Today we were excited by the perilous adventure looming ahead; that of the treacherous six-hour bus trip to Phnom Penh. We gorged ourselves on the Royal Empire Hotel’s delicious buffet breakfast, packed our weather-beaten bags and set off, with both dread and anticipation loitering at the forefront of our minds. Our plucky bus endeavoured to traverse the fascinating landscape of Cambodia, and throughout the journey we stopped at Kampuchea House, ate lunch, and even had a nail-biting encounter with a hoard of defanged arachnids.
Stop 1: Kampuchea House
Founded in 2007 by some resourceful Australians, Kampuchea House is an orphanage for children of all ages who are in desperate need of a home. It currently houses about 50 children whose parents are deceased, have disappeared or have deserted them. Upon meeting up with the Pagodas group we visited the orphanage, played with the children and gave them the remainder of our donations, which turned out to be quite a lot. We were all were touched by the sad backgrounds of the kids, the compassion of the founders of the orphanage and the hope for future generations. The visit was definitely a highlight of our trip.
Stop 2: Brief stop for lunch
We had a short, yet necessary stop at a local restaurant in order to keep us going for the rest of the bus ride. Many of us purchased quality snacks such as `cocoro wafer sticks` and` choco pies`, which enabled us to safely travel to our next destination.
Stop 3: Brief stop at a stall selling deep fried spiders
We arrived at a small market, and among the goods, there was an appetising display of both dead and alive spiders… defanged, of course, in order to prevent injury. Many of us fabulous Temples courageously allowed massive spiders to crawl up and down our limbs. All in all it was a……. unique experience to say the least, with some of us daringly brave students devouring gangly deep fried spider legs and placing the whole spiders into our mouths. Mmmmmm… finger-lickin’ good! (Tastes like chicken).
A few hours later, we arrived at Phnom Penh next to the Mekong River, where we had a pleasant evening of fun and laughter, indulging in more quality produce and purchasing…this time of relatively cheap DVDs during a sudden, torrential tropical downpour.
Ruby and Sabre
