The Next Chapter

Thanks for your interest in learning more about our trip.

Please be sure to follow the adventures of the next CIS Community Service Trip to Cambodia, which will occur in June, 2014.

Day 7 - Chumree-uhp lee-uh (Goodbye)

We have spent one week in Cambodia and throughout our stay, the group has really enjoyed eating Khmer cuisine, so much that we couldn't think of no better way to begin to draw our trip to a close than learning to cook Khmer cuisine ourselves.  So, we started our final day with a trip to the Cooks in Tuk Tuks cooking class where we learned hands on how to cook Khmer cuisine. Working in two teams we prepared Banana Flower Salad and Fish Amok. For dessert we made Sweet Potato, Sago and Coconut.  The experience provided us with an opportunity to develop our culinary skills and on top of that we enjoyed a delicious meal we were proud to say we had made ourselves.

After lunch, we visited the jungle temple of Ta Prohm.  Featured in the movie Tomb Raider, Ta Prohm is about 20 minutes from Angkor Wat.  On our way there we passed by/through Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, the Bayon and the Elephant terrace.  Our visit to Ta Prohm was our final opportunity to marvel at the former splendor of this great civilization.

After taking some final pictures, we boarded the bus for the short ten minute trip to the airport and our return flight to Singapore.

We returned home from our excursion a changed group.  Our experiences provided us with an opportunity for personal growth  and development as global citizens.  The time we spent together reinforced existing relationships and helped to build new ones.  While the trip may have only lasted a week,  the memories will last a lifetime!

Day 6 - Angkor Wat

Bloggers : ALL members of the excursion contributed to today's post.

Our day exploring exploring Khmer culture and history began with a trip to the Angkor National Museum in Siem Reap.  At the museum, we were accompanied by a local archaeologist who showed us through a number of exhibition halls where we learned about the ancient Khmer Empire.  We learned much about their gods and the history of the temples. 

We then visited Angkor Wat where the hot midday sun could not keep us from exploring the ancient ruins.  We took a lot of pictures while we were there and marvelled at the architecture. 

After lunch, we visited Angkor Thom and visited the Bayon temple.  One of the unique features of the Bayon are the carved faces which face the four cardinal directions.  Our final stop of the day was a trip to Phnom Bakheng where we watched a beautiful sunset over the Tonle Sap lake.

It was a difficult climb to the peak of this hilltop temple, particularly so for Hyun Jae, who badly sprained her ankle on the first day of the trip and has been on crutches ever since.  But just like every other day of the trip, Hyun Jae has persevered and has never let her injury get in the way of her fully participation in the trip.  Her determination has truly been an inspiration to us all. 

 
Following the sunset, we returned to the hotel, had a quick shower and went out for the evening to have some dinner on Pub Street and to do some souvenir shopping at the Night Market.  Just like every other day, we've gone pretty much non-stop from early morning until late at night and have made the most of our time in Cambodia.

Day 5 - Don't "Bug" Us, We're Sleeping!

Bloggers: Moaz Q., Mark H., Pavi S., Will X.
 

After eating breakfast this morning, we checked out of our hotel in Phnom Penh that we had stayed in for 4 days and started out on a long 6-hour bus ride to Siem Reap. Due to the incredibly long duration of our journey, we decided to stop twice on the way. 

 About an hour and a half into the trip we stopped to eat crickets and spiders. A number of people in our group were terribly afraid of eating these creatures (mainly the girls who were screaming) however, once they tried eating the spiders and crickets, most of them found them to be extremely delicious. 

It was a great experience for most of us as we had never eaten crickets or spiders before. The second stop in our journey was at a pleasant looking restaurant where we stayed for about an hour to eat lunch. We finally reached Siem Reap at around 5 p.m. in the evening and decided to rest in our new hotel for a short period of time. At 7:30 p.m., we rented Tuk-Tuks from our hotel and went to “Pub Street” which is a famous food street here in Siem Reap. We split up into 4 groups and each of the groups decided to eat at a certain restaurant in the Pub Street area. As has been the case for most part of the trip, the food was extremely tasty and everybody was satisfied. 

Early tomorrow morning we will be going to the Angkor Wat National Museum which promises to be a really exciting experience, so we are definitely looking forward to it.  After that, it’s on to the temples of Angkor Wat.  You can learn all the details of our visit to Angkor Wat in our next blog post. 

Day 4 - Building a Better Future

Bloggers: Kaknika L., Manami S., Jung L., Candy L.

Today was a big day. Getting up early this morning was not our preference, partly due to an unexpected incident that occurred nearby last night. An electrical explosion caused a black out to the entire hotel! Nevertheless, every one of us managed to get up on time and followed the day’s program.

  

            After an hour and thirty minute ride, we finally arrived at our destination, a small rural community in Kandal province. We quickly settled down and were divided into 4 groups. Our goal was to build eight houses for eight families by the end of the day, which we managed to achieve. Our jobs were to nail the bamboo flooring with a hammer and hang metal sheets for the siding. We proceeded to work straight away. Every half an hour, we would have a water break. This included getting new bottles of water and refreshing ourselves by pouring cold water behind our necks. The tasks we had to complete sounded very daunting at the beginning as we thought about it. However, once we commenced our jobs we could say it was rather enjoyable and exhilarating.

  

            After two hours of hard work, perseverance, and getting our thumbs hammered many times, it was finally lunchtime! We managed to finish building four houses. A few bags of chips and one whole box of baguettes accompanied with tinned tuna and jars of jams, kept us energized and strengthened for a few more hours. Although it was more tiring than working before lunch, seeing the families getting excited to move in actually gave us more motivation to meet our aim. After continuing working for a couple more hours, we accomplished our goal. It was finally time to welcome the families to their new homes with housewarming quilts. It was so heartwarming to see them smiling with the rest of their family. Even though our hands were very sore from hammering including blisters and we were sweating badly, we felt like all the effort we had put in was definitely worth it.  

            As a reward for our hard work, we had a buffet dinner at our hotel and afterwards, an ice cream treat. On the way to get our ice cream, we had a Tuk Tuk "race". We made a deal that the losers will have to eat deep fried insects tomorrow on our way to Siem Reap.

We are absolutely ready for tomorrow!

Day 3 - Inspirational Leadership

Bloggers: Emma P., Maya T., Aedamair D., Liselotte R.

Hitting the ground running has been the main motto of the trip so far.  Surprisingly, no one has really complained about the pace and we find ourselves learning not only learning about the people, history, and places we visit, but about each other as well. Tacky and cheesy as it may be, being caught in the rain and running "amok" (just like the traditional dish) on a boat has brought us closer and forced us out of our comfort zones and into an intriguing unknown.

After waking up early to lovely sunshine with no rain in sight, the group quickly made its to the Tabitha building to meet with it’s founder, Janne Ritskes, never in our lives have we been more captivated by a speaker or story.  She spoke of the struggles of the region with a frankness and passion for the land that was inspirational as well as entertaining. More than any monument, guide or story we will remember her speech for the genuine honesty and calm voice, telling us the horrors that cannot be forgotten.

After a pleasant morning of enlightenment on Cambodia’s history and Tabitha’s mission we had a light snack at local cafes and took off to our next adventure, without missing a beat. Our mission: entertaining and teach classes of young children that spoke limited English at the PIO School. As we carried boxes filled with donations down the dusty road, we were greeted by a fanfare of voices in a language we did not understand, this, however only added to the charm and endearment of these children. In awed silence we listened once again in the main hall of the school (one that had progressed from a dump into a fully functional four-floor school) to Phymean Noun’s story. She spoke of her past and the sadness she experienced when she witnessed young children eating the bare bones of a chicken out of the trash. From that day on she had a vision to help these children through one medium, education.  This was how the PIO School was formed. After the numerous lessons, hugs, kisses, and being tackled by children, we finished our day with a commemorative dance party and a great deal of shopping at the Central Market, after which we thoroughly enjoyed dinner in a gorgeous, local Khmer restaurant. Now it’s time for bed...long day tomorrow and we need our beauty sleep! 

Day 2 - Facing the Past

Bloggers: Andrea S., Ayaka Y., Emi M., Aaron P. and Cameron W.

Today was an extremely interesting and memorable experience where we learnt the history of the Khmer Rouge from approximately 40 years ago here in Cambodia. Being in the same place where thousands of victims of the Khmer Regime died was an experience that was unexplainable.

 We first visited the interrogation prison, S-21. In the rooms where the prisoners were locked, there were photos of the prisoners who were once trapped. Seeing the actual photos of the victims was very shocking and brought us to the reality of what actually happened. 

  Following the prison, we visited the Killing Fields where those imprisoned in S-21 were brought for their actual executions. The memorial tower here, known as the Stupa, is where remains of the victims, unearthed during the first exhumation of mass graves in 1979, are preserved. The skulls were all damaged in different ways, which showed the individuality of each skull, and the reality that this execution was not just an event in history, but was something that happened to civilians that are just like us.

Overall, it was really a meaningful beginning of the day. By experiencing the somber history of Cambodia, we gained more insight into Cambodia’s culture.  Not only do we understand Cambodia more thoroughly, we also admire Cambodia more for it's strength and spirit needed to rise up from this tragedy.

 After a brief period of relaxation back at the hotel, we went on a sunset cruise on the river. It was a rough trip on the way down to the boat, as the road was muddy, and many of us had our shoes caked with mud by the time we even got to the boat. The trip on the river was relaxing, people interacted with each other and had lots of fun just joking around and listening to music on the two-hour ride. When we arrived again on the dock, we went to the night market to do some shopping. There was so much to look at and to buy, and with a little bit of bargaining between the sellers and ourselves, we often managed to get a good deal for a few things to take back home with us.

The day was full of events, both enjoyable and emotional; and to think, it’s only day two of our stay in Cambodia and while today we faced the past, we’re now looking forward to the future and the adventures that are ahead of us.