This blog will mainly be “what we did in our summer holidays”. Most of the schools in the area closed by the end of June even though the official end of term was 31st July and the District Office of Education staff have proved even more elusive than usual. So we have been struggling to find anything constructive to do. Fortunately we have had a steady stream of visitors to play with.
Olivia arrived in Phnom Penh on 3rd August and we gave her to the full Cambodian VSO experience of cocktails on the riverfront, sun bathing by the pool at the exclusive Pavilion Hotel and the Bavarian menu at The Edelweiss Café. We did also visit The Sunrise Orphanage where we were treated to a display of traditional dancing by the kids, some of whom we recognized from our visit there four years ago.
The place has improved alot since then with many new buildings, including a theatre, and far more qualified staff. It is pleasing to think that some of this was made possible by money raised by Parmiter’s School.
Jumping on the tourist trail we took the bus to Siem Reap and did the tour of the temples. It was interesting to see how the site has altered in the last four years gearing itself to the demands of steadily increasing numbers of tourists.
The ancient stone doorways are now protected from the ravages of tramping feet and you can no longer climb the terrifying near vertical eroding steps to the top level of Ankor Wat. The stone faces of Wat Bayon were almost impossible to see due to the faces of hoards of camera wielding Koreans. 
We feel lucky that when we last visited we had some of the temples to ourselves.
In true de Groot style we could not resist the local pub quiz. Taking on the might of the Siem Reap ex-pat community …… we caned ‘em. Unfortunately the prize was a full roast Sunday lunch but as we would not be there on Sunday we were offered a bottle of wine and a large jug of beer instead which maybe unwisely we felt compelled to stay and drink. Considering we were outsiders we were treated with a great deal of generosity and good will.
In order to avoid the road from hell we decided to travel on to Battambang by boat across the Tonle Sap Lake. (Interesting fact #1. During the wet season the size of the lake increases by about 5 times due to the extra pressure from the very full Mekong which causes the Tonle Sap River to flow backwards and fill the lake) Unfortunately the captain of the boat didn’t seem to know his way through the flooded forest and this resulted in a great deal of debate between the passengers and crew as to which way to go through the trees. Eventually we made it to open water and crossed the lake to enter the Sang Kae River. Here we passed through floating villages where entire communities move about on the river according to the level of the flood. We saw floating schools, floating churches and a floating crocodile farm. Unfortunately at this point the camera battery ran out and we were unable to record some of the most fascinating images that we have seen since coming to Cambodia.
The captain did not know this side of the lake either and for some unfathomable (!) reason he decided to steer the boat out of the main stream of the river and into a channel. This became more and more narrow and shallow until we appeared to be chugging up a muddy path (more ploughing than sailing). After about two hours of crashing our way through the undergrowth and disentangling weed from the propeller we finally rejoined the main waterway again. A trip that should have taken five hours had taken nearly nine; Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Boggart never had these problems on the African Queen.
While in Battambang Liv was introduced to the VSO gang and even took part in a team building exercise. This involved her dashing across the town on the back of Salee’s brakeless pushbike collecting clues for a treasure hunt which she did with true VSO intrepidness.
After a few days doing moto tours of the back lanes of Phnom Preuk we crossed the border into Thailand and met up, on Koh Chang, with Linda, Dave, Frances, Georgia and James who had just completed their own SE Asia tours.
Later in the week Alice and boyfriend Will took time out of their six month trip to join us. We did a lot of eating, drinking and lying down reminiscent of family holidays we had shared in Spain except that Tony the Tokai took over from Colin the Cockroach (sorry, in joke).
The time spent with these good friends and family seemed a million miles away from our life in Cambodia and we really appreciated that they had traveled across the world to see us.
We soon fell into gossiping about home and talked about Parmiter’s like we’d never left the staffroom. The week was full of treats; red wine, Cornettos and the wonderful genuine French cheese board courtesy of Olivia.
Saying goodbye to Liv on the Friday was very hard for Jon but he had some great memories to sustain him through the coming months. The Prices and Reynolds left on Sunday and once more we waved farewell to our old life.
The compensation was that Ali and Will returned with us to Phnom Preuk for a couple of days; their first taste of rural Cambodia. We discovered that Will is an excellent cook when they treated us to a Thai banquet which had involved them courageously buying all the ingredients from the local market. The banana fritters were to die for.
We returned to Battambang to show them the sights which included a trip on the Bamboo train. (Interesting fact #2. There are few railway lines in Cambodia and due to extreme lack of maintenance the trains travel very slowly. The journey from Phnom Penh to Battambang taking between 15 and 20 hours compared to 6 hours by bus.)
The enterprising locals have utilized this lack of traffic by constructing simple flat bed railway trucks powered by “lawn mower” engines which trundle through the beautiful countryside scattering cows, chickens and monks (!) before them. The track is single line so when they want to turn round or meet another truck coming in the opposite direction they stop, dismantle the train and then reassemble it to continue their journey.
Alice and Will have now continued their travels, bravely taking the boat to Siem Reap (we did warn them), so now we have to adjust to being all alone again. The visits from friends and family this summer have been a joy, thank you all once again. However it won’t be long before we have more visitors. Alice and Will are back with us for Christmas and Chris’s mum, sister and her family are touring Cambodia in the New Year. This is not to mention the ex-Parmiterians who are threatening to drop in on their travels; you are all welcome any time.
Before our holiday the Director of the DOE asked Jon to explore the “interior” of Phnom Preuk district to try and establish how many children living in remote communities don’t have access schools. Consequently Jon, Sophen and Sophea penetrated the heart of darkest Phnom Preuk. They set off on their expedition like Stanley going in search of Livingstone with feelings of excitement mixed with trepidation.
Motoing through acres of head-high corn they looked like three Meercats jumping up and down trying to establish where they were. (The old joke about the Wherethefuckarewe tribe springs to mind) They discovered several remote villages which equates to over three hundred children without schooling and who will have no chance of an education unless the communities build the schools and provide the teachers themselves. This is only a tiny part of the problems of educating Cambodia’s children.
Jon recently returned from Poipet, which is known as the armpit of Cambodia, where he was facilitating a workshop on disability in education. As the main border crossing into Thailand it attracts many unsavory characters and the roads are abysmal. Gambling is illegal in both countries the no-mans land supports several huge casinos with associated hotels. The up-side of this is that you can get the best pizza in Cambodia here.
One bit of excitement in our lives was the result of the tensions which exist between Cambodia and Thailand over the ownership of the Preah Vihear temple. This has been rumbling on for years but came to a head in July when Thai troops crossed the border and occupied the temple. The Cambodians reciprocated producing a stand-off. We assumed that this was a purely local problem in the north until Sophea, who lives in a village on the border near us, said that there were Thai troops all along our bit of the border about a kilometre away and that the locals were all packed up and ready to evacuate. He suggested that we keep the moto full of petrol just in case. Glibly we shrugged this off as pre-election posturing until Sophea phoned us at 8 pm one evening to say that both sides had brought up their heavy guns and things were about to kick off. The idea of evacuating by moto in the middle of the night was not appealing so we tried to contact VSO for advice only to find that the internet was down, our phones had lost server and our passports were in Phnom Penh. After a rather tense night the situation was defused by talks the next day. The impasse has still not been resolved and with the on-going threat of a coup in Thailand anything could happen. Watch this space!
So one year in, with many ups and downs, we’re still here and enjoying it.
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