Cambodia the sequel...

Here I am, back in Cambodia. I’ll start my first blog message from the beginning: The trip from Brussels to Phnom Penh …

Brussels → Abu Dhabi → Bangkok → Aranyprathet border crossing (Thailand- Cambodia) → Poipet → Battambang → Finally Phnom Penh

The first part of my trip was luckily with the plane. But from Bangkok to Phnom Penh everything was by bus.

So on Friday the 25the of January I left Brussels two hours late to Abu Dhabi. There I had a perfect connection to Bangkok. The students from Arteveldehogeschool were waiting for me in Bangkok. Meanwhile it was already Saturday evening. We spent the night in a hotel in Bangkok and on Sunday morning at 7am we had a ‘bus’ to Phnom Penh…. What an adventure….

After an hour of driving around in a minivan, we finally left Bangkok. Around lunch time we had a break for 40 minutes where we had to fill in the visa forms. Around 1pm we arrived in Aranyprathet where we slowly ;) crossed the border of Thailand with Cambodia. Around 3:30pm we were dropped in some sort of bus station in Poipet (Cambodia). There we had to wait for 2 hours before we had a bus to Phnom Penh. So at 5:30 pm we had a bus to Phnom Penh (who was stopping everywhere) and we finally arrived in our guest house at 3 o’clock in the morning….!! WHAT A TRIP.

 

Luckily on Monday we could sleep long, Stefaan rescheduled the program for us. In the afternoon we went to RTTC Kandal. It was so good to see the VVOB team back! Unfortunately some lovely colleagues are not working there anymore.

 

Tuesday was the second introduction day. I have the feeling that the students from Arteveldehogeschool are having a good time and they are very enthusiastic about their internship at VVOB.

On Wednesday they had to say goodbye to each other. Simon and Michiel are going to Battambang and Marieke and Nathan to Kampong Cham. Sokhany and I went together with Simon and Michiel to Battambang.

Thursday we had a meeting with the very friendly director of the RTTC in Battambang. Michiel and Simon were introduced to the teacher trainers and to their group of students that they have to follow up during the practicum.

In our free time we visited some nice places in Battambang, we saw millions of bats coming out of a cave, we went on the bambootrain, ... we were real tourists :)

After the meeting with the students, discovering the city, ... Simon and Michiel were even more enthusiastic to start their internship! So Sokhany and I could go back to Phnom Penh on Friday morning with a good feeling.  

You can see some pictures in this album: https://picasaweb.google.com/117599487615681139672/FirstWeekInternshipArteveldestudents# 

Weekend time!

My lovely friends from last year arranged a weekend to the seaside of Cambodia.

Friday evening I arrived in Kep where I met my friends. For dinner we had the amazingly good grilled crab with kampot pepper! On Saturday we went with the motorbikes to Otris beach. Oh and before that I was ‘acting’ for the TV show Loy9! In March I’ll be on Khmer television, Yay! That was a really nice and funny experience, thanks to Julian for that!

 

After a safe motorbike trip (to bad we had a flat tire, but that was fixed fast) we arrived at the wonderful Otris beach. We had a swim in the sea, watched the stars, had some fish BBQ, … LOVELY!

Sunday was a lazy but beautiful beach day.

After a nice morning swim in the sea on Monday, we were fully equipped for the motorbike trip back to Phnom Penh. 

 

My first week back in Phnom Penh was very busy and with a lot of traveling but it is fantastic to be back! And I think I’m very lucky to have a first weekend like this in the Kingdom of Wonder!

 

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152017324282080.507182.778757079&type=1