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JillR


24 Blog Entries
1 Trip
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Trips:

And now for something different...

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Call it Serendipity

Sihanokville, Cambodia


I finished at the farm on friday! My final week was fun, the last day was the best (except for it being the last day)! In the morning we scrubbed the floor of the "al fresco" dining area - not so fun when we first started but great once we'd turned the whole place into a soapy skating rink! Then in the afternoon we played with the new toys we'd bought for the kids. The lego went down really well, as did the foam balls that you soak in water and chuck at people! It was really sad to leave, I'm going to miss my class a lot. I was given a lot of cards and pictures by the girls I taught - the girl I teach in the morning gave me a card that said 'you come back again pless you by me candy' I'm not sure if she was thanking me for buying her sweets or demanding more for next time!
On saturday we caught the bus down to Sihanokville in the southwest, which is Cambodia's main beach town. It was great, we found a nice hotel right next to the most popular beach called Serendipity beach. There are bars and restaurants all along the beach that set out sun loungers by day and tables and comfy chairs by night. Most of them have barbeques, so for each of the three evenings we spent there we ate absolutely delicious barbequed prawns and barracuda. The food and drink were cheap, there was a really relaxed atmosphere, and it was all stunningly beautiful! For one of the days we went east from Serendipity to Otres beach which was a quieter and more scenic strip. The weather was perfect but I got a bit sunburnt - not too badly though. Two of the girls I was with had hired a moped each so on a deserted dirt track road I had a go! They are pretty simple to drive...maybe thinking of going up a few cc's when I get home... That evening I went around town on the back of one, it was brilliant to have the wind in my face! We did lots and lots of sunbathing but the best bit was swimming and scrambling over the rocks to the west of Serendipity - I'm not sure what kind of rock they were but they were lined with something that looked really metallic - it looked like a Mars landscape or something!
I've just got back to Phnom Penh - should have been going to Singapore tomorrow but have decided to move my flight to saturday to give me more time in the cheaper country!! I'm looking forward to moving on to Indonesia on monday. I'm joining an organised tour so no more worrying about booking buses and hostels! But I've really loved Cambodia, especially Siem Reap and Sihanokville. Phnom Penh itself isn't all that great - it's very dirty, pretty ugly and smelly, and if it hadn't been for the orphanage I would have happily spent my time somewhere else. But working at the farm and being with the kids made it all worth while! I think my favorite moments were when my afternoon class got so involved in and excited about the up/down/left/right game - and were able to remember it all the next day!


permalink written by  JillR on June 1, 2010 from Sihanokville, Cambodia
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I'm the farmer, I work in the fields all day.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia


It's been a busy few weeks so I haven't been able to write for a while! All is going well at the orphanage, I'm getting the hang of teaching now! I'm sad that I've only got a week to go with the kids. My morning class is great - I only have one girl so it's more of a private tutoring session but she's very bright and speeds through the work I give her. She's very lovely, except for the odd occasion where an extra student joins us, and then she sulks because I can't giver her my undivided attention! The afternoon class is getting better, we have about 12 students monday, tuesday and wednesday, then on thursday we have 25. The large class is a nightmare, but this week we took them outside and played left/right/up/down which they loved. We had a sad moment earlier this week when the mother of one my favorite students died so he had to go back to his family for a few days. It's easy to forget that these kids are some of the poorest in Cambodia and don't have a proper family who can afford to look after them. But then again it shows how well the orphanage is doing - it's because they look so happy and content that we forget how much they don't have.
Last friday we covered the road outside the orphanage with new earth and stone so that when the rain comes in a few weeks the kids can still get to the local school. It was fun throwing dirt around with the kids and having wheelbarrow races, and the road looked great for a while but now it's getting worn and we don't really see how it will stop the path turning into a stream of mud in the rain! This friday was digging day! We spent the day in the orphange's greenhouses weeding and hoeing the vegetable patches to get ready to plant spinach. It was rediculously hot and sweaty, we could only do about 15 minutes at a time before we had to have a break! Our co-ordinater said I was an excellent farmer though! It's a shame we only have a week left and won't be able to see anything growing.
Last weekend myself and some of the other volunteers took the night bus to Siem Reap and did the temples at Angkor Wat. They were pretty impressive! We watched the sunset on our first night, then the next day got caught in a rain storm at Angkor Wat itself, and had to shelter in a tiny temple for an hour. The rain was like nothing we get in England, huge great big raindrops coming down by the bucket load! We went to the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed, although I'd never seen the film so that meant nothing to me!
This weekend we're staying in Phnom Penh and having a lazy couple of days - today I had a massage and then spent the afternoon at a lovely bar that has a really nice pool. We didn't get any sun though, it was a lot cooler today and it was so nice to not be covered in sweat (lovely). I think it's going to rain tomorrow, but if not it's back to the pool! We've been having temperatures of about 40c, according to one local this tuesday will be 50c! If it's that hot we're not allowed to go to work thankfully!! So I may be back in the air condidtioned internet cafe all day tuesday uploading all the photos I haven't managed to yet!
Hope you are all enjoying the lovely weather I've heard you're having this weekend!!!xxxx


permalink written by  JillR on May 22, 2010 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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A is for....

Phnom Penh, Cambodia


So here I am in Cambodia now! It's very very hot and humid, I can finally wear most of the t-shirts and skirts I originally packed and throw away all the jumpers and trousers I aquired in China! I'm staying in the centre of Phnom Penh in an OKish guest house, and teaching in an orphanage during the day. It's not exactly what I was expecting - I thought I would be assisting the teachers and keeping the kids entertained during their breaks. But oh no, I AM the teacher! The orphanage is about an hour out of town, there are about 70 kids living there from age 7 to 18. They have 3 classrooms; about 7 or 8 dormitories; a chicken farm; a herd of cows and 2 rice fields. The children are split into 3 age/ability groups and then again into 2 classes. One class goes to the local school in the morning and then has English lessons in the afternoon with us at the orphanage, and the other class does vice versa. I'm not sure exactly how the groups are split - in the morning I have 2 kids, in the afternoon I can have any number between 13 and 21. I have the youngest classes - some of them have a pretty high level of English, some of them can't recognise letters of the alphabet so it's hard to think of things to keep them all occupied! We've been doing 'a or an' for the last few days, although with one boy we are still doing A B C! I found the first couple of days very hard work, but it's getting better. I have another volunteer in the class with me and he plays the guitar so our afternoon class mostly involves singing! That's the only thing that keeps their concentration! One of the more clever boys who sped through the work (and the extra work) I gave him during the lesson came up to me after class today and asked me to give him homework! A lot of them want to learn but it's very hard to explain what we want them to do because of the language barrier. There are several dogs at the school, and just last week they got a tiny puppy from a local village. The kids are very rough with it and love to pick it up and throw it about and put it in the trees. There are also 2 babies who belong to a group of builders who are building a new volunteer house, and the kids are very rough with them as well. Every lunch time we have to confiscate the puppy and the babies at least 3 times! We are planning a lesson for the whole orphanage entitiled 'Puppies don't climb trees and other things to remember when playing with things smaller than yourself'. But on the whole the children are very nice and seem to like us being there! There are 5 of us volunteering at the farm, and about 15 of us in total spread out on projects across PP. Everyone seems nice enough so far! A lot of them are also in the middle of long trips across Asia, it's nice to hear all their stories so far!
I haven't really had time to see much of the city so far, in the evening we tend to go to restaurants near the hotel so we don't have to walk far in the heat! We have the weekend off so we'll hit the sights then!


permalink written by  JillR on May 6, 2010 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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We built a wall!

Beijing, China


Climbed the Great Wall today! And it really was a climb - some sections were nicely paved with even slabs and level steps - other parts were literally like climbing a ladder. It was so hard going, I walked about a 12km section and took just under three hours. Bits of the wall were away beneath me, I really had to hold on! Except quite often there wasnèt anything to hold on to! (There is no apostrophe key on this keyboard, itès not my bad grammer!) It was great being up there, the view was amazing! All browns and greys, no greenery yet, but there were lots of almond trees in bloom. I was with a group of about 40 people, but as we were all walking at our own pace I soon lost them. It wasnèt very busy at all, which made a nice change! In fact, there were a few sections when I couldnèt see anyone up in front of me or anyone behind me - not a good time to fall and break my ankle! To get back down you could either walk or take the zip line..so of course I took the zip line! It went pretty slowly, but I hadnt seen anyone do it before me so I hadnt seen how fast it went, or more importantly I hadnt seen anyone NOT fall off on the way down! But it was brilliant, a great way to end my long hard walk!
Yesterday I went to the Capital Musuem which was a good way to spend a few hours out of the freezing wind. It was free, which was a nice surprise because my guide book said it would be 40 Yuan (only 4 quid, but still...when youre on a budget...). It only opened about 2 years ago, and the building is huge and very modern, with a great big cone going from the inside of the foyer out to the outside. It was also pretty quiet, even though they were holding the opening ceremony of one of their temporary exhibits. Even though itès been very cold here, its also been very sunny, and when the winds not blowing you over its quite pleasant, so Ive been spending a lot of time in parks. Some of them are free, and full of old ladies and gents walking their dogs and birds and grandchildren. The park I was in yesterday had people doing Taiji, Kongfu, having a trumpet lesson and playing badminton with no net. Theyre great to walk around and watch people in.
I fly to Cambodia on saturday afternoon, Ièll write again as soon as I can once Im there!
Next stop: Phnomn Penh!


permalink written by  JillR on April 29, 2010 from Beijing, China
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Hello City!

Beijing, China


Phase two of my big adventure - Beijing. I'm here for a week, and it's pretty starnge suddenly being in a city and not being surrounded by either pomello tree plantations, rice paddies or chickens! So many buildings! And it's so vast! The guide book suggests getting taxis everywhere! It's odd to think I can't just walk from the supermarket to the restaurant to the local attraction to the bar then back to the hostel! It might take me a while to adjust!
Today I visited Prince Gong's palace (he wasn't an actuall prince, just a favorite advisor of the Qianlong Emporer). The first part was a complex of buildings the 2nd part was gardens. It was pretty impressive but packed full of tourists! It was hard to get near some of the exhibitions in the gardens. Then I walked along the lakes near where my hostel is but then in started to rain heavily so I quickly went back to the hostel for instant noodles and hot drinks! Tomorrow I'll go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square!


permalink written by  JillR on April 25, 2010 from Beijing, China
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What a let down...until our last day of course!

Longsheng, China


Well it rained on monday, so we didn't leave for trekking. We stayed in Yangshuo an extra day and went climbing in the afternoon. On real rocks!! It was brilliant - still a little damp but quite warm, and so much fun! Because of all the wet weather the mountainside was very slippy which made it tougher, but we all made it to the top! I was glad to have had another night for my legs to recover from the cycling and the jumping from friday! The following morning was stilll wet but we had to leave Yangshuo. We took a bus back to Guilin, and another cramped, busy, noisy bus for 2 hours to Longshen. Because the weather was so awful we could hardly see anything out of the windows, but when we were about half an hour away from Longshen the fog lifted a little (or rather, we drove above the fog) and we were in another world! We were really high up in the mountains with another new type of lanscape. We took another minibus for half an hour or so, on twisty windy roads making their way up the mountains, skirting round landslides and trying not to fall off the road towards the traditional Yao minority village of Dazhai. It was about 4.30 pm by the time we arrived so we had a quick walk around the village then had dinner. After dinner we played cards by candlelight as the village's power supply had been cut off by the storms. We weren't too hopeful about walking the next day, and surprise surprise, we woke up to the sound of rain! We braved it anyway and spent the day walking in the mountains and around the rice terraces so several viewpoints (Thousands Layers to the Heaven, Music from Paradise and Golden Budda Peak - none of which resembled anything like what they were supposed to!). The rain was OK for most of the day, only drizzling now and again, which was pretty nice because it was pretty hot! At lunchtime the clouds cleared a little, maybe for about half an hour, which lifted our spirits. After lunch the paths got smaller and smaller and more overgrown and the recent rain had turned a lot of them into streams so we were slipping and sliding all over the place and getting pretty fed up! I fell down and got completely covered in mud and then it started raining really heavily so we were all really glad when we got back to our hotel! The following morning we got a bus to Huangluo Village, whose women have the longest hair in the world. We saw their show that they put on for tourists (a little interesting, but they looked kind of embarrassed to be up there performing), then had lunch and went on to Ping'an Village. The village was pretty touristy, but nice, clinging to the mountain-side with teeny tiny alleyways and secret corners. We climbed up to see the Seven Stars with Moon terrace and the 9 Dragons and 5 Tigers, but again the fog was rather in the way! It was also freezing cold so in the evening we huddled up in our room with hot chocolate and Chinese soap operas. Which are hialrious by the way. Well, they were to us because we made up the storylines and dialogues for ourselves. We were all feeling pretty down because of all the rain we'd had over the 4 weeks, and pretty gutted that before we arrived in China they had had beautiful weather!
The next morning -- a miracle!! Not a cloud in the sky and boiling hot!! We raced up to see the moon and stars terraces before breakfast, which looked so different (mainly because we could actually see them!) from the day before! We ate breakfast outside and got sunburnt in 20 minutes, then bused it back to Guilin. We said goodbye to Ellen that evening, then Leah first thing in the morning, then Tina took Abe back to Fengyan and the China Experience was over!


permalink written by  JillR on April 24, 2010 from Longsheng, China
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I heard you got some rain... looks like we're in for the same.

Yangshuo, China


We've had a fantastic time this week! We had a tour around an ancient village, had some taiji, calligraphy and chinese knitting lessons and roamed about the countryside. The weather has been pretty awful, wet and rainy and cold, but we've managed to enjoy ourselves. We climbed Moon Hill, which is a tall karst with a natural hole in the middle at the top. There are 800 steep steps to the top but the view at the top was fantastic - the best so far of the trip. We were supposed to be cycling out to the hill but the weather was so terrible we took our minibus. The rain was good enough to hold out until we were halfway back down! Later in the afternoon the clouds lifted a little so we took the bikes out for an hour or so and cycled to the villages behind the school and along the river.
Yesterday morning we were taken to a village belonging to a group of minority Chinese. It had been made into a tourist attraction - the story was that a tribe of around 3000 of them lived in the forested mountains of south-west China and 3 years ago the Chinese government relocated 300 of them to Yangshuo. We were told by our Chinese guide that the tour would take us round the village where we would meet some of the villagers and see their way of life. Well....it was like Chinese Disneyland. Lots of "villagers" wandering about in "real" animal skins (more like printed pyjamas) who were aparently too scared to leave their village but were perfectly happy for us to tramp around their village. We were even greeted by the queen, sitting in a courtyard with a 2nd Chinese guide ready to take photos - obviously no queenly duties to attend to! It was really awful, there was clearly no tribe living in the area - these were all locals employed to dress up and dance around all day. We were pretty disgusted actually - the tribe of 3000 does actually exist in the south west and we felt that this village really made a mockery out of them, especially as the owners of the park claimed it was all genuine. The price of the entry ticket was very high, and at every corner there was someone waiting to take your picture and charge you 10 yaun for it, and you can bet hardly any of it gets back to the real tribe. The day improved dramatically after lunch - the weather was much warmer and drier so we cycled about an hour out of Yangshuo to a village along the Li River where it's popular to jump off a very high bridge into very cold water. I had to really psyche myself up to jump but I did it! It was great fun, the water was a lot warmer than I thought it would be, and getting warm and dry afterwards was OK as well. Instead of cycling back the same way, 4 of us hired 2 bamboo rafts to take us back down the river towards Yangshuo and then we would cycle the 2km back into town. Earlier in the week we had taken a boat trip on a different part of the river through an area famous for being depicted on the 20 Yuan notes. It was pretty, but with so many other tourists on the water (plus it was pouring with rain) we didn't enjoy it so much. This 2nd time on the water however, was absolutley gorgeous! For the whole hour and a half of slow punting we didn't pass another raft, and the scenery was maybe not so dramatic, but much nicer and so peaceful! We were right in the middle of the countryside, slowly drifting past tiny hamlets and along rice paddies. When the rafts dropped us off we had to cycle down tiny, very muddy paths winding through the farms and villages and past hundreds of graves and burial grounds. Eventually we got back onto a bigger road which then stopped back at the river and there was no bridge!! On the other bank there were loads of rafts, it was obviously another popular place for tourists to get on the water. We were charged an obscene amount to have some-one take us across, but we had no other choice - we were already so late for dinner and we had no idea how far away the nearest bridge would be! From the other side it still took us about and hour to get back to the school, we were so exhausted! It was quite an adventure! After consulting a map we were angry because when we had been dropped off from the raft they had put us down on the wrong side of the river - obviously in cahoots with the people further down who could then charge as much as they wanted to get us back across! And it was far more than 2km into town! But we really enjoyed the scenery and the exercise so all in all we were happy to have had that experience. Today however, I am aching!!!
We now have the weekend free and then on monday we start trekking! I really hope the weather gets better!!!!


permalink written by  JillR on April 17, 2010 from Yangshuo, China
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Photos Photos!!!

Yangshuo, China


Hey, hope you like all the photos! Only a small selection but they took so long to upload! Also the rotate tab wouldn't work so you're just going to have to look sideways!

permalink written by  JillR on April 12, 2010 from Yangshuo, China
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Gongcheng - the real O.C.

Gongcheng, China


We have left our beautiful little Fengyan for the small but busy Yangshuo, a very touisty town on the Li River. Here you will find more Western people than anywhere else except Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an or Hong Kong. On the down side it means we don't feel much like the first intrepid explorers to step foot in this area anymore; on the plus side you can get pizza, burgers and chips in every restaurant!
On wednesday, thursday and friday we each had one 45 min lesson at the primary school in the next village along. Each morning we spent hours thinking of what we could teach them and songs we could sing for them, but when we took our first lesson we found the students already knew everything we had planned on teaching them! My first class was 3rd grade, which is our year 3 and they were very naughty! Their teacher didn't stay for the lesson so I was completely on my own trying to get them to listen and not sway seats when I wasn't looking! On thursday I had the 4th grade, who were very well behaved and enthusiastic so I really enjoyed that lesson. On friday I had the 5th grade and they were just as naughty as my first class and even less interested in learning english! But I enjoyed the three days and gave me a little headstart on what I need to prepare for next month in Cambodia where I'll be working at an orphanage for 4 weeks.
On thursday evening we took a walk around the village and found courtyard where a group of teenagers were playing ping pong, and who invited us to join in. After a few hours we tried to leave but they insisted we came inside where they had loaded their kitchen table with biscuits and nuts and other snacks for us! We couldn't refuse so spent another couple of hours having half conversations with the families who lived in the houses around the courtyard and drinking tea and beer with them. They were so friendly that when it came to about 10pm and we really didn't want to leave we proimised we'd come again the next night. The following morning, Leah and I went back to the market in Lianhua and bought a great big bag of biscuits for them. That evening we went back to their house but there was no one in the kitchen except two old ladies who hadn't been there the previous night! We felt a little bit awkward handing over these biscuits to two strange ladies, but they had obviously heard about us and called the boys who we had been playing with and they came home pretty quickly! We played more ping pong and then again were invited in for snacks and oil tea, which is pretty much the most disgusting thing I've ever drunk - oil, tea, ginger and garlic, all squished up and boiled. Yuk! But very good for you aparently. We drank what we were given, but the grandmother kept pouring everyone else more of the stuff, and they obviously didn't like it much either because anytime the person sitting next to someone's back was turned, the first person would pour their tea into their neighbours bowl! We felt really lucky to have spent the two evenings with our new friends, every once in a while I'd look around and think wow, I'm on the other side of the world from home, sitting in a stranger's kitchen being given food like they'd known me for years! When else would I get this kind of experience again! And they were so nice, the ring leader, Gu Shi was telling us about his job making mobile phones in Shenzhen near Hong Kong, and his brother was proudly showing us pictures of his new baby son. They had a chinese/english phrase book and we were teaching each other how to say random phrases and laughing at our respective terrible pronountiations!
It was sad to leave Fengyan, it had started to feel like home. I should probably explain about the title of this entry - there are oranges everywhere! They grow them all around the village and all across Gongcheng county so you see them on the trees, in every shop and on every stall, in trucks, great piles of them stacked up in garages, and littered all over the floor! They get wrapped in little plastic bags, and whenever they are thrown away because t\hey are too old, the bags get tossed too! There are great big rubbish heaps covered in oranges and if they get into streams or rivers you see them bobbing along in their little bags.
Yesterday we were driven to Yangshuo, were we are staying in rooms in an enormous boarding school. The bathrooms are pretty nasty but on the whole it's OK, and only a short walk to the centre of town. Last night we went out for dinner and then on to a couple of bars. The last one we went to was playing very strange dance music - 'I am the music man' set to a really fast beat for example. There was a little dance floor and I'm very happy to say we did England proud! There were quite a few chinese people in the bar (mostly tourists rather than locals I think) and eventually everyone was on the dance floor having a really good time. At one point we all formed a circle and one by one we all took a turn in the middle, everyone cheering everyone else on, and then we all did the conga together. It was a fantastic night of mixing with non-europeans, plus the head barman Wan Wei gave us free drinks all night!
And hooray! The weather is hot here! It's still pretty cloudy and humid, but we're wearing tee-shirts not 6 jumpers! Tonight I'm even going to crack out the skirt!
This afternoon we have 3 new people arriving from england to spend the week with us, so I'd better head back to the school to meet them. Again, no pictures, sorry! I showed the man in the internet cafe my camera's memory card but the computer won't read it. I'll try somewhere else later in the week, this is getting really frustrating!!!!


permalink written by  JillR on April 11, 2010 from Gongcheng, China
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Oodels of noodles!

Guilin, China


We go back to Fengyan in a few hours so I thought I should take this opportunity at the
hostel to write again while I can。Yesterday we went to Seven Star Park which is a huge park in Guilin with 7 karsts that form the shape of the big dipper (although you can only see that if you are in a plane。 There are some caves you can visit with interesting stalectites and stalecmites that they have lit up in crazy phsycadellic colours which is pretty cool but I thought they would have looked nicer with much plainer lighting!It was a little bit too Disney-like。 Some of the rock formations looked a little man-made as well! But the park was very well looked after and there were lots of cute pavillions and waterfalls and some monkeys!Much better than the monkey walk at Trentham,sorry Robyn!
Then back in the city centre we were constantly hassled by people wanting to take us for trips on their bamboo rafts or visit their teahouses, and we ate at a fastfood noodle-rice bar which unfortunately was way too spicey and what we thought was Chicken was tofu, so we were all a little disappointed with dinner。
We are about to go for breakfast - noodles with pork, peanuts and seasoning - a typical Guilin dish。 We had it yesterday morning and this time we know it's delicious!!It's our favorite food of the whole trip so far and all agree we could eat it all day!


permalink written by  JillR on April 5, 2010 from Guilin, China
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