Sues Dey!

Hello, from a very hot Cambodia! The temperature is steadily increasing as the month comes to a close. It is now reaching about 34 degrees and set to get hotter! But that temperature has not stopped the activities and adventures here in Siem Reap.

The Giant Puppet Project has now been completed, the video of which can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WggA_nD9Q_c

See if you can spot me under the leaf insect (the final puppet).

The whole show was absolutely fantastic. After our week working with the children to create the puppets, we had another week to complete the finishing touches, such as moving eye lids and the lighting. It was an intense week in the intense heat, but when you working with a great group of people that doesn't really matter,and, as you can see, the end result was spectacular. For those children who, in the past, will have been turned away when begging for food or money, got to see thousands of people cheering them on for their amazing work it was a fantastic experience. Every single child was smiling that night. People have said I must have been proud to be part of it, but I can honestly say it wasn't pride I was feeling but pure joy of seeing all the children's faces light up as I danced with them under a giant leaf insect (there is a sentence I never thought I would write!)

The evening was a great success and culminated in a concert in a park on the other side of town, where everyone boogied away to a selection of khmer music sung live.

The next few days were spent tidying up our work space and moving the puppets to the various hotels who had sponsored the project. But it wasn't all work. We had a few trips thrown in too.

A few days later, Emma, a fellow volunteer, and I went to finally explore the temples that Cambodia is so well-known for. I had been desperate to visit them and the time had finally arrived. So we set off late morning with a tuk tuk we had hired for the day and headed to the temples.

The roads were pretty bumpy but we made it in one piece. We initially drove past the main one, Angkor Wat, as it was the most spectacular so we intended to do that last. Instead we headed to Angkor Thom, the largest of the "temples" but it actually wasn't a temple itself, more of a city of temples, which included Bayon.

Bayon, was one of my favourite places. It is also known as the smiling temple as its stone towers are adorned with hundreds of larger than life smiling faces that look down on you as you walk around. I could imagine if I was walking there on my own it would be magical but quite creepy. It was still magically and it was fantastic to be in a place I had seen in so many of my traveller friends' photos.

After Bayon we walked to a palace in the same area, where we had to make sure our shoulders were covered as a sign of respect to the religious area. To get to the top there were some very steep steps to climb which I also accompained by a nasty bump to the head as I went through a low door, but nevertheless we were rewarded with an awesome view of the surrounding area and the ruins below.

After a walk along the Terrace of Elephants we were picked up by our tuk tuk driver again and proceeded to Ta Prohm. This is the place I had been looking forward to most.

Ta Prohm is yet another temple but this one has been completely taken over by nature....and mean completely! As you walk in you are surrounded by trees and walking through the temple you can see it really has become ruins, tumbled rocks scatter the grounds in piles as though the temple has suffered an attack. As you make your way through the ruins, you can see the trees that you spotted before are not simply growing in the ground but in the ruins themselves.

The giant roots of the trees snake their way over the old carved rocks as if consuming them. It is a really surreal sight to see and another favourite of mine - as you can probably tell from the awesome wow words I just used! (Think that earnt a few planet points!)

Once I was able to pry myself away from Ta Prohm, we made our way to Angkor Wat, the biggest and most spectacular. And it didn't disappoint. Despite the mass amount of tourists (many on holiday from various parts of Asia due to Chinese New Year) the magnificance of the place still shone through. We arrived around sunset so got to see the temple in a beautiful light and see the stunning carvings that adorned the building.

Before long it was time to leave and drive off in our tuk tuk with Angkor Wat behind us. But our sight seeing wasn't to stop there.

A few days later I had a trip to the Kulen mountain. I went with the other volunteers and artist from the Puppet Project and got to see outside of Siem Reap.

Our first stop was to the source of the river that flowed through Siem Reap. The water was considered holy water as no one, not even today, could explain where the water came from. To honour this the people from the area diverted the river so they could carve the river bed into 1000 lingas. The Lingais a hindu symbol for life. They then allowed the river to flow back overthe carved rocks, adding to the holiness of the water.

We then visited a temple on the mountain where some of the group got buddhist blessings like the one I recieved at the start of my time in Cambodia, and we also visited the largest lying buddha in Cambodia. Sadly though, I can't paint this as everything perfect as there were many people begging in the area. Cambodia is a very poor country and a lot of this is hidden from tourists. The country has suffered many trials in the past and is still suffering with the repercussions of these events. As a group we decided to donate a bit of money in the hope it would help a small amount.

Once we left the temple we walked through the local villages and over a rickety rope bridge to a little restaurant for lunch before heading to a waterfall for a swim. Only, as it was from the holy water source, we had to swim in our clothes. We stayed here for quite a while dipping in and out of the waterfall. Some of the Cambodians in our group had never had the opporunity to learn to swim, but we wanted them to experience being under the waterfall. So I ended up giving one of my friends a piggy back whilst swimming to get her under the waterfall, she was thrilled!

After all our fun and splashing about it was time to had back to Siem Reap for our final dinner as a group before the artist returned to Battambang the next day. It was extremely sad to say goodbye to everyone, especially after we had all got so close so quickly despite the language barrier (it is amazing the conversations you can have with actions and laughter). I managed to hold back the tears as we said farewell and I left them with a promise that I would return next year to help with the project again.

I am now in the last few days of my adventure. The astute of you may notice that this is a little earlier than orginially planned. Unfortunately due to funds running low I am having to return home a little earlier than expected. But this has in no way put a dampener on my travels. I have squeezed more in and had a fabulous time in the process. I am looking forward to returning home and seeing my family and friends (as well as living out of a wardrobe instead of a bag - oh the luxury!)

But I wont be staying still for long as I will be returning to America on the 1st June to resume my summer job at the summer camp. However as you have already heard about all that I will not be writing the blog for that stretch.

So....this is the last blog entry. Another ending. I may see some of you around when I return to England but if not, thank you for following my blog. I hope you have all enjoyed reading the updates and looking at the photos as much as I have had sharing them with you. I have had the most amazing time full of laughter with old and new friends, beautiful sights and life changing experiences. I wouldn't change a moment of it for the world (especially as I have been seeing the world!)

And all that is left is to say Lir Hi (good bye) and I will leave you with this brilliant saying I have heard and feels sums up my travels perfectly.

"Become friends with people who aren't your age. Hang out with people whose first language isn't the same as yours. Get to know someone who doesn't come from your social class. This is how you see the world. This is how you grow."

Cheerio from Miss Bayne and a very grubby Monkey!