In the morning I woke up busting for a piss and staggered out feeling like I'd been in the ring with a kickboxer. Met the guy from Nelson again and chatted about Cambodia & Laos because he'd been there before. Gave some good advice about getting dust masks for the bus rides in Laos because of the dusty roads and no windows in the buses. Also using rubbish bags to put your pack in to stop bedbugs getting into your pack.
After that chat, Eunmi came looking for me because we had to move quickly to get to the airport. Luckily she had already packed (as usual, I'm so slack!). We made our goodbyes from the guesthouse, me feeling slightly sheepish because I'd been so hammered the night before I wasn't sure how much of an arse I'd been. So out into the heat with all the lugguage to hail a taxi(cheaper than waiting ones) and off to KLCC Sentral to get the bus to LCCT airport for out Air Asia flight to Phnom Penh. Luckily the bus was leaving almost immediately so we were soon on our way on the hour or so's journey. LCCT has a funny set uo where you go through security scanning into the check-in area and then you have to come out again to get to the gates! Bit worrying. Anyway after a bit to eat it was oon boarding time. The gates were basically just doors in a row from where you exit and walk out to the plane. As we entered the plane it was full of steamy clouds coming from the A/C due to the contrast in heat.
We found our seats right to the rear and watched the chaos as many illiterate Khmer people tried to find their seats with many talking any then having more, including a young Muslim girl next to Eunmi who looked very upset at moving next to some older men. Another young Khmer woman was still seated next to Eunmi and she needed Eunmi's help to fill out the immigration documents. Apparently this was her first return home to Cambodia after 2 years working for a Chinese family in KL. She seemed incredibly innocent and smiley despite being 24. Not what you seen in European girls at the age generally.
She had enough English to talk with Eunmi a bit, explaining she'd never been to school and had 4 brothers and sisters, with one of the brothers only 6, so we gave her one of the little backpacks with pencils etc in it that we'd got on the Ethihad flight. Only an hour and half or so, we descended toward Phnom Penh with the Mekong stretching out below and a mix of shanty towns and obviously very large opulent homes dotted around. The heat as we exited the plane was even more intense than KL, like opening the door of a fan oven, without exaggerating! A small melee of tourists gathered to fill out documentation and pay the $20 pp visa fee($5 for children). Outside we took a $9 taxi ride into town to the Capitol guest house we'd booked.
Through a throng of tuktuks we entered to a very warm welcome from the girls on the reception who spoke pretty good English and we're soon in our $30 triple room with A/C.
After a cleanup we took a tuktuk($8) out to the SCAO orphanage on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Eunmi had found this place on a like from Travelfish.org and it sounds nice because it was owned by a local. It turned out to be a good choice, the place and people presenting a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere. We were able to help out in the afternoon class that was run next door. Incredibly they run 8 am, 2 pm, 6.30 pm and 8 pm classes teaching English for free for the kids staying at the orphanage, but also children from the local village. We were immediately impressed by how sharp and committed the children were.
There were already some volunteers there, including a couple from Germany, Bernhard & Tina, who were physiotherapists and were helping local people through physio as well running English classes. He was there for 3 weeks and she for 6 weeks, although staying in a guest house in town. They had come specifically for this project having researched the internet for a place that seemed well run., The project had actually been started by another German guy called Andre who lives with his Khmer wife in Phnom Penh and works in one of the Universities. We later met him and he is an incredibly nice man. He is very committed to bringing some positive influence on the wealthy Cambodians going to the University(who typically arrive in Lexus 470s or flash motorbikes). His hope is they can change their mindset and help bring a lot more fairness and less corruption in future society.
As we had the hotel booked we took the tuktuk back(he'd agreed to wait) through the little village that had clearly visible poverty, but still so many beaming smiles typical of the Khmer people. Along the river highway which is lined with all manner of small enterprises to support daily lives, we weaved in and out of those walking, cycling, motorbikes with anything from one to five people(5 is the legal limit, but heard of 7 ups!) tuktuks, trucks, buses and these other taxis that are like an extended tuktuks with a long trailer with boards across then to sit on, taking perhaps 10-15 people or more.
Buses thunder through all this, along with cars and big 4WDs, horns constantly blaring. These keeping horns are to warn you're coming as most people barely check before coming out into the road, and those already on the road often spearing across through oncoming traffic to the other side. Somehow it works, but I was told bu Bernhard, the German guy, that around 3 people a day are killed in motorcycle accidents alone! I imagine a good number of those must be children who are variously standing, sitting or being carried in their mothers' arms on the bikes. The intersections in the city are incredibly chaotic full of all types of vehicles kind of merging and departing in multiple waves all barely inches from each other. They are all so adept on the trusty Honda Dreams and the like, little 50,100,110 or 125cc mostly, showing great balance while loaded with a family, or piled high with unfeasible large loads of various goods. And many are young girls obviously very at home on two wheels and looking so endearing. Those riding pillion are usually side saddle, which I've tried in the past and find very nerve wracking, but which they quite happy with, often sharing conversations with someone in another bike. Most of this is happening at 10-25mph so most falls if it happens wouldn't be fatal, but you're bound to be hit by something!
Later that evening I went out for a smoke and was talking to a tuktuk driver who I asked the cost of a baguette from a street vendor across the road. At $1 I decided to give it a try. The fillings appeared to be some sort of compressed meat or fish, some gherkin, butter(maybe) and some other sauce I wasn't sure of, or something that looked like mashed up beans. I went for the compressed meat with gherkin, butter and sauce and he also sprinkled what was maybe a very light fish sauce. After buying some more fags I took the baguette back and shared with Eunmi and it was really nice.
That evening we discussed our plans, which was to move onto Don Det across the Lao border, one of the several thousand islands in that part of the Mekong Delta. But it seems the SCAO orphanage had made an impression on both of us, and the kids had seemed to enjoy it, so we quite quickly concluded that we should spend a bit more time there. So that wet we kind of accepted this may mean giving up travel into Laos. But as the German guy Bernhard had said, travel is not necessarily about covering ground, it's staying at a place where you are and really getting involved and immersed with people.
So true, as we were to find out over the next few days. Eunmi mentioned giving back.
After such a privileged decade together seeing a lot of the world I wouldn't even begin to argue that. Eventually managed to draw the kids away from the cartoon networks to go to sleep, and after multiple fits the kids went to sleep.
Lucky for them! Eunmi's snoring kept me awake for much of the night!
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