7 Days in Cambodia... it was way too short! By KRIS ALEGRID
For the past 2 years I’ve been going on GKYGAT in the Philippines and now that GK is spreading to other countries, I thought I might experience the culture of another country where I’ve never been before.
Arriving in Phnom Penh Airport was weird especially when applying for my visa, the customs officers started talking to me in Khmer (the Cambodian national language) and thought I was Cambodian.
After getting my visa we were picked up by Andrew the part time GK worker and taken to our welcoming party but really it was a SFC/CFC household.
We stayed at GK Rafaella Village, Dangkor District for the next 3 days and lived the Cambodian way of life which was very laid back.
Even though there was a language barrier we some how communicated through hand actions or picking up fruit or objects and learnt the Khmer/English translation.
The family I stayed had some form of education both parents have had vocational training, the father would work while the mother stayed home and look after their 2 year old child.
Each morning we would play with the kids and by lunch time we would be tired from lifting each kid in the air 50 times in a row and was time for an afternoon nap.
Every night we were invited by three different homes to have dinner and so we would eat 3 times as much!
They took us a watering hole which was a quarry that was filled up from the water underneath and had a swim not knowing what lurked underneath.
And the next few days we stayed at different locations around Phnom Penh at guest houses which cost around $9 – 15 which you can bargain down to a reasonable price.
We immersed ourselves in the culture of Cambodia from the national museum to the killing fields of the Pol Pot regime and travelling 7 hours up north to Siem Riep to see the temples of Ankor Wat.
We tried the Khmer food which is similar to Thai cuisine, however it is not as spicy. The range of road transport in Cambodia is mainly made up of Bicycles, Motorcycles and TukTuks similar to tri-cycles in the Philippines.
And in no time it was time to leave for Australia, so we had to go back to the village and say goodbye to our host families and new friends. We gave them Australian momentos to remember us by and leaving was especially hard
particularly because it was a short jam-packed trip full of experiences.
It was hard enough to deal with poverty in your home country, but to see it in another country was particularly heart breaking. Arriving at the village was glimmer of hope, its amazing how GK transforms people and communities from extreme poverty to happiness.
*** Please visit our GK Youth Photo Gallery for photos of GK Cambodia ***
