Our time in Cambodia is coming to a close soon!!!

I bet your thinking what are they doing updating the blog without being prompted (beat you to it Paul!!)... Well, so much has happened in the last few weeks it is worth updating you on..

Good things - Claire (friend from UK) came out to spend 10 days with us.. It was great to see a friendly face from back home, although I am sure Claire was wondering what the hell we were doing here when we went to the first guesthouse in Siem Reap!! We only put her through the one night before we moved to a far better facility!!! In Siem Reap we did the usual tourist things with Claire (all the main temples, Night Market, drank lots of cheap cocktails and of course ate lots of good ice-cream). Part of our plan in Siem Reap was to see some of the temples that we didn't see when the parents came over and we managed that. We also saw sun rise over Angkor Wat (see picture) which meant getting up at 4am (for all who know Rachel well this was some acheivement!!!) followed by breakfast at the hotel and then a day in the car to see some more temples (Banteay Srei, Kapal Spean and Beng Melea) which meant that they day could only be ended with a swim in the hotel pool followed by a few cocktails in town!!!

We have also celebrated Khmer New Year recently and that was interesting.... A good 12 hour bus journey from Siem Reap to Stung Treng to find out that the family we rent a house from had gone to Phnom Penh for the holidays!! Gutted... So we tried to make the most of the time and went to the pagoda to witness what was going on there...NOTHING.. We had a party at another volunteers mansion, sorry house...

Our time here officially ends on 10th June and with great thanks to Dave and Marion we will be heading to Phnom Penh on the 11th for a couple of days in a rather luxurious hotel that we have a very 'close' relationship with... details below in the bad news section!!!

Other good things that have happened have seen Rachel working lots more with the local school children on health topics that they asked for and she has been working with the school council. Anthony has continued with teaching some of the women at work English - yes they are starting to have a Yorkshire accent, which, lets be honest is better than an american one!!!!

We have met 3 new volunteers that will be heading to 'trengers' for 2 years in the next few days and they seem nice and hopefully they will fit in.. Lots of other good things have happened which just seem so normal to us now but I am sure they are not.

Bad things - One dark, warm evening Anthony wakes up with stomach pains and thinks he needs to go to the toilet where it can only be described as a massive incident happened!! After an hour of hugging the toilet and sitting on it a sudden pain (like nothing else he has ever felt) suddenly started down his left hand side.. A couple of hours of suffering in pain resulted in waking up Rachel to say things are not good!! What followed was a nightmare... more Hughey and Ralph and then when he started sweating like he'd just run a marathon (impossible I know but a good, clean example) but had a temperature of 39 something needed to happen. So at 4am Rachel called the 24hour emergency phone line to advise that Anthony was in a bad way... during the conversation Anthony collapsed in the bathroom from the pain and matters weren't helped when Rachel was advised that it sounded like food poisoning!!!! Rachel knew better than this and persisted to get some medical attention for Anthony so called another volunteer, Carol, who is a nurse in the UK and her boss (a medical doctor!!!!!). Rachel's boss came to the house along with Carol, took one look and said he needs to be in hospital so off we went in the 4x4 to the hospital where they proceeded to do an ultra sound (even though they couldn't understand what they could see!!!) on Anthony without giving any pain relief..... At this point Anthony turned blue and passed out again with the pain!!! Carol insisted on the nurse giving me some drugs (I like Carol very much at this point!!) and then they did and boy was it good... All the doctors could say was that Anthony's bladder was empty (yet he had drunk 2 litres of water) and had an uncontrolable desire to wee!!!! Only one thing for it...... a cathetar... and who stood up to do the task... yes Carol. Our relationship has now been to a place that it shouldn't have but I don't care...

After an emergency 6hr taxi ride to Phnom Penh where Anthony was admitted to a private hospital (regardless of what the damn charity we are here with said!!!) they started doing some more blood tests and another ultra sound...... Diagnosis........ Kidney Stones (3 to be exact with the biggest being 5.3mm!!!! enough to bring tears to the bravest man!!!) AND salmonella poisoning... Oh what fun, but atleast I had some drugs and was in a comfortable state.. It was 10pm that night when the doctor came to see me to say that if I didn't pass the stones then I would have to go to Bangkok for them to be removed - not too bad I thought till he explained how they would do so and I can only describe it as a pair of tweezers going up somewhere where things should not go and then the stones could be 'plucked' from the bladder!! If that is not an incentive to drink the world dry of fresh water I don't know what is.........

Anyway I can confirm that the stones were passed a week later at a wonderful hotel in Phnom Penh that we are going back to..

As Anthony was getting better Rachel was getting far worse as she was diagnosed with 'Paracitic Colitis'... Not nice and we spent the next 2 weeks going to the doctor every other day as Rachel had a very bad reaction to some of the medication where Rachel produced what could only be described as a 'green cappuchino' when she was sick!!! Another phone call needed to the 24hr emergency number... Rachel spent a week 'staring' at the walls of what used to be a nice guest house but now we never want to see it again as the rooms drove us crazy.. Rachel is slowly getting better and has been de-wormed on full dose for 10 days (normally half dose for 3 days is enough) and the buggers are still there!!! Again a trip to Bangkok was on the cards (we did enquire if we could time the trip together) for a colonoscopy. Thankfully this is not needed and slowly we are getting back to 100%. All this happened in the run up to Claire coming to see us so we were really pleased to see her after all what we had gone through...

When we come home we have enough drugs to rival Boots!!!

We have discussed giving up on Cambodia and going home for a few weeks to get right and then continue with our trip but we only have 7 and a half weeks left now and we will get through this and move on quickly....

We'll update nearer to our departure....

End of Placement Trip

Hi All,

Well as we have a confirmed leave date of 10th June 2011 we have planned the next few months and here are the details......

June
Finish placement and then travel within Cambodia to see friends and places we haven't had chance to see yet. We will make way over land to Thailand as we have plans for 1st July

July
1st July we register at a Tiger Sanctuary on Kachanburi (www.tigertemplegroup.org) for one months voluntary work. We will be helping them feed and bathe tiger cubs, clean the tigers and show tourists around along with any other work they want us to do. The tigers are NOT kept behind cages and are NOT drugged.... Yes we may be crazy but this is a great opportunity.. Have a read on their website and you'll see why we are happy to go there.

August
We have a week in ChangMai (North Thailand) and then we will head off to North Laos and then cross over into North Vietnam. We fly from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and then onto Jakarta (Indonesia). We have time to island hop to see Java, Sumatra and then Bali.

September
We start in Bali and then fly to New Zealand (for the Rugby World Cup - thank you very much!!!). We (Anthony) has managed to get 2 tickets to two of Englands games (yes Rachel is going along). The rest of the time we will be travelling around the South Island and Anthony wants to go to a rugby training session at a local rugby club and possibly see if he can get a game!!!

October
Still in New Zealand to start with but we fly back to Bali for a couple of days before we head off back to UK

We land back in UK on 9th October... and then it is back to reality ie. sorting out our house, buy a car, see family/friends etc before Rachel goes back to work on 1st November!!!!

Hopefully we will be able to update the blog whilst we are on our travels....

Anthony & Rachel

Update!!!!!

Hi all, I am sure you are wondering why it has taken sooooo long for us to do an update... well the simple answer is... we are enjoying our time here that we keep forgetting to do an update... It was a reminder on facebook (thanks Paul D) so here it is...

December
It was quite cold during December - even managing to get as cold as 25 degrees on a night time!! This was our first Christmas away from all family and friends so we decided to do something a little bit different, so we went to Kratie for a proper Christmas. We (Rachel, Carol and I) went and stayed with another volunteers (Abi) house. Abi was a perfect hostess and we had a Christmas picnic on an island in the middle of the Mekong River. We all contributed some food (thanks to Abi for the M&S Christmas puddings), Santa Claus paper plates and napkins (cheers mum) and of course lots of alcohol!!!!
Christmas evening was spent at a wonderful cafe/bar who opened especially for us and Joe (mad crazy American who owns the place) cooked us a traditional Christmas dinner (Chicken, mash potato, carrots, stuffing etc) and it was wonderful. We had a great night despite some of the other volunteers making a desperate attempt to ruin the evening! We left Joe's after midnight in a drunken state and promptly walked back to Abi's house singing Christmas carols!!!! Abi and I stayed up till 5am drinking more and we regretted it the next morning...
New Years Eve was one to remember as we were invited to an opening party for a health centre in a remote village on the way to Rattanakiri... we went and the drink was being consumed in its usual manner (in plastic cup filled with ice!!) and then the weather changed... it got COLD!!!! It was that cold that several of us had to light fires to keep warm!!!!
December also saw Rachel finally lose patience with her placement and she agreed with the country director to change the focus of her placement and she would start working with local school(s) to get health messages across to them along with finally getting access to some donor money and she could do some work with the rural health centres... It only took 4 months of negotiating with the programme office to get this money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January
Beginning of January saw the arrival of Rachel's parents and Anthony's mum together for a 4 week trip!!! We spent the time travelling around Cambodia (Phnom Penh - Siem Reap, Kampong Cham, Stung Treng, Kratie, Kep and back to PP). Anthony and his mum went off to Vietnam for 4 days and had a great time - despite Anthony having his wallet stolen which had money, bank cards (both English and Khmer - oh no another trip to the Acleda Bank to order a new ATM card!!) they had a great time.. Dave and Marion (Rachel's parents) went off to Thailand at the same time - another blog update will follow this one..... During the parents time here they travelled nearly 2000km and travelled by boat, bus, moto and tuk tuk. They left us in the middle of February and that was a very sad time - but only 8 months till we see them again!!

February
The first half of the month was spent with the parents and then when they left we decided to start arranging our trip at the end of our placement - again wait for the next blog as more details will be given on our end of placement trip!!
We contacted the programme office in Phnom Penh to double check our leave date of 30th June to be told that this was not the correct date!!! We actually leave on 10th June so Rachel has to finish off her work 3 weeks early!!!!
Rachel started her sessions with the schools and health centres and became a very busy person very quickly..

March
This month not much has happened so far - except our plans for our end of placement trip.....

Hopefully we will get chance to do another update and now I have got unlimited Internet at home I can upload the 4000 ish photo's we have currently taken onto a website and when I have done that I will put a link on here....

This update seems quite boring, but trust me, our time in Cambodia has been far from boring. It's just that we come across things that are so bizarre (like a child having his hair cut whilst his mother was breast feeding him!!!!!!). I couldn't get a photo of that which is a shame...

Take care and we'll be in touch soon

Anthony & Rachel

Another belated update

Hello All,

So much to tell you.... We have moved house, been followed around town by our ex-landlord, Rachel has submitted her dissertation!!!!!!!!!! nearly been on a plane coming home, had worms, Rachel having suspected Malaria, Tarantula in the kitchen sink, 3 baby snakes found in the house, spent two weeks back in Phnom Penh completing our language training, been to a Khmer "Karaoke" House and we now have internet at home so we can skype more often!!!!! So we apologise for not updating you sooner but we have been a bit busy!!!!

Firstly our new house is one that we originally looked at in April (seems like a very long time ago) and we discarded it as it wasn't a wooded house on stilts!!! Our new home is a concrete house with 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom and AIR CON!!!!!!! although we can't afford to switch it on as electricity is so bloody expensive here. Our new landlord and his family are wonderful, they can't do enough for us. His 10 yrs old daughter always comes to see us and she has started practicing Yoga with Rachel!!!!

Along with the new house we have had 3 baby snakes that have somehow managed to find their way here - they were all captured and released back in to the wild (thrown over next doors concrete wall). The Tarantula was captured and lets just say it won't be coming back!!!!!

Rachel continues with her work at Stung Treng PHD and is finding it a challenge. She is getting to know here Khmer colleagues slowly (everything in the country is done at a snails pace!!), she has her 3 month review coming up and she will be putting forward her ideas of what work she wants to do with the community. After 3 weeks out of the office (language training in PP) she was summoned by her boss to attend a very important lunchtime event that the Governor (we have already met him for drinks previoulsy!! more below) was attending. It transpired that Rachel was placed on the top table with the Governor (her boss was on a lower table and sat on a plastic chair!!). After several "bottoms up" Rachel was told by her boss to forget about that meeting this afternoon and stay and drink more red wine (with ice)... Rachel also spent some time dancing with the Governor!!!!!

We originally met the Governor as Anthony's boss (Mr Chan) invited us for afternoon drinks one hot Sunday afternoon.. It transpired that the drinks were being held at the Governors farm estate and many "influential" local businessmen/politicians were in attendance. These lunches turn out to be a 1 hour drinking binge... Anthony had to share a bottle of 35yrs old Johnny Walker Black Label with another guest as the gentleman had never had the opportunity to speak to let alone drink with a native Englishman!!!! Needless to say I didn't let the side down and drank what was put in front of me!!!!

Anthony is going to work most days at the silk weaving centre (the beauty of being a true volunteer is he can work when he wants and for as long as he wants!!!). The centre and in particular the women continue to amaze him. He had to interview them last week (a funder from USA wanted some background knowledge on the women) and to hear their stories of terrible childhood memories to what they still dream to be is inspiring.

The local people here are wonderful. We have a veg woman who shouts at us as soon as she sees us entering the market and then she tells us what we want!!!! Brilliant - the quality of the veg is good and she now throws in a freebie (a whole egg plant the other day!!!). The local supermarket, Grumpies, (as the owner is such a miserable sod) now offers discount on crates of beer!!!! The baguette woman laughs at our Khmer pronunciation - no freebies off her yet so might have to try another bread person! The head monk of the Pagoada (where we teach English every Friday) has a soft spot for Anthony and always holds his hand when talking to him... something he would NOT accept back in UK..

We have now been in Cambodia just under 6 months and only have 10 months to go.. Time has flown by, partly beacuase we are having so much fun and life is never dull here in Stung Treng or as we like to call it "Trengers". We are now planning a holiday to Vietnam (10 day trip in October) and just trying to find a good place to stay on the coast.

Over and out from Cambodia and hopefully we will be able to speak to you soon via skype...

Life is so busy in Cambodia

Hi all...

Firstly we apologise for not updating you earlier but when you have read this you may understand!!

We finished our in country training at the end of April and had a party in Phnom Penh to celebrate (i've got video evidence of Rachel doing some very special dancing to Michael Jackson with Heng (a member of the VSO programme office staff - when I have posted it on YouTube I'll post the link here!!!).

Our journey up to Stung Treng was an interesting one. A 4am start from Phnom Penh were we along with Linda (a volunteer from Holland but whose father is from Skipton of all places). We thought we had the minibus to ourselves as we had all our worldly possessions with us for our new homes... we were wrong, oh so wrong. We were in a 9 seater minibus with 10 people... one poor girl had to sit on a plastic stool in between the driver and the front passenger seat!!!

We got to Stung Treng at lunch time and proceeded to unpack - it won't be long till we pack up again though!!! Rachel started work the follwoing day and she has been busy breaking down barriers with fellow work colleagues and spending lots of time with the local health centres..

During the middle of May we decided we needed a holiday (especially as the country was taking a 3 day holiday to celebrate the ploughing season!!!). Rachel was getting bitten on average 12 - 15 times per night by the lovely mozzy's!!! So we headed to Othres Beach near Sihanoukville in the south west of the country. We had a great time staying in a thatched bungalow on the beach. It was very picturesque and the sunsets were beautiful. we will certainly be heading back to this beach again.

When we headed back to Stung Treng hoping that the rains would finally arrive - they still haven't properly arrived yet and the weather remains in the high 30's everyday with the odd day hitting 42 degress!!! When we wake up in the morning the temperature is already at 32 degrees!!

Anthony made it to the project he had decided to help, Mekong Blue (www.mekongblue.com). Please have a look at the project and I can personally say that the silk garments the women make are the best we have ever seen. Mr Chan - the boss was very pleased to see him and immediately invited him to go to another province to see what business opportunities lie there.... What a shock in the car to find out that we were driving for 3 hours on a mud track to see a new building Chan was project managing at the referral hospital!!!! We stayed the night and drank some of Chan's lovely home brew whiskey made from rice water and left to ferment for a long time... This is something I have to get used to as after work most days we share a drink and none of them are less than 60% proof, the best one being a mixture of rice wine and chinese herbs that had been fermenting for 18 months!!! This was so strong it made me cough very much... stronger than anything else I had ever drunk. I couldn't drink much as I have a 5km motobike ride home. Their is no drink driving laws here but my sensible head kicked in.. Chan has made me an interesting offer to remain working with him in a business development capacity for the next 12 months and I have accepted.

During our 4 weeks so far in the lovely wooden house Rachel has had over 150 mozzy bites and enough is enough so we decided to look for another house to live in... Easier said than done. We have looked at 10 houses now and just when we think we have made our mind up the potential landlord changes his mind and no longer wishes to rent the property or they want excessive rent as they see us and they want to charge "Barrang" price. It looks like we have finally decided on a house and we will be moving at the end of June to a 2 storey stone built house - providing we can negotiate with the landlord about some of our basic requirements e.g. a fridge and gas cooker!!!!

Well I think that posting is long enough for now. Please don't forget we can skype people from Cambodia and our user names are very easy: -

Rachel.dukes1
Anthony.dukes1

We look forward to speaking to you soon.

Lots of love

Mr & Mrs D

Lots has happened since the last post

Hi all,

Sorry it has been so long since the last blog but we have been rather busy, visiting Stung Treng for a week, back to Phnom Penh for a couple of days, then back to Kampong Cham and then we have just had a 3 day public holiday to celebrate Khmer New Year!!!!

Firstly - Stung Treng

We headed north to Stung Treng ( 10 hour bus journey listening to hideous karaoke music on bumpy roads) and as soon as the bus pulled into the town we fell in love with it. Rachel went to her new workplace for a couple of days to meet her colleagues and also visited a couple of rural health centres! We had to use all sorts of transport - motorbikes, ferry (a boat really), bicycle and even walking!!!. We stayed at Helen's house (the volunteer that Rachel is replacing) and we loved her house so much we are going to live there. It is a traditional wooden built house (on stilts), 2 bedrooms and a massive veranda that overlooks the river. We can see ourselves spending many nights watching the world go by with a can of beer in hand and feet up!!! We also went to meet the head monk of the local Wat and we helped out with one of the English classes that they hold there. This is going to be a regular thing hopefully. Anthony has managed to sort out some work as well at a local project that requires some business development and marketing expertise!!! We will be heading back to "Trengers" at the end of April ready to start our work at the beginning of May.

Back to Kampong Cham for more language training. Whilst we have been here it has been Khmer New Year so all the restaurants, shops, markets closed for a few days. We had a New Years party at another volunteers house and we managed to stay awake past midnight which is quite a feat as we are normally in bed by 9pm!! We have been to the main Wat in the town to see some of the games they play, egg and spoon race with a difference, whacking a clay pot hanging above you with a piece of bamboo and the best was saved till last - climbing the greasy pole to reach a special prize at the top of sweets, fizzy pop and money... The organisers were eyeing Anthony up for the tug of war but they didn't have time!!!! We have spent time at a local hotel which has the only swimming pool in the town where we shared the pool with 39 other kids!!!
On Khmer New Year we went to the local Wat and the head monk insisted on feeding us all sorts of meat dishes, fruit and bread.. what was left we had take it with us!!! The mangoes were especially good.

This afternoon we are heading out via Tuk Tuk to see an old wooded Wat that was not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge and instead was used as a hospital.

WE HAVE NOW DOWNLOADED SKYPE SO IF YOU WANT TO TALK TO US THEN E-MAIL US AND WE WILL BOOK A TIME (WE ARE 6 HOURS AHEAD OF YOU) TO CHAT.

Speak again soon

The two of us

Kompang Cham

Hi all,

We are now based in a lovely provincial town three hour north of Phnom Penh called Kompang Cham where we are having some Khmer language lessons at an international school.
We will be here for another week and then we head upto our placement town (still a further 5 hours north) for a weeks visit, house hunting and meeting new employer...
The traffic in Cambodia is not for the faint hearted... it seems to be every vehicle for themselves and you quite often come face to face with a car heading towards you on the wrong side of the road.... all you do is toot your horn to let them know you are there!!!!
Have passed through a place known as "spiderville" where they deep fry tarantulas!!!!! we didn't sample them - yet!!!
We have been on a boat trip today to a Wat some 20km up river and we managed to have an audience with a monk!!! he offered us lunch but we had to decline as the boat was leaving..
Our first breakfast here was certainly one we will never forget... chicken, rice, tea and soup!!! This was no ordinary soup as Rachel had a chickens foot in it and Anthony had what looked like some organs!!! needless to say we went hungry that morning.
We are getting around town on bicylces which is much better than walking as the temperature is well in to early 40's!!!!!!

keep coming back for our next update which should include some photo's........