BIG Update

Hey everyone, it has been faaaar too long since we updated all of you on our travels. Needless to say, we’ve been quite busy, with trips to Singapore, Kep, and another work trip for Laura. So we’ll be putting up a few different posts over the coming days, in no particular order, to try to bring you up to speed.

We went to Singapore for 4 days near the beginning of August. The main reason was so that Tyler could write the GRE (standardized test for school applications), but we really wanted to see Singapore anyway. It is truly an amazing city. Incredibly clean, efficient, organized, and focused on the public good. Don’t eat on the subway, it’ll cost you a $500 fine. Want to be a jerk and get handsy with a girl in public? Go to jail, get fined, and get caned. Bottom line: don’t be an idiot and you’ll love it there!

One thing that really stands out compared to Cambodia is the cost – soooo much more expensive. So we took advantage of as many free activities as possible. The following are from the botanical gardens and famous orchid garden, breathtaking and massive public spaces.

Next up are the pictures from the Gardens by the Bay. The big building that looks like 3 towers topped by a surf board is the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel. The Gardens were smaller than the botanical gardens but still quite expansive. Price tag: $1 BILLION. And it’s a free public space with the occasional smaller area requiring a token fee. There’s something to be said for benevolent dictatorships… Oh, and the crazy fake trees light up at night and are choreographed to music. Super cool.

Finally, a quick peek at what’s to come with the Kep posts…

Quick Update

Hey everyone, we will be heading to Kep with some friends this weekend since Friday is a public holiday. Even though rainy season has started we should still be able to enjoy some nice weather by the pool or on the beach while we’re there. We’ll put up some pictures from the Kep trip next week. Also, we’ll be in Singapore from August 4-7, so if anyone has any recommendations for things to do/see let us know!

Free the 23!

Hey everyone, it’s Laura!

Working at Equitable Cambodia has allowed me to experience things that I never would have been able to do if I had just been backpacking through Cambodia.  Not only have I been able to travel with them and see more of the country (another post on this coming soon!), but I have also been able to safely attend protests around Phnom Penh.  The protest that I am going to write about today was part of the “Free the 23” campaign that occurred on May 30th, 2014 (I know, this is long overdue!).

So here is the story behind the demonstration…

On May 30^th, 2014, myself along with other Community Empowerment & Legal Awareness (CELA) members went to monitor the demonstration as the verdict was being read regarding the remaining 21 of the 23 who were arrested during protests over the course of January 2^nd and 3^rd, 2014.  The men were detained as a result of a violent crackdown by the military and police during protests supporting garment workers who were asking the government for liveable wages. During these protests there were many people, including some of the arrested, who were beaten and threatened.  Five protesters were killed and about 40 others were wounded when officials open fired on the crowd during the demonstration on January 3^rd.

On the day of the protest…

The were around 400 protestors and about 100 police and military officers who stayed within the barriers that were blocking off the streets surrounding the court on the day of the verdict,.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced that although the accused were found guilty, they were given suspended sentences and were going to be released within a few hours.  Once the 21 men were released there was a huge parade of mottos and tuk-tuks that went around the city.

Here are some of the photos from that day:

He LOVED having his picture taken by all of the photographers!

One of the campaign banners

Lotus flowers were placed around the barrier

These were two puppets placed in coffins that community members made to represent corrupt officials and a corrupt judge

Protesters began to march around the perimeter of the court

These photos were taken while protesters were marching around the perimeter of the court. They had just received the news that the 21 men would be released from prison soon. The last coffins were drug around the entire time. The last photo is of my co-workers during the march.

Once the loop was completed, the contents of the coffins were burnt and they released balloons to represent that the men were now free

These last photos are of the tuk-tuk & motto parade after the men were released to loved ones. The men on/in the back of the blue truck were the prisoners who had been in prison since January.  People had microphones and drums in the tuk-tuks and sang and danced the entire time through the streets of Phnom Penh! Except for the kids…they were all a little tired by that point as you can see!

Being able to be apart of that was such a great experience, especially after the good news was announced! It was so exciting and is something that I will never forget. I’m fortunate that I am able to do things like this with EC as I don’t think I would feel quite as safe as I did had I just attended as a backpacker.

 

Vroom, Vroom!

SURPRISE! We bought a motto!

A little on driving around Phnom Penh:

One of the things that we noticed as soon as we got here was that pretty much everyone drives some sort of moped, scooter or motorcycle. Cars are too expensive for the majority of the population to own, but if you are fortunate enough to afford one then you’ll be the king of the road (Side note: entire family’s will squeeze onto the motto. The most people on one motto witnessed so far has been 2 adults and 4 children. It is extremely common to see people driving with their baby in their lap, or a toddler standing up in front of the driver. Some mottos can attach an extra little seat on the back to add more room) . Larger vehicles drive whenever, wherever they want down the street and most people are using their horn for about 80% of their drive. There are driving schools and traffic laws, but for the most part people drive how they please.  They do tend to respect the traffic lights at busy intersections, thankfully. One of the benefits of driving a motto as opposed to a car around the city is your drive is much quicker. They are able to easily swerve in between everyone and during rush hour, just like everywhere else, the roads become quite congested so sitting in a car or tuk-tuk can take a while.

As a pedestrian walking around the city, we’ve learned that if we want to cross the road then you just have to go for it.  There are a few cross walks on major roads and intersections, but that is it.  One of the best pieces of advice that we’ve received upon arrival was “don’t walk in front of anything bigger than a tuk-tuk”. The other important thing we’ve learned was to not stop in the middle of the road unless it is physically too busy to cross that side of the road. As soon as you see a break in traffic, just walk and the motorists will gage their speed and driving path depending on how you’re walking.  If you hesitate or stop it will throw them off!  At first it was a bit stressful, but we’ve gotten used to it!

So, why would we get a motto and drive on that? Not only do we really enjoy being on one, but having to take a tuk-tuk everyday to work or explore adds up.  Since we are going to be here for so long it will save us quite a bit in the end, and it also makes other areas of the city much more accessible to us.   

Before we decided to actually purchase our own motto, Nimol, the amazing Outreach International volunteer co-ordinator here in Cambodia, took us to the Olympic stadium which has a paved track around the perimeter of the grounds to teach us how to drive an automatic and manual. 

This was when Nimol and her friend were teaching us how to drive. The red one is the automatic, and the white was the manual (and much more difficult to drive!)

Terrified! The first time we were both on the motto. Don’t worry, he drove slow…he had precious cargo!

We made it the whole way around without any issues, so we bought this:

It is a 2007 Suzuki Step, a fairly popular model around Phnom Penh.  Thank goodness for Nimol, who brought Tyler to various motto shops around town to compare different mottos and prices.

So far, so good! We love having the freedom and only having to pay 4$  in gas twice a month!

Not something we would eat again…

Phnom Penh has one of the most varied, delicious, and affordable restaurant scenes we’ve ever had the joy of partaking in. That being said, there are a few menu items that you certainly try while you’re here, but you probably don’t order twice…

Fire ant curry consists of curry and, you guessed it, fire ants. The ants themselves weren’t particularly big, and they didn’t seem to have a noticeable flavour, but when you bit one it would crunch.

The other adventurous item we had the opportunity to try was fried tarantula. The small tarantulas are de-fanged, so there is no danger to anyone, and customers can even hold live tarantulas if they want (as our friend Jin bravely demonstrated haha). It’s kind of like picking your lobster before you eat it!

Understandably, it took a little while to work up the nerve to try them. They tasted like anything else you fry, the dipping sauce was actually quite good, and when you bit into the bodies they exploded a little in your mouth.

Of the two food items, Tyler had a much harder time with the tarantula while Laura struggled with the fire ant curry. We’re both glad we tried them, but we definitely don’t have plans to eat either dish again!

Work trip to Siem Reap

Hey, its Laura!

While I’m working at Equitable Cambodia (EC) for the duration of the trip, I am going to be working with their Community Empowerment & Legal Awareness (CELA) team.  One of the major things that CELA does is organize and facilitate educational workshops around the country to educate citizens on their rights.  Since land grabbing is a massive issue in Cambodia right now, I think that while I am here most of their workshops will be on this topic.  As it turns out, I arrived just in time to be able to join them for one of these workshops in Siem Reap, which is about a 7 hour (if not longer) drive from Phnom Penh.  We slept, ate and held the workshop at the Metakarona Center for 5 days while in Siem Reap.  My job while at the workshop was to keep a record of the lessons, activities and relevant discussions.  Unfortunately my knowledge of Khmer is practically non-existent at this point, so that meant someone had to sit with me and translate the entire time.  Thankfully everyone with CELA was extremely patient and helpful the whole time! Besides the work, we played energizer games throughout the day to keep everyone engaged and alert, and played more fun and silly team games at night.  I really had a fantastic time and I’m looking forward to the next workshop!

These photos were taken on the way there when we had stopped for lunch.

The grounds of the Center were beautiful! In these pictures, there is the area where we ate all of our meals (which were provided for us), the field in the back where we played games, and the last one is our room– mosquito nets included!

 

The participants during a lesson and while working on their group presentations.

The first couple are of my CELA co-workers, and the last ones are of some of the youth participants!

This group of pictures is when some of the participants taught me how to pick mangos.  There are mango trees everywhere, so we’ve been eating quite a few since we got here.

Work – Tyler

Hey everyone, Tyler again.  Time for an update about the work I’m actually doing in Phnom Penh.  The organization I’m working for is called Chab Dai (an anti-human trafficking coalition) and the primary project I’m working on is called Freedom Collaborative.  Basically, Chab Dai is working to create an online community where anti-trafficking stakeholders can find other stakeholders across the world, share ideas and solutions, find anti-trafficking library resources, and view video interviews of key figures addressing human trafficking issues.  Additionally, countries will have their own national version of the platform that is fully contextualized.

To see the site, go to:  http://freedomcollaborative.org/organizations

To find out about Daniel, who is currently biking across Canada to raise the money necessary for the creation of the Canadian version of the site, visit: http://give.danielperrett.com/

My role in all of this is to create and implement a monitoring and evaluations framework for the site, which will be applicable both globally and nationally.  Both donors and organizations have a keen interest in ensuring programs are effectively reaching stated objectives, and this framework will allow all involved parties to have a clear picture of the role and impact of Freedom Collaborative.

My second project, which won’t begin until this summer, is strategic planning.  The Freedom Collaborative platform is in the process of being expanded to 14 countries globally, but I will be working with other Chab Dai employees to research and identify the next series of countries that will be targeted for expansion.  This will involve determining which countries 1 have a human trafficking problem (frankly, most if not all countries fit this to some extent) and 2 lack collaboration between anti-trafficking stakeholders.

Thus far, Chab Dai has been amazing to work with, all of its employees have been incredibly welcoming and supportive, and I’m really looking forward to contributing to their efforts in the global fight against human trafficking.

Weekend in Kep

Hey everyone, it’s Tyler.  Been a while since we’ve posted anything, big apology for that.  Needless to say, we’ve both been super busy.  Anyway, last weekend Laura was with her co-workers in Siam Reap (post coming as soon as I’m done), so I went with some new friends to Kep.  Kep is an amazing seaside town, really popular among ex pats but still kind of a hidden gem.

My hotel room.  First time with sleeping with air conditioning since Boston!  The group was split between this hotel and a second hotel, and we spent most of our time hanging out at the other hotel (The Veranda Natural Resort if you’re interested).

 

The first is the AWESOME infinity pool at the resort, where we spent all of our time when at the resort.  The second is the path connecting the resort rooms at the Veranda, and the third is the sunset from the resort room.

 

The first picture is us attempting to climb through the national park in Kep.  Essentially, there’s an oval track around the mini mountain, and a trail that cuts over top.  Half way through the track, we decided to cut across to get back to the start faster.  Clearly, a little steeper than we anticipated.  The second is a view of the water from the Sailing Club, a little restaurant/bar right on the water.  The third is a group picture.  It’s amazing how many different people you meet when you’re traveling.  From left to right, Canadian, Canadian, American, Brazilian, Australian, American.  The fourth is a picture of Kep from a lookout on the track.

Obviously, Kep is awesome (and a fraction of the price of any similar Caribbean resort!). Laura and I are already making plans to go there together soon!

The Killing Fields

The Killing Field we visited was a 45 minute tuk-tuk ride from our apartment.  It’s one of over 300 mass graves that have been located around Cambodia, a result of the brutal genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge regime.

The front gate of the center.  Headsets were provided to all visitors in virtually any language, providing an audio guide as we walked around the area.  Each station had a number which we could then press on our audio device.  A mixture of historical facts, personal stories and testimonies were included.

 

Main memorial for the victims of the genocide.  Several excavations were done throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, utilizing the assistance of forensic analysts.  The middle of this memorial contains several levels, each level containing skulls of victims executed in a particular manner (e.g. hammer, knife, bamboo rod, etc.).  Many of the graves were left undisturbed as they were covered with water, while others are slowly filling with soil and plants (the graves were originally 16 feet deep).  Clothing, bone shards, and teeth are still emerging from the ground, especially during rainy season.

Street View and the Russian Market

These initial three pictures were taken from our front balcony.

 

Inside the massive Russian Market.  It’s covered by corrugated metal panels and PACKED with clothing, food, accessories, electronics, and people.  This is one of the most open areas within the market.

 

Street view of the area surrounding the Russian Market.  The “sidewalks” are always packed with vehicles, street vendors, motos, and people.  A surprising number of high-end vehicles are seen around the city (e.g. Lexus, Rolls Royce, Range Rover, BMW, etc.).  The tuk-tuks (moto with a carriage on the back) are essentially taxis and are seen all around.