Live News Update 2007 - Indochina Venture Team 6

Latest news:

Indochina 6's adventures to Angkor Wat

The Team:

Extract from our diaries:

From: Karina and Alex
Date: 22-04-07
To: VentureCo HQ

This week saw us start a new project at an orphanage that housed 30 kids. The plan was to help build a house with the monks, for the gardener who was presently sleeping in a hammock over the compost heap! However due to many of us having no clue in using hammers, chisels or saws our skills were clearly not up to scratch for the initial frame building stage and so instead of being a hindrance we were relegated to weeding the vegetable garden as well as preparing bamboo for the walls of the house. This proved hot and sticky work and we were all relieved for the early lunch breaks and lots of chill out time. Our painting and scrubbing skills also came into action again as we helped to paint the office block, hopefully no one noticed the slight change in colour! As the week progressed the house gradually took shape (amazingly enough, considering there were no tape measures, diagrams etc in sight , just string, pieces of twigs and if anything didn't fit it was made to!) We also proved useful in providing man power, helping to hold the structure in place and after persuading the monks we weren't so useless at hammering we got stuck into making the walls for the house using bamboo strips and banana leaves. A definite highlight of the project was playing with all the kids who were all so adorable. They loved all the attention, whether it was playing football, basketball, playing hairdressers (we were the models!) or just simply talking and playing with them. Our visit to the orphanage meant a lot to them and on the first day they had even dressed up in their best clothes for us. We were really lucky as our journeys to the orphanage took us through the temples of Angkor Wat. Our journey on the way back on the first day proved to be eventful with our open top truck breaking down in the middle of the countryside. With night closing in fast we became a bit uneasy, this wasn't helped by Mafia members roaming around, armed with machetes and looking for each other in some sort of blood feud. Luckily we had a trusty monk on board who persuaded the gangsters that we were in fact just ordinary tourists!

For Joe's birthday we filled his room with balloons and the whole group poured in, in the early hours wishing him best wishes and hopefully free drinks later on. In the evening we headed out for some Mexican food before heading on to various bars celebrating into the early hours with much of the following day becoming a 'relaxing' day and everyone getting up quite a lot later than usual!

From Karina and Alex

From: Emma Stewart and Gabby Leon
Date: 14-04-07
To: VentureCo HQ

The bus journey back to Siem Reap wasn't particularly eventful and so we
found ourselves back in Siem Reap saying goodbye to our favourite monk; Sok Ming. On the Monday we started our first project based at a school just outside Siem Reap. The first day was spent sanding off paint, then plaster, then what seemed to be part of the wall in an effort to prepare the walls for painting. To reach the higher parts of the room, the monks constructed a sort of scaffolding of skinny bendy pieces of wood which shook, rattled and looked like it was ready to fall down at any second. They then scaled this contraption like monkeys and continued to work at the higher regions of the room. At abut 11am, we left the school and headed out for lunch in our little pick up truck piled on top of one another.

Lunch was quite possibly the best part of the day, we had a buffet style meal laid out in front of us, and hammocks were provided to rest our poor, weary selves after a long morning of wall scrubbing. After reluctantly peeling ourselves from our hammocks, we returned to the school to finish our morning's work.

Much to our disapproval, our food budget only allowed for $3 per person per day, so we woke up every morning to French bread with jam, and returned every evening to fried rice, which although very tasty, has quickly lost its popularity amongst the group.

The rest of the week proceeded in pretty much the same way. We discovered that monks are not the best decorators and dripped paint down the walls, on the floor and in every other direction possible. On the Friday, the monks threw a party for us which featured some Khmer comedy performed by some of the students, and dancing to a massive sound system. It was great fun to get involved with the kids even if it was for such a short a time. The next day we finally got to see Siem Reap's greatest attraction: Angkor Wat. These majestic temples rise from the jungle like piles of disorganised rubble, and it's only when you get up close that the mysterious smiling faces emerge from the collection of stones. Cycling there and back every day gave us the freedom to explore the temples as we wanted, even though we had a few bicycle disasters like Lucy's bike which not only got a flat tire, but also became unrideable when the seat flipped up. Perhaps next time we should invest in a puncture repair kit.

from Gabby and Emma

From: Sandra Lee
Date: 10-04-07
To: VentureCo HQ

How would one like one's venture? Slow roasted, scrambled, skewered, burnt, chilled, or harassed. Slow roasted from an oven with black plastic seats; otherwise known as the bus to Kampot. Scrambled from the pick up trucks driving up to Bohar National Park. Roads that have been destroyed by civil war do not make for a smooth ride. Skewered by mosquitoes that defy nets, deet, and all common descency! Several poor people are covered in small bites all over their limbs. Burnt as we underestimated the strength of the sun in the forest. Chilled on our private deserted island (not quite private, but close enough!). Harassed by fruit sellers, bracelet sellers ("If you buy bracelet maybe you have boyfriend"), threaders ("If you have hairy legs you will always be alone").

The key highlights from this week included a visit to one of Cambodia's national parks and then sleeping on the beach before heading to a deserted island. We entered Bohar National Park in Kampot on the back of a jacked-up pick up truck. Six to seven people sat on the edge of the truck bed facing one another, and held on for dear life on a make-shift bar welded to the middle of the bed. The road up the mountain was more like off-roading. In other words, it was a bumpy ride and we were tossed about like jelly beans.

At the top of the mountain, we toured the former Black Palace of the emperor. It was named such, due to the black coloured wood used to build the palace. It's a rather small palace with only a few bedrooms. Apparently, the Khmer Rouge hid here in 1975 when they were driven into the jungle by the Vietnamese. Next, we drove up to an abandoned hotel to have lunch followed by a visit to an abandoned Christian church -- a strange sight in this predominately Buddhist country.

After another bumpy ride down the mountain we took a boat ride back to Kampot. Twenty odd people loaded into the long shallow boat and as each person stepped on board, more and more water seemed to seep in through the floor of the boat. Since most boats carry some water we did not worry.

Soon we were on our way and the water kept coming. We grew more and more nervous and eventually insisted that we dock at the side of the river. One-by-one we disembarked with no where to go and sought refuge at a nearby school. As our fearless leaders, Christine and Jodie worked through the details with our guide, we passed the time by engaging in a friendly game of volleyball. It was very amusing and good practice for our next beach adventure!

Finally sorted out, we boarded another boat and sailed into the sunset towards Kampot. But the adventure wasn't over yet. By the time we reached our destination it was pitch dark and there was no where to disembark except through the water - which was dangerously dirty. A nearby restaurant on a pier seemed to be our only option. So, we climbed into the restaurant excusing ourselves through the various diners who were surprised to see us!

Finally, the week ended on a very chilled note. We spent the following days on Koh Ru Island or Bamboo Island. It was the closest thing to
Gilligan's Island that most of us had experienced. We spent the final three
days doing very little where our biggest decisions were what type of
shake to have....

From: Lavinia Singer and Sharon Stein
Date: 11-03-07
To: VentureCo HQ

The venture begins! The group all meets at Heathrow airport minus three who will meet us in Bangkok, and we set off together for our mammoth journey to S.E. Asia.About 12 hours travelling by plane with a brief stop in Doha, Qatar. Arrive at New Siam 3 Guest House sweaty and gross from piling into a tiny minibus - a taste for how we'll feel for the next 14 weeks - just off the Kao San Road (most famous for tourists).

Our first official day of (ad)venture, and we knew we only had a day to spend in Bangkok, so we packed it in with a trip to the Royal Palace, to get a view of the famed Emerald Buddha, and finished off the day haggling at the enormous weekend or Chatuchak market. Everyone enjoyed the frenzied pace of Bangkok, its colourful mix of tourists and locals, and the deliciously cheap street food. But it wouldn't be a real adventure without a bit of a MISadventure, which came in the form of a flat-tired tuk tuk (auto-richshaw). Still excited, but with jet lag slowing us down, we prepared for an uncertain journey from Bangkok across the Thai-Cambodian border into Siem Reap.

We arrive in Siem Reap at the Green Town Hostel two long bus journeys and a hectic wait at the border later, having somehow kept the group together despite marriage proposals from locals and potentially losing our driver over a fight about air conditioning. We visit beautiful Wat Damnak - our future base for the next few weeks - and are wonderfully welcomed by the monks. The next few days comprise of Khmer lessons (battling with vowel sounds never before spoken by Western tongues) and interesting insights into Cambodian culture/Buddhism (having not really learnt about it adequately from the screening of Tomb Raider on the bus journey). We all enjoy the freedom of pedalling around the city on bikes and seeing what life is really like, wandering along narrow roads beside the river and stumbling across ancient temples or schools. One night we're even lucky enough to be entertained by traditional Khmer dancers as we eat diner. I think we are all pleased that we will be staying in such a charming place for the majority of our time in Cambodia, and look forward to returning after our next stop - Phnom Penh and the beach.

Our trip to Phnom Penh was a bit more colourful than that to Siem Reap as we travelled with a number of locals, though it was still first class (i.e. air conditioned). This meant Tomb Raider was replaced by Khmer sing-along music videos (and yes, people did actually sing along)), and pit stops left us with ample opportunity to pick up fried grasshoppers and odd fruits. Since we arrived a bit late, we only stopped briefly at the Royal Museum, and then went for a bit of a stroll along the mighty Mekong River. After an early dinner, a few of the group spent some time at a boat party with other travellers and ex-pats, while the rest called it an early night and took care of the monk currently in our care. This monk, Suk Ng, affectionately known to all as "Our Monk", has never seen the ocean so he is tagging along with us on our mini-holiday to Sihanoukville. We were happy to adopt him and we all only hope to do right by him and follow all of his rules (no eating after midday, no handling of money), but at times we wish he came with an instruction booklet!

Our second day in Phnom Penh was a sombre one; we started with a tour of SR21, a detention centre used by the Khmer Rouge to house its enemies (doctors, lawyers, intellectuals), and then made our way in a caravan of tuk tuks (which have become a common theme) tot he largest and most famous of the killing fields. An estimated 20,000 Cambodians died in all of these shallow, mass graves, out of the total 1-3 million killed, of the then 7 million population. Most of us were speechless as we circled the stupa housing 9,000 unearthed skulls, and tried to avoid stepping on the bits of clothing left over from the murders over 30 years ago, which peeked out of the ground unceremoniously around the graves. We finished the day on a lighter note buying some essentials, and a few gifts, at the Russian market. Tomorrow we are off to Kampot for a day, and then on to Sihanoukville.