Wednesday 5 August 2015

Week 3 Cambodia: Beauty and the Beasts


COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Education and Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Isabelle Khaicy

Culture
The Royal Palace offered beautifully detailed architecture on their luscious green grounds. Our tour guide was fantastic as she explained, in detail, every aspect of the Palace and how time haschanged certain traditions and practices.

Children of Bassac Cambodian Dancer Performance is a must see! The vibrant colours and energetic performance proves to be very entertaining, from traditional movements to country/folk tell­tales. We were all cheering for more!
Angkor Wat offers both breath­taking beauty and culture in one massive compound. Unfortunately our sunrise view was clouded by some overcast weather, but I would recommend the early start to anyone who wants explore the temple before they get swarmed with tourists. We opted for a short temple tour and filled our cameras with pictures of ancient remains. Many selfies to come!

History
The National Museum shows great detail of Cambodia's religious findings. Many artefacts in the museum are left intact and are attached with English blurbs so we were hooked onto every word.
Visiting the S21 Killing Fields Genocide Museum is not for the faint hearted. Walking through the killing fields with our tour guide, who was a survivor of the Pol Pot regime, we were told horrifying stories of what the Cambodian victims had to endure. It's was an extremely confronting morning as we walked through the mostly ­untouched fields and prison.

Food
I've experienced cuisines of different forms during my stay here. From bring introduced to road-side food by locals, that were interesting to say the least, to dinner at the Foreign Correspondent's Club, I'm delighted to say that I haven't been disappointed. The most adventurous I've been was having a red- ant salad at the Friends Restaurant. I'm glad I took a bite before our tour guide pointed out the 'juicy leaders' and how succulent they look. The Friends Restaurant has been a regular destination for our group, and we've vowed to tick off everything on the menu before we leave. Only 20 or so meals to go!


Adventure
For someone who loves a rush of adrenalin every now and again, I was impressed with what Cambodia had to offer. Zip­-lining through treetops and quad biking into the sunset were on our agenda for our weekend away in Siem Reap, although I was only able to experience one of them.
Julia and I jumped on a tandem quad bike and rode for an hour through Cambodian fields and took a few failed jumping shots (mostly hers) against the sunset, before riding back and signing our names against the centre's signature wall; #AwesomeExperience #Antips2015. The rest of our group had the opportunity to go for the treetop zip­-lining and came back with great reviews, so that's definitely on my list for next time!

Entertainment/Leisure
Aeon Mall is a new shopping mall, which caters for many entertainment options. After our late afternoon dips in the hotel pool, we have headed to the mall on numerous occasions to fill up our spare time, ticking off karaoke, ice skating and 4D movies off our list. The mall is also great for shopping, if you're willing to spend a little extra, although I'd still recommend the Russian and Central Markets for bargain hunters. Working through our 'Cambodian Bucket List' we still have a number of items to tick off!


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