Tarantulas revisited

We had promised to go back to Romdeng Restaurant and try the Crispy Tarantulas with Lime and Pepper Dipping Sauce. So on our last night in Phnom Penh we booked a table for 15 - our team of 11 plus our Habitat team of 4.
Tarantula's are served in threes in Romdeng, with cucumber and a dipping sauce

Most of us at least tried this Cambodian delicacy - some enjoyed them more than others!


Watch the video if you are game!

Crispy Tarantulas in Lime & Pepper Dipping Sauce

This finishes our time in Phnom Penh. As I write this, most of the team have packed and are ready for an early start tomorrow. We leave here at 5:15 and head down the Mekong River to Vietnam for two nights of well deserved R&R.

The Friends of BCS have been a great bunch - we have all got along well, looked after each other and worked hard together. There will be lots of stories to tell ( some will stay here in Cambodia) and jokes that no one else will understand. We know a little of the Khmer language, most belonging on a building site!

Chum Reap Lear.......from us all, thank you to all our donors and supporters!

Final Day on site - House 2

House 1 and 2 were at similar stages of completion, House 2 may have been a little more advanced, but both had about 10 days work left. We had done all we could as volunteers, the work remaining was at high level, and not for us!
The day started with shopping for gifts in the markets, we bought gas cookers, pots, plates, a mat, rice and cement. This was in the local markets, where we were a bit of a curiosity - narrow lanes with many stalls selling everything from pots and pans to food, snacks and fresh food. The rice and fruit markets were outside in the street, it was a thriving, busy market - but one we were all glad to get out of because of the heat and humidity.
Shopping done, we headed off to the village for our final few ours on site. Vitey, our GV coordinator, had given us a detailed program for the day - and we were already behind! Not that being late had been a problem any other day.
Our tasks for the morning were to mix up a bit of concrete to complete the beams that the skilled workers had started earlier in the day, and then clean up the site for the party. We also had to decorate the house with balloons. Once these jobs were done, we went for a walk in he community to have a look at some other Habitat homes - there are 33 in the area. We visited a couple of families who told us that they loved their home and were very grateful to Habitat for making it possible. Most of the families were carrying out some kind of business at the front of their homes - selling things, fixing things, making things or preparing food for delivery by cyclo. Habitat work with the families to develop income streams to assist in re-paying the loan.
The money that everyone donated to our trip did not go directly to our houses, it went into a revolving fund that allows others to borrow the money to build homes, help families develop skills and to work with communities to provide water and sanitation. The families are very grateful to habitat, our team and our donors for the help that is provided and the opportunity to have a decent place to live.
We had lunch with the families, the skilled workers and the habitat team - we had an opportunity to meet with them all and talk about all sorts of things, they had many questions for us. We then had a ribbon cutting ceremony, an invitation to enter the home by the new owners and then a party with singing and dancing. The skilled workers came to life and showed us how much they liked to dance and have fun.

The final videos are here for you to view:
Final Day - Part 1
Final Day - Part 2
Final Day - Part 3
Final Day - Part 4
Final Day - Part 5

Although it was difficult to communicate with our work team we developed some great friendships, and we will remember the people of our Cambodian Project for a long time! We said goodbye to the team, left some of our work clothes and tools for them to use, and headed back to town. I think that we all felt a little sad to be leaving, but very happy that we had made the effort to come - and would love to come back if given the chance.

Final Day on site - House 1

Martin led the team that built House number 1 - this is his final report!
The home owner of house 1 had 8 children, 4 died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and 1 died of HIV/Aids. She is currently bringing up 2 grand children. The final day showed the appreciation of the family for the work that had been done, we would've liked to have completed the whole structure, however our contribution and working with the skilled workers from the Vietnam border area, was a satisfying experience, although hard to communicate - we worked as a team.
The team managed to compete the slab and 70% of all brick walls, columns were complete and the septic tank was installed. The weather was hot, but we all had great laughs along the way.

Day 4 on site

Today we learnt even more new skills, more bricklaying and steel fixing, with an added bonus of flower arranging.
The back door was in place when we arrived on site, and Marie the 2nd year (day) apprentice was on the case, doing the back wall with the skilled workers. Greg & Andy were up on the scaffolds like old hands, Tony was the bucket boy, until Andy called it a day. Gerry & Jodie learnt to fix steel, making the reinforcement for the beams that sit on the brick work at about 2000. The tools were sophisticated, two pieces of rebar, stirrups, tie wire and a nail. Our skilled worker was a good teacher, and we were both quick learners.

Here is the link to the You-Tube clip Day 4
Gerry and Jodie also hatched a plan to stay out of the sun, by offering to help the man next door with his flower arranging. He taught us to make betel nut decorations for weddings!

The morning went quickly, with rambutans and longans for morning tea. After the break it was removing the bricks stacked in the house and getting ready to spread the sand screed and then lay the slab.

Lunch was again a quick trip to the local resort - our food brought in from elsewhere. It is a pleasant place, but if in Australia would probably be closed down by the NSW Health!

After lunch we laid the slab, buckets of concrete were carried up and spread by hand, with trowels and a leveling (?) device. It will be interesting to see how it was finished off and looks tomorrow. The You-Tube Link: The Slab.

Orphanage for Peace

We finished work a little early so that we could visit a local orphanage. We had been to one of the International Book stores the day before to buy some gifts - books, paints, pencils, colouring books, glue, scissors and some balls.
Fifteen minutes along winding bumpy lanes saw us arrive at a bamboo fence with a narrow entrance. The buses pulled up and we were greeted by milling children who wanted to say hello, show off their english and desperately needed some human contact. They held our hands, hugged our legs, and smaller children wanted to be picked up and held.

After some initial games and introductions, we were seated in front of a huge stage and treated to some traditional dancing and singing. This is now on You-Tube The Welcome Dance The children were very good, they learn dancing and singing at the school and obviously enjoyed entertaining us. Four of the team were invited onto the stage to learn the 'coconut' dance - the children roared with laughter at our attempts to clap the coconuts in time and in sequence. And now have a look on You-Tube: Team Performance
The rest of the team came up on stage - a real test of a ricketty stage, made with many old planks and simple supports. We danced with the children, some of us were better than others, but we were all pretty bad! It was hot on the stage, with dozens of kids and the team. We then presented our gifts and the official part of our visit was over.

Eric had arranged some games with balloons that we had blown up at lunch time, musical chairs and bottle filling.

All too quickly the visit was over and it was time to leave - we said our good byes and thanked everyone for sharing their school and orphanage with us.
The orphanage also acts as a school for local poor children, so some of the children go home - about 30 live there in very basic conditions. They are currently supported by a Japanese group, but not a lot of money is coming through at the moment, due to the tsunami appeals in their own country.

Day 3 on site

Bricklaying 101 - we learnt to lay bricks, Cambodian style today.

For those of us that had never laid a brick, it gave us an appreciation of the skill - and the wonderful brickwork we see in Australia! Marie has decided that she may become a brickie.
We, with the skilled workers help,made great progress on the side walls, one a single skin of bricks, the other a single skin against the next door neighbour's single skin. At about 2000 a concrete beam is added, we did not quite get there.

We spread the large gravel to the rear sub-floor, and compacted it.

House 1 - Day 2

House 1 is being built by Martin's team, and has not had quite the coverage that the other house has received in the blog! I can assure you that they are working just as hard as the 'other' team, and making great progress. Dan Bamblett-Furner has been taking some videos and was quite intrigued with the electrical work going on in the street - nothing to do with their job at all - but worth a look!
Day 2 - Part 1
Day 2 - Part 2
Day 2 - Part 3
Day 2 - Part 4
Day 2 - Part 5

A day of rest

Today (Sunday) was a free day for the team, nothing was organised but most of us wanted to go back to the Russian Markets for some more shopping. So after breakfast we called for the tuk tuks and headed off! Sean & Dan had other plans, so they set off to do their own thing. The markets were only just opening as we arrived, we quickly found the two NGO/Free Trade shops we had been looking for. There are a number of organisations that work mainly with kids and women, teaching them skills, providing work and an outlet for their craft. They are considered 'free trade' as they ensure that the workers are paid a fair wage for their work. The items for sale are a fixed price and a little more expensive than in the markets. But, they are a little bit better quality and a little different to the run of the mill market stalls.

The markets quickly came to life, with hawkers selling everything from watches and dvds to antiques and knock off designer hand bags. There were household goods, clothing, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dry goods. The fruit sellers sell bags of peeled and cut fruit in plastic bags, served with chilli and salt - local food only!

DVDs were popular with the team, watches followed closely, then scarves, t-shirts and some jewelry! Precious stones (real of course) were very cheap, some of the gems as big as the Star of India........real of course!
The markets were narrow alleyways full of small stalls, full to the brim - all covered with corrugated iron, in some areas at about 2 metres. It was hot and steamy - too hot to stay in for long, so whenever you saw sunlight at the end of an alleyway you headed out for a breath of fresh air and to cool down (at about 35 degrees outside). It took dedicated shoppers to keep to the task. Many failed and headed off on other adventures.

By the end of the day we met back at the hotel and jumped the fence to use the poool in the hotel next door! We had the option of paying $5 for a swim, or spending $5 on drinks, food and snacks. It was an easy choice and a lovely way to finish a hot steamy day.

Dinner at night was at the Foreign Correspondents Club - a three story club on the water front with a mix of western and asian dishes. A great spot with lots of the now familiar geckos on the walls. a few did not venture out, rumbling tummies and weary bodies were starting to take a toll.

I think that we now felt that we understood Phnom Penh a little better, we had helped the local economy with our shopping and had stocked up on gifts for those at home! It had been a good weekend, and we were ready to head back to the build site again in the morning. There had been rumours of a few prayers for cooler weather, and lightning had been spotted in the distance. We will wait and see what Monday brings.

Day 3 - Phnom Penh

Today was an opportunity to understand Cambodian recent history a little more. Habitat had arranged a bus and guide to take us firstly to the Royal Palace, then the Killing Fields, S-21 and finally the Russian Markets.
The Palace was built in the late 1800s and is still occupied by the King, who was in residence, indicated by the flying of the Cambodian flag.

We spent an hour or so with our guide, in the Throne Hall, the Silver Pagoda and the gardens. The Throne Hall was built for the coronation of the King in 1919. The thrones are only used for the coronation - at all other times the King uses another seat to meet with visitors and conduct business. There is no current Queen. The building is impressive with vaulted painted ceilings, a throne that sits up high under a huge parasol and a lot of gold and gold leaf. No photos are allowed! The silver pagoda has floor tiles of silver, each one weighs one kilogram - and there are 5000 of them.
The gardens are sculptured, with lots of pots and topiary.

There are a number of large trees, known as either Buddha or cannon ball trees. They have huge fruit (shaped like cannon balls) which are poisonous but the flowers are used to make a tea that assists women going into labour.

The palace had a lot of concrete and was very hot, it was fortunate that we visited early. We all agreed that it would have been a hard day at the work site - no cloud, no rain in sight.

It took about 30 minutes to drive out to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Here the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge killed about 20,000 people; men, women and children between 1975 and 1978. Not all the mass graves have been excavated, it is impossible to identify the people so the graves have been left untouched. There is a memorial stupa which holds 1000s of skulls, identifed by gender and age group. It is a sobering place to visit, clothing, bones and even teeth are clearly visible in the ground. The horrors of the place are unimaginable, death was not quick for the people here - bullets were too expensive.

Prior to being taken to the killing fields the prisoners were held in horrific conditions at a prison known as S-21 or Toul Sleng. Previously a school - it was taken over by the Pol Pot regime as a detention and torture centre. There is room after room of black and white photos of prisoners, with numbers across their chests. There were women, children as well as men held here - some look terrified, others are angry and bewildered, a few are smiling, oblivious as to why they are being photographed. Seven people survived the prison, one is an artist who is available to talk to visitors - he feels duty-bound to pass on his story to the world.

The day ended on a more cheerful note with a visit to the Russian Markets - a rabbit warren of stalls selling all sorts of things - antiques, designer clothes (including knock-offs), motor cycle parts and all manner of souvenirs. One member of the team continued her hunt for men's designer underwear - and succeeded with some Abercrombie and Fitch to add to the Calvin Klein's already packed. The Friends of BCS contributed quite well to the income of the market community - and vowed to return for further investigations.

Day 3 was not an easy day, we were confronted with an awful story that never quite made the international news until well after the fact. The evidence of the genocide was clearly visible in the fragments of clothing, bone and teeth in the paths we walked through the fields. It was uncomfortable for us, but important to know and to understand exactly why Cambodia needs our help to recover from such atrocities.
No one knows exactly how many people were killed during the Pol Pot Regime, it is estimated to be 2 million, mostly the educated professional people and their families.

I was not comfortable taking photos in these places, if you are interested in more detail a 'google' search will bring up plenty of references!

Day 2

We arrived at site a little later than expected, the traffic had been quite bad, even by Phnom Penh Standards.

The skilled workers had completed the columns on one side of the Sophea house and had made the reo cages for the columns on the other side. We had to complete the filling of the subfloor with sand - so more wheelbarrows of sand, and then compaction. Marie and Jodie were the compactors, will Gerry, Tony, Andy & Greg filled the barrows and wheeled them in. This was a laborious process, but is done by hand to provide work - machinery would take away the income of many people. It seemed to take us all morning to fill the back half of the house, but at last it was done.

At the Saren house, Martin and the team were doing similar work, bucketing sand, filling the subfloor and doing a small amount of bricklaying - Chris had some lessons from the supervisor. A pit was installed for the bathroom - Dan's plumbing skills came in handy.

It was a cooler day, with some clouds, breezes and the hint of rain. Morning tea was rambutans, mangosteens and a citrus fruit called crot - mangosteens were the favourites and our long lunch break was taken at the village 'resort', with a well deserved rest taken by all - hammocks were a popular spot for a rest.

We have remained relatively healthy and accident free, there have been a few rumbling tummies, a couple of scratches and a close encounter with a dog - but nothing that requires an incident report! The work has been hot, physical and hard, but the local crews have been good humoured and so overall we have been enjoying the experience - although we look forward to our weekend to recover, aching muscles need to time........

I have amended the post for day one with some links to you-tube clips. Go back and have a look if you have not seen them! Here are the links for today!
Day 2 Part 1
Day 2 Part 2
Day 2 Part 3
Day 2 Part 4
Day 2 Part 5
Day 2 Part 6

Day 1

What a day! It takes about 30 minutes to get to the project site, through traffic and busy city streets, motor bikes and more motor bikes. But the traffic became less as we reached the edge of town, the buildings became smaller, the cars were replaced by push bikes, but the motor bikes were still buzzing around. How many people fit on a motor bike? At least six, but it is possible that there could be more!
We met our families at the build site, and introduced ourselves (with our ages) to the skilled workers, construction supervisor and a whole lot of other workers. Our age was important for the Cambodian people to understand, they show respect to older people - and some of us were due respect!

John, the construction supervisor, gave us a bit of a briefing and the teams were matched with a family. Martin was leading one team and Greg the other team (both were our construction experts!). Martin's team (Mike, Sean, Dan, Chris) were to help Met Saren a 64 year old widow. Greg's team (Gerry, Tony, Marie, Jodie & Andy) were building with Pol Sophea and Pan Chanthy, a married couple.

Pol and Pan worked hard all day, they would be back on Sunday to do some more, as they both had to work on the other days. We would meet with them on our last day for a celebration.

It was hot, hard work. Shoveling sand, carrying buckets of concrete. Our tasks on day one were to complete the foundations and start to fill in the sub-floor.

Pol & Pan's home was also ready for some support columns that were formed by the skilled workers and then filled with concrete by us all - with bucket lines. Martin's team started the day with buckets of concrete to fill the foundations and then started to fill the sub-floor with sand.

Lunch was at a local "resort", Jodie slept in the hammock, recovering from the mornings events!
The following video clips may help you understand just what we are doing! The first and fourth parts are by me Greg Hill. The second and third were filmed by Jodie Rutherford and the last was filmed by Vitey, our Habitat Global Village coordinator.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

It's off to work we go!

Bus is here, we are ready to go!

Project Orientation

Chum reap suor!

We were picked up by Vitey, our Habitat co-ordinator, and whisked off to a secret location - which turned out to be a local restaurant that had a meeting room upstairs. He explained to us what we would be doing, the families that we would be helping and some of the cultural differences that we should be aware of in our dealings with the community. We had some basic language lessons and learn't how to tie a Cambodia scarf, known as a kroma.
After a welcome buffet lunch, we were brought back to our hotel for a free afternoon. One group went looking for a new camera (a small accident with a tuk-tuk) and the other went for a walk to the river. Interesting back streets and shops, wedding parties and mad drivers. We survived crossing the roads and found a great cafe on the river, which was also home to Mr Toilet Public.

We wandered along the river, past the palace, looking for a good place to eat dinner - there were plenty to choose from, we would not go hungry!

Red Tree Ants & Tarantulas

Phnom Penh moves at a different pace to Siem Reap. Traffic, people, bright lights - we were in the big city! Flight was good, arrived to find our Habitat contact ready and waiting, 45 minutes later we were at Frangipani 60s - and we had the run of the house - just 7 rooms and we had them all. Our host, Sucre, settled us in and then recommended a local restaurant - Romdeng. It is a training school teaching young people the hospitality trade.
Romdeng Website The art work on the walls (by the children) was terrific and the menu interesting. We decided to try some of the local delicacies, and share an assortment of meals. Most dishes were quite acceptable to our western palate - but why stick with the usual stir fries, we ordered Stir Fried Red Tree Ants with Beef & Holy basil and Crispy Fried Tarantulas with Lime and Pepper Sauce. The Red Ants were great, but they had run out of tarantulas - so we will have to go back another night!

Siem Reap - Tonle Sap

Tonle Sap - the floating village. We (11 minus 2) were picked up by Solid, a local guide, to visit the largest lake in South East Asia - Tonle Sap. The local streets and houses on the edges of Siem Reap were neat and tidy, obviously poor but well cared for. Everyone seemed to have something to sell, I think that Asia is a land of retailers. As the town left us we travelled through rice paddies and lotus fields, and the road was clearly raised to cope with the fooding rains, houses were now on stilts and there was only one hill to be seen.
The floating pontoon that allowed us to get on to the boat was accessed by a steep downhill ramp, maybe about 100 metres - with lots of small blue passenger boats waiting for their tourists.
We sped (?) off along a narrow channel that was only a half metre deep, slowly for passing traffic. The channel was low and the land was high so we had no long view of were we were going, .

but the activity along the way kept us amused, especially the large excavator with its bucket stuck well and truly in the mud


As the channel opened out into the lake we could see the floating village

The people here live, work, go to school, church and play basketball all in buildings that float - they zip around in tiny little wooden boats from place to place, fishing, begging and selling things to the tourists.

One little girl jumped on board our boat as we were travelling along to sell us cold drinks, another boat pulled up alongside with a large python for us to take photos of - $1 please!
We had lunch on a floating resturant, visited a fish farm that all had cages of crocodiles (not the nicest of places to live before being sent off to Thailand for shoes and handbags!).

Some last minute shopping, massages and coffee (with creme caramels) were enjoyed before we flew out to Phnom Penh and the business end of our trip. Our short visit to Siem Reap had been great fun, we may or may not have acclimatized to the weather but we certainly got to know each other a little better, away from work and usual life.

Temples of Angkor Wat

A great western style breakfast, with a chicken porridge for good luck. Everyone was up and ready, still on Sydney body clocks! Richard (or little Richard as he became affectionately known) was ready at 7:30 and we headed off for a day of temples and stories. The mini bus now had back seats so everyone had a proper seat, which was an improvement on last night and much safer too.
Our first stop was Angkor Thom and in particular Bayon, with its 216 smiling (?) faces

To get to Bayon you enter through one of 5 gates, the most popular and best restored is the south gate, you make your way across the bridge with cars, bikes and elephants, the narrow arch is controlled by police to ensure the one way flow of traffic works well. The bridge is lined by demons and gods, pulling great snakes in a tug of war.
We wandered for a while through the temple, climbing up steep stairs and then down through ancient corridors, with arches held by massive stone columns. The stories of the wars and triumphs of the Cambodians were depicted on the walls in bas relief. The wars were with the Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese, with victory to the locals every time!

We spent some time at Ta Prohm, the king's mother's temple and made famous by the Lara Croft movies. It is less restored and maybe a little more interesting as a result, the jungle has taken over and the trees have growninto and around the buildings.

After lunch we headed off to Angkor Wat, with a story of Hindu kidnappings and wars with the Sri Lankan people who stole the god's favourite wife - the monkey soldiers of Hanuman had to rescue her! Angkor Wat is an amazing place, with wide green open spaces, pools and incredible buildings!

Siem Reap

We are here! The mini bus did not quite have enough seats, but it was Cambodia and we were tired, so we piled in, with our luggage all stacked in the back.
Frangipani Hotel is better than expected, nice courtyard, with ponds and seating, and of course Frangipani trees. Rooms are good, not very big, put clean and tidy. Geckos run on the wall and there are mozzies buzzing, hope the aerogard works.
Dinner tonight, at 10:30, was a Cambodian BBQ along the street from the hotel. A selection of meats and condiments - an earthen-ware saucer on the table had fire and a grill plate, that doubled as a soup bowl too. It was like a combination steam boat and BBQ. Local beers are good - anchor ( pronounced anch or) and Angkor.
Tomorrow we are off to the temples and then the night markets ............

Saigon

We have arrived in Saigon safely, an uneventful flight - lots of movies, and candid camera funnies. Stormy afternoon, black skies but no real rain yet.
The airport here still has relics from the Vietnam war - Nissan huts with gun emplacements on top and old planes. Kids were sitting at the edge of the runway, waving as we taxied by - very different to Sydney!
It is about two hours until our flight to Siem Reap, and already we are fighting over the bills! We will need to sort out the system.
Hopefully there will be some photos from Angkor wat tomorrow.

Ready to go

In 12 hours we will finally be in the plane and taking off! Bags are packed and everything is in place. I hope that nothing important has been forgotten!

It has taken almost 18 months of planning to get to this point, the team has been supportive and easy to get along with, that has made my job much easier.

We will fly first to Siem Reap to acclimatize and get to know each other, we have a day arranged to visit the temples of Angkor Wat. We then head to Phnom Penh for orientation and work, at the end of the project we follow the Mekong into Vietnam and spend two nights on the Delta, before flying out of Saigon on the 14th. The time will fly!

I am hoping to have access to the internet to keep the blog up to date, load some photos and let everyone know what we are doing.