A Moving Moving
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 18/Oct/2009 11:15, 34 days ago
After several very busy and stressful days we finally got away. We stopped to post my crash helmet& some of Alison's books. This took some time so we arrived at Parker's Piece to get the bus with 10 minutes to spare.We had a pleasant meal at the Pemier Inn though by this time the pulling handle of my case was broken when a bus driver tried to lift it into the bus! The next morning we arrived at check in in good time to meet the other volunteers. Our fears about weight and amount of hand luggage were swept away in an instant. I had my trumpet and rucksack and when she said only one bag allowed I just smiled and said I needed it. She smile straight away and ok then!Flight was long but gave good chance to relax a bit and not be charging around doing jobs and meeting deadlines. The sound on the plane was poor as we couldn't hear the announcements. I put my earphones on and when the announcements finished it immediately went into some lovely, dramatic and familiar sounding music. It was the last part of Mahler's 8th. Symphony! It has such an uplifting feel to it that it just seemed so appropriate for the start of our venture and successful take off. Unbelievable and very moving!Change over in the new Bangkok airport went well and we were already bonding well with our new friends on VSO. Little do we know what adventures lie before us!The landscape over Thailand and Camodia was very flat and wet. Although a lot of this is due to the rice growing it was also worse because of the recent typhoon. All landings and take offs were smooth and we were both very brave! My bag was split when we finally collected it after an age filling in forms. However, we were met by Cambodian VSO staff and taken to the office/hostel where we are staying and having initial in country training.The food here is delicious! We have local girls cooking for us at the hostel and it's real local food. Lots of different dishes which they prepare sitting on the floor and using to gas rings! We get our own breakfasts and have other meals provided but at the weekend we are self sufficient. We discovered a lovely hotel nearby with swimming pool which we can use if we spend $5 at the cafe. It's quite luxurious. We need to come back to PP for the water festival which celebrates the end of the rainy season. That's on the wknd. 1st/2nd. November. We have booked for a sister hotel for that weekend because we are going to Kompong Cham later next week and will to stay back here in PP when we come for that.