Pictures Phnom Penh

Pictures of Phnom Penh here

Phnom Penh Khmer Foundation

Five of us from AJWS arrived at the Fairyland guest house, our hotel in Phnom Penh, in the late afternoon on Friday February 18th.  Though the name would not work in the US, there was nothing campy about the hotel.  It was clean, with great wifi and excellent air conditioning.  The hotel was centrally located, about 1/4 mile from downtown Phnom Penh, and close to several good street stalls, our favorite eating venues, so we were pleased and able to keep our food costs low, usually less than $5 a day for the two of us, if we were not having beers with dinner, or eating with our colleagues.


Rich and I spent the weekend exploring the city as my colleagues from AJWS, who were remaining in Phnom Penh, secured housing for the duration of the stay.  We explored several markets in town, the downtown, the national museum and several temples during our five days in the city.  The city is quite bustling with busy streets and no traffic signage except for a couple of lights.  The rule of traffic seems to be "the biggest vehicle has the right of way".  This unfortunately leaves pedestrians at the bottom of the hierarchy and so walkers need to beware.  This traffic pattern combined with the sidewalks being used for motorcycle parking, forced all to walk in the streets.  We were careful about staying aware to traffic coming from any direction, as vehicles did not necessarily keep to the right when turning or passing.


On Monday I went to the Khmer foundation, and I met the staff who was there, the financial manager, who was almost as new as I was having started two weeks before.  Dararoth, the volunteer executive director, drove both of us to Home # 1, a 45 minute drive from Phnom Penh.  The orphanage itself is located on a 4 hectare property which is located about 30 away by paved roads, and then down a rutted dirt road(which I imagine is relatively impassable in the rainy season).  The orphanage seems to share space with the founders’ farming concerns, and a solar energy group from Denmark.

The area of the orphanage consists of a kitchen with a covered, outdoor dining pavilion, a set of four non-attached toilets, four or five dorm buildings, and a central hall with two classrooms and a dance, performance space on the second floor.  There is no electricity, outside of some solar power for lighting the yard in the evening, and there is no plumbing for the site. 

The grounds are beautiful with ponds for fish, there is a chicken yard, scrawny cattle with protruding bones, chickens, ducks, and a host of flowering plants and trees.  Most of the children were away at school while we were there, but those who went to afternoon school were around and were a bit bashful, and very polite.

The next day I went into the office to prepare my plan for the assignent and then we went to lunch together.  The plan we developed is as follows:  Assess admission criteria, develop behavioral expectation for children living at the orphanage, and develop operational definitions, and descriptions  for the differing staff positions. 

I was told that I should take the rest of the day to work at the hotel as Dararoth would not be at the office, and that we would not get together until Thursday when we would travel to Battambang to begin the placement at Home # 2 in Battambang.  

AJWS orientation

The five days of orientation in Chiang Mai were chock-a block full with learning and self-exploration The days were filled with need to know information such as: safety planning, AJWS rules reviews, country specific information for volunteers in Cambodia and Thailand, values clarification exercises, Jewish texts around tikun olam, and introductions to the various agencies where we would be assigned.

The last two days of the orientation volunteers met with their agency representative/supervisors to develop work plan agreements, and learn about their placements more in depth. Unfortunately, the general manager of the Khmer foundations home was not able to get into Chiang Mai, as he was delayed in Bangkok, but fortunately the country liaison for Cambodia, Dararoth Ke, is also the volunteer executive director of the Khmer foundation and he an I worked together on making plans for my placement with the foundation. In the evenings we typically went out together for meals, strolls, etc. By Thursday night, we had developed surprisingly close ties, and were all somewhat saddened by the thoughts of leaving one another and going to our separate locations. The penultimate afternoon, we travelled as a group to a magnificent temple on a near mountain which houses the emerald Buddha.

It was a lovely excursion up a winding road into the cool of the mountain where we climbed an immense staircase with a railing made of ceramic mosaic tiles in the shape of two parallel dragons. It was stunning. The temple was massive, with several buildings, with amazing carvings and murals. It was an amazing ending to our adventure together.

On Friday morning we separated with five of the volunteers staying in Thailand working with Burmese ethnic refugees fleeing the tyranny in Myanmar. The other five of us were heading to Cambodia, three staying in Phnom Penh, one to the southern coast in Kampot, and me to Battambang after a few days stay in Phnom Penh.

Here are pictures from the week in Chiang Mai

More Pictures

These are shots from

Hue to Laos,

and

I did not post these earlier, but they are from Vientiane, Laos.

Hope you enjoy,

Travelling to Chiang Mai --- AJWS Begins

Since the last post we have continued to travel through Laos and finally moved into Thailand.  Pics are here.  We had a lovely few days in Luang Prabang before taking off on a 2 day river trip on the slow boat to the Thai border.  The trip was lovely, allowing for beautiful views and relaxation for two long (9 hour) days, soaking up the scenes of the river.  We saw small villages spattered on the hills with indigenous groups of ethnic Lao and Hmong residing atop the riverside hills.  These seemed to be primarily fishing communities, though there also seemed to be small groups panning for minerals (gold and gems) at the water's edge.

After two days on the river, we crossed the Mekong and entered Thailand.  This was a much easier crossing than we had experienced crossing from Vietnam to Laos and there were not too many surprises.  We arrived in a small city in Thailand across from Huay Xai, Laos and eventually found a bus travelling to Chiang Mai.  We were informed the trip would be about five hours, and seven hours later we arrived in Chiang Mai.  We headed for the already reserved hotel, one recommended by a traveller we met in Luang Prabang, and settled in for a night of exhausted slumber.

The following day we explored the old city of Chiang Mai, rested and then went to a touristy night market in town.  We returned at a reasonable hour and got ready for transferring hotels for the AJWS orientation.

The AJWS orientation began at 1:00 and I met the other ten people who are volunteering for the spring.  What an interesting group.  Most of the participants are 50 or older, some are retirees, and some taking a hiatus from work life.  There were three persons who are 20-30 age range who are also going to  volunteer.  The assignment locations range from Cambodia to the Thai-Burma border.  It all seems quite exciting  to meet all these committed Jewish Americans who really get tikun olam.  What a fantastic group to learn from and travel with.  The training lasts until Thursday evening and will be all day for the next 4 days.

At dinner this evening I met a social work PhD professor who lives in Cambodia and we are talking about having me come to vist his university in Battambang, where there is a new social work degree program.  I am looking forward to developing a relationship with this new program and see what types of linkages to Augsburg are available.

quote of the day

Overheard outside the Royal dining room while visiting the ex-monarch's palace:  

"Oh look honey, they had Moser crystal, just like we do at the Palm Springs house.  The pattern has  not changed at all!"

Vientaine to Luang Prabang

The capital city of Vientiane is so much quieter and more subdued than any capital city I have ever visited. Certainly it is a contrast to Hanoi. One can cross streets without fear of one’s life, and people are friendly and relaxed. We stayed at the Huan Lao Guesthouse, a lovely garden spot with clean, sparse rooms, and enough cats and dogs to calm my longings for the critters at home. Our friend from Normandy, Oscar, found it in his French tour book, and then procured our rooms in this location. At $10 a night, it was a great find. Rich had a cold for much of this trip, and as a lovely gift gave it to me too. I am either feeling slightly confused and out of it due to the cold, or maybe due to some culture shock working its way into my system.

In Vientiane, we went to various markets, visited several temples, and generally absorbed the climate of the city. The first temple we visited, Wat Si Saket, was located next to the presidential palace.  It is a large wooden and stucco structure,  with galleries of Buddha sculptures along the outside of the sanctuary and several large Buddha’s inside. Across the street from the presidential palace was Wat Pha Kaew, built in the 16th century and at one time housed the Emerald Buddha, now located in Thailand. This temple had an inner courtyard circled by covered alleys housing lovely cast-bronze Buddha sculptures. Between each large Buddha, were latticework walls which encased tiny, gold painted Buddha representations.

One can observe the French influence on Indochina when one looks at this city. The presidential palace is on a broad avenue and with a large arch at the other end, imitating the Champs Elysee in Paris.

After three full Days in Vientaine, we departed early Saturday morning for Luang Prabang in Northern Laos. The 300 km bus trip took 10 hours due to the treacherous, rugged, exquisite mountains of Laos. We arrived in Luang Prabang at about 7 pm and after a rest ventured into town and the night market for a bite to eat before bed. My first impression of the market was similar to being in Taos or Santa Fe. It was filled with international travellers, and was catering to a tourist trade, including signs in English and Chinese, fairy lights, and miles of stalls selling crafts and textiles from seemingly the same producers.

It is an amazing little city on the Mekong. It is filled with temples was a spiritual center before the tourists “found” it. In some ways it reminds me of Safad in the Galilee with the coexistence between the sacred and the gawking profane. A fascinating juxtaposition which I hope to learn a bit more about over the next few days.

Pictures from Vientiane 

Hue to Laos

After two rainy days in Hue, complete with rain soaked walks through the imperial city, we decided to find warmer climes and make our way into Laos.  We had an amazing trip crossing from Vietnam into Laos. The day really started Saturday afternoon when we asked the owner of Halo Guest House to set up a trip for us to Savannakeht (Savan), Laos. I suggested she book the 6 am bus I had read about in the guides, but she said she knew a nicer one. She booked us on a bus that she said left at 7:30 am. After the booking, she informed us the scheduled departure would now be at 6:30 and we would be picked up in the lobby.

As good Western based travellers, we arose at 5:15 to make certain we were packed and ready to go downstairs by 6:15. We packed all of our various bits and descended into a dark lobby which was filled with motorbikes and bicycles (a common practice in Vietnam). The darkness obscured the one step between the two levels of the lobby. Rich unfortunately found it by tumbling over it while wearing a fully packed backpack. Relatively unscathed he did spend several minutes telling me this is the reason he hates the design of our deck. We then attempted to leave the hotel and found the front doors padlocked. It was a bit unnerving to realize that we had been locked in every night. (thoughts of the infamous coconut nightclub fire flashed in our heads) Keeping this long story reasonable, we exited and secured the last two bus seats before aisle seating began.

We found ourselves on a tour bus to the DMZ, and we, with a dozen or so others, were going to be dropped off at the Lao border where another bus would take us to Savan. So far so good, all the guidebooks said that it was a three-hour trip to the border crossing and we would have a nice tour and lecture on the way.

Well, the trip took a bit longer than I had expected, but it was a fabulously beautiful. We travelled a verdant river valley, with craggy peaks, and pastoral scenery. Sadly, this was not a picture-taking day, as it was rainy, and the windows were fogged, but we enjoyed the ride and the well-educated young Vietnamese woman who lectured about the war and the Ho Chi Minh trail.

At an abandoned US army base, we jettisoned the DMZ tourists and the rest of us continued on to the border. On the way we picked up a person who would “facilitate” our transfer into Laos, and due to my cultural confusions, I will call her Cruella. Cruella entered the bus full of piss and vinegar imploring us to change our Dong into Kip. Unfortunately, her exchange rate was nearly 25% below the published international trade rates. She indicated (in limited English) we would have no further chance to use our Dong if we did not change it now. (This turned out to be a fallacy, as the Lao visa could be purchased in Dong.)

About five hours after we departed, we arrived at the border. As we exited the bus Cruella became bureaucratic, offering us papers to fill out, grabbing them away from us, etc., obviously frustrated with these people who could not manage a border crossing. She hurried us through the Vietnam exit process, and was anxiously propelling us through the Laos immigration and visa process. After twenty minutes of confusion, and spending $41 dollars each, Rich and I were through the process. I thought Cruella said we needed to walk 100 meters and we would find the bus. After we travelled this distance in full pack, she came up on a moto saying we had .5 km more to walk to the bus. Being gracious, we agreed and continued to walk into Laos, and getting more and more wary as there was no bus in sight.

About 1.5 km later, we entered a small village and surprise (!), no bus. We were informed we had spent too much time to cross the border, and missed our bus. (If we did miss the bus, it would not be too surprising as we did take a circuitous route with our tour group.) Cruella had an intriguing alternative, a conveyance known a songthaeaw, an open back 2 ton pickup truck with two benches facing each other and with vinyl curtains I case of rain and to mitigate the wind. All fourteen of us were ushered into the truck. This was our "bus" to Sananaketh, a trip of five hours. I was beginning to feel taken advantage of by the situation until I realized that the experience and stories were worth the $15 per person ticket. 

The trip was less than direct. We picked up and delivered mail, and kept adding passengers (not knowing where to put them, they hung onto the back gate) and dropping them off along the way. The trip was truly an experience, which was made pleasant by the delightful company and shared astonishment and gripes. We arrived in Savan close to five hours later and found a wonderful hotel. We splurged, forgoing a grody $8 room for a seemingly palatial room with breakfast, AC and cable for $15 a night.

We spent two nights in Savan with the intermittent day one of walking the banks of the Mekong, eating wonderful street foods, visiting an amazing Temple built in the 16th century and speaking with one of the monks about his work as an English teacher.  We later went to the community market, had lunch there, and enjoyed the sights of market life in southern Laos with its live poultry, fresh fruits, clothing, jewelry and other market essentials.  

On Tuesday morning we got up early for the ten hour bus ride to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.  It was a local bus, and we were treated to multiple stops in small villages, with food hawkers at each stop, and were treated to the rustic, yet lush rural landscapes of Laos.  

At our arrival in the capital city we joined a lovely man from Normandy, a fellow traveller,  and we searched for hotels together, finally settling on a family room here in a clean, but soulless hotel, the only spot we could find at a reasonable price.   It was $25, our most expensive room yet.  We will look for less expensive quarters later today, Wednesday, groundhog day in the US.  Here Phil will see his shadow, with a sunny 85 degrees planned.

Pictures here