When you might ask?

During one of the most critical periods of the academic calender... RECESS WEEK (21 - 28 sep 07)! 8 whole days lost in my "imaginary life" as an avid adventure seeker... Exploring a new part of the world that i have not concurred...

The place in Question?
CAMBODIA (Phnom Penh, Pusat and Tonle Sap to be more exact...)

My purpose?
Geography fieldtrip

To have a better grasp on natural resources and power relations!

I have to admit that i had MAJOR reservations going on the trip... Questions such as "How am i gonna catch up since i'm already lagging like mad due to my concert rehearsals?" and "Projects how? (2 to be exact which were due in 3 days from when i came back!!!"

But! It was a truly enriching and interesting experience! (although i'll be honest i didnt really gain that much more insight into the module which i think i am struggling at being the urban, tourism geographer that i am...)

Due to time constraints (i'm in the school library supposed to be working but well... i'm on blogger so you know what that means!), i will pick 3 photos most representative of my travel that day and talk about it briefly... Please excuse the rushed effort cos time is really not on my side these days. If you want a more detailed look at my photos please go to my facebook photos where i've uploaded all my photos on a day by day basis. Now to the crux!

DAY 1 (SINGAPORE - PHNOM PENH)

Arriving at the Phnom Penh airport from a really BAD flight (the landing was SCARY!!!! Take its competitor TIGER AIRWAYS as far as possible pls for your own safety :) ), i was super surprised that they had such a NICE AIRPORT!!!!! But once you step out its a different story. It wasnt as bad as i imagined to be, but still very different from Singapore's overcongested urban buildup. We were told that we were going to be put up in Champ Elysees Hotel which is considered to be one of the better ranged hotels in the city. Th fancy name totally placed my expectations too high when it turned out to be a super CHEEENA and OLD (not well kept man...) hotel. I mean i shouldnt be complainin since it had aircon, cable tv, attached toilet with bathtub (but i think its quite redundant having a bathtub with no shower screen since it floods the toilet badly still!!!!), but i think it was the high expectation and the thought of looming assignments that made me feel bogged down that night. The only source of comfort that night (besides friends) was a small lil shop along the street called "Friendly Mart"... The Friendlist thing that i could find in Phnom Penh.

Day 2 (Phnom Penh)

This was a traumatic day. Visited Tuol Slang Museum (S21 Museum) where learned people were tortured under the POl POt regime in this once primary school. I will spare you all from the scary and gory details as i myself do not wish to have to think through it again. All i can say is... PERVERTED! It was a haunting experience that makes me feel (once again) how lucky to being living in a controlled, restritive, safe country such as Singapore. Although it might leave some numb for the rest of the trip, its a definitley must see, once in a lifetime experience.

After lunch, my friends and i left for Russian market. Phnom Penh really has not places for you to shop or visit unless you wanna see gory (military-ish) stuff. I really like the market contrary to what my friends felt. It was narrow, squeezy, but very local. I dunno why but i felt really happy especially when we moved into the makan section of the area where locals were happily eating away. Imagine Singapore in the 60s and well thats what it was like, with locals sitting along stalls where food was cooked and served in front of them (please note its nowhere near teppanyaki style ok! its cambodia for goodness sakes! They were stuck in a timewarp for a while!) But after a while, we were done covering the small area of it and moved to a coffee place. I have to say that in general, i am a lil disappointe dwith Cambodian coffee. I dun remember anywhere with yummy coffee. But the place we went for tea called Jars of Clay had really yummy cakes!!!! When i asked the lady what they had, she said every chocalte thing you can imagine until i had to ask if they had any non-chocolatey stuff, after checking (yes they actually needed to find something non-chocolatey for me... Haiz...) i had a scrumtuous banana cake with cream cheese topping! OH SO GOOD!

Final Highlight: Walk along Sisowath Quay. Every city has a waterfront touristy area (well unless they are landlocked). So phnom penh's is called sisowath quay. I really really like it cos it has nice buildings (ok i will say no more or my friends wi;ll start mocking me more). We eventually ended up in a very nice german bar and restaurant (name forgotten) where i just had lentil soup! I never knew soup could make me full but it did and i couldnt even finish the nice bagueete served along with it.

Day 3 (Phnom Penh to Pursat - By Sampan Boat!)

To get to Pursat, we had to take a 1 hour minivan ride to a town called Kampong Chnang, a bigger and better version of Sampan boat with shelter to a dock near pursat, then another 1 hour bus ride to Pursat. Pursat is just a town located near the Tonle Sap lake. It was a stopover/transition point to a bigger mission: to be revealed later ha! Nothing much to say except some breathtaking views on the boat and constantly getting splashed by lakewater that we had to use our lifejackets not to save our lives, but to save us from drowning in the water splashed unto us! Ha! i was drenched at one time man just bacause of the water being splashed unto me by the boat.

Day 4 (Pursat to Anlong Raing (what is that? Its a fishing village on the Tonle Sap lake? Why am i there? Find out below...))

After a night of being fed to mosquitos (i was just unlucky getting a room on the ground floor with a mosquito infested toilet, since the door of the toilet couldnt close properly, i woke up with bites all over, even on my upper lip! so if you thought my lips were luscious, then it was even bigger than Angelina Jolie's that morning, Ha!)

We set off for anlong raing via boat. Anlong Raing is a fishing village that live in boathouses on the tonle sap. They are migratory as the lake expands and receeds tremendously during different seasons of the year. Becos of this, well there is no toilet and no electricity in their floating homes. How do i "do" then? Yes into the great wide open, in front of say maybe another 20 other families? it was certainly a .... erm ... liberating experience. (Btw Jared "did" it 3 times while he was living with the family and so is super liberal now... HAHAHA!) So ya 2 of us were allocated a floating house and had to put up just a night day (ThanK goodness... if it was more than 1 day i would die from not bathing, not "DA-PIANING!" etc...) It was actually not that bad. I dont find it a problem sleeping on a wooden floor. We were even given pillows for our heads and a mosquito net so really i thought it was a cool dfferent experience.

We were told that some families here only eat one meal a day due to food scarcity. So when they served us an elaborate dinner of a big pot of rice, fried fish and fish soup (yes it IS elaborate ok all you spoilt brats out there!), we felt really lost cos we couldnt communicate with them so we were not sure if we were to finish everything out of respect or if the portion served was part of their share." In the end, overstuffed and not able to finish everything, we practically shoved it back into their faces(of course more politely than that). It was really interesting a lil stressful not being able to communicate with them since they spoke khmer so Jared had to resort to his really bad drawing skills to figure stuff out (not that we figured out anythin much except 1-10 and pig, cow, fish cos thats all i could draw ha!) thank goodness i had apack of cards and so we "communicated" through our card games. i tell you i think they cheated as they helped each other out but of course being the polite singaporeans we are, we didnt do anything (not like we could anyway!) so after making a fool of ourselves, the day cam eto an end at 8pm and we were tucked into our mats.

Day 5 (Anlong Raing to Pursat)

I was awoken at 5am by the movement around me as the family started preparing breakfast for us and the men prepared to set off fishing. It was a good thing as i got to see the beautiful sunrise! so picturesque having it peaking over the floating houses and reflecting on the river. Next, it was breakfast served, once again as you have guessed, rice porridge (the way i like it done sticky, not watery!) and this time salted fish. This time, my friend and i made a decision to at least finish all the fish served and forced it down our theoats. But, my friend afterwards saw the family of 6 eating the reainder plain porridge and we felt super bad!!!! Haiz... We're insensitive pigs!

We then went boating down the creek in Venice fashion as were emplyed child labour (our family's kid) to boat us around... It was a good thing as when we did so on our own yesterday... I CRASHED INTO A HOUSE! YES CRASHED! i seriously doubt my directional skills, so you might want to reconsider sitting my car in the future... Heh!) My friend strongly believes that he saw the house warp thanks to me. Luckily the owner who peeped out after i crashed into it just smiled, so i just smiled back with the sweetest smile i could give. Heh! Wwe then docked at a friend's house and found out they had the only toilet in the village! it was ok for me since i think i feel like a different person after doing it in the wild haha, so i had the "FULL" experience. Heh!"

It was time to say goodbye and we took a boat to a road. Along the way, the sampan boat i set in was dangerous. We had to travel through a flooded forest and i was sitting right in front on the sampan, being MOST exposed to the elements. On that journey, i suffered abrasions on my arm due to tree branches scratching me and also was ATTACKED by some unknown creature. I tell you... it was DAMN PAINFUL! Like kena shot on my back! But i think my friend had it worse as the creature left his hand swollen for days! So i was lucky haha! Getting back to pursat, there wasnt anythin much for us to do except laze around and of course... HAVE A GOOD SHOWER! the end for this day...