unbelievable but true, Dave made it to Cambodia!

Dave was supposed to arrive in the evening of the 18th of September. Due to some confusion he missed his connecting flight from Bangkok and had to spend the night at the airport. Fortunately he got another flight so that I could pick up stinky Dave at Phnom Penh airport the next day. It was so lovely to see him! This blog is very long with lots of pictures. Dave brought a camera which he left for me, which is very generous. It then became his new toy to capture all the nice moments.We had such a great and happy time!

The first 2 nights we stayed in the Pavillion in Phnom Penh.

Breakfast at the Pavillion

Infront of the Pav

We explored the city and each time I have visitors from far away, I see Cambodia again with fresh eyes. Each time I kind of do the same things, but it's also always different again.

Phnom Penh City

Khmer dessert or pa-eim as we say

view into a small street in Phnom Penh were they watch boxing

Khmer street food

We've seen Wat Phnom with lots of monkeys jumping around and of course the old elephant, you can ride on. We didn't do that at the end because it was $20 per person!

a cheeky monkey at Wat Phnom

good old elephant finishing todays work at Wat Phnom

Then it was time for a happy hour coctail.

Singapore Sling is a must!

I'm having a femme fatale, Jacky Kennedy drank already there a few years ago...

at the Elephant bar in Raffles, enjoying a happy hour coctail

After that we had a good view from the FCC overlooking the riverside.

View from the FCC onto the Mekong in Phnom Penh

What on earth is this?

This is a banana-flower with young bananas on it!

The next day we went to see the stunning Royal palace in the morning.

I love this spot at the Royal palace!

you look so innocent!

lovely!

a green elephant!

view over the Royal palace

our reflection in the glass

In the afternoon we visited Toul Sleng (Genocide museum).

this is from an exhibition about shadow puppetry

the Independence monument in Phnom Penh at night

cup of tea in our garden bungalow

the central market in Phnom Penh

we are exhausted but happy..

so tired from exhausing travels up and down the country

The next day we travelled by bus to Stung Treng. That takes a long time and if you are together, you try to think of entertainment...

there are many ways on how to use your travel pillow...

the chin-supporter way

eating lunch at my "favourite place": in Skoun

In Phnom Penh I bought a guitar to refine my guitar skills during those long lonely evenings in Stung Treng. Dave stayed with Carol as my current place is not really suitable for visitors.

me, Dave, Linda, Carol and Anthony

In Stung Treng, Dave came with us to the RTC and did some computer fixing and helped me with some equipment from our donor.

eating Ban Sum for breakfast at the market

He also witnessed a mass swine-flu vaccination, when I showed him around Stung Treng Referral Hospital.

We ate at my house together with my family. They liked my big brother very much.

Rek-smey with her mum

me and Vandy

Dave with Touch and Rek-smey

the flower lady at Stung Treng market

In the evenings we met up with the other volunteers and Dave was a big hit with the ladies...

On the last day in Stung Treng, Dave also visited Mekong Blue, the Silk farm.

The next day we did the mammuth journey from the North-East to the North-West of the country.

We travelled over 12 hours to get to Siem Riep, where we met Oli.

After a long night of Karaoke, we headed to see Angkor Wat the next day.

this was my 4th time then that I have seen Angkor Wat...

We've seen Bantey Srey,

Tha Prom,

then we needed food and drink and a snooze...

Angkor Thom,

me and my darlings

the day was truly exhausting and hot...

and finally Angkor Wat,

where Davy lost his money belt with purse and passport inside. Fortunatley the tourist police was kind enough to hand it over after paying a nice bribe.

In Siem Riep, Davy discovered how much he liked the massages by the blind so that he had one each day until he went back to the UK.

Dave also discovered the foot skin eating fish and we enjoyed the traditional Apsara dancing.

We also had the previlege to swim in a very posh pool...

Finally, I made Dave donate Blood in the Angkor Hospital for Children. Thank you Dave, you might have saved someones life already! He found out about his bloodgroup for the first time and was very brave...Well done!

Dave with my friend and Student nurse Sareth

After a few days in Siem Riep, we travelled even further north west to the wild wild west Thmar Pouk where Oli lives.
Now, it is not that easy to get there. First of all we had to go by bus to Sissophon

the opera house

Oli got a picture promised by this artist for his new children ward in Thmar Pouk

and then we waited for more than 2 hours for a taxi to fill up to bring us up to Oli-village.
So we waited and waited...and took a lot of pictures...

Dave was also keen to get a flavour of the real rural Cambodia and so we combined fun with work.

Oli had a health promotion day at his hospital, done by other VSO volunteers and Dave was asked to support one event by playing the guitar with a guy called: Vomit, to play the "Toilet song".