The unforgetable day at Siem Reap

We woke up at about 6.30am,ate breakfast at 7am and leave the hostel 7.30am for the elephant ride. We are supposed to have the ATV ride but it was cancelled at the last minute as the owner who opened the ride did not like singaporeans. So we sat in the bus for about one hour before we reach our destination, which is the elephant ride. The elephant ride lasted for half an hour, it travelled a total distance of 1.5km. At the beginning, the elephant ride was very scary as they elephant was swaying quite hard. But after that, we started to enjoy the beautiful secenary along the way. The guys started to take pictures of the Angkor Wat.

After the fun ride on the elephant, we went off to the Land Mine Museum to take a closer look on the structures which was hand-made by the locals at cambodia. We were amazed by what the locals did as they craved the wood bit by bit. We can conclude that people from cambodia have a great extend of patience. We also took take a closer look on the bomb that we difused by a man named Akira, he was famous as he had already difused over hundreds of million of bombs and secerts pathways. We went off to have our lunch at a local restaurant.

We went to shop at the old market after lunch. we were sepearted according to our groups. For our group, we went with Xueqi, Joyce and Benjamin. We saw alot sourviners and clothes. We started barginning the price with the shop owners. We went to a shop located at the middle of the road. One of the shop keeper could speak chinese. At that moment, we suddenly felt that we were back in Singapore. The orginal price of an item was $15, but we bargin till it was $5. The credits goes to the guys! They were really good at barginning. But in the end, we didn't buy the item.

We left the old market and went for the hot air balloon ride. The senary was really very beautiful, we can even see the sunset. The hot air balloon ride wasn't as scary as I thought in the beginning. After the hot air balloon ride, we went to have dinner at the restaurant. It was some sort like a buffet dinner. Then, something funny happened. Kenny and Sagar went up the stage to dance. Everyone was like clapping like mad. Some of the people there even video it down. We went to the night market bazaar to shop after dinner. At about 9pm, we went back to the hostel.

Visit to Taom Village

This morning when we woke up, we felt tired but thinking that we were going to the village to help the children, we did not feel tired anymore. With that thought in our mind, we were anxious to help out the children. We then proceeded to our hostel’s cafeteria to have our breakfast.

After that, we piled into 2 mini vans and separated into two groups. We then went to the Church to collect the packed items and met up with Father Heri and then set off to the village. The journey to the place was quite a long trip and it took around 2 to 3 hours. When we were on the van, we took a short nap to catch up on our sleep.

When we reached there, the children greeted us with smiles on their faces. We then went to look around the Church, and then we were split up to two group and were instructed to either cook rice soup or build the library which was half completed from the last group that went there, while the girls went to cook the rice soup, building the library was quite hard because we had to move planks which was stuck together by glue, after taking out the plank we were asked to smoothen the plank with sand paper so that the villager could paint it. As for the girls, they were asked to cook the rice soup for the children, but soon, the elder woman took over the girls job and the girls were asked to help the guys to sand the planks with the sandpaper. Soon after 20 to 30 minutes, we were asked to serve the rice soups to the children. After serving them, we went to the hut next door to have our lunch, while we were eating, some of the children came around to have a drink of water, but after that they kept staring at us eating, we felt awkward at that moment. After lunch we sang songs for the children and they performed for us too. Next we interacted with the kids by teaching them to fold origami and some other stuff. When we were done teaching them, we were told to distribute out clothes, books and sweets. The children then lined up according to their age in an orderly manner which impressed us a lot.

Next we left the village, and the trip took us around the same time getting there. Not to mention trip there was a very bumpy ride but with a scenic view. We saw lots of animals around the field. We went back to the hostel to rest till 6.30 p.m and then we went to have our buffet dinner. After dinner we went back to the hostel and had a debrief and we ended our day like this.

Day 4: Visit to Pheak Sneang Village

Hello!


Today's our fourth day in Cambodia.


We went to one of the villages called Pheak Sneang.


The villagers there were much more unfortunate than the ones we visited the day before. They lived in straw huts, just like those resorts in Sentosa. The children there were super friendly, they waved at us while we were still in the bus.

We started by helping the children wash their hair. Both the boys and the girls were very excited to have us to wash their hair. These children only get to bathe once a week as they have a limited supply of water in the village. Some girls were still quite uncomfortable even after the bath as they got lice and scabies on their scalp. We really feel so fortunate in comparison with them, and learnt that we should not take things for granted.

After which, we helped to serve the children rice soup, which would provide them with the nutrition they need. After lunch, we played ball games with them. Following on, we proceeded with the colouring session, origami as well as blowing balloons for them. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiam of the children and they were all very glad that they were able to participate in those activities.

Lastly, we handed over the donated clothings to them! :]

We left the village and proceeded to Farm Of Jesus to have our lunch. We had the chance to tour around the farm which had numerous fruit trees, a chicken farm and a crocodile farm!

And now, we're back to the hostel!:D

This few days of interacting with the kids has really made us learnt quite a few things. Those effort put in to pack the clothings and interacting with the kids was well worth it. We brought happiness to them, but the greatest satisfaction is that we've learnt life's greatest lesson.

SECOND DAY AT CAMBODIA ,

FLOATING VILLAGE .

It was the first day to interact with the less privileged children. We went to the floating village called Prek Toal ,we brought the donated clothes that we packed ,along with stationery , and candies we bought on the first day of the trip .The duration of the boat ride was about 3hrs in total including travelling there and back to the main land. We brought enough necessities for the children there. There were around two hundred children there .They welcomed us warm heartedly. They started singing to us,some of the songs they sang were 'father abraham' 'if you are happy and you know it,clap your hands' 'community song'. Then we sang to them some of the same songs like 'if your happy and you know it clap your hands' and 'community song'. Soon after that we were divided into groups to interact with them. Some of the activities were colouring, origami, balloons. We then served them rice soup after the activities. The rice soup was interestingly delicious. We visited a water hyacinth factory along the river and a fish farm on our way back to the main land .

We were fascinated by their way of life because they were very contented with the little things they had. Some of them were fast learners in origami , they could pick up the skills easily.one of our students received two cranes from the children there.When we were giving out the gifts, some of them hide their gifts and wanted to ask us for more. We think that ,the reason why they did that is because since they were born ,they learnt to compete for things through this behaviour for survival. When we visited the water hyacinth factory , it left a deep impression on some of us , because we saw a lady breast-feeding her baby girl in public . We were amazed at how she could do it under the circumstances of the number of people there. But when we asked our teachers about this matter, they find that its normal for them to do so as it was their way of life.