30/11/09:
Flight got delayed for 2 hours. So we walked around looking for cheers/7-11. but to no avail! Approached this guard, he said got mama shop near some cafe, but we couldn't find it..Thus decided to just head to Cocoa tree. Bought jelly beans and assorted chocolates which we didn't finish till the last day. Not that we had a lot, but seriously didn't have any appetite at all there. Yup. Then we missed out on the free lunch at the airport due to the time we spent walking around. So we rushed to buy onion rings! and some drinks then headed to the gate. Gate 33? So eggciting to queue and go in. hahaha. And someone screamed when the plane was taking off I won't say who.hahaha wth! Arrived at Phnom Pehn airport, took a 3 hour bus ride to the village. We stopped at the village's Solar Cafe for supper..noodles with chinese tea. I don't have the photos of these sadly. Finally, arrived at the Khmer village homestay a few metres away from the cafe, at around 1am? Then we got the news that some "chalets" were occupied, so some of us had to shift to chalet 11. It became crowded with about 20 peeps, with 3 toilets. Luckily there was a little electricity, though lights off at quite early. But they were nice to extend the timing for us since the flight got delayed. Okay then there was the water...it was...rusty and brown and metal smelling. Weiling said the water was sour, but she didn't make a big fuss out of it. K so I thought it wasn't very bad. But when I switched on the tap to let the water run through the tap first, brown stuff started squirting out, dark brown mind you. Wasn't prepared at all. Yea so I just rinsed my mouth with Listerine for the first night. Okay then we noticed a lot of insects around, kinda bigger than SGP ones. Omg and it was fun hearing people screaming and squealing there though I was also part of it luh. hahaha. What losers. Oh right, and there was a large mirror on the floor of the room. Freaky TTM at night! Hm hmm, there's only one window in the room. And...that's our bed(below) with the mosquito netting. Haha I won't forget what happened that night; Mad came out of the toilet sulking. She asked for us to smell her hair. And woah it was like metal. She was still sulking. Laughed so hard at her..but I forgot we all had to use that water to shower for the days to come! sheesh.
1/12/09:
Didn't really sleep like the rest did. Couldn't. New environment. Roosters can be heard at like 3+ alrdy I think. Showered and blah, then reported for the bus. Headed to Solar Cafe again. Had b'fast, which was porridge, salty egg, veggies, fish and milo. People of Disabilities from the surrounding villages started to arrive at the cafe.There was a short introduction, and everyone got to work. Some people led groups of villagers, others were packing donations I think, then the group I was in was in charge of the games. Took a few minutes to come up with some games, think we totally didn't use any of the games we discussed. One of the stations was getting the people to stand behind the line and throw mini balls into chinese looking red bowls as shown below. hahaha it was fun! I didn't photograph other stations though thanks to the memory card again. Shitt. A lot of us were tired after that, but the day was not done. After games was lunch, then slack time. Slack time wasn't exactly slack though, we took the time to play with the kids, interact, cam-whore with cows, lunch and whatever else we could do. I swear the cows look like dogs (cover the ears). Oh and there's this little girl who's damnnnnn cute! :D I like her. She digged her nose when Weiling wanted to high-5 hahaha oh man. Yup. At the end, each group had to come up with a short performance. Also, we gave out donations and all. So nice to see most of them smiling. Some of them even raise their hands when they didn't have a bundle of clothes. Some children were also fighting to exchange toys because one of them didn't like the Woodstock from snoopy hahaha. So we stayed at the cafe till 5+ and headed for PONY RIDE, HELL YESS. We sat on carts and it felt like we were on a roller coasters, especially with the uneven ground. Visited some sewing "factory" and it's handicraft shop. Should've bought some pouch from there for you guys (dork and chye), but just didn't cross my mind what to get for yall till the last day at the last shop! Anw, the cloth they made were quite nice, with the colours overlapping and all. Then carted to some pagoda or shrine where they hung their dragon boat (which women were not allowed to walk past). Wth right I know..
Omg the post is kinda long alrdy, shall continue the rest later.Back to sleep! Then town. Shingz I feel like watching Good Fellas at Timbre.
P.