NEWSLETTER 8

Link to Page Two - Village news 

Link to Page Three - A Royal Wedding

Hello everyone, welcome, at last, to newsletter 8.........  A lot has gone on since I last wrote, so in order to keep this newsletter from getting too long I will trying to keep things brief.

SHAUN AND DONNA'S VISIT

October saw me receive a visit from my brother Shaun and his girlfriend - which was great fun.  We spent some time exploring Phnom Penh, visiting Angkor Wat and the other temples at Siem Reap, visiting the village (of course) and then headed up to Laos - a small country north of Cambodia.  

From Siem Reap we travelled almost three hours on the back of motorbikes to visit a remote temple.  The temple was only discovered two years ago and is still relatively untouched.  The jungle has taken over much of it.  It truly was like being in an Indiana Jones movie.  (It was certainly worth the discomfort of such a long motorbike ride.)

We also took a boat trip out to the "floating village" on the Tonle Sap lake.  As the name suggests its literally an entire village on the water.  Children who live at the village like to get into large tubs and paddle up to your boat with the hope that you will give them money.  I don't believe in giving money out, but I do love playing with the beggar children so on this occasion I decided to jump into the water with the kids, much to the concern of Shaun, Donna and the boat driver.  To me, it was the highlight of the day, and I don't think the kids will forget the crazy foreign woman who jumped off the boat for a long time - they also thought it was great fun. 

No. 1     No. 2      No. 3     No. 4

Photo 1. - Shaun and Donna with Sovanne, purchasing a bike in the local market.

Photo 2. - Nyut was extremely happy with his new bike.

Photo 3. - Shaun and Donna bought gifts from Australia.

Photo 4. - Shaun and some village children having fun with the new water pump.

LAOS

At first I didn't think much of Laos at all.  The capital city, Vientianne, had an empty feeling especially after being in Cambodia where the streets are always teeming with life.  The highlight was seeing one of my photos on a billboard.  Both Donna and the tuk tuk driver thought I'd gone mad when I unexpectedly spotted the billboard.   After a couple of days though we headed further north to a place called Vang Vieng, still not much life on the streets but the natural beauty of the place charmed me.  Mountains, caves, waterfalls, valleys, rivers - Vang Vieng has it all, in fact I would describe it as a fairy tale land.  

We spent a week trekking over mountains, traversing through caves, bicycling across magnificent country side, canoeing down rivers and swimming in waterholes under waterfalls.  One day we did a trek that involved just the three of us and our guide.  He had lived in the region his entire life and so obviously new the area very well.  Our trek was to take us over a river, through rice fields, over a mountain into a valley, up another mountain where we would climb up though a river bed to a waterfall and back again, but on the return journey, rather than go over the mountain again we went through it - in a cave.  

A day or so earlier we had canoed down the river so I knew there was a suspension bridge.  When we booked the trek I asked nervously if we would have to go over the suspension bridge.  I was told no, we wouldn't.  Well surprise, surprise, after starting the journey by trekking through a village and some fields we came to the river and, much to our horror, the suspension bridge.  I still don't know how I actually managed to get over that bridge.  It was one of those situations where there really was little choice.  Poor Donna - she is uncomfortable with bridges, creepy crawlies and confined spaces - this trek contained all of those things in abundance.  

Going through the cave was amazing.  Our path was lit by bamboo torches, our guide carried one at the front and Shaun carried one at the back.  To be honest I think Shaun was also a little uncomfortable as I had to keep telling him not to follow so closely as I kept feeling the heat from his bamboo fire torch on the back of my neck.  Donna wanted to know if there was another way back that didn't involve going through the scrub which was full of creepy crawlies.  "Yes", said our intrepid guide, "but we will have to walk through a little bit of water."  What he failed to mention was that the "little bit of water" was actually the river!  "Oh well", I thought as I stood at the edge of the river, "at least we don't have to go back over the suspension bridge". 

VISIT HOME 

I spent all of November at home having a lovely, but hectic time catching up with family and friends.  I managed (thanks to my sister and her hubby) to pay a surprise visit to my Nana in Melbourne.  A quick trip to Toowoomba followed to see the exhibition of the children's art work from the Land Mine Museum at Siem Reap.  Then I was off to Tamborine Mountain to attend a wedding - congratulations again Pip and Don.  My Mum also declared that on November 14th our whole family was going to celebrate Christmas early.  We put up Christmas decorations, gave out presents and sat down to a big Christmas feast.  To me, it felt just like the real thing and I went back to Cambodia feeling like Christmas was over.

CHRISTMAS IN PHNOM PENH 

Christmas morning saw me meeting up with my friend Ingrid, and heading off to Church.  The children from the Love in Action orphanage were singing and dancing as part of the Christmas celebrations - a lot of joy and fun.  

Ingrid and I then headed off to a local restaurant for lunch with about 10 other people, including Robin and Mick from the Sunshine Coast who were travelling through Cambodia, Andy, also from the Coast, who had recently arrived to do volunteer work at the orphanage, as well as some girls from New Zealand who were also visiting the orphanage.

I spent the afternoon and evening with the kids at the orphanage.  Can you imagine the chaos of approximately 50 children all receiving their Christmas presents at once.  Once again, lots of fun and excitement.  Their gifts had all come from the generosity of donors.

Please click here to go to page two of this newsletter to read about the VILLAGE.

Please click here to go to page three of this newsletter to read about the ROYAL WEDDING.