End of the First Week (Part 2)

So I think I said it might be 3 weeks until my next post, but I was kind of forgetting that I'm on the mainland until Tuesday now, so I've actually got plenty of time to update again and tell you all about the project!  It has been fun so far, although I've got to give Frontier some seriously bad rep first off...

Firstly, the project isn't how it was described: we were told that we'd be able to choose to do as much or as little beach conservation/snorkelling/community development/teaching as we wanted, and basically tailor it to our own specific desires. This just isn't true, or at least not to any kind of the same degree, as all the volunteers do a pretty equal share of all of it (except the '"conservation", which basically doesn't exist, and was one of the main things that attracted me to the project.) Secondly, for this reason, the people that (I think) paid less than me to do the community development program, and the people who certainly paid more than me to do the marine conservation and diving project, are all doing exactly the same as me! Thirdly, Frontier told me that a) I would not be able to dive, except in my free time and b) if I wanted to do a PADI Open Water course, I would have to arrange it out here with a local dive school and they would get me the "discounted" rate of 230 quid. But, in reality, I can do my Open Water Course for $100 with the people I'm working with, at an extra cost of $10 per dive or something, which is considerably cheaper and would have prepared me for diving! The other people on the same snorkelling project as me are also allowed to dive as much as they want for the small extra fee if they've got their PADI qualification.

Thirdly [Ed: Fourtly], I am paying somewhere in the region of 200 quid per week for this project, because I booked it through Frontier, who claim to get great discounts etc. for their customers. Had I booked it straight through MCC (the people I'm actually working with here), it would have cost about $200 per week (about 130 quid)! I have absolutely no idea what Frontier, a registered '"non profit" organisation, are doing with this extra 70 pounds a week unless the answer is "making a profit"! From what I can see, I'm paying this as commission to a glorified travel agent who don't even seem to know anything about the course they're sending me on! Which is highlighted by the fact that, before I came out, I had an email from them asking me to email them ASAP after I got to my project to confirm that everything is alright. They then emailed me (and the others with Frontier) again this week (not an automated message, an actual person sending a personalised message to us), reminding us to email him, which suggests he has no idea that we have no access to the internet at our project! It's only by choice that I've come back to the mainland this weekend to see Sihanoukville and contact the outside world.

Lastly, they lied. Or, at least, failed to tell us when something that was previously (and in fact still) on their website changed. They claimed that they could arrange an airport pickup (i.e. from Phnom Penh, transferring us to the project) the same day as our project started. When I emailed (just a couple of weeks before I came out), asking what the arrangements were, as I was actually flying in a few days before my project, I was told that an airport pickup does not exist for this project (by a project co-ordinator, who should definitely know!) I assumed I'd imagined seeing something about an airport pickup and thought no more, until I was looking at the project details about a week later on their website, which still mentioned an airport pickup could be arranged by them "for an additional fee", by which time I'd made other arrangements and couldn't be bothered to email again in the short time I had by that point! I can't say I'm TOO annoyed about this on my own behalf, except that two of the girls I've come to the mainland with (Ams and Kirti [Ed: Becca and Amy]) had booked their flights to arrive the day of their project, banking on this airport pickup, which Frontier then refused to supply! Meaning that they arrived 2 days after me, despite having booked (and paid) for their project to start on the same date as mine!

So, in all, I'm not too happy with Frontier right now and will be sending them a very angry complaint email when I finish and am also considering asking for a partial refund, as I was also hoping this project would give me some relevant experience for what I want to do (wildlife conservation), which I told them; because of the fact that the conservation aspect of this project doesn't really exist (despite the fact that Frontier made quite a big deal of the marine surveys we would be doing)! So I think, on these grounds, I think I'm fully entitled to some money back from them. I've also just remembered that they also told us that excessive drunkeness would not be tolerated, but (as I said yesterday) alcohol is so cheap and the locals are so happy to drink with us, that excessive drunkeness is more like mandatory! We were told on arrival pretty much, that if any of the locals invite us for a drink (which happens quite a bit), it's disrespectful to refuse, so we have to go have a beer with them! Which usually I wouldn't mind, but I'm not bothered about getting smashed every night out here, I do that enough back home! I did get semi-tipsy last night and feel no ill-effects this morning, although I realised that I forgot to take my malaria tablet last night, so it may not be conclusive proof that they've stopped mixing badly with alcohol!

But enough ranting! Most of the people on the project are great and I really get on with almost all of them. I have been snorkelling once, which was awesome, and I saw plenty of pretty little fish. smiley It's also been quite fun to teach the little local kids one day, although very hard work keeping them suitably entertained, as their version of school is rather different to ours! It's basically voluntary and, with only two classrooms, they're basically grouped into 'little kids' and 'big kids', meaning that some of them are way ahead of the others; especially as it's all done by us volunteers, who are coming and going constantly! Seeing as school's this relaxed, they're basically allowed to just get up and wander about all they like, included wandering into the big kids' classroom and causing havoc in there! But it's very rewarding teaching them little bits of useful English, like the numbers and the colours. We've also been putting the finishing touches to a little playground that other volunteers before us have recently built, so we've been sanding and painting it, which is all quite fun (although not what I signed up for!)

Now onto my activities this weekend. I came back on the supply boat with everyone else from the project on Friday (some people didn't particularly want to come back, but they decided it wasn't worth just staying for one or two people, so we all came back) morning. We then checked into the hostel that the other two girls I'm with (Becca and Amy who, apart from being the only other Northerners, are actually from Sheffield!) stayed in before they came to the project, which is all nice! We've all got the one room to ourselves at $3 per person per night, so certainly can't complain! We decided to do quite a bit of sightseeing stuff, as Ams and Kirti are leaving the project next week, and the rest of us are thinking we may not come back again before we leave. I've also decided, after hearing so much good stuff and having a couple of days between my project ending and my flight to Sydney, that I'll take the night bus to Siem Reap and have a day there, which shouldn't really cost much more than just going straight back to Phnom Penh.

The first thing we wanted to do was to feed the wild monkeys near Independence beach at sunset, which sounded amazing. So we got a tuk tuk over to the beach a couple of hours before sunset and chilled there for a bit before walking up the road to find these monkeys. Which, after seperately asking a couple of local workers, all of whom seemed to know the word "monkey" and little, if any, other English words! But we found them without too much hassle and bought some nuts to feed them, along with the relatively few other tourists that were around. It was truly amazing, to just pour some of these nuts into your hand (keeping firm hold of the bag, which Becca failed to do and had them stolen by a particularly cheeky monkey!) and have them just come up to you and just start picking them up to eat! So expect me to be tagged in some pretty great Facebook pictures involving monkeys (I managed to forget my own camera, but the others all had theirs.)

After this amazing experience, we came back to the hostel, had a meal (by candlelight, after the generator had blown!) and went out for a few drinks along the beach, unfortunately failing to find a shishe place, which Im hoping we go to tonight. Today, we'd planned to go to the local waterfalls in a national park, so we got up at 8am to set off for about 9 in a tuk tuk the hostel arranged for us. We got a great price, of just $15 between us, there and back, for these waterfalls which are about an hour away! We got there and started walking round, taking pictures from the rocks and the little rickety wooden viewing platforms (one of which Amy managed to fall through and break her camera!) They were really beautiful and we got plenty of pictures (I remembered my own camera this time), including quite a few of us paddling around in the river and even climbing half way up these small falls. I managed to slip over on my way back out, on a particularly slippy rock, but I can't say the wet bum/back really mattered with the weather like it was again today.

Sihanoukville is very definitely one of the best cities I've ever visited (and I've visited plenty!), it's really nice. Just great weather (when it's not raining, which - to say it's monsoon season - isn't that much), really cheap, lovely people and a beautiful place. Tomorrow we've arranged a tour of the local islands (although I think Becca and Amy are just having a chill day on the beach) for $15, including food, transport to 3 different islands, a local guide and the hire of snorkelling equipment! It was just far too great a deal to miss out on! Then Monday we're either hiring out some bikes and going for a cycle round the area, or we'll just have another beach day for all four of us!

Then it's back to the island and the project on Tuesday afternoon on the supply boat, although a couple of the others on the project are going back on Sunday instead. So I'm not looking forward to using non-flushing toilets or the abundance of rice again, but it should be good getting some more snorkelling in and possibly (just maybe) arranging my PADI Open Water qualification, although I think I may just leave that, as there's surprisingly little to see out here and I'm not sure about my funds stretching that far!

Will keep you updated when I can, but I warn you again, it may not be for 3 weeks or so until I bother posting again. Apologies for the length of these (I think this is somehow even longer than yesterday's, probably due to the ranting!)

Peace out, Andy xx