The Temples of Angkor

After being in Cambodia for ten months I felt it was about time for me to visit the biggest tourist attraction here, the ancient Angkorian Temples in Siem Reap. Two of my friends, Sophie and Steph, decided to visit me so I knew this was the perfect opportunity for me to see them for myself.

I had heard many things about the area and seen lots of pictures; however, it did not stop me from being amazed by the scale, magnificence and scope of the Temples. Building started in around 900BC and the site was still occupied until the 14th Century, with the religious focus changing gradually from Hinduism brought from India to Buddhism brought from China.

The Temple complex is on a scale difficult to describe, with the entire region covering miles and miles of rolling hills, flat plains, lakes and jungle. In most cases the Temples have in fact been reclaimed by the jungle, with many having trees growing over, on top or off the crumbling stone structures. This is famously shown in the ‘Tomb Raider’ movie with Angelina Jolie (incidentally, whilst filming in Cambodia she adopted her first child, a local Cambodian).

The architecture is amazing and the attention to detail is breathtaking, with every stone carved by hand with beautiful images. A visit to the Museum in Siem Reap is a must to try and understand the history of the place. Our brilliant tuk-tuk driver Ken took us all around and even to some temples off the beaten track which was great. What it is difficult to describe is the intense heat of place, I seriously don’t think I’ve ever been so hot! I have to admit, when it got too much a lot of ‘culture absorption’ stops were needed (this basically consists of us sitting in the shade in a temple, drinking water and trying to stop sweating profusely...nice!).

The town of Siem Reap is also a pleasant place, with lots going on for tourists and many restaurants and bars which were a nice change from the provincial Cambodia I am used to!
The Temples of Angkor are definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in SE Asia, I cannot recommend them highly enough. It is difficult to try and describe them and no matter how many pictures you see it does not capture the feeling of actually walking around these ancient wonders.

The next big holiday stop was one which was far less full of culture, but equally as enjoyable-the beach! The white sand, blue sea and cocktails were just what was needed after a week of Temple bagging. Other than the odd monsoon (helpfully at 12am...just as we were about to leave the bar which meant we got stuck there until 5:30am. Honest!) the weather was beautiful and we had a very enjoyable trip.

So now it is back to work and I have lots to be getting on with in my final months here in Cambodia. I am hopefully off to a Battambang at the end of July and I’m quite excited as I haven’t been there yet and have heard that it is lovely and has a Bamboo Train, which sounds like fun.

The rains are yet to really start, we are getting the odd shower but nothing on the scale I’ve been expecting here so I feel as though I am almost waiting for it to break. On the up side the weather has seriously cooled off now, with jumpers, jeans and socks needed during the day and blankets and quilts and night which feels great!

Month 10

So I have just entered the tenth month I have been in Cambodia and eight month of working here and I have been looking back a little in order to look forward and plan my last four months.

When I first arrived in Cambodia I was faced with culture shock, home sickness and the dawning realisation of what I had let myself in for. On top of that there was the heat and humidity along with feeling massively out of my depths, having never travelled or been to Asia.

Now I can’t imagine not having lived here.

I have had the opportunity to work in such a different and interesting environment, with people who really want to make a difference and change Cambodia. What makes this great is that these people are Cambodians. There is a great sense of ownership here with many Cambodians working at the ground roots to improve the system. However, it cannot be overlooked that there are serious issues in Cambodia which are working against the process of development and those seeking change and improvement.

This issue of corruption in high government levels seeps all the way down to the grass roots and affects every person living and working in Cambodia. Until this is resolved, development in Cambodia is seriously limited by the integral system of corruption currently in operation. This system breeds dissention, discontent and causes a huge divide between the have and have-nots. Mostly, those with money and power are those most willing to use others wrongly, behave in a corrupt manner and take from those who need it more. It is a strange situation but one which is not uncommon in post conflict developing countries.

However, I have discussed the above issue before a few times in my blog and for all the bad things happening in Cambodia, there are also some good. A change of government does not look likely any time soon so therefore it is necessary to work with what is available and try to increase government awareness of the issues in Cambodia.

During my time here so far most of my job has been relationship building with local communities. I am the first VSO volunteer here who has been working in community involvement and have had to spend a considerable amount of time meeting the communities I’m working with and explaining how I am here to support them and how VSO works. A major barrier here is previous NGO involvement. Many Cambodians just see NGO’s as being able to provide funding but VSO is actively against this and instead we volunteers provide our skills and experience. So explaining this was my first major hurdle.

The second aspect of my work so far has been to consult with the communities to establish what it is that they actually need. This need analysis has been vital so as to effectively calculate where my efforts are best placed and so the community can get what is most needed.

So armed with these relationships and need assessments I have established that to increase community involvement with schools a relationship needs to be built and sustained. To do this I am planning on running a series of workshops throughout September with the community, schools and local NGO’s on the importance of continued involvement in the school, the role of the community and different aspects of this, such as student councils and school support committees. There will also be an opportunity for other NGO’s to come along and speak with the community on a range of important topics such as malaria, health care, nutrition, family planning and medicinal herb gardens.

I am really hoping these workshops are a success and I feel that this will have a lasting effect on the community. These sessions will be sustainable as they can be followed up by other local NGO’s and the school and community members.

So this is what I will be working on for the four months until my return home in October. Well, if the rains don’t prevent me that is!