Thailand and Leaving Cambodia

“People don’t take trips . . . trips take people.” 

– John Steinbeck

All good things must come to an end and so must also my seven weeks of volunteering at a microfinance NGO in Cambodia.

But first.  

I had a few more Cambodian adventures to be had and a Thanksgiving in Thailand where I took the holiday to heart.  I didn’t eat any turkey but I ate just about everything else.  All the foods.

Getting out of Phnom Penh

After several weeks in Cambodia’s capital, I needed at least one weekend the hell out of Phnom Penh.  There is so much more to see of Cambodia.  I had already seen the ancient temples of Angkor Wat near Siem Reap, so the next logical kind of Cambodian exploration is a beach.  Better yet, an island.  Yes, that would be ideal.   

My roommate Donna, friend Claudia and myself planned a long weekend on the island of Koh Rong Samloem.  It’s a short ferry ride from the city of Sihanoukville on the Southwestern coast of Cambodia.

Sihanoukville is nothing to get excited about.  It’s a bustling, growing town that’s developing quickly.  Chinese construction cranes are putting up hotels and casinos faster than I can down a pan of brownies (which is pretty damn fast).  From what I heard, this area used to be a sleepy waterfront town and backpacker haven, but this world is no more.  The Chinese have moved in and are setting it up to be the next Atlantic City of SE Asia.  When arriving in Sihanoukville, it’s best to get on a boat out of Sihanoukville as quickly as possible. 

Samloam, by contrast, is a small peaceful island about an hour off the coast. It’s 9km long and 4km wide.  The island has no major roadways and thus no motorized vehicles apart from an occasional beach tractor.  As Sihanoukville develops, more beachside bungalows are being built on Koh Rong Samloem but the island is FAR from crowded or overrun with tourists. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There isn’t much in the way of activities here.  There’s a waterfall that only has water part of the year.  A lighthouse requiring a few hours of hiking through the hilly inner jungle.  And a beach.  With crystal clear waters, and hardly any sounds aside from the ocean waves and a ferry arriving three times a day.  We hiked for an afternoon, played with puppies at the resort next door, and basked in the sun. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was the best kind of escape. 

Water Festival

Conveniently coinciding with the dates of American Thanksgiving is the hugely popular Cambodian Water Festival holiday.  This worked out so very well for me for so many reasons.  It’s a major holiday in the country where almost everything shuts down.  Therefore I had three days off from volunteering, providing me the both the opportunity to go to the water festival for a day and then leave Cambodia to spend a long weekend in Bangkok.  Perfect. 

Water Festival activities involve long-boat races each afternoon, and an incredibly impressive lighted boat and fireworks display each night.  Seeing it was an entirely unique experience in my world travel, and a highlight of my time in Cambodia.  It’s a huge deal there.  The king comes out of the royal palace to watch it.  Along with the rest of the country.  Over 4.5 million people came to Phnom Penh for the festival this year, which is about one quarter of the entire country’s population.  It’s that big. 

• 

• 

• 

These kinds of things are such a lovely time of celebration, friends and family, and national pride.  I feel lucky to have taken a part of it all.  Even more lucky, because Cambodia strangely saves the prime viewing area for foreign tourists, complete with shaded tent, cushioned chairs, and free beer and juice for anyone who cares to come. 

• 

Sitting here felt….well, it felt elitist and weird to be honest.  My fellow volunteers and I were in this posh tent while hoards of locals crammed into crowded sidewalks with their small children for viewing space.  BUT….I also didn’t leave it in protest or anything. I mean look at what I got to see!!!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The fireworks display lasted over an hour.  What a way to remember my time in Cambodia. 

• 

Thailandia 

Finally – Thailand.  It’s time to go to Bangkok.  

Thailand is a destination offering a reunion with a familiar face that I was very much looking forward to – my ex bf and now current bf Andy.  Where did that come from?  Is this the first you’ve heard?  News to you?  Well, I don’t need to share every last intimate detail of my life in this blog.  I have my own business, thank you very much.    

Suffice it to say, leaving the country for the better part of a year to travel the world has a way of making people realize how great you are and how much they miss you. Turns out I am pretty f*ing awesome and I was wholeheartedly missed.  Ha!  What can I say?  We’re working things out.  Life is crazy and unexpected and that’s what makes it great.  I’m still going to be transversing continents for a few more months and rounding out my year of travel, but I’m excited to see where this goes with a pretty amazing person I really care about.  There ya go. 

MOVING ON. 

The FOOD

One of my favorite things about Andy, and what I hands down missed the most about him……was eating with him.  He is my foodie best friend, and my partner in crime in dining.  Sometimes this is not the most healthy aspect of our relationship, but it is a deeply satisfying one.  There’s nothing better than sitting at a table full of appetizers and three entrees for the two of you to ‘share’, and hearing your significant other tell you that we can still get that dessert he caught you eyeing on the walk to the table.  This is all I want in a relationship (not really…as he will tell you, but it’s a big part).  

We can’t fully indulge this shared fondness for cuisine all the time or we’ll end up rolly polly with diabetes, but hell this is Thailand.  The food here is freaking amazing.  Bring on the Tom Yum.  And the pork sausages.  Maybe some duck.  That papaya salad or the noodle one with the minced chicken looks good.  Can we get some mango sticky rice for dessert?  Do they have BUBBLE TEA HERE???? 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Since Andy has genetic roots in Bangkok, this trip was largely family oriented.  He has aunts, uncles, and cousins that live in Thailand who were gracious enough to bring us to their favorite food locales and the best tourist attractions.  This is like hitting the jackpot for me.  I don’t have to plan anything, and I get shuffled around to amazing foodie spots like the oldest Pad Thai restaurant in Thailand.  #winning 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Other Sites of Bangkok

Most of our time here quite honestly involved spending time with his family (often at restaurants) and eating as many things as we could stomach.  We saw a few tourists sites here and there, but we had both been to the city before, so there was no sense of urgency to see every last tourist attraction in town.  I’m not complaining.  It was nice to be a relaxed glutton for a long weekend.

Still, we did some walking and sightseeing and I would be remiss if I didn’t make mention of it, because Bangkok has some really beautiful sights.  I visited Wat Arun on a prior trip to Bangkok last year, but it’s still one of my favorite spots in the city.  I would go back again next time.     

• 

• 

• 

As a bonus, after visiting the Wat, Andy’s aunt brought us to the nearby reclining Buddha.  I somehow missed this spectacular statue last time I was here. 

• 

• 

• 

Andy and I also clocked quite bit of time at the hotel pool, and even  branched out on our own one night to venture to the newly opened IconSiam Mall.  We spent two hours there and didn’t make it off the food court level, which is complete with floating markets and mock villages.  It’s like Thai Vegas in a giant shopping center.  Cray Cray.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My visit to Bangkok was too short and sweet, and speaking of sweet, the trip was made all the better by Andy’s adorably awesome aunt.  She chauffered us around for the week and periodically dropped snacks off at our hotel reception (like we we could ever be hungry).  Here she is blowing out her birthday cake.  How cute is she?? 

• 

That’s all for now Thailand.  I’m sure we’ll be back. All this eating made me need some spa time.   Peace out!

• 

Back to Work at My Unpaid Job

As my volunteer work began winding down, I had a few major events to mark the end of my contribution.  

One – visiting the branch office of the microfinance to conduct employee training on loan risk management processes and changes I made to their credit policy.  Thrilling sounding, I know.  But let my inner nerd have it’s moment in the sun.   

This was a rather strange experience.  No one spoke English, and obviously I don’t speak Khmer.  I talked as slowly and simply as I could to make it easier for the translator, but honestly I have no idea what information was ultimately communicated or if people understood what I was talking about.   There was a lot of nodding, which I’ll take as a good sign.  One guy took a selfie of the presentation while I was talking. Kinda weird, but okay.

Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the office and meet the lenders and village leaders out in the countryside.  I’m counting it as a win. 

• 

My second major presentation was with the volunteer organization, Star Kampuchea.  One of their volunteer coordinators, Sreng, asked for my help putting together a business plan for an organic farmers market he would like the organization to build.  I give Sreng a lot of credit, he has a strong vision and huge amount of passion for the project, but he needed help organizing his thoughts and thinking through how it would work financially.  I helped him present it to the Star Kampuchea Board before I left.  

This was an equally odd experience.  Luckily for me, the Board was kind enough to let the presentation and questions be in English.  But the Board expressed concerns with the overall business idea, and Sreng made it awkwardly obvious he didn’t want to hear this kind of feedback (because of this I didn’t think it a good time to snap a pic of the event).  Still, he made a good first step.  I’m confident he’ll get there and curious to see what happens in the coming months. 

Onwards and Upwards

And that’s it.  That’s all I have.  Seven weeks in Cambodia, summarized in four blog posts.  Read them all.  Don’t read any.  Skim one or two and read every other paragraph.  I’m happy enough just to have the memories.  

NEXT