your 90 channels of pure win.
Once refreshed, we headed down to where Riverkids (the Cambodian association we were working with) was. After a 30 mins drive, we arrived at a slum area (which is still much cleaner than parts of KL city). Our guide, Sophon, took us around the more improvished parts of the village which was near the Mekong river (hence the RIVER in Riverkids). Even in my non-existant heart, I felt a hint of remorse for their poor living conditions especially for those who lived near the now abandoned railway. Litter was piled in a makeshift rubbish dump, there were pools of stagnant water around but still... the people there managed to live happily and were were greeted warmly by the children at each of the 3 Riverkids' teaching centers.
Next, we went to the Olympic market to buy some supplies. GOOD GOD! Every person in the group was more or less traumatised by the market there. It wasn't the cleanliness though, it was more like the lack of things to do and purchase there. For this, we were bored out of our minds for the 2 hours we spent there. From there, we went on to dinner and then back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 1 to Day 4
After meeting at 6am at the lobby, we departed for breakfast at Sorya Restaurant . Then, we went to the Alexandria center to begin our time with the Riverkids.
There, we divided the kids into 2 groups which would do separate activities and then would be switched at a later time so as to experience all the activities that we had planned for them. Here are the things that we did accrding to each day:
1) Day1:
Arts & Craft: Mask Painting
Outdoor Activities: Rubber Bands & Cups, Dog & Bone
2) Day 2:
Arts & Craft: Model Building
Outdoor Activities: Dodgeball, Twister Mat Making & Playing
3) Day 3:
Arts & Craft: Origami
Outdoor Activities: Captains Ball, Human Foosball
4) Day 4:
Arts & Craft: T-Shirt Painting
Outdoor Activities: Ping Pong (paired catching), dodgeball, medley of relays
On the last day, the exchanged gifts with the staff and children of the Riverkids Foundation and shared a Cambodian traditional dance with them whereby we danced in a circle around a table with a flower on it. We played with the kids and hugged and waved them goodbye while saying a sad Aw-kun (thank you in Khmer) to them as we left.
R & R
The next day we were taken by our guide for a tour of Phnom Penh city. She said that Phnom Penh was derived from the names of 2 women who were said to have individually helped to found the city. The city was built twice, once when a king of the Norodom empire (the current empire) moved the capital from Angkor Wat to Phnom Penh and the second time was after the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Sadly, I don't remember much of her explanations because, as with everyone else, I was very tired and was pretending to listen....
After that, we went to the Royal Palace. More specifically, we visited the Silver Palace and one of the Coronation Building. The Coronation building was a seriously majestic sight as the main throne area was adorned with pure gold while the ceiling had some of the most beautiful murals I had ever seen. The murals depicted parts of the story from Ramayana legend. Unfortunately, cameras and shoes were not allowed as it would damage the building and the paintings. Besides that, the Silver Palace is named so because the entire floor and much of the bulding is made of pure silver! In the center of the Silver Palace was a Emerald Buddha sitting on a high tower of pure gold. In front of him was a statue of a King who wished to become a Buddha upon his death. The former was made of 90kg of pure Gold with more than 2600 diamonds in his right plam, chest and forehead.
Lastly, we visited the Khmer Rouge Genocide Museum (previously knowned as S-21 during the period) where thousands of Cambodians were tortured or imprisoned before being taken to the killing fields for execution. Don't really want to talk about it cause it was seriously cruel and WTF cause Pol Pot (the leader of the Khmer Rouge) died of OLD AGE after causing 2 million deaths. BASTARD.
Hence concludes part 1.... will continue after dinner and bath