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Destination: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Duration: 4D3N, 31 May to 3 June 2018
Mode of Travel: Self-organised with 19 volunteers age 9 to 50+. We had 2 private vans for transport and local guide (www.facebook.com/Jeepxplr) who's now a very dear friend to us.
Flight: Jetstar (round trip $292.68)
Flight: Jetstar (round trip $292.68)
Hotel: Khmer Mansion Boutique Hotel (Apsara Double Pool View Suite - $206.58)
Weather: Very very fortunately cloudy most of the time around 30°C
Weather: Very very fortunately cloudy most of the time around 30°C
Currency: USD most of the time though Cambodian Riel can be use
Time difference: 1 hour behind Singapore
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For Day 1 click HERE
For Day 2 click HERE
Morning started with great breakfast in the hotel. I had egg ben.
Hubby had Khmer beef soup noodles.
After breakfast was a 30mins ride to Trappang Svay Primary School, one of the school Inspiring Stars had been sponsoring.
The earth was red as always, sandy on a sunny day, muddy on a rainy day.
No school on Saturday, but the students and teachers came back for us.
Lovely children.
We bought uniform, stationeries, some food, hula hoops, skipping ropes and foot balls for the school.
The school was smaller, about 200 pupils if I am not wrong, distribution was easier and faster.
The kids were doing a good job distributing the items.
I hope they could learnt to appreciate what they have back in Singapore and study hard, given that we are having a much more better environment and better everything.
We took polaroid for the children, they love it but most of them were to anxious and excited to smile. So we had to tell them it's ok to pose and smile!
We gave them color papers and stickers so that they could decorate and write the date and their names.
We told the children they are going to have skipping ropes. They were too shy to join the skipping, they just gathered around to watch in excitement.
At another side of the field, some boys had fun with soccer.
There's a family in the compound, the locals watched me taking photos of the chickens. They must be wondering what's so fascinating about chickens. They can never imagine the kind of urbanisation we live in.
As usual, the villagers nearby the school gathered at the school compound.
We distribute toiletries, some food, some toys and pre-love clothings to them.
He finished the packet milk, frowny kid, but still cute.
After the mains were distributed, we gathered the women folks to a corner..... for the first time, giving out bras!!!
Initially they were all so shy, nobody dare to take any bra waahaaahaaa.... We had to help them to chose by helping them to buckle.
One of our member even went to the extend of demonstrating how to wear a front buckle bra.
From this first attempt, we discovered that women in the villagers are much in need of underwear. Many of them can't afford brassieres.
As part of our effort to bless and empower the people of Siem Reap, Inspiring Stars is embarking on a collection of brassieres for our next volunteer trip next year (The date is not finalized and there are some special plans which I can't reveal yet. I am having a hard time holding it, can't wait to let the whole world know!).
Our target is to collect 400 pieces of brassieres, any size, new or pre-loved. If you wish to donate please email me: chubbyvoo@yahoo.com.sg
A gentle note, please do not give me torn, mouldy brassieres, or pieces with holes; our volunteers will have to spend more time on sorting and throwing them out. Items we collected maybe pre-loved but must be in good condition. We want to make each voluntary trip worth it. Thank you for your understanding.
Moving on......
Before we left, we had a mega group photo with the pupils of Trappang Svay Primary School.
It was noon by the time we left, we had lunch at this very chill place:
Temple Coffee n Bakery
Street Achar Sva, Street 26, Siem Reap, Cambodia
It was only through their Facebook, I realized that they have Pool Sky Lounge at the rooftop. Will visit again next time. Meanwhile you guys can check this out:
Every corner of this hipster cafe was instagrammable.
It's hard to believe that this huge stylish cafe is found in Siem Reap.
Alfresco dining, looked great, ang mos love it, while we Asians all ran into the aircon for dear life lolxx...
Indoor was very spacious with bar counters and couch seatings for drinks as well as dining seatings for meals.
The interior design was really impressive with feature walls and printed clay tiles. Tiredness was being lift off by the surroundings.
The ceiling was high where the 2nd floor could be seen.
2nd floor was "Eat and Drink on Bed" concept, I could probably spend the entire day here.
Even the washroom surprised me. The basin had no taps, water came out from these 2 wooden mill grinders.
Cakes and pastries looked and tasted good too.
I forgotten to take note of the prices. No worries, it's really affordable here, price range like any cafe in Pub Street.
Typical carbonara, the little lady who ordered it said it was delicious.
Yummy stir fried noodles which I kept pinching from my nephew cos my food took forever to come.
Mini burgers, meat patty too tough.
My fried rice with scallops and beef finally came. Plate presentation was weird, beef was overdone, everything else was tasty.
It was one of our team member's birthday. We ordered a cake for her.
All thanks to her, we had a share of the fluffy soft cake with smooth cream.
Not all dishes turned out right, but the place it's too beautiful, I'll just have to visit again, especially the rooftop that I had missed.
After enough of food and rest, we visited another slump area.
The women folks were cooking.
It's called Khmer Num Krok, rice and coconut cake. We tried some, quite nice sia!
We distribute toys and stationery to the children. Also food and toiletries to the villagers.
If you were to look closely at the right side of the photo, a row of children were squatting or sitting on a accumulated floor of rubbish.
Other than sanitary facilities, there's a serious lack of waste dispose system too. They tried to burn the rubbish, however the burning produced black fumes which polluted the air very badly, so they couldn't burn too much.
After visiting the village, we went to Angkor Park Ticket Center to purchase tickets for some members who planned to visit the next morning.
The ticket price had almost doubled to USD37, so I gave it a miss since my team members are visiting the main temples which I had been to a few times. My sweet kid sis offered to "babysit" my hubby to Angkor Wat lolxx...
We gotten the tickets really quickly and hopped over to the opposite street where the local night market was.
Before the Angkor Ticket Center was built, this night market was for the locals, we didn't see any tourists or foreigners.
And now, not surprised, it's slowly converting into another tourist attraction.
Steam eggs which I will never have guts to try....
.....cos inside were unborn chicken, cringe....
It's never failed to amuse to see edible creepy crawlies.
Could never overcome the visual barrier and put any of these into my mouth lolxx..
There were plenty of such BBQ stalls. Somehow never tried.
Raised up platforms with low tables for local zhi char or mookata.
Jerseys here and there around S$10.
I would eat local steam escargots on every visit. And every time it's my local friend's treat, so I didn't know how much it was, haahaahaa....
It's packed in a plastic bag with some toothpicks and we shared among ourselves.
It's chewy giving jaws a good exercise, I quite like it, tasted specially good when dipped with chilli sauce.
These were smaller escargots, but how many ounce of meat is there in each shell sia??
More protein packed insects along the way.
Omg.....
Local sweet kuey kuey were more suitable for me.
Tried some coconut milk pudding. Many found it too sweet.
We also bought some pumpkin pudding and kept it for next day's breakfast.
It took me a long time to realize that these were fresh lotus seeds.
Next time I'll buy a few bags back! It's mildly sweet, crunchy but softer than peanuts. You wouldn't find another healthier addictive tibit than this! I only gotten to eat them the last day of the trip.
Nobody's hungry yet, so we headed back to the hotel to wash up and freshen up. Little did we know that the hotel crews were preparing to give our birthday girl a surprise. They gathered some of us to bring a birthday cake to her room together.
We tipped toe behind the crew, he knocked and said room service. Esther didn't want to open the door and said she didn't request for any room service. When the crew asked her to open the door again, she finally did and we jumped out from behind sang birthday song to her again with the hotel's complimentary cake. We had great fun, had video also but couldn't share due to her privacy.
She was very surprised, surely memorable and she promised to give this hotel a five star review, heehee....
It was a rainy night, the whole team had supper at this familiar place. You can read last year's post HERE.
Kinda tired of the food after a few visits, but good company was worth it in this wet chilly night.
That's the end of day 3. Hope to complete day 4 which is the last post of Siem Reap within these few days. After which I will blog about Halloween, BKK/Khao Yai and my kitchen renovation, heehee....
