Sour Sdey!
The Khmer (Cambodian) way of saying hello... Getting away from Ho Chi Minh and across the Vietnamese/Cambodian boarder took up a whole day but the day but went so smoothly which was ideal as boarder crossings consist of constant pushing and shoving, it makes you want to scream. My first stop in Cambodia was Phenom Penh, the capital city where I stayed in a very popular backpackers hostel "Mad Monkey" to enable me to have a better chance of meeting new people. It didn't take long before i had 2 new travelling buddies, I've come to the realisation that your never alone for long out here... Everyone is so genuinely friendly. It's awesome! Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 spine chilling Prison) and The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek was completely brutal.. I only spent one full day in Phenom Penh and this is what I chose to do with my time. Knowing that this genocide which wiped out 3 million innocent people only happened no longer than 40 years ago meaning most of the Khmer people I am surrounded by will have most probably been affected by this barbaric act. This made me want to go and seek a better understanding of what went on here, so that I'd feel more connected with the country. The day itself was scorching hot, the sun was blazing and I couldn't help but notice a large amount of pretty butterflies fluttering around. You walked around the killing fields listening to explanation via a head set so everyone was silent, I could sense a element of peace here.

After the killing fields we moved onto the genocide museum, more than 14,000 people were tortured here before being killed there or at the killing fields.. The images of the victims displayed on the bare stone walls made my stomach churn.

The next morning I got a day mini bus to Siem Reap. The roads are rough, I felt like I was on a lumber jack for hours on end. Haha! I did plan to stay at the Mad Monkey in Siem Reap where my two new travel buddies Kim and Cath were staying but they had no room at the inn. Luckily I met a guy a reception who just came from a hostel called Cowboy so he was kind enough to take me there as it was slightly tucked out of the way. What a little hidden gem that hostel was and at only $3 a night I was laughing. We spent that day relaxing round the pool at Mad Monkeys where I ended up putting my skills to the test and gave this boy we got chatting to a haircut, who we then went out for dinner and partied with. In exchange for the haircut, Paul bought me a couple of drinks so that was me sorted for the night as I am the biggest light weight around. Pub Street is the name of the road in Siem Reap where most of the bars and clubs are situated so we spent all night hopping from bar to bar, it was so much fun and after a lot of Dutch courage i ended my night with yet another bush tucker trial... Snake. The flavour that seeped out of the snake after biting down into it was actually really tasty. I really didn't feel all that the next day so it was another laid back one, I spent most of the day roaming round the town and made a point of having an early one due to the fact that my alarm was set for 4:30am. Angkor Wot sunrise completely blew my mind to bits. It was one of them situations where the beauty of the moment completely silenced you.. We had a great day exploring all of the temples, I'd say my favourite one/ones would probably have to have been the Ta Prom temple and the Bayon temple that had lots of faces engraved into the front face of the building. A part of the Ta Prom temple looks like it's being strangled by the roots of a Banyan Tree.. Which I thought looked rather cool. We finished up at Angkor Wat around half 2 as we all were knackered from getting up at the crack of dawn but I wanted to make the most of my day pass and headed back to Angkor later on in the evening to catch the sun set. Aluminous pink it was!

Sok orphanage about 10 minute drive away from the town centre was where I spent the next 5 days of my life. The place captured me and stole my heart as I only planned to pay the orphanage a visit for one day! I got picked up by Mr Sok just a little after 9 o'clock on Thursday 15th January armed with a bag of goodies that I'd prepared for the kids. He took me back to orphanage where I was greeted by a bunch of little rascals all so curious to know what was inside the bag I had bought along with me. Rustling around with their tiny hands trying to fish for something that they felt like would be exciting for them, I conducted a game of lucky dip. The whole process was a five minute wonder but you know what kids are like when it comes to toys. The orphanage itself was very run down and really basic, 40 children and only 6 or so beds so you can imagine how much of a tight squeeze it is there. Don't even get me started on the state of their toilet, I reckon stig of the dumb has better living conditions. Even the state of the animals they had roaming around was really destressing.. The chickens looked like they had lost 95% of their feathers due to stress. It was difficult to witness and the first time I felt like I had a huge culture shock.

So let me just break down for you a typical day in the life of a volunteer at Sok Orphanage. Our accommodation was at the school, the other building that Mr Sok owns. Breakfast would be on the table at 9 o'clock which sometimes consisted of a bunch of patisseries e.g sugar doughnut, which was odd for that time time of the morning but I would just bag it up and take them to the orphanage with me for the children. Then we would get picked up by Mr. Sok and taken to the orphanage at around 11 o'clock. We would then have an hour to play with the younger children as the older ones would be at school until 12. By the time 12 o'clock come around we would sit and have lunch which was always freshly cooked by the kitchen staff (3 Middle aged ladies), delicious! After lunch, a basic English lesson would be taught to the little children or let me rephrase an attempt to teach.. But on a general note they were usually very eager to sit a learn as much as they understood. We would then be taken back to the school at about 3 o'clock where English, Japanese and French lessons would be taught throughout the afternoon right up until 7 o'clock. The day would end with a communal dinner served to us by Sam who catered, chauffeured and took great care of us all week. We was all so very spoilt by him!

My time at the orphanage was an emotional roller coaster. I felt so helpless at first but left with so much for filament realising how fortunate the children at the orphanage actually were. Everyday I got to know the children more and more and had more and more of an understanding of what actions I needed to take to make a positive impact on their lives. It so difficult to summarise my time at Sok Orphanage, it was so special.. The children, Sok himself, he's staff, the many heart melting moments. I could easily go on for days about this place!

After 5 days Demi and I reluctantly took ourselves away from the Orphanage to move onto Sihanoukville. Demi is a friend of mine from home, we live literally about 5 minutes away from each other. So seeing as we were both travelling Cambodia at the same time we decided to team up and do it together! Sihanoukville was just a short stop over for us as you have to go there to enable you to travel to one of Cambodia's islands, Koh Rong. Magaluf would the exact comparison to Sihanoukville so we wasn't too fussed about the nightlife just the beautiful Otres beach. Otres beach was a dream, we stayed till sunset and has beers brought to us all day whilst we kicked back on the sun loungers. It was a tough day!

So now I'm currently in paradise toying with the idea of extending my visa and becoming the islands local hairdresser!? It only took us 40 minutes by fast boat to get to Koh Rong and I kid you not this place is just perfect. This is a lot to take in, in one sitting so I'm going to stop there but I will be making another update shortly...

Thank you for taking the time out to read my blog, I hope you enjoyed it!
Massive amounts of love always x