Monday, December 28, 2009

Project Discovering Cambodia

Ho Ho Ho!!! pig headed boy is back... Back to
blog... Back in Malaysia tanah airku bringing back diarrhea from Cambodia. It was a great country, with friendly people, a land full of mysteries, birth of a great empire but also with a time where people suffers. Truly a good experience for my team, learnt so much from it!!! Thumbs up for Kampuchea.

Day 1, 19 December 2009 Saturday
Well its the first day of us leaving for Cambodia,while our whole team arrives at LCCT at 1pm
ready for check in, we're still discussing about whether is Cambodia safe, worrying about our safety and hygiene of the country. Also we keep complain about the god damn travel agent that cause our air ticket hiked up to RM1200 per ticket. Sounds so bloody stupid to take Air Asia at RM1200. In fact we can get a MAS airline ticket at only RM900.

We arrive at Phnom Penh Airport at 5.30pm Cambodian time. Our friend Pisith drove the truck from IDE(International Development Enterprise, the NGO that host our survey project) to pick us up in the air port.














The airport is 30 minutes drive from downtown of Phnom Penh, where we booked our so called hostel, you should visit www.hostels.com and search for Phnom Penh City Hotel. Then rate whether izzit a hostel or hotel. We got quite a good rate! Around $6.40 per head and the actual room does not differ a lot from the display pictures in the site. The inn keeper and his staff was friendly too. Comfortable room, good rate, good service and most importantly it is in the heart of Phnom Penh.

Afterwards we go out for a tour in Phnom Penh after we dump our luggage in the hotel we went strolling around Phnom Penh City, Sisowath Quay, wedding hall and couple of places. The most crappy part is the first meal we had in Phnom Penh is BUGSSSSSSS!!! Black spider! not too bad... Silk worm! UGHHHH sux... feeling puking now... Beetle! Sux too coz of the juicy body... Crickets are still the best! Then we tapao all these bugs to the restaurant and makan together with dinner. Imagine facing such bugs in front of your plates and the bug smell is in ur mouth before having dinner... crapppp. Dinner was just chinese style dinner, nothing that special



















Night comes, our team member Young keep asking us to go check out the red light district. Nahhh we had some argues coz I did not wanted to go on that day. Instead we went for a french baguette friend with sesame oil and filled with salami, ham, and assorted vege.














There comes the embryo egg, those Cambodians having supper there was laughing at us when they see us being so excited to see the embryo egg and we do not even know how to open up the egg properly. WOW it taste like shit in some part of the egg and some part taste like normal egg. But I think it sux but worth trying.














Day 2, 20 December 2009 Sunday
Woke up in the early morning 6am just to search for the Bayon Bakery in Phnom Penh. 6.30am in Phnom Penh is already like 8am in Malaysia. We just had some breads, 3 pieces of breads that cost us around 10000 riel, almost $2.5, WTF so expensive. Then Pisith picked us up at 7.30 to visit the Royal Palace, and National Museum. I find them nothing special. But the S21 genocide museum is a must go place, it symbols the beginning and the end of Pol Pot Regime, where Khmer rogues goes around and killing innocent civilians. It was a sorrow place where people were tortured and stored. It used to be a high school, but during Pol Pot regime, it was turned into a living hell, a torture chamber for the civilians, the news is well covered from the outside world and no one knows clearly what really happened in Cambodia during that time.











































*The view of the S21 genocide prison

Next on the list will be the killing field where it is nothing special and a pretty sorrow place too. A PAGODA FULL WITH HUMAN SKULLS WTFOMGBBQ!!!


































It's lunch time! Alamak... where got mood for lunch after seeing all these skulls and torture and craps like that... But we had a good place for lunch, so it balanced up. The huts are built on banks of Tonle Bati for rental and we had our lunch there. Its a good place for picnic and take a good nap after that. Hence we purchased some roasted fish, deep fried chicken without any flour etc. as our side dishes.














*our chill out spot on banks of Tonle Bati














Our chilling out session at Tonle Bati bank ends around 4.30pm and soon we depart back to Phnom Penh before it starts to get dark. And quickly we walked around the Independent Monument and Wat Phnom park after returning the truck to Pisith's friend that will depart to Vietnam on that night itself.



















*a night view of Cambodia's Independent Monument
Immediately after we left Wat Phnom Park, we took our first hop onto our very first Tuk-tuk(auto-rickshaw, maybe a taxi powered by a motorbike) ride to our destination Happy Herb Pizza for dinner. Since my "kai jeh" say that the pizza there is nice... But I suppose she got some mat salleh go "tackle" her there so she say that place is good... But that's fine, at least the pizza rejuvenated our mood after seeing and imagining all the killing scenes in the morning.

We walked from Sisowath Quay, where we had pizza to our "hostel". On our way we found that Cambodian loves to do street dances and they do it in the public and surprisingly the public will just join in without any hesitation! We can see such a scene at most places where most people hang out at night! Thus, we joined up the party as well. Some people play badminton or jianzi(search on wiki if you dunno wat's that)in the parks and After some walk we came to a musical fountain. That was truly a hot-spot for teenagers to date, we can observe lots of huggings going on... That was all about Cambodian night life before clubbing time... Interesting, less pollution, and healthy.

Day 3, 21st December 2009 Monday
Well today is the day we suppose to get our ass working, but seems like everyone is so looking so restless and woke up quite late. The worst part is, we are late for breakfast! After arriving at IDE office with a tuk-tuk, immediately we sneaked out for breakfast instead of supposing to wait for the meeting to start. Hehehe... Luckily we are not that late but managed to get our stomach filled with noodles again.

We are welcomed by Jack Cordell, the project manager for WatSan(water and sanitation) project of IDE, the current project of IDE is latrine project. It is to prevent open defecation of the villagers in villages of Kandal and Svay Reing. Anyway, we are exposed to the market system created by IDE. It is to create a self sustaining opportunity to the community itself, they train people who are interested in the latrine business to search for supply chain and manufacturers of those essentials in building the latrine. That is a pretty good idea to allow the poor villagers to generate extra income meanwhile helping their friends and the neighborhood able to obtain a relatively cheap and affordable latrine for $25 to $30 USD. While the conventional latrines requires $200USD. Below is a very simple ceramic water purifier.









The ceramic water purifier is just less than $10. I guess its around $5 and can filters 99.9% of the bacterias.

After the briefing from Cordell, we begin our journey to Svay Reing province. It is a province close to the borders of Vietnam. It is a 2 hour journey by taxi followed by ferry then another 1 more hour to the centre of the province. On the same day, we visited the border of Cambodia-Vietnam and took some sunset pictures of it.

Yum yum... we also had our meat-pao in the province. It's like the SangYuk Pao(raw meat pao) we have in Malaysia. Lol... its not raw, but the texture taste like raw meat. This pao is call Num Pao, the pao itself is so soft, the patty is juicy, full of meaty and pepper aroma. IT ROX!














Day 4, 22nd December 2009 Tuesday
Today is the day! To start our official part of our project, feeling a bit excited early in the morning while having our breakfast. That morning was also the first time we tasted our first vietnamese milk coffee in Svay Reing, it tastes like mocha, but doesn't contain coffee at all, the coffee flavour is so "GAO", you will definitely love it after a try. Well just look at the condense milk layer, it makes the coffee taste so milky, but not too sweet. The ones in Phnom Penh ain't that good. Vietnamese milk coffee for the win!



















Ok, back to serious stuffs. We are then exposed to the production line of the necessities of the latrine. As you can see, 3 concrete cylinder rings, the cylinder cover, the slab, the box, and the glazed toilet bowl. IDE utilizes the cheapest and fastest production method to produce these items.
Cylinder ring production -
- Ashes of rice husk are added to the cement as a reinforced phase for the cylinder ring. Less water is used for faster drying but at a cost of reduced strength of the cylinder ring.
-Cement are poured into the equally on all sides of the mold and compressed to achieve higher strength and good compaction. With this method, the mold can be removed immediately with a simple crane system, and the cylinder ring can be dried and be used after a day. But the ring cannot be rolled as it is not sufficiently strong enough to withstand the deformation during the rolling.

Box, Slab, Cylinder cover production
These parts production requires more water for the aesthetic effect and the strength. The slab needs to withstand weight from the latrine users, same goes for the box. The cylinder ring cover needs to withstand weather changes, thus require a better strength. They are dried for 2 days before used. The production is just pouring the cement mixture into the mold and surface finishing and dried.


















The next part where we depart to the target village 25km away for me, Alex and Nging Foo. While David and Young travel to the village 40km away for the latrine project promotion and the installation. While IDE translators were explaining and promoting the use of latrine, one of the staffs translates and explains the condition of the village to us. In the village there are just around 10% of the households owns a latrine, and the rest practises open defecation. Well you can see, this arrangement of papers with the white colored side up are those without latrine and those yellows are with latrine. So the pile of rice husk is where they shit. Can you imagine when it rains the shit water go to the canal, they fetch the water from the canal. and they end up eating their own shit! Geez... And some of them even can step on their own shit when they go shitting for the next few times coz the village got no street lamps!

Next on the move is digging holes. we have to dig a 1.2 metre deep, 1 metre diameter hole on the ground which contain high content of clay. The ground is so freaking hard! At last we have completed the hole at 5.30. 3 hours of digging is really hell. Look at our pictures, sibeh got teamwork nia...














Toilet done liao!!! But no shelter... leave it for next time














By the way, thank you IDE. Wonderful experience in building latrines!

Day 5, 23rd December 2009 Wednesday
Wake your ass up lads. Its 6am in the morning. Today is the day we begin to wake up late. Its char siew rice for breakfast! Coz today we are going to the paddy field for rice harvesting! A total brand new experience that you travellers are unable to experience! Just let you guys check out some photos.














Whose ass is this??? Slower than granny d!!! SLOW POKE
Check out the endless paddy fields

































This slow poke is worse... he cut his finger half way and cabut go clinic

After 2 hours of HARD WORK. All of us went camwhoring. SIAO... guys also wanna go camwhore. Should I call it camwhore, or camgigolo-ing.














Check out the land after paddy was harvested. Little yellow flowers starts to grow.














Check out the fei zai blogger. Lansi ooo

Later in the afternoon we get our ass back to Phnom Penh, so at the way, while we cross the Prey Reing province jetty, we saww..... check it out!














burung goreng siaaaa














DEEP FRIED TORTOISE!!! They fried it alive... crap...















woohoo... look at em eating the birdies

After a 3 hour journey, we are back in Phnom Penh for dinner, the restaurant is a middle upper class restaurant known as Boat Noodle restaurant(its on Yahoo! travel), but the price is just similiar to Station One or Red Island Cafe in Malaysia. Its cheap! In addition, the decoration and food taste way better than that 2. My favourite dish is fish amok, the gravy is totally covered by the fragrance of the peanuts, spiciness of the chillies and the herbs are as if giving your tongue a wake up call... Whoosh... SUPERB.














not bad looking huh...














FISH AMOK!!! yum yum...

Day 6, 24th December 2009 Thursday
Today is the visit to Royal Agricultural University, I am expecting to see some pretty girls there... But sometimes its rather disappointing... SIGH... We had our breakfast outside the university before meeting the officers. Pork noodle with soup... Ain't bad... But just one bowl of it sounds kinda dull plus me and young are craving for more... We ordered another of it. That is the moment we found out that coffee in Phnom Penh is totally inferior compared to those in Svay Reing province!

The discussion with the university students is kinda fun and fruitful too. Though not much has we gained, but at least we know how their university works and we at least has made and official visit to complete our task to build a bridge for our university to contact em for future collaborations.

Next is our depart to Siem Reap... Woohoo... We are coming... Holiday!!! That night we had our dinner at Siem Reap. We pay for the dinner like a Cambodian. Else our dinner will be so god damn expensive. Because Siem Reap is a tourist zone and its a beautiful city.

We checked out the night market at Siem Reap and we got some souvenirs from there.
NO CHRISTMAS EVE COUNTDOWN!

Day 7, 25th December 2009 Friday MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Wake up at 4.30am in the morning... Just because I requested to check out the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Early in the morning, I woke up and i cannot find any water. So i open up my water bottle that i brought from Malaysia. Its 6 days ago that i filled the water... It causes me diarrhea after that! The crowd at the ticketing counter is crazy... But the sunrise is really mind blasting!





























cool pictures huh...

Next stop is the visit to Angkor Thom, built by King Jayavaraman VII, it is the biggest structure in the Angkor City. It covers 4 gates located at the north, east, south and west direction, a main building in the middle that looks so grand with the sculpture of the king's face on few of the buildings. I really admire the architecture and the artwork of the buildings in Angkor. Almost every stones that are used to build the walls will have their own sculpture that tells the history of Angkor or teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. We observe some hybrids of the Hinduism and Buddhism cultures. While there is a change of official religion from Hindu to Buddha when King Jayavaraman VIII inherit the crown from the VIIth.


















































The next amazing one is the temple, Ta Prohm fully grown with big trees. Really big! These trees grow on stones and rocks easily and does not require a lot of nutrient. And its structure is winding like a maze!




















Too bad on that day Angkor Wat complex is closed. I guess maintenance was going on.















The next worth checking out spots is the sunset at Baray Mountain. In fact we should take a ride on the hot air balloon, its just $15














Our tour friend Chay told us that the best time to visit Angkor Wat in on the month of June or July, when you are able to observe the sun rising at the right middle of the Angkor Wat complex, and the during the sunset, the sun shines on the Baray Lake, the reflection of the lights makes that place a perfect spot for sun set.

Tonight is the night I got my diarrhea. Poop for dunno how many times and puked twice at that night.

Day 8, 26th December 2009 Saturday
Final day to travel, but diarrhea day. Crap... We woke up in the morning as planned. Though I am not feeling well, I was dragged along too. The first destination is the famous Tonle Sap. It was a WOW, check out this picture, saw the horizon?














Illegal immigrants from Vietnam dwells at the river that connects to Tonle Sap. Thus giving birth to the floating village and made it a tourist attraction!














Getting back to Siem Reap town after the boat trip made me feel sick, after puking at the petrol station, Pisith send me to a clinic name "Khmer Chinese Friendship Clinic". THEY CHARGE ME 120 BUCKS! But at least I got 2 jabs and 4 bottles of drippings after I poop till i dehydrate! They start with a 160 bucks, FUCK LA SO EXPENSIVE!!! I bargained and told em its my last day and I am not left with money. WTF CLINIC ALSO CAN BARGAIN! Then Pisith told me if it was 140 bucks he can grab a commission of 20 bucks somemore! WTF??? CHEATER CLINIC!



















FUCK THIS CLINIC FTW!

Day 8, 26th December 2009 Saturday
Sigh... Its time to end here. We had lots of great time that can't be expressed in words, great experiences, sweet memories, from just an average acquaintance to a very trustable friend now.
Thanks Pisith! We love the trip very much!
Not forgetting the picture at Siem Reap airport! Same same...