Cambodia Part 5

Ok time to finish this thing!  This will be my last entry about the trip as I am reaching the end of my diary.

Day 13: (10/1/11)
Today we visited our final NGO in Cambodia (unfortunately I just can't find the name because their brochure is lost in my luggage somewhere! (which has still not been completely unpacked!  They do however, manufacture 'Eco Nut' earrings and 'Funky Junk' recycled plastic products.

A couple of pics:

Explaining how 'Eco Nut' Earrings are made out of coconut shells.  They were really beautiful products!

Manufacturing 'Funky Junk' plastic products out of recycled plastic strips.

The name says it all :-)

After visiting the NGO, the bikes needed cleaning so a few of us got stuck into it.  They were pretty filthy by the time we reached the end of the trip, so soapy water, scrubbing brushes and cloths were a necessity.  We also had to return all of the little bits and pieces, map pouches, bike lights and bike locks (I was actually so impressed with the bike locks that we used that I went out and bought an identical one from Kathmandu today for $20 (half price sale item).

Bikes cleaned, we Tuk Tuked into Kep itself to have some lunch before hopping on the boat to Rabbit Island.  I could not believe the prices of the food compared to what we had been paying throughout the country.  I felt that the food prices were roughly double what we had been paying at our various lunch stops throughout the countryside.  Kep is regarded to be a tourist destination, so I guess the minute you put 'tourist' into the equation, the prices go up, same old story.  I can say that in any major Australian tourist spots it is the same, no difference here.  But I found some of the mains priced at $10 steep compared to say, buying lunch back home in Australia for the same price.

Catching the boat to Rabbit Island was very interesting, the police officer came up to us and insisted on no more than 7 people could be on the boat at any given time, citing safety as the reason.

So we got halfway to the island, only to have our driver on his mobile phone and he turned back, where he picked up two more people that were not with our group and exceeded our magic number!  Like our guide Adam said "we have already paid for this boat, whoever they paid to get to the island has that money straight in their own pocket."  I don't think the corruption is as bad as some other places though and people only really engage in such practices as a matter of survival.

Anyway, we FINALLY made it to the island where the group engaged in a game where we got a netball and had to keep it in the air (not the water) for as many hits as possible.  As Shahin commented 'how could we get so much enjoyment from trying to hit a ball in the air as much as possible?' But it was true, the simplest things are the best.

Some photo moments:

Beautiful Sunset

'Spirituality' - I loved it!

Catching the sun with Rithy.

As we left Rabbit Island, the sun set and the moon rose above us.  This was a truly great day and the buzz generated by the group was infectious :-D  We finished the day with another fine meal from the Vine staff and it was again hitting the hay early for me!

Day 14:  
Today was the saddest of days, time to return to Phnom Penh and say goodbye to others in the group who kept going to other places or who were heading home.  The group who remained behind sang us a farewell song:

Awhh!!!!

After managing the difficult goodbyes, we hopped on the little bus to head back to Phnom Penh.  Ironically, it took two hours back on the bus and had taken us two days on the bikes!  Bike riding was more interesting anyway ;-)  Our bus driver drove straight past the airport, so had to do one of those amazing manoeuvres through six lanes of traffic where we arrived safely at our destination :-P

The rest of the time pretty much passed very quickly, before I knew it, it was time to get on my plane to Kuala Lumpur, and for another night in this city.  I'll briefly cover what happened in Kuala Lumpur the next day.

Day 15:  Kuala Lumpur
With a day's grace, I decided to travel into KL Sentral and explore the city for the first time.  I discovered a large, modern city with many amenities (Monorail, frequent public transport and MASSIVE shopping centres!).  Although the shops were many, I found many of the prices to be exactly the same as Australia, particularly identical pricing in electronic goods which was disappointing.

All around me I found signs wishing everyone a prosperous New Year, and advertising the year of the Rabbit (Chinese Zodiac).  A passing Kenyan tourist was kind enough to take this photo for me:

Other than getting on the plane back home, this was my experience.  I will reflect a little later on about how life changing this journey has been, but for the time being I am filled with many good memories :D