Ten days in Battambang and 2 days in Siem Reap. There's so much to say I don't know where to start.
We did work at Kok Daung Primary School. The kids there were a bit cold at first but by the end of the day we left with smiles and they waved at us even till our bus was out of sight. We worked on sprucing up the school building - sanding the old paint off and painting on a new coat, washing all the windows and grills and painting enamel on them and painting a mural on the wall that faces the road. 8 people worked on the mural and it took 2 days in total. The final thing was AWESOME although a certain teacher had the audacity to undermine our efforts and give us a black face whenever he could.
I seriously never thought a teacher could be so childish, but whatever.
We spent time playing all sorts of games and teaching them numbers and shapes and nursery rhymes. Which they eventually forgot, but I know the games will continue even after we left.
They couldn't understand us and vice versa, but we needed the translator only to a minimal extent cause they understood our demonstrations and hand actions. Me and Cheryl did a dramatic demonstration of the game 'Monkey' and they understood it immediately.
Throughout the entire trip I had the Photography Club's D70S with me and I couldn't be happier. I got so many UN/National Geographic Channel-worthy photos. But at one point when I climbed on a table to do the mural, the lens slammed into the wall and it popped out but Mr Koh thankfully managed to snap it back in.
Haha. I'd really type everything but there's just too much lah. There's one thing I just gotta put in though. It's the friends I made on this trip. I knew them before it, but I never thought that this trip would bring us so close. Rish, Shangari, Zahra and Raushan. All crazy people. And Jasmine too! My bus/tuktuk partner.
The farewell ceremony on Thursday was fun. We finally did our performance although I fell on my ass during the last part haha. After that we had some peanut curry thing which we gladly gave the kids and had a mini dance session with them before leaving. I had already bawled my eyes out on Tuesday when I thought I really was never gonna see them again, so this time I just wanted to have fun with them for the last time.
I miss the kids so much. Laek, Raten, Pon, Kiyan, Yan, Kun and the rest. Laek was so sweet, she gave me this drawstring bracelet which I used everyday till I left Cambodia. A couple of days before that, she and the group of girls I played with before dragged me away from a game of Volleysoccer with the kids to make me a whole bunch of leaf bling!
They made me 4 leaf rings and 2 leaf bracelets. I couldn't bring them back cause they either fell apart, fell apart in my jeans pocket or got lost in the hotel room. I took pictures of them though!
The orphanage was alright. We only spent 2 days there, and I spent only a day cause the first day was spent at the primary school painting the mural. The kids there were better off than those at the school cause each kid was sponsored by a french family. They did put up the most adorable performance for us though - a traditional Cambodian musical and dance.
Unfortunately, I only have the pics of our last day in Siem Reap and Cambodia too cause I've been uploading the pics into Max's lappie every night cause I could only take about 300+ shots at a time. He's now got 4 gigs of my photos in his laptop and no CD burner and sharing folders don't work on my com so.... hmm.
Came back yesterday morning at 11something am with my funky-ass imitation Armani shades. I bought my dad an Angkor Beer tee, my mom a Buddha head and a painting, a gorgeous red bag and two tank tops for myself and a blue shawl and an ugly fake red Chanel watch to piss my sister off.
I was running around the central market bugging my friends for ideas on what to buy my sister who wears strictly ORIGINAL Chanel and they were all stumped. The rest of my US$100 was spent on coconuts for lunch and soft drinks for dinner everyday, tuktuk rides to Pub St and back several times, a Cambodian prepaid card which turned out to be a waste of money and a bit of alcohol here and there.
I've gotta share the first night we had in Battambang though. Me, Max, Fahmi and Jasmine were bumming on one bed looking at Max's laptop when a truck went past the hotel and Max asked if the windows were closed. I said they were and he went to check. He went behind the curtains, closed it, looked up and JUMPED from the window.
He ran to us yelling about a lizard being as big as his forearm and we all thought he was bullshitting. I made fun of him being a scaredy cat and told him he must be exaggerating. Fahmi felt brave and demanded Max show him the lizard. And so he did.
He went up to the curtain and Max pulled it open to show him the lizard. Fahmi jumped back and the MONSTERTEENAGEMUTANTNINJA LIZARD ran out from behind the curtain to behind the cupboard. Although me and Jasmine were seated some distance away on the bed, we jumped back too. I have never ever ever in my life seen a mutant-sized GREEN house lizard. It's a very light shade of green, so light I thought it was beige.
Exactly what we saw, but green. I swear Marr probably would've died seeing this.
Max ran out and got Shangari, Zahra and Rishibha to come see, and in the process everyone else on the third floor came to see what the commotion was about. Max pulled the cupboard away from the wall to let everyone see the horror hiding behind it - a harmless, probably terribly frightened gargantuan lizard.
Since it was Shangari's and my room, we went downstairs to get the reception people to help us out. They didn't know English so conveying the message was a bit tricky. First they gave us a rubber band thinking it was a tiny lizard and we could just shoot at it with a rubber band. After further gesticulations with regards to its massiveness they gave us insecticide. At our wits end we decided to bring them up to our room, and one of them made sure he didn't leave the insecticide behind.
Upon reaching our room the lizard already ran behind the curtain of the other window. I yelled at Max to get my open suitcase away and he did. The reception people looked behind the curtain and they themselves were pretty shocked at what they saw. In the end, they grabbed the section of curtain the lizard was on, and peeled it - I literally mean PEELED it, you could hear the peeling sound - off the curtain. Everyone cheered when they finally got it. I ran into Zahra's room which was across from mine as they walked out of ours with the lizard in one of their hands.
I didn't take any pictures cause the excitement of the whole thing was a bit too much haha.
That's about it I guess. If there's any bits here and there i'll put them here. Don't expect to see much pictures cause they're too huge and too many. If i'm feeling nice i'll show them to you myself.
:D
