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Chambok

Chambok, Cambodia

Chambok is community of 9 small, rural villages inside of Kirirom National Park, Cambodia. Chambok strives on a community-based ecotourism project that is managed by the local villagers, and aims to provide an alternative source of income by immersing tourists in Cambodian culture by showing them their way of life. The sustainable income, which is kept within the ecotourism community, helps…

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After lunch we trekked on to the second, larger waterfall. I was able to free-hand climb up behind the water, becoming muddy and wet but happier all the time.

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Day 7 Traveling through south and west Cambodia

The past few days have been really eventful but pretty busy yet strangely relaxing. We arrived in Phnom Penh, which is the capital of Cambodia. We arrived a few days ago and did a site seeing tour via tuk-tuk. It was fun to travel around and see everything around the city. We say some monuments and the markets as well. After the site seeing we walked along the river and stopped for dinner. After dinner my two main girls and I decided to head out for some drinks to just relax and enjoy the night. We ended up running into some other EPIK teachers from my friends same orientation and we joined forces. What started around 8 ended at almost 1am for us. We had to bar hop a bit because it was a Sunday and things closed early. So after being kicked out of the 1st place we headed to an Irish pub and continued with our drunken Korean games. A strong mango daiquiri later we decided it was time to go to bed and we all went our ways.

The next morning we headed to see some sight seeing in another town and went to the genocide museum and the killing fields. I never realized how sad the history of Cambodia was until learning about it. The Khmer Rouge or something sounding like that would go around killing everyone but before killing them they would torture them to get information out of them or to anyone that was not in favor of them being in power. Now they would even get young children to serve as soldiers and then when the Khmer Rouge would want to dispose of them to keep things that they did to prisoners they would just kill them. They would even kill the woman and children…it’s so sad but they would take the babies from their mothers and kill them by smashing them against trees in front of their mothers!! They wanted complete extermination of the Cambodian people so in order to do this they would get rid of the root which is the children. Our your guide told us that the forces behind the Khmer Rouge were the Vietnamese and Chinese. Also he mentioned something along the lines of the US not aiding the Cambodians because they were allies with China and didn’t want to interfere or something like that but that’s just what I heard I could’ve misheard. Our tour guide did lose a brother during this time period which was started during April of 1975 until 1979 ish. So that’s a little history that I learned but of course there is much that I’m leaving out and I may have the name wrong of the bad guys but you can google it to learn more.

As we were leaving the killing field and in another town I ran into one of my friends from Korea who was also vacationing and traveling in reverse of my trip. So we started in Vietnam and will end in Thailand and she’s reverse. It was just too funny to run into her so many times.

The same day as the museum we went to rural Cambodia and stayed at a homestay in Chambok. When we arrived we were greeted by the locals and we enjoyed a really awesome cultural dance performance from the children in the village. Then after dinner we enjoyed a home cooked meal which was very nice. We stayed out not too late chatting with the local tour guide and he told us different stories and facts about the village. One thing that amazed me is that he learned English in 1 year on his own. So big props to him for learning it in so little time and with suck little resources. That night we we stayed in a little hut on some beds that were covered with mosquito nets. To bathe I had to use a bucket and wash myself in the out house. It was quite the experience but it was nice to have one night to see what the locals do and how they live. Throughout the night I heard so many sounds. Animals rustling outside, insects making music, and just the sounds of people sleeping. For a short while I heard music from a distance because someone in the village was celebrating a wedding.

The next day we hiked up to a few different waterfalls. It was so beautiful and it was so nice to see the Cambodian jungle, but it was so hot! Other than it being hot the hike was nice and refreshing. I’m glad to be doing some physical activities while traveling instead of just eating and drinking. After our jungle hike we boarded our bus and headed back to Phnom Penh where we stayed for the night and left the next day for another day of 6hr bus rides and finally we arrived at Sihanoukville which was a nice beach town where there were tons of foreigners. We enjoyed a group dinner then some of us headed out for a few drinks. One became two and before you knew it we were dancing and just having a good time. We ended up going for a walk on the beach and somehow I got dragged into the water by one of the guys in our group. I was so mad because I didn’t want to get my clothes wet but I ended up going for a night swim despite me saying repeatedly that I didn’t want too but oh well shit happens that you don’t want sometimes. After our night swim we headed back showed and went to bed. We rose early to head to an island hoping tour which was cool. We got on a little boat and headed to the first island where we snorkeled around a reef. I’d never gone snorkeling before so I found it to be pretty cool. I asked of course if there were any sharks and our guide said no so I just happily swam for an hour. After snorkeling we went to a second island where I fell getting off the boat straight into the water. It was so funny haha but embarrassing at the same time because not only did my whole group see me fall but all the people on the island did too. Luckily I didn’t get hurt and it was just water so I dried off pretty quickly. We enjoyed some bomb BBQ fish and veggies along with some sun tanning in which I chose to not wear a lot of sun screen and I am now red and sunburnt lol but it will fade into a nice brown tan so I’m not worried. We stayed on the island or a few hours then headed to another island where we snorkeled in an even better reef. After that we headed back as the sun was setting and it was really beautiful. After showering and freshening up we went to dinner and the guys that worked at the restaurant kept flirting with us. I ended up getting a Cambodian boyfriend apparently and he left me a cute little note on the receipt. It was pretty funny, but it also happened to my girlfriend Vanessa too.

The next day we went back to the capital and right now were currently leaving Kampong Cham which is the town we just stayed at yesterday and are headed to Siem Reap. Yesterday was something else though. Maybe it’s because I love my current job but I really love children and there’s a special place in my heart for adorable little Asian kids. We went cycling yesterday and we came across two schools. The children were being taught English by monks and it was just so amazing to see! We were able to sit in an elementary class with the students and they were learning some phonics and words like “fan” and “fish” so it was cute to see them read it off the board and speak to us. After seeing these cuties we took some pictures. Oh yea these cuties were probably 1st graders which melts your heart even more FYI. We went outside and were able to play games with the older kids which were a mix of elementary and middle schoolers. Lets just say I got my jump rope on yesterday and it was too much fun. I love being a freaking kid at heart. It just makes life so much better. Anyways this is getting too long. Long story short we ended up going into a middle school class and practiced conversation with the students who were super appreciative. They don’t see foreigners too often so when they get to use their English they get excited. It’s different than South Korea because the students are forced to learn English whereas in Cambodia they learn it because they want too or know it’s a ticket for them to get a good job. I really enjoyed cycling and seeing the students though and I can’t wait to see my new kids come March.

Ok this is too long now! I’m done for the day I’m about to knock out on this bus since we have 6 hour bus ride and I’m sleepy. Adios!

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