Siem Reap, Cambodia, Day 3 (Part 1)

Destination: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Duration: 13 to 16 Aug 2015

Flight:  Jet Star -  2 way rounded up to be S$366  -____-

Accommodation:  Steung Siem Reap Hotel (4 star) - Street 9, Sangkat Svay Dangkum, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Website - www.steungsiemreaphotel.com

Mode of travel: A local coordinator was with us.  We had 2 vans drove to drive us around.  We engaged a guide for AngKor Wat visit.

Time difference: 1 hour behind Singapore

Currency: USD and Cambodian Riel, but USD is used more often.

Weather: around 33°C with occasional rain.

Note:  The main purpose of this trip was to do voluntary work at schools and villages with Inspiring Stars, but we did have a bit of fun and leisure.

Day 1 - Click HERE

Day 2 (part 1) - Click HERE

Day 2 (part 2) - Click HERE

15 Aug 2015 - Day 3

Hotel breakfast, bored but filling enough.

Today was the last day of voluntary work.  It was tiring, but I wished I could do more, couldn't wait to start the day.

7 years ago, before Inspiring Stars was even named, I asked Ada:

"Charity can be done in Singapore too, there are still poor people here who needs help.  Why do you have to go through so much hassle to fly over to a country (which got nothing to do with us)?"

Her answer to me:

"In Singapore, no matter how poor the person might be, she will still have a place to stay, have clean water to drink.  Poverty over at Cambodia means people stay in slums, with very little clean water, hardly have enough to wear."

I thought I knew what she meant.  For the pass few years, I am aware of her humanitarian work, never thought of joining her though I did donate as and when.  She left me to decide, and had never insisted me to join her (she should had, lolxx..).

When I told her I was going to join the team this year, she was surprised.  I gotten to know more about Inspiring Stars when I was doing a post on the fund raising Garage Sale.   I couldn't remember what had touched me, it was an impulsive decision as I was in a tight budget.   But this was the best impulse ever.

It was really a regret for not joining my sis earlier.  Things must had been challenging and difficult during the start, but I was not there for her.  Now, I am giving my moral and physical support to Inspiring Stars, glad that it's not too late.

So here we went again, last school visiting at Trompaying Svay Primary School with about 290 students.

The school banner was missing.

The school boys helped by moving some tables for us.

In Siem Reap, the schools are just a longish house on ground level without much facilities.

Sorting out stationery to be distributed.

The children need new uniforms.... it broke my heart to see what they were wearing T___T

Look at their innocent faces, they are so cute.

This was the upper primary class, without tables.

Saw this boy writing on his lap.  I am not sure if we have sufficient funds to sponsor them tables...

Lovely children of Trompaying Svay Primary, they smiled like sunshine.  They deserve better and more.

The school had no proper place for rubbish dispose.  However, there wasn't any foul smell or crawlies since there wasn't any food.

The school hoped to build a burner to cremate the rubbish.

We were about to distribute some pre-love clothings and toiletries to the villagers nearby.

Yes, we got toys too!

Ada was putting on a dress for a little girl.

We all expected her to be super happy and smiling like how all the other kids would normally react.

But hor, this small girl frown and frown with lots of question marks in her intelligent eyes.  We were laughing until... waaahaaahaaa....

Found another one, he snatched the packet of detergent from his mother and refused to let go.

Ada tried to change him into a new outfit but he was scared and cried lolxx....

After we were done, we set off again to a village.  On our way, passed by Angkor Wat.

Amazing!  I was all excited for tomorrow's tour at this ancient temple complex!

Just about 15mins drive away from this tourist attraction, we reached Mondul 3 Village.

This is one of the poorest slum village in Cambodia with about 500 people.  We stayed near the entrance of the village distributing food, toiletries etc, didn't have the chance to actually see the village.

Not sure why I took a pic of this naked chicken butt, heehee....


One village woman came to greet Ada.  She just given birth, Ada was holding this precious little new life.

How my sis was able to bond with these villagers touched me deeply.

Beauty is a woman with great benevolence, I have a remarkable little sister.

The villagers were patient, initially.

I was distributing soft toys with a team mate.  The children gotten anxious and slightly aggressive, they started pulling me.  Some of these kids didn't keep the toys to themselves, they passed the toys to their toddler siblings beside them.  It was so heart wrenching to see them so poor but yet willing to share and give.  I was at the verge of crying cos we didn't have enough for everybody, I hated myself for having to disappoint some of them.

The crowd later went a bit out of control, our local drivers and coordinator called us to leave.  We all understand it wasn't their fault.

We drove nearby to have lunch.

It was similar to what we had the day before, sat on the floor of a hut, with hammocks at the sides.

We still had some bags/shoes/clothes/toiletries left over from the Mondul 3 village.  Our driver brought us to this quiet little village.  The entrance was too narrow, so we had to carry the bags like santa claus and walked in.

Since we didn't drive in, the villagers weren't alarmed and didn't expect us at all.  Nobody crowd around us, we went house to house.

I took this opportunity to take many photos of the village.

Houses were build on stilts perhaps to protect themselves from floods.  Women folks gathered under the house for heat relieve.

Kitchen just beside a hammock.

There weren't electricity supply in the houses.

The villagers were very shy.

A family with a newborn.  The mother was lying down inside the house, we could still see amniotic fluid on baby's head ^.^

Kids are young only once...

Some toys, some happiness to childhood.

We walked through the quiet village, slowly.  We couldn't speak their language, so we just smiled.

Found puppies, found cuteness to cuddle.

My pretty niece, holding one of the puppy.  She's gonna be a heart-breaker when she grows up <3 <3

I went chasing after the hen and chicks for the fun of it.  Then I used my zoom lens, 搞定 lolxx..

I was actually worried that the cow might charged at me ;P

Mission accomplished!  But Inspiring Stars will be back in Dec 2015.

We were back at the hotel around 5pm.  Ada and children stayed in their room to rest and freshen up, my the other sis went for some alcohol dose, I went exploring around the hotel alone.  Stay tuned for Part 2 ^.^

Siem Reap, Cambodia Day 2 (Part 2)

This post is a continuation from HERE.


14 Aug 2015 - Day 2 evening

After 3 school visits, everybody was smelly and tired.

I closed my eyes to rest on the way back to the hotel, but numerous thoughts were running in my mind....

I believed many of you had times where you feel that life is unfair:

"I studied harder than that fellow but he gotten better grades than me....."

"I OT like shit, slog like hell, but pay is so much lower than that fellow who shake legs and play games on the table..."

Yes, it's never fair.  But when I saw the people here, struggling in poverty, they don't even have the privilege to talk about fairness.  We have bursting wardrobes, while they can't afford school uniforms.  We have expensive Havaianas, while they wear rubber slippers.  I am not sure if they  get blisters from rubber slippers, but if they go bare foot, their feet will be covered with dirt and mud, maybe worst get cuts by stones.  We have aircon but they don't even have electric fans under such intense warm weather.  Heart pain, I tell you....

We are extending our help, doing what we can within our means, though it's not a long term solution.   Ultimately, they need jobs and education to improve their life.

Thanks to war and wrong leaders for ruin, it's going to take years and years to pick up.  Cambodia is still on it's road towards recovery, I really hope they will work hard to build a stronger nation.

I am not interested in politics but for sure I know,  the comfortable and stable life that I and my family are having now is brought to us by our great father Mr Lee Kuan Yew.... our fate could be very different without him.

From the rural area back to the city of Siem Reap was only around 30mins.

Bath and concussed on bed till 7.30pm.  Once our body batt were charged, it's time to chiong again!

Sis and me went Art Centre Night Market.  It's pretty much like the Old Market.

Crispy pancake USD$1 each.  It's a bigger version of those we ate in BKK, quite nice.

Beef satay USD$1, it's difficult to chew with too much tough fats >.<

They called it banana pancake, but it's actually, banana prata, USD$1.

It's sweeten with condense milk and milo powder, really yummy street food!

The standard price for foot massage is USD$5 for 1hr.

We had a session, not fantastic, but nothing to complain.

We walked back to Pub Street, decided to try this.

We ordered Coupled Dequstation USD$17 cos we wanted to try the snake and crocodile meat.

Misled by the restaurants banner, it's not BBQ, it's mookata,

Crocodile meat.

Snake meat.

Both the snake and crocodile meat taste like rubber, I need stronger teeth to break them down lolxx... >.<  I suspect they weren't real....

We could have beer everyday here, it's only USD$0.50.

The next day was scheduled to visit schools and villagers.  I thought it's going to be the same, didn't know more first time experiences were ahead....  Stay tuned for my Day 3 ^.^