So 2 weeks ago I took a trip out into the provinces (countryside) on a dirt bike for three days to see some rural towns and some floating village on the river. It was an amazing trip, spending 3 days alone, seeing less than 10 foreigners the whole time, and having to speak Khmer the whole time since no one spoke much English. You can see the pictures on my web albums. The highlights were the floating villages and negotiating to drive out on a military airstrip for a dollar. Learning and driving a huge dirt bike with a clutch for hours on end in the dust and heat was also an amazing experience.
After about 5 days back in PP I started to feel sick and assumed I had a bad case of the flu. I had a crazy fever, aches and pains all over, rash on my leg, hot and cold sweats, terrible headaches, pains in my eyes, and the list goes on. After teaching one day and resting the whole weekend and still feeling like crap I went to the doctor. They checked me out and did some blood tests. I was called back a few hours later and told that I had contracted Dengue Fever, a disease transmitted by mosquito. (Only a few days before I saw a free concert in PP of a somewhat popular band from America that is named Dengue Fever, quite a unfortunate coincidence). I was told I would be sick for about 7 days, followed by 7 days of being pretty tired, but I should recover and the disease is gone from your body (although you get the added bonus of being immune from that particular strain of Dengue Fever for about 3 years). I had to go into the doctor every few days to have a blood test to check my blood platelet count, the stuff that clogs your blood in a good way so you dont bleed to death from a small cut. At first my blood count dropped considerably. However, the only treatment is to take Tylenol and rest and that's what I did. My next blood test showed my count going back up and I had started to feel a hundred times better, all symptoms disappearing except for being overly tired. On the nineth day I felt much better and the doctor told me my blood platelet count had returned to normal. So, Im all better now, just taking a week or rest and relaxation.
Because I was sick I had to take a week off from work and decided I would finish teaching a week earlier then planned. So yesterday (Monday 5/31) was my last day of teaching. It was pretty sad as I had come close with most of my students and classes during the short month I had taught them. I cant imagine how hard it is to say goodbye after a full term of 3 months. In one of my classes a student ran out of class upon news that it was my last day. She came back later with postcards that every student wrote in and gave to me. Then a girl and a few students sang me a song. This must be some kind of tradition as Jake told me he received similar treatment when leaving his classes. In another class 2 students ran off at the news, no doubt on a mission to get me something. I got a call during class from the doctor to tell me my blood count was back to normal, and when I tried to go back into the classroom I saw the lights were off and the they wouldn't let me in for a few minutes. When I finally went back in I was presented with a birthday cake with candles and icing that read: Mr. Jonh Lee Smith Good Luck. I think I liked it better that my name was wrong. It was a delicious beautiful cake with all kinds of fruit on top. We spent the rest of the class eating cake and talking and me giving my email and telling my class they could come to my house in NY if they ever came to America. It was bitter sweet to stop working and to leave my students who had surprised me on the last day with how much they liked me and respected me as a teacher, some of the cards they wrote were really touching, although some in bad English and with phrases and sentences that I could understand the main idea but were worded in quite a funny way. One example: "I am so happy that I can study with you. You teach me a lot about writing. I am better than before. Thanks a lot for your good teaching. Hope we will meet you again. Wish you good luck and healthy"
Well, even if her English isn't perfect, "its better than before".
On another note, just as I was feeling better my mom arrived in Cambodia for her 2 weeks stay. Perfect timing really, just as my appetite returned after being sick, she has been taking me out to the nicer restaurants in PP and Im eating well, gaining the few pounds back that I lost while sick. She has done a few things on her own such as seeing the touristy spots of the Royal Palace and the S-21 Prison Museum. Together we took a trip on my moto to Silk Island to see the Heng family and buy some scarves. We also went to the market to see my tailor so mom could get a few dresses and pants duplicated, I decided to have two more dress shirts made. We also stopped at Wat Phnom to see the temple and the multitude of monkeys running around freely. Now mom has gone off to Siem Reap to explore the temples of Angkor Wat for 2 days. Im happy to say she decided to take the $9 bus to Siem Reap rather then the $65 private taxi or the $85 airplane. If you want the true Cambodian traveling experience you take the bus and I'm sure thats what she got. When she returns to PP we will explore more of the city for a few days and then take a trip down to the coast to see the beaches at Sihanoukville and possibly another seaside town if time allows, she heads back to the US on June 9th.
When she leaves I'll be relaxing in PP while all my friends are still working. Maybe Ill take one last trip to one of the amazing spots Cambodia's mainland has to offer. Then by June 24th I should be saying goodbye to Cambodia and the amazing people I have met here and heading back home. I'll be flying through Seoul, South Korea and might stop for a few days to explore and see a friend from UVM who is teaching English there.
I dont know if Ill post anymore on here, but Ill definitely continue to post pictures on Picasa and write captions to give some explanations to the pictures.
Allie Came to Cambodia
I ended my last term on March 19th and wouldn’t start again until April 21st. During my break Allie came out to visit me for 3 weeks. During those 3 weeks me and Allie traveled most of the time, all over
The first few days we hung around the city for the weekend, while Allie got to take it all in and meet many of my friends. We took a long ride on my moto south to the Zoo/safari (most animals in cages, but some free to walk around, i.e. Elephants allowed out for a daily stroll) as well as a shorter ride over to
Our first, longest, and probably most interesting trip was to the Southern Coast of Cambodia. Our first stop was Rabbit Island, where we spent 2 days and one night on the beach and in the bungalow along with our a spider that had 3 inch long legs. From
After Kampot it was on to Sihanoukville, a big beach town. As soon as we arrived we walked onto the beach and rented a jetski for 30 minutes. Me and Allie took turns driving and flying off waves. We then went to a quieter beach where we found a nice bungalow for the night. The next day we got up early to go out on a boat trip. I signed up to go Scuba diving while Allie would hang out onboard and snorkel above. We had a great guide and nice couple who came along. The guy went scuba diving with me while Allie hung out with the girl and snorkeled. The diving was pretty fun, lots of fish and weird coral to see. Lots of black sea urchins with foot long spikes that looked extremely dangerous. Our guide pointed out one or two things and made the signal for “deadly” (cutting your hand and arm across your neck).
After Sihanoukville we headed back to
We then took a night/sleeper bus to Siem Reap arriving at 6am for a full day of exploring all the temples and spending some time at the most famous temple, Angkor Wat. The next day we woke up extremely early and got a tuk-tuk to a temple, Bang Melea, outside Siem Reap that I had been to before and really enjoyed. This temple is unlike any other in Siem Reap because it’s totally engulfed in a jungle where trees and roots have knocked down huge stones. The guides take you straight into the heart of the temple and you can wander wherever you please. We then took the tuk-tuk back into Siem Reap where we got on a bus and headed back to
Our last trip was to the small town of
Another day we took a moto drive to the border of
Throughout our stay in Koh Kong we were blessed with beautiful sunsets every night, clouds and the sun mixing together to give off amazing colors. Our guesthouse was also very nice, although we had to change rooms every night since we booked last minute and they were full with Khmer people since it was Khmer New Year. This also meant Khmer people staying up late doing karaoke with a huge speaker in the guesthouse parking lot and then waking up early (5am) and jumping in the pool and making tons of noise. However, it was still a relaxing and a great trip to end Allies stay in
Cambodian Threads
My best friend out here, Jake Daniels, whose brother I went to UVM with and who convinced me to do my teaching in Cambodia left yesterday to travel around SE Asia, India and Nepal with his girlfriend for the next 4 months. Jake was a huge help before I even got to Cambodia and even more so since I got here in late September. I will definitely will miss him and his girlfriend Melissa. One of the last places Jake took me was Mekong or Silk Island. We took my moto and drove to the North of Phnom Penh then took a ferry and were on the Island in less than an hour.
First, some background: Jake has been buying scarves from a family on the island and has set up a business back in the states called Cambodian Threads through which he sells them. He has two people running the website and taking care of orders in the states, while he takes care of placing orders and buying the scarves from the Heng family. The amazing part of the whole project is that a portion of the sales of the scarves go straight back to the community near the Heng family’s home. He uses the money to buy bulk amounts of school supplies and then drives them out to the public school near the Heng family’s house (which the Heng sisters attended growing up) and donates them to the local public school. He has already made numerous donations of school supplies that the school told him they were lacking such as maps, notebooks, pens, pencils, and erasers. It’s a really ambitious and beautiful project that Jake is passionate about.
When we got to the Heng’s house I was introduced to Mamma, Aunty, Naysim, and Naycheng, only some of the family members and artisans. Right away it was quite clear that the family loves Jake and treats him and anyone he brings to visit as a family member. I was given water, soda, coconut juice and fruit and told to sit down and relax. They showed me some of the silk weaving looms and tried to explain some of the intricate and complicated processes from dying the silk to cutting the long material into scarf size pieces. After about 2 hours of hanging around and discussing future scarf orders and other business me and Jake said our goodbyes.
Jake suggested we take a drive out into the country side just a few minutes from the Heng’s house. The dirt road soon changed from bumpy to incredibly bumpy, rocky and narrow as we entered into the country side surrounded by green fields and trees as far as the eye could see. Once in a while we would pass someone else whether it be a moto, cow pulled cart, a engine attached to a cart with 4 wheels or a pickup truck filled with what at first looked like soldiers but turned out to be a pickup filled with farmers and their tools. After a drive around we headed back to Phnom Penh. It was an amazing experience meeting the Heng family and not just seeing the country side while on a bus, but actually driving my moto on it’s bumpy roads and through it’s vast expanse of greenery. Only a few weeks later me and Jake took a trip back to see the Heng family and have a great traditional Khmer lunch they prepared for us.
While Jake is traveling he has handed some of the Cambodian Threads responsibilities over to me. Every month or two I’ll meet with Naysim to pickup and pay for scarves. Then depending on the demand back in the states I will either keep the scarves safe until Jake returns or ship then back to the U.S. to be sold. Jake has also suggested I make a donation to the school which would entail taking school supplies Jake left me along with going to the market and buying some more and then taking them out to the school and donating them. Hopefully I’ll get to do this, as Jake says it’s a truly magical experience to see the school children's faces when they receive the school supplies.
I suggest that you take a look around the website at not only the beautiful silk scarves in the Store but also the About Section as well as the Blog which has great pictures of the Heng family and the school children and the donations. If you decide to buy a scarf please know that some of the money from the sale will support this cause that I have witnessed firsthand, a cause that truly goes full circle – from the Heng family’s hard work through Jake’s Cambodian Threads and then back to the community in which the Heng family lives and works and the school in which the Heng family’s children once attended.
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| Silk Island |
Saigon, Vietnam
A few weekends ago me and Lorna took a small vacation over to Ho Chi Minh City, (formerly Saigon) Vietnam to see the city and stay with some friends from our October LanguageCorps group who are teaching there. We took off on Friday on a 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Saigon for $10 which included a nice little snack box of strange pastries with a slice of Ham inside. Me and Lorna both brought mid-terms we needed to grade for the bus ride, but as I suspected I spent most of the time sleeping or staring out the window. Ive taken a bunch of 4+ bus rides around Cambodia and staring out the window never gets old or boring, you see amazing things like tiny wooden hut/houses and the families hanging around outside, cows, water buffalo, mini-vans filled with no less than 20 people, houses on stilts 20 ft off the ground with a 30 ft ramp leading to the front door, and beautiful stretches of fields, trees, rice paddies, and the occasional mountain or non-flat feature.
Another fun part of the bus ride was that unbeknown to us it included a ferry ride. Our full-size coach bus drove onto a ferry, floated across a river for 10 minutes, and drove off and on towards Saigon on the other side. We also had to cross the border which entailed us getting off and on the bus a few times and driving through a weird, zombie movie-esque, dilapidated, 300 or so ft. buffer zone between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Once we hit the city it took us about an hour to get into the city center where we were dropped off, it was obvious Saigon was a real city, nothing like Phnom Penh; tall buildings that prevented you from seeing most of the sky, designer stores, neon signs and tons more motos and people than Phnom Penh. After getting off the bus we met Megan, one of our languagecorps friends at a restaurant and had dinner before she took us to her apartment.
Megan lives with 3 others from our languagecorps group, Casey, Ashley, and Matt in a modern, 4-floor, narrow, green apartment of their own. Very different then my very basic and undecorated Cambodian apartment.
I’m not sure if I was able to get a true feel for Saigon in the short 5 days I was there, but I got to do and see lots of cool things. It was also nice to hang out with some friends I hadn’t seen since October. You can take a look at the pictures to see some of the following things. Some highlights: the telephone poles and wires which were somehow worse and more of a chaotic bundle than Cambodia’s; the parks and green space; the hotel rooftop pool we used one afternoon for $2 and its view; taking a moto taxi which actually have laws to follow such as everyone must wear a helmet and only 1 passenger allowed per moto (as apposed to Cambodia where the law that the driver must wear a helmet is just starting to be enforced and you can put as many people on a moto as you can fit, ive seen a family of 5); the War Remnants Museum - a main tourist attraction with lots of crazy photos, accounts of the history of the war, and lots of US military tanks, planes, helicopters and other equipment which was all presented in a pretty unbiased way; the Saigon Post Office; the upscale touristy shopping area; the famous Ben Tan Market; and some fun nights out with Casey, Ashley, and Matt. One night Casey took me to his favorite street-vendor food stall to get some friend noodles with vegetables and meat which was so good I had two for about $2 and then to a popular back-packer hangout, a tiny outdoor place with children-size plastic chairs and tables that sold jugs of beer for about 75cents.
By Tuesday at noon it was time to get on our bus back to Phnom Penh and return to work on Wednesday. It was a good trip and Saigon was an interesting city. It's hard to compare it to Phnom Penh because I’ve lived in PP for 5 months now and was in Saigon for less than 5 days. The main difference was that Saigon felt like more of a real city, something like NYC, with an insane amount of people, traffic, and overall much higher level of development than PP (I've heard PP is about 20 years behind Vietnam in terms of development). It was a great trip but from my brief time there I would say I very much prefer the less intense (although still very intense) life in PP.
Another fun part of the bus ride was that unbeknown to us it included a ferry ride. Our full-size coach bus drove onto a ferry, floated across a river for 10 minutes, and drove off and on towards Saigon on the other side. We also had to cross the border which entailed us getting off and on the bus a few times and driving through a weird, zombie movie-esque, dilapidated, 300 or so ft. buffer zone between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Once we hit the city it took us about an hour to get into the city center where we were dropped off, it was obvious Saigon was a real city, nothing like Phnom Penh; tall buildings that prevented you from seeing most of the sky, designer stores, neon signs and tons more motos and people than Phnom Penh. After getting off the bus we met Megan, one of our languagecorps friends at a restaurant and had dinner before she took us to her apartment.
Megan lives with 3 others from our languagecorps group, Casey, Ashley, and Matt in a modern, 4-floor, narrow, green apartment of their own. Very different then my very basic and undecorated Cambodian apartment.
I’m not sure if I was able to get a true feel for Saigon in the short 5 days I was there, but I got to do and see lots of cool things. It was also nice to hang out with some friends I hadn’t seen since October. You can take a look at the pictures to see some of the following things. Some highlights: the telephone poles and wires which were somehow worse and more of a chaotic bundle than Cambodia’s; the parks and green space; the hotel rooftop pool we used one afternoon for $2 and its view; taking a moto taxi which actually have laws to follow such as everyone must wear a helmet and only 1 passenger allowed per moto (as apposed to Cambodia where the law that the driver must wear a helmet is just starting to be enforced and you can put as many people on a moto as you can fit, ive seen a family of 5); the War Remnants Museum - a main tourist attraction with lots of crazy photos, accounts of the history of the war, and lots of US military tanks, planes, helicopters and other equipment which was all presented in a pretty unbiased way; the Saigon Post Office; the upscale touristy shopping area; the famous Ben Tan Market; and some fun nights out with Casey, Ashley, and Matt. One night Casey took me to his favorite street-vendor food stall to get some friend noodles with vegetables and meat which was so good I had two for about $2 and then to a popular back-packer hangout, a tiny outdoor place with children-size plastic chairs and tables that sold jugs of beer for about 75cents.
By Tuesday at noon it was time to get on our bus back to Phnom Penh and return to work on Wednesday. It was a good trip and Saigon was an interesting city. It's hard to compare it to Phnom Penh because I’ve lived in PP for 5 months now and was in Saigon for less than 5 days. The main difference was that Saigon felt like more of a real city, something like NYC, with an insane amount of people, traffic, and overall much higher level of development than PP (I've heard PP is about 20 years behind Vietnam in terms of development). It was a great trip but from my brief time there I would say I very much prefer the less intense (although still very intense) life in PP.
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| Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
Random Story: Dah-rid and family
My Landlords are really awesome. Its a family with three young girls, maybe 8, 12, 14 and the mother Setty and the Father Dah-rid. They are always so nice and help us out with anything we need. They also bring us random gifts once in a while for holidays, today is Chinese New Year and the girls brought us a bowl of noodles and some kind of meat and 4 cans of soda. We didn't actually eat the strange noodle dish but it was really cool of them to give it to us.
The mother and father speak some English although its very broken and basic. When talking to Dah-rid its hard not laugh in his face. Not because his English is terrible, but because of the kinds of words he uses. He was in the military for many years where he learned English, and was trained as a doctor and translator. He speaks using strict and serious words, even when explaining the simplest things. Words like, demand, request, confirm, supply, and transaction, speaking in the way military officers might speak.
About 3 months ago I was downstairs and he asked of I could listen to a tape that he was trying to translate (he is a translator for the ministry of defense and also does private work). He had a cassette tape playing with radio news from what sounded like 6 months ago. He had already typed out his transcript in English. Basically what he does is listen to the tape which is in English, and then write or type down what he hears in English. Then later he will go back over it and translate it from English to Khmer. Seeing what he had written down in English so far was comical, but also scary since he’s working for the government. There were many mistakes, some that didn’t really mater but others that changed the whole meaning of the 2 or 3 sentence news point. I really wish I could remember some examples of mistakes he had made. Anyway, what I thought would be about 20 minutes turned into me spending about 2 hours sitting with him listening to tapes and fixing his mistakes. I cant really imagine his work being very important as he was translating news from months ago and getting a lot of it wrong. I have to assume there’s plenty of other translators and ways the government gets the world news that is more efficient and accurate. I asked him about getting news from the internet so its already typed and I think he said something about the government just starting to do that, and that’s why he was working with old tapes.
Another quick story about Dah-rid happened within the first few weeks of moving in. I had bought a fan and it was making an annoying squeaking sound. I went downstairs and asked Dah-rid if he had any lubricant or spray. After he understood what I wanted he said yes yes yes. I assumed he had WD-40 or some kind of spray. He goes into his medical cabinet where he stores medicine, and medical instruments, and pulls out a syringe. Now I’m curious. He then goes over to his moto and opens up a little plug in the engine, sticks the syringe in, and sucks out some oil. I was blown away for lots of reasons: he used a medical syringe, he stuck it in his moto engine, he was giving me pure motor oil to use as a lubricant, he was giving me a medical syringe. It seemed crazy to me but it also seemed like a great and easy, although dangerous solution. The best part was not when he handed over the syringe to me and told me to be careful, but why he told me to be careful. I assumed he would say be careful because that’s a very very sharp needle and it has motor oil in it. Instead he just wanted to point out that I should be careful when applying the oil to the fan and not poke any wires and get electrocuted. I was thinking the obvious, he was a step ahead of me. I still have a medical syringe filled with motor oil (with a safety cap on it) stored away in case I need a replacement for WD-40 again.
The mother and father speak some English although its very broken and basic. When talking to Dah-rid its hard not laugh in his face. Not because his English is terrible, but because of the kinds of words he uses. He was in the military for many years where he learned English, and was trained as a doctor and translator. He speaks using strict and serious words, even when explaining the simplest things. Words like, demand, request, confirm, supply, and transaction, speaking in the way military officers might speak.
About 3 months ago I was downstairs and he asked of I could listen to a tape that he was trying to translate (he is a translator for the ministry of defense and also does private work). He had a cassette tape playing with radio news from what sounded like 6 months ago. He had already typed out his transcript in English. Basically what he does is listen to the tape which is in English, and then write or type down what he hears in English. Then later he will go back over it and translate it from English to Khmer. Seeing what he had written down in English so far was comical, but also scary since he’s working for the government. There were many mistakes, some that didn’t really mater but others that changed the whole meaning of the 2 or 3 sentence news point. I really wish I could remember some examples of mistakes he had made. Anyway, what I thought would be about 20 minutes turned into me spending about 2 hours sitting with him listening to tapes and fixing his mistakes. I cant really imagine his work being very important as he was translating news from months ago and getting a lot of it wrong. I have to assume there’s plenty of other translators and ways the government gets the world news that is more efficient and accurate. I asked him about getting news from the internet so its already typed and I think he said something about the government just starting to do that, and that’s why he was working with old tapes.
Another quick story about Dah-rid happened within the first few weeks of moving in. I had bought a fan and it was making an annoying squeaking sound. I went downstairs and asked Dah-rid if he had any lubricant or spray. After he understood what I wanted he said yes yes yes. I assumed he had WD-40 or some kind of spray. He goes into his medical cabinet where he stores medicine, and medical instruments, and pulls out a syringe. Now I’m curious. He then goes over to his moto and opens up a little plug in the engine, sticks the syringe in, and sucks out some oil. I was blown away for lots of reasons: he used a medical syringe, he stuck it in his moto engine, he was giving me pure motor oil to use as a lubricant, he was giving me a medical syringe. It seemed crazy to me but it also seemed like a great and easy, although dangerous solution. The best part was not when he handed over the syringe to me and told me to be careful, but why he told me to be careful. I assumed he would say be careful because that’s a very very sharp needle and it has motor oil in it. Instead he just wanted to point out that I should be careful when applying the oil to the fan and not poke any wires and get electrocuted. I was thinking the obvious, he was a step ahead of me. I still have a medical syringe filled with motor oil (with a safety cap on it) stored away in case I need a replacement for WD-40 again.
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