Anjali House

I've decided to do some volunteering at a school for Cambodian kids in Siem Reap. Anjali House has been up and running for 2 years now. It brings in 80 kids a day. They get one English class, a general studies class, workshop, lunch and a shower. This keeps them from from being sent out by parents to beg/work in town.


I almost went deaf on my first day! These guys are so loud when they get exited! Anjali also registers them in public school for the other half of their day so 40 kids come in the mornings and 40 in the afternoons.


Jim helping out in English class. Age range is about 3-16 so one class might have a 7 year old helping out a 14 year old on a problem.


Music time. If you look away for one second, a little one will come along and start strumming (break) your guitar strings. Fortunately, I've got a few spares.

The great Cambodian eggplant curry & rice. Fresh Coconut of course!


West Side Siem Reap.

Oh its that good!

The kids eat about twice what I do at lunch. The teachers about three times as much.

Good ol' word match!

These kids only have 2 years of English so I'm always getting them to spell everything out. I've been posted to Intermediate class. Good times!

"Teacher" in Khmer sounds like "Le Gros" in French. So at first I swore the whole class was saying "Hey you fat ass! Come here!"..... "Why you little!"

A quiet moment.

Making the tallest standing structure that can also withstand a heavy object placed on top. They don't have any sky scrapers in Cambodia so these were very creative. I'll be here until the visa runs out I think. Then Its off to Bangkok for some chest X-Rays at the request of Australia's visa service...fun.


Hope you're all having a great summer!

Cambodia

Cambodia is next with the most amount of Temples in South east Asia. Home of the old Khmer Empire. These guys owned present day Thailand, Cambodia and a little of Lao and Vietnam.


The face of genocide. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, overthrew the government and proceeded to launch a massive evacuation of the capital Phnom Pehn, the largest ever attempted. People were forces from their homes and separated from their families into work camps all over the country.

One saying among the party referring to Cambodians ran "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss." The party started killing all intellectuals, journalists, teachers, doctors and reset the calendar to year "zero" where the Khmer civilisation would start over.
As access to the country was limited, no accurate death toll can be produced. Estimates for the total death toll vary somewhere from 700,000 to 3 million dead. This memorial tower hosts most of the recovered skulls of the victims. Arranged on stacked platforms by age: 10-15 and 20 -30 and up.

At the killing fields the compacted earth is tangled into old clothes. Be careful while walking around the graves as some bones are jutting up from the ground.

As I was looking around I stumbled upon a tooth on the main path. I instinctively picked it up to return it to a proper place. It didn't make any sense to move it somewhere else I was told. "Just put it back in the ground, its everywhere". I later found a closed display case with extra limb remains. It seemed as if other visitors had been picking up misplaced bones and piling them up on top of the case.

Immediately after leaving our tuk tuk driver asked if we wanted to go shoot some guns. I almost threw up at the suggestion. I smiled and declined. I hadn't fired a gun since I was 12and wanted to compare the Kalashnikov v.s. the American made M-16 so We decided to let the day sink before setting off to the range the next day.

Kalashnikov AK-47 and M-16. The AK certainly felt like a little more wild when switched on automatic. The M-16 felt more precise. Jess showed up in a dress to the range. At the first sound of shots she decided not partake. I didn't like it at all. Can't two grown ups settle their differences over a couple left hooks an uppercut and some beers afterwards? The fellow asked me "You wanna shoot some chickens for target practice?" "Nah its O.K. I'm a vegetarian"

Hotel Lobby. Who sleeps with a grenade under their pillow?

Beautiful Angkor Wat temples.

We got there at sunrise... 6ish.

Epic Lily pond in front of the largest religious monuments ever built.

South Gate.

Doesn't look like much from the outside.

Bayon is simply amazing once you get inside.

The tour books told to manage our sightseeing day as thousands of people converge on these temples daily......Nobody here!

Had the whole place to ourselves so we had breakfast here.

So unreal I felt like I was in an RPG.

Templesman.

Locals climbing the deadly stairs.

At the "Tomb Raider" temple. The trees are taking over here as the roots are strangling the rock. Well, all good things must come to an end. Jess is off to Australia and I'm back to solo travel. One man travel will be a bit harder but the payoff will be even greater! I've also decided to do a little more volunteering. I had such a great time in Kenya that I wanted to help out some more. You'll never guess what I'm up to this time! More on the next post! Ciao!