Overview of Each Day of the Trip
Day 1 [June 27]
Tas and I were the 4th and 5th people to arrive out of 7. We drove from the airport to Number 9 Hotel where we stayed for the first few days. We met our staff and our group members, then went off to Olympic Stadium. We were meant to go to the Royal Palace, but the pouring rain stopped us from being able to do so. We came back to the hotel, had some down time, met the 6th member of our group and went out to dinner where we got a nice presentation from our local staff about the Khroma, a Cambodian scarf.
It was the first day, so obviously, everyone was tired and jet lagged, which is why we didn't do much of anything except for getting to know each other.
Day 2 [June 28]
The last member of our group arrived and we headed to the S-21/Tuol Sleng Prison, where we learned about the Khmer Rouge Regime and other parts of the devastating history of Cambodia. Then we headed off to our first NGO meeting, with Ragamuffin, where we also had lunch. After learning about their program we went to the next organisation, called Tiny Toones. After a few hours there, we drove to Wat Phnom: the most famous buddhist temple in Phnom Penh. We went back to the hotel, freshened up, went to dinner, went back and had some free time.
Day 3 [June 29]
We started with an early morning to go to the Happy Football Cambodia Australia soccer training. We played a few matches with the local kids, then went to visit the River Kids Foundation house. By late morning we were back at the hotel, freshened up and went out to Friend 'n' Stuff, a store run by a local NGO before heading off to lunch. This is when we not only got to touch and play with live tarantulas, but also got to eat them (it's not THAT bad). After lunch, we went to the Killing Fields where we had an audio tour to learn more about Cambodian history. Since we had such an early morning, we came back by the end of the afternoon and got a few hours of down time before going to dinner. We took this time to go to the hotel pool and get to know each other more.
Day 4 [June 30]
We had a free morning, so we slept in and went to get (pretty shady) massages across the street. Then we went to the first social enterprise we met with on the trip, Small World, where we also had lunch. In the afternoon, we went on a boat ride on the Mekong River to the weaving village. Here we learned how silk was made and how to weave and also got a chance to buy some items. When we got back, we went out to dinner.
Day 5 [July 1]
We left from the hotel to drive about one hour out to Sre Ampil Village (outside of Phnom Penh) to visit the PicoSol facility, as well as get a presentation from NRG Solutions, both NGO's that deal with solar power. We had lunch in the cafeteria of a nearby orphanage then drove back to Phnom Penh, to the Rustic Pathways office, where we had presentations from Agile Development, 2 Way Development and Skateistan. We came back to the hotel, had some free time, then went to dinner. This was our last full day in Phnom Penh.
Day 6 [July 2]
We met downstairs in the morning with our suitcases packed, we checked out, then drove back to the Rustic Pathways office, where we got a presentation from Wildlife Alliance. We drove back to Number 9 Hotel for lunch and then got back into the van and started our 3 hour journey to Kampong Cham, the village where we stayed for the next couple of days. That night, we stayed in the 7 Makara Hotel, where we also got the chance to use the pool. We had dinner in a nearby restaurant on the river called Smile (where we would be eating the majority of our meals in the next couple of days) and headed off to bed.
Day 7 [July 3]
In the morning, we checked out of the hotel, went to breakfast where we had dinner the night before and drove out to the village, where we stayed in elevated wooden houses, bed-free, western toilet-free, shower-free, electricity-somewhat free (one of the two houses had 2 lights) and mosquito-full, throughout the duration of our service project (a lot more about the village in the blogs). We walked to the school and had a meeting with the school principal and village leader to discuss a service project, had lunch back at the house, then set up our sleeping accommodations. In the afternoon, we drove out to a supply shop (i.e. a lady standing under a tin roof with a junkyard full of all sorts of stuff) to buy all the materials we needed for our project: building a fence around the school (a lot more about this as well in the blogs). When we got back to the village, we played frisbee and hackie sack with the kids, then had dinner and went to bed.
Day 8 [July 4]
We woke up to the variety of different animal noises, attempted our first bucket showers and left to the restaurant by the river to have breakfast. We went back to the village school and started to dig holes (with coconuts and metal rods) for the fence posts to go into. By the end of 2 hours we had about 25 holes dug, 1-2 feet deep and 1 foot by 1 foot wide. We went back to the houses for lunch and then, went back to the school and concreted 12 of the posts in the holes (that makes it sound a lot easier than it is... keep in mind we didn't have big concrete mixers or anything like that... just a metal rod and a bucket). We played with the kids a bit, but then had to go back and clean up before we could go out again. Since it was the fourth of July, we went back to the school yard with fire crackers and fire works that we bought and set them off (it failed completely, but that's okay). We went back, had dinner, watched Pitch Perfect on one of our staff members computers and went to bed.
Day 9 [July 5]
We had breakfast at the house in the morning, then went to the school to continue putting in the other posts and digging the remaining holes. We didn't get to finish it all though because we came back for lunch, washed up and went to visit a temple, then an orphanage, where we played with the kids for a few hours and had a water balloon fight. After the orphanage, we went to a nearby school and taught English classes in pairs, my partner and I taught 13-19 year olds. When the classes were over we went straight to Smile, the restaurant on the river, to have dinner. It started raining really hard though, so we were stuck in the restaurant for a few hours. When we did leave, the streets were flooded and it was pitch black (the only exception being the occasional burst of light from the thunder).
Day 10 [July 6]
We went to breakfast at Smile, then went straight to the village school and spent the morning redigging some of our holes (the rain had covered some of them up). While half of us kept digging, the other half continued putting posts in. When we were done digging the holes, three of us went to chisel 3 holes into concrete pillars (each pillar needed 3 holes about half a foot deep and there were 4 pillars). Yes, chiseling, with a big nail and handmade hammer. We got 3 of the 12 holes done, then went to lunch at the house. After lunch, we went back to our project site, put up the rest of the posts and kept chiseling more holes. By the end of the day, we had all 39 holes finished with posts in each hole and 9 out of the12 of the holes that needed to be chiselled finished. Our last day would be the next day, so things were looking good. We had a bit of budget left, so we ordered 4 tables for the school. We cleaned up, went to dinner at Smile, then went next door to a place called Lazy Daize, where we played pool.
Day 11 [July 7]
We had breakfast at the house and went straight to the school to keep working. When we got there, we alternated between painting the tables we had ordered yellow, putting up the actual netting of the fence and chiselling the last three holes. I worked mostly with painting the tables and when they were all yellow, I decorated one of them with red paint and signed all our names on it. We also put a bit of concrete on one of the pillars and signed our names in that as well. Then, we went to lunch at the house and went back to the school right afterwards for an hour and a bit to finish putting up the netting of the fence. After that, we got treated to a surprise: we got to go back to 7 Makara Hotel to spend the afternoon at the pool... the look on our faces... that meant feeling refreshed, getting cold drinks, having access to a western toilet... it really was a good surprise. In the evening, we went back to the houses, had dinner and went back to Lazy Daize again.
Day 12 [July 8]
We had an early breakfast at the house, packed up our bags and went to the school to give the kids some school supplies and say bye to everyone. We got in the van and started our 4 hour drive to Siem Reap. We got there and had lunch at the Blue Pumpkin (holy cow, that place is amazing) then checked into the Reaksmey Chanreas Hotel. We got a couple hours of free time, and, obviously, we all spent that time showering. We all met up and went to get massages and then tried the fish pedicures on the street. We went to dinner at the Red Piano (also very good) and got about 45 minutes to walk through a nearby night market.
Day 13 [July 9]
We met in the hotel lobby in the morning and went to breakfast at the Red Piano. After that, we had the rest of the morning free, so we walked around Siem Reap and did some more shopping. We had lunch at a restaurant called The Sun, then went to visit the NGO, Senhoa. First, we went to their Lotus Kids Club facility, then we went to the Shinta Mani Hotel to meet with the Jewellery and Life Skills program. We came back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and went and walked around again. Then, we all met up and went to dinner at the Blue Pumpkin (yes again, but it's so good, so who cares). After dinner we went back to the hotel and sat all together and did a Rustic tradition called Rustic Ties.
Day 14 [July 10]
We had breakfast at The Sun and went off to go temple visiting with a tour guide. We started with Angkor Wat, then went to the "Smiling Temple" (where part of Transformers 5 was filmed), had lunch at a nearby restaurant, then went to our last temple, Ta Prohm, the one where Tomb Raider was filmed back in 2000. We went back to the hotel in the afternoon (quickly stopping, of course, at the Blue Pumpkin) signed each others Rustic Pathways shirts, said bye to one of the girls on the trip and went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Here, we also got a presentation from one of our staff members about the NGO The Branch Foundation and the website Global Giving. After dinner, we went back to the night market for 30 minutes before going back to the hotel.
Day 15 [July 11]
Even though we spent all night hanging out (because none of us wanted to be separated the next day), we got up at 6:30 to say bye to two of our group members who were leaving. Exhausted, we went back to bed for an hour, got up again and said bye to the last two (aside from Tas and I) and to our staff. Tas and I, the only people from our trip still in Siem Reap, went to breakfast at the Blue Pumpkin, went back to the hotel to pack and then checked out. We went to lunch, yet again, at the Blue Pumpkin and then left for the airport (where we also made sure to get some more Blue Pumpkin). We spent the rest of the day on planes and with that, our amazing Rustic Pathways From the Ground Up trip was over.
Tas and I were the 4th and 5th people to arrive out of 7. We drove from the airport to Number 9 Hotel where we stayed for the first few days. We met our staff and our group members, then went off to Olympic Stadium. We were meant to go to the Royal Palace, but the pouring rain stopped us from being able to do so. We came back to the hotel, had some down time, met the 6th member of our group and went out to dinner where we got a nice presentation from our local staff about the Khroma, a Cambodian scarf.
It was the first day, so obviously, everyone was tired and jet lagged, which is why we didn't do much of anything except for getting to know each other.
Day 2 [June 28]
The last member of our group arrived and we headed to the S-21/Tuol Sleng Prison, where we learned about the Khmer Rouge Regime and other parts of the devastating history of Cambodia. Then we headed off to our first NGO meeting, with Ragamuffin, where we also had lunch. After learning about their program we went to the next organisation, called Tiny Toones. After a few hours there, we drove to Wat Phnom: the most famous buddhist temple in Phnom Penh. We went back to the hotel, freshened up, went to dinner, went back and had some free time.
Day 3 [June 29]
We started with an early morning to go to the Happy Football Cambodia Australia soccer training. We played a few matches with the local kids, then went to visit the River Kids Foundation house. By late morning we were back at the hotel, freshened up and went out to Friend 'n' Stuff, a store run by a local NGO before heading off to lunch. This is when we not only got to touch and play with live tarantulas, but also got to eat them (it's not THAT bad). After lunch, we went to the Killing Fields where we had an audio tour to learn more about Cambodian history. Since we had such an early morning, we came back by the end of the afternoon and got a few hours of down time before going to dinner. We took this time to go to the hotel pool and get to know each other more.
Day 4 [June 30]
We had a free morning, so we slept in and went to get (pretty shady) massages across the street. Then we went to the first social enterprise we met with on the trip, Small World, where we also had lunch. In the afternoon, we went on a boat ride on the Mekong River to the weaving village. Here we learned how silk was made and how to weave and also got a chance to buy some items. When we got back, we went out to dinner.
Day 5 [July 1]
We left from the hotel to drive about one hour out to Sre Ampil Village (outside of Phnom Penh) to visit the PicoSol facility, as well as get a presentation from NRG Solutions, both NGO's that deal with solar power. We had lunch in the cafeteria of a nearby orphanage then drove back to Phnom Penh, to the Rustic Pathways office, where we had presentations from Agile Development, 2 Way Development and Skateistan. We came back to the hotel, had some free time, then went to dinner. This was our last full day in Phnom Penh.
Day 6 [July 2]
We met downstairs in the morning with our suitcases packed, we checked out, then drove back to the Rustic Pathways office, where we got a presentation from Wildlife Alliance. We drove back to Number 9 Hotel for lunch and then got back into the van and started our 3 hour journey to Kampong Cham, the village where we stayed for the next couple of days. That night, we stayed in the 7 Makara Hotel, where we also got the chance to use the pool. We had dinner in a nearby restaurant on the river called Smile (where we would be eating the majority of our meals in the next couple of days) and headed off to bed.
Day 7 [July 3]
In the morning, we checked out of the hotel, went to breakfast where we had dinner the night before and drove out to the village, where we stayed in elevated wooden houses, bed-free, western toilet-free, shower-free, electricity-somewhat free (one of the two houses had 2 lights) and mosquito-full, throughout the duration of our service project (a lot more about the village in the blogs). We walked to the school and had a meeting with the school principal and village leader to discuss a service project, had lunch back at the house, then set up our sleeping accommodations. In the afternoon, we drove out to a supply shop (i.e. a lady standing under a tin roof with a junkyard full of all sorts of stuff) to buy all the materials we needed for our project: building a fence around the school (a lot more about this as well in the blogs). When we got back to the village, we played frisbee and hackie sack with the kids, then had dinner and went to bed.
Day 8 [July 4]
We woke up to the variety of different animal noises, attempted our first bucket showers and left to the restaurant by the river to have breakfast. We went back to the village school and started to dig holes (with coconuts and metal rods) for the fence posts to go into. By the end of 2 hours we had about 25 holes dug, 1-2 feet deep and 1 foot by 1 foot wide. We went back to the houses for lunch and then, went back to the school and concreted 12 of the posts in the holes (that makes it sound a lot easier than it is... keep in mind we didn't have big concrete mixers or anything like that... just a metal rod and a bucket). We played with the kids a bit, but then had to go back and clean up before we could go out again. Since it was the fourth of July, we went back to the school yard with fire crackers and fire works that we bought and set them off (it failed completely, but that's okay). We went back, had dinner, watched Pitch Perfect on one of our staff members computers and went to bed.
Day 9 [July 5]
We had breakfast at the house in the morning, then went to the school to continue putting in the other posts and digging the remaining holes. We didn't get to finish it all though because we came back for lunch, washed up and went to visit a temple, then an orphanage, where we played with the kids for a few hours and had a water balloon fight. After the orphanage, we went to a nearby school and taught English classes in pairs, my partner and I taught 13-19 year olds. When the classes were over we went straight to Smile, the restaurant on the river, to have dinner. It started raining really hard though, so we were stuck in the restaurant for a few hours. When we did leave, the streets were flooded and it was pitch black (the only exception being the occasional burst of light from the thunder).
Day 10 [July 6]
We went to breakfast at Smile, then went straight to the village school and spent the morning redigging some of our holes (the rain had covered some of them up). While half of us kept digging, the other half continued putting posts in. When we were done digging the holes, three of us went to chisel 3 holes into concrete pillars (each pillar needed 3 holes about half a foot deep and there were 4 pillars). Yes, chiseling, with a big nail and handmade hammer. We got 3 of the 12 holes done, then went to lunch at the house. After lunch, we went back to our project site, put up the rest of the posts and kept chiseling more holes. By the end of the day, we had all 39 holes finished with posts in each hole and 9 out of the12 of the holes that needed to be chiselled finished. Our last day would be the next day, so things were looking good. We had a bit of budget left, so we ordered 4 tables for the school. We cleaned up, went to dinner at Smile, then went next door to a place called Lazy Daize, where we played pool.
Day 11 [July 7]
We had breakfast at the house and went straight to the school to keep working. When we got there, we alternated between painting the tables we had ordered yellow, putting up the actual netting of the fence and chiselling the last three holes. I worked mostly with painting the tables and when they were all yellow, I decorated one of them with red paint and signed all our names on it. We also put a bit of concrete on one of the pillars and signed our names in that as well. Then, we went to lunch at the house and went back to the school right afterwards for an hour and a bit to finish putting up the netting of the fence. After that, we got treated to a surprise: we got to go back to 7 Makara Hotel to spend the afternoon at the pool... the look on our faces... that meant feeling refreshed, getting cold drinks, having access to a western toilet... it really was a good surprise. In the evening, we went back to the houses, had dinner and went back to Lazy Daize again.
Day 12 [July 8]
We had an early breakfast at the house, packed up our bags and went to the school to give the kids some school supplies and say bye to everyone. We got in the van and started our 4 hour drive to Siem Reap. We got there and had lunch at the Blue Pumpkin (holy cow, that place is amazing) then checked into the Reaksmey Chanreas Hotel. We got a couple hours of free time, and, obviously, we all spent that time showering. We all met up and went to get massages and then tried the fish pedicures on the street. We went to dinner at the Red Piano (also very good) and got about 45 minutes to walk through a nearby night market.
Day 13 [July 9]
We met in the hotel lobby in the morning and went to breakfast at the Red Piano. After that, we had the rest of the morning free, so we walked around Siem Reap and did some more shopping. We had lunch at a restaurant called The Sun, then went to visit the NGO, Senhoa. First, we went to their Lotus Kids Club facility, then we went to the Shinta Mani Hotel to meet with the Jewellery and Life Skills program. We came back to the hotel at the end of the afternoon and went and walked around again. Then, we all met up and went to dinner at the Blue Pumpkin (yes again, but it's so good, so who cares). After dinner we went back to the hotel and sat all together and did a Rustic tradition called Rustic Ties.
Day 14 [July 10]
We had breakfast at The Sun and went off to go temple visiting with a tour guide. We started with Angkor Wat, then went to the "Smiling Temple" (where part of Transformers 5 was filmed), had lunch at a nearby restaurant, then went to our last temple, Ta Prohm, the one where Tomb Raider was filmed back in 2000. We went back to the hotel in the afternoon (quickly stopping, of course, at the Blue Pumpkin) signed each others Rustic Pathways shirts, said bye to one of the girls on the trip and went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Here, we also got a presentation from one of our staff members about the NGO The Branch Foundation and the website Global Giving. After dinner, we went back to the night market for 30 minutes before going back to the hotel.
Day 15 [July 11]
Even though we spent all night hanging out (because none of us wanted to be separated the next day), we got up at 6:30 to say bye to two of our group members who were leaving. Exhausted, we went back to bed for an hour, got up again and said bye to the last two (aside from Tas and I) and to our staff. Tas and I, the only people from our trip still in Siem Reap, went to breakfast at the Blue Pumpkin, went back to the hotel to pack and then checked out. We went to lunch, yet again, at the Blue Pumpkin and then left for the airport (where we also made sure to get some more Blue Pumpkin). We spent the rest of the day on planes and with that, our amazing Rustic Pathways From the Ground Up trip was over.