Much Work and Mini Breaks

It’s been a whirlwind last couple of weeks here in both the world of work and the world of play. In the former world, Amy has been working on creating a brand and website for campaign which sees hand-knitted monkeys travel the world, with the aim of boosting the organisation’s profile and getting 100 women into safe and secure employment, knitting little monkeys! She’s also been reworking materials from the charity she works for back at home to run two financial literacy workshops for the women who work from the central Phnom Penh office.

Meanwhile, Jonny has been doing the fun stuff. His world of work has been filled with… a full strategic analysis for the organisation, compiling a costing for a potential new export market, creating a (as he puts it) ‘bumper, pro’ set-up for the organisation’s stock, and training the staff in how to use it.

And if by some miracle you’re still reading on following that last finance-fun-filled paragraph, we can now talk about the world of play. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to visit two other parts of Cambodia over the last couple of weeks in our time off. We spent one weekend in Kampot, a sleepy town in the South of the country, famous for its pepper farms and relaxed way of life. It turns out to be a backpacker haven, which was a real change for us having got used to not seeing too many Westerners in Phnom Penh in the parts which we are staying and working. We fully embraced the chilled out vibes and the luxuries of a hotel room, taking a lazy chug down the beautiful river over sunset (seeing fireflies glowing in the trees was a highlight) and taking a tuk-tuk out through the countryside to try the pepper for ourselves at the pepper farm.

Whilst the way people live out in this part of the Cambodian countryside is evidently very, very simple, the poverty somehow feels less desperate than that which we saw on the outskirts of Phnom Penh described in our previous post. The people here are living in real little communities, and seem to be getting by just about OK, plying their respective trades (be it, farming, fishing or small market stalls). The kids in particular are absolutely heart-melting – they have learnt to say ‘hello’ in English and enjoy shouting out to the foreigners passing by on tuk-tuk or moto accompanied with a vigorous wave and a huge smile when we return the greeting.

In November, Cambodia celebrates one of its most important holidays; the Water Festival. Several days are designated public holidays for the festivities, so we took the chance to travel to Siem Reap, a town in the North-West, built around the temples of Angkor – a must-see for any visitor to Cambodia. We noticed pretty quickly that Siem Reap is now designed to cater for the thousands of tourists that descend on the town to experience the ruins deemed to be the ‘8^th wonder of the world’, with bars and restaurants galore. There’s even ‘Pub Street’, where it would have been rude not to get caught up in the hype and show-off a few moves in a club.

Visiting Siem Reap over the Water Festival was an amazing experience – the boat races are jovial and hilarious to watch with teams of ‘rowers’ frantically paddling the water and trying their best to stay in a straight line! The whole thing seems like one massive excuse for a party, and the carnival atmosphere was totally infectious, carrying on into the early hours of the morning. One evening sprinklers had been set up next to the river, along with a fire engine spraying jets of water over a huge dancing crowd – men women, locals and some tourists, and whole families – all dancing and laughing together in the imitation rain – to see Khmer people celebrating life like this was a real picture of their strength and incredible humorous outlook. Spine-tingling.

We had a lovely local guide for our one-day tour of the ancient temples of Angkor. The temples are breath-taking in scale and it’s easy to see why they are the pride of the Khmer people. We even wandered through, in and around the temple made famous by Tomb Raider. With the temple trekking, bartering in the market and horseriding, we made sure to take to the time to enjoy our time off with a traditional Khmer massage (not rushing for a repeat experience given the amount of twisting limbs in unnatural directions and backhand slaps to the back) and quite a few G&Ts in a quiet little bar which used to be a wooden Khmer house.

Whilst the three areas of Cambodia we’ve explored have been quite different, there are things that remain the same all over the country: Tuk-tuk drivers and market sellers will always call out for that sale “Lady, Sir, buy something?”, haggling remains a light-hearted bit of fun, and most wonderfully, the people are always so friendly, and with the best senses of humour. Everything is funny to a Cambodian – they will giggle away at themselves and you, without ever intending offence.

Again the local kids in Siem Reap loved getting our attention. Two boys playing in the river played up to the camera, running onto the bridge where we were taking a breather and asking us to count down 3,2,1… before they dive-bombed back into the water!