Let me start with last night. We arrived in Cambodia, and like all arrivals gates into new countries, it was a bit hectic and unorganized. However, after filling out three forms, paying $30 for a visa (yes, US dollars because ATMs here dispense US dollars), going through three checkpoints and receiving our luggage, we were greeted by Tom. Tom is a local, a Khmer, who has offered to be our tuk tuk driver for the week. He's got an award winning smile and a warm nature that instantly made us feel safe in this country. Although, we did get into a tuk tuk at night with a man we didn't know and then drove through dark countryside... A little uneasy at times because of the lack of civilization in sight, but nevertheless we enjoyed the ride through the countryside in this, my 34th country to visit. Sunglasses and closed mouths were necessary despite the lack of light, simply to keep out the dust and eager crickets that wanted to join us. We drove past many homes that had two bright lights, almost light sabers, forming X's in their yards. When we later inquired, we learned these were to attract crickets that then fell into collecting sheets. Yes, we saw crickets for sale on the street. No, I'm sorry, I didn't pop any of the jumpy critters into my mouth.
Tom took us safely to our lovely hotel and said, "I'd love to be your driver for the week." Perfect. Already taken care of.
Inside the stunning hotel, already missing our gracious Jenny from Hanoi, we were greeted by T. (As the languages in this area of the world are very hard for our western mouths to form, people often choose nicknames to share with English speakers.) T greeted us warmly, presented us with ideas of things to do, went over a map of the area with us and gave us a refreshing icy mint drink. Again, well taken care of by some wonderful people. When the wifi password to your hotel is "sinceresmile," you realize you are in the right spot.
Our room here is a suite with a living room area, a balcony, along with a full tub, shower and toilet all in separate rooms, and double sinks, and it's cheaper than many of the roadside hotels at home. We, once again feel like royalty. After discussing some plans for the next day and reading some reviews online we chose a cooking class and a boat ride nearby. We asked T to make the reservations for us and then we went out for a few hours.
The next morning, dependable Tom was there to pick us up. He took us to a cooking class, although it was not the one we had asked T to reserve. He double checked and we were in fact at the place she had planned. A little frustrated, we went inside. Quickly reading the brochure and looking at Trip Advisor, we found that the two were very comparable. Charlie, our resident chef had a great laugh and seemed very genuine when he spoke. Our only other classmates were nine Aussies: five teachers and four students in a volunteering vacation of sorts. Marisa, the principal of the small school, told me that it was a school for students with a diagnosed mental disorder whether ADHD, autism, anxiety or anger management. The public school had just over fifty students, only seven or eight per class. What an incredible concept to make sure that students of varying needs get exactly what they need. The students were selected from their school and were here volunteering with a non-profit. They built a house, worked at the primary schools, visited an orphanage as well as making it to some of the sights. The middle and high schoolers lit up when we asked them about their favorite parts. Each loved the volunteer work and the connections they had made with local people. What an incredible gift; what an incredible experience for them!
And as for the cooking class, it was grand! I've discovered that when someone else purchases all the ingredients, washes and chops them, then cleans up after you, cooking is really quite simple. Charlie started by leading us through the market. It was not quite as fragrant as the one in Bangkok, but eye opening nevertheless. Sections of fresh fruits and vegetables were mixed in with spices, meats and fish. The flies and ants scattered about made the meats less appetizing. Whole fish were sold seperately, in jars or on skewers. I watched where I stepped and glanced another way anytime the knife fell, hoping to avoid seeing things I did not want to see.
Our first dish was spring rolls. Those were fun to make, delicious and will be fun to customize at home!
Our next dish was a local cuisine of amok fish (amok referring to the spices, not the type of fish). Using these fresh ingredients, Charlie had already made a curry for us to use in the dish:
A plethora of other spices and sauces went into the pan along with carrots, onions, cabbage, mushroom and amok leaf. The dish was quite tasty, not spicy, but full of flavor, and they gave us excellent tools for presenting it in a beautiful way.
Our last course was fried bananas in passion fruit and coconut milk. A banana dessert is typically at the top of my list of favorite desserts, and this one did not disappoint. We fried bananas cut in half lengthwise that were still in the peel for just a few minutes until they were a golden brown perfection.
After each course, Charlie would ask, "you want to yum yum now or later?" We always responded with now, and we enjoyed our meals while visiting with the students and patient teachers. They told us they'd be working at a yogurt shop that evening, so we said we'd try to stop by.
Faithful Tom was there to pick us up. He told us that he'd be happy to take us to the boat ride that afternoon, but he had recently had some customers that had done that boat ride and had been really disappointed. He offered for a cheaper price to take us to a lotus farm and a floating village where we could have a private boat tour. Sure, why not trust in Tom.
After a swim in our lovely pool and refreshing ourselves, we set out to enjoy the countryside. Homes here are a very different quality than what we are used to. Many are more what we would call shacks, but the people seem happy and content. They are stand alone homes, some with four walls, some with three. Many of the homes we saw on this trip were on stilts so as to avoid flooding.
We stopped at a lotus farm where one of the national symbols is grown, looking a lot like what I would call a lily. Small huts with hammocks were scattered about where visitors to the lotus farm could spend an afternoon away from the sun. And did you know that you could eat the fruit of a lotus? Me neither. After the flower had bloomed, the fruit inside it grows in a green seed pod and you can eat the small green pieces in the center of the fruit. They were actually quite tasty!
While wandering the lotus farm, I recognized a young man who worked at our hotel. He approached us and said he heard where we were going for the afternoon and wanted to join us to shoot a video. And now, let me introduce So, an energetic, ambitious young man in his first year of college studying English and political science who spends his spare time traveling, making videos and volunteering. I can't tell you how thankful I am that he joined us for he answered so many questions for us, shot a video of our day (that I've seen but don't have) and was a great tour guide. He dreams of seeing snow one day, is traveling solo to Thailand in a few weeks and loves traveling to each of the provinces of Cambodia to meet people, learn about them and make videos that he shares online. He wants to be a politician when he grows up, and he's the perfect example of people this country (and we) need leading. Cambodia's government is set up much like the UK's with a king, prime minister and parliament made up of House of Commons and House of Lords. Since you can be in the House of Commons at a younger age, that is So's desire. He mentioned something about the country's violent past, and we felt incredibly ignorant knowing very little. You may know more, but in case you didn't, here is what I learned from So and my travel book. The ancient Khmer empire was a huge, powerful dynasty. The city of Angkor (more on that when I talk about the temples), at its height, had over a million citizens while at the same time, London was home to about 50,000. The Khmer empire fell, Cambodia was colonized by the French, won her freedom in the 1950s and was then used during the Vietnam war as "hiding," sneak attack or holding ground. Soon after that, in the 1970s (yes, just before my birth), the country fell under a ruler with extreme views who wanted to create an "equal" society, yet in doing so, it was a genocide with forced slavery. Almost two million Khmer people were killer, most of whom were the wealthy and the well educated. Those who weren't killed were forced into long, hard labor. Angelina Jolie has recently directed a film about this time, based on a biography I had on my list, First they Killed My Father. I hope to find that soon after my return.
But, I digress... our next stop was a floating village, in ways similar to the ones we saw in Vietnam, but in some ways very different. We we ushered onto a private boat, a long narrow boat with about ten seats and a cover to block some of the hot sun. We traveled on a muddy river where floating houses lined both shorelines. Most of the people here made their money from fishing, but rather than being fish farms of sorts that we saw in Vietnam, each day these people would go out to catch fish in the deeper water, sometimes setting traps overnight. They have a school, a church, a supermarket, police and even an electronic repair shop all in their floating village.
So was a great tour guide. He was just as excited as we were to see these places, but he already knew much more about them than we did. He laughed at our ignorance several times, like when we asked how people moved their houses and he cheekily said, "the water." Or the time I smiled as his camera aimed at me and he said, "it's not a photo." Using his camera, his GoPro and his drone, he got a variety of great shots of the afternoon.
We stopped at a crocodile farm where Cambodian crocodiles are caught, then kept and raised for food or their skins. The rickety boards that we walked on above the sharp-toothed beasts was very reassuring. So said Cambodia still had crocodiles, but he laughed when we asked if they were in the water we were traveling on. When we asked where they came from, he just said water like this. Not completely reassuring, but he seemed confident in his answer.
We enjoyed a lovely, peaceful drive home where we continued to drill So with questions, and he patiently and eagerly answered them all. Seeing the world by tuk tuk is really quite pleasant. Picture a golf cart, or perhaps small carriage being pulled by a scooter. It is open air, but moves fast enough to create a pleasant breeze.
Back just in time, we headed to the yogurt shop to see the students we had met that day. They were out front of Project Y, dancing and passing out yogurt samples, thrilled to see some familiar faces. We met some Khmer students also working there, but more on that in a moment. Delicious flavors of Australian frozen yogurt with great toppings made for a healthy dinner.
It began raining heavily, so we went upstairs to enjoy the yogurt and were soon greeted by the teachers who were thrilled to see us again. We also got to meet Aviv Palti, an amazing man whom I was honored to meet. Since he arrived and sat with the teachers, I asked how he was connected to the school. He said, "do you have a few minutes?" About ten years ago, Aviv and his family came to Cambodia from Australia on a volunteering trip, the brainchild of his then 14-year-old-daughter. They worked in the schools, and fell in love with the people. He said it best when he said, "they are like what human kind should be like." He's right, these resilient people have incredible genuine qualities, kind smiles and optimistic spirits. They wanted to do more. His family started a non-profit that would pay for high school and university kids from rural Cambodia to go to school in the city. The kids have to keep up good grades, email consistently with their sponsors and do volunteer work. He said the students are incredible. As they see education as the key to a better life, they work hard on their own. They love going back to do volunteer work with their communities to inspire other young children (we later made the connection with So that this is the group he volunteers with!). The yogurt shop? Well, just one more teaching tool. This non-profit has zero overhead costs. Instead, the students are given different jobs, teaching them important skills. Some are volunteer managers, publicity managers and more. The yogurt shop itself is run entirely by the university students and all of the profits go back into their education. Business professionals from around the world volunteer some of their time to come and speak with the students, and beginning in the next few months, some chosen students will be ambassadors for the organization and travel to other countries to present the non-profit in hopes of making even more connections. I cannot begin to describe how impressed I was (am) with this man and the organization he's started. It costs $1,000 to sponsor a student for a year. If you've got any desire to help in any way, or learn more, or if you ever want to travel in the area and do some volunteer work, get to know this organization more, check out their website: https://www.cambodiaruralschooltrust.org/
And how did Aviv connect with Marisa? Truly a chance meeting that led to a possibility, and a connection between her small school and his organization. He found sponsors to pay for their trip, they raised money for the organization, and those students and teachers will go back with a love of the Khmer people, spreading the word about this nonprofit.
I made connections with a small school in Australian and an organization that helps educate children in Cambodia. I can't wait to see where these connections might lead and the potential impact on my own students. And you know, we wouldn't have made these connections at all if T had booked us on the other cooking class. (She later told us she booked that one because other customers had really enjoyed that one. Thank you, T.)
I am so incredibly thankful for the people we've met on this trip and today was a true highlight.
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