End of an Era - I've Finished the Project!

Hi again!

Finally back on the mainland again, now having finished the project. Where I had an amazing time and met plenty of awesome people, however much Frontier got wrong about it! Anyone inclined to do something like this, I would definitely reccommend it (although go straight through Marine Conservation Cambodia, not Frontier/Outreach etc.) But I'll start from where I left off in my last post. The 3-island tour was great fun and, although I didn't see many fish etc., I did see some stuff and got to see about the best beach I've ever been to in my life. The sand was golden-white, the waves were a perfect size (just enough to body-surf, but not big enough to drown me!) and the little beach huts had hammocks outside which were pretty much fair game. On the Monday, we didn't bother hiring out cycles or anything, we just had a chill day around the hostel/beach, which was very welcome after a very active weekend!

I then went back to the island as planned on the Tuesday for my last two-and-a-half weeks on the project. Since coming back, I did more snorkelling than the first week; going out almost every day, when weather and energy levels allowed! The best snorkel I had was definitely when we went to another nearby island and swam around there - when about the first thing I saw was a pair of barracuda and the last thing I saw before getting back in the boat was a ray! Which was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far! I decided against getting my PADI Open Water qualification in the end, as I thought, because it would have been stretching my funds too far really. But I'm thinking, if I earn some money when I'm in Australia, I'll go see the rest of the country and maybe even get my PADI course diving on the Great Barrier Reef, which would be amazing! We also, of course, did plenty more of the other work on the project - the playground building, rubbish collecting/burning and teaching. And, obviously, plenty more getting drunk on $2 whiskey bottles and 50 cent beers! A lot of the rubbish collection - apart from obviously being mucky work in itself - was rather annoying, as most of the villagers just sat in their houses, drinking beer and watching us carry all their rubbish around in the pissing rain! Which definitely did make you wonder sometimes why you were bothering to help them at all... but I must say that the majority of the islanders were all really nice and good fun.

But I'm still basically no less annoyed at Frontier for completely mis-describing the project and forcing us all to buy a lot of stuff we didn't actually need (malaria tablets, mosquito nets, first aid kits, long-sleeved tops, etc.) I'm obviously now back on mainland, in Sihanoukville, in the same internet café as before, next door to the same hostel I stayed at last time, where I've just had my first full English in God-knows-how-long!! Everyone else still on the project came back with me today and are all staying there (except Javier, the soundest, most down-to-Earth 18 year old Mexican billionaire you'll ever meet!) The rest of them are staying for a couple of days to see Sihanoukville, then either carrying on their travelling or going back to the project.

But I'm, like I said last time, getting the night bus over to Siem Reap tonight at 8pm, so I should get there at 3-4am and will hopefully have time to get to the Ankor Wat temples, via my hostel, in time to watch the sun rise! I'm then staying in a hostel in Siem Reap for one night (which I should probably book...), before seeing some of the city and maybe going back to the temples if I feel I've missed much out tomorrow. Then, on Sunday afternoon, I'll get the bus back to Phnom Penh, stay one night in the same hostel as last time (the Velkommen Backpackers) before flying out to Sydney! I'm really looking forward to seeing the temples, seeing Sydney, doing my farm course and seeing what job I get and the end of it (and where in Australia it is!) But first to delete 95% of the 150 new emails I've had since I was last here!

Bye until my next installment! Love, Andy xx