Vietnam

First impressions are so important! I remember my arrival in Cambodja was amazing, and so was the month I spent there.
I do hope my arrival in Vietnam doesn’t represent the whole trip.. I arrived in Ho Chi Mhin two days ago. It took me the whole five seconds to decide I didn’t want to stay there(very busy big city).
So after a 12-hour bus I took another 9-hour bus to arrive in Nha Trang yesterday morning, to realise it was pouring down here. Ahhh ok apparently raining season here means RAINING season. So far I just had some heavy rains during the night, so that was fine. But here its just the whole day, and everyone looks kinda depressed. So tonight I’m taking the bus to Hoi An. Apparently the weather is the same there, but it will get better once I’m the North.
So tomorrow I will have been in Vietnam for three days, and ill have already crossed halve of the country, looking for a nice city and good weather conditions.
I think I’m just getting very spoiled. After Phnom Phen and Siem Reap I’m not settling down for less. I know what I’m looking for. And if it is not that, ill just move on. I know I should give it some more time sometimes. But by know I’ve seen a couple of cities and I just trust my instinct, which is not the same as a first impression.

Saying goodbye

Siem Reap was amazing. I didn’t really experience the travel vibe there, but it was surtenly nice to stick around somewhere for three weeks. Getting a decent room (good price when you stay a bit longer), unpack, knowing where to go if you want to have good food, relax, swim, … The Cambodian people are very nice, but even more if they find out that you are volunteering, and not just another tourist.It was also good to have some structure again. In the beginning I went to the orphanage around two am, and then at night I presented the dance show or went to give out flyers with the children. After a couple of days I realised that it would be better if I went in the morning because their was only one volunteer at that time and she wasn’t doing that much.
So presenting the show was actually a lot of fun. I do have some stage fright, so I didn’t want to do it in the beginning. But then I thought it would be a good practice and Kim (the organiser) really needed help because his English is not that good and the guests didn’t understand him. So I had to welcome the guests, talk a bit about cofco, give information about the dances, and thank the guests in the end.
It was good that it was showtime again during my last night at the orphanage. It gave us some distraction, and it was actually my best presentation so far. I felt really at ease. In the middle ‘mom’ suddenly got on stage with a certificate for me. That was really nice, but it meant I had to speech on the spot… That made me very nervous, because I never go on stage unprepared.. But I guess what I had to say came directly from the hart, so it was fine. Afterwards the emotions gave me a complete black out when I had to give information about the apsara dance. Luckily the guests that night were very nice and all the children started to sheer ‘sarah sarah sarah’. So the words came back after a while :-)

Then it was time to say goodbye… I expected I would cry, but I was so busy comforting 30children that I didn’t. 30 children, boys and girls, ages between 4 and 17, were crying. Kinda means I did a good job, but that doesn’t made it easier. So off course I promised I’ll come back. What else can you say? And you never know, I might do.
So as you know Nele and me still had 1000euro left from our barbecue, I used my share for the following things:
-150euro Mama Siska, Sulawesi, to rebuild her guesthouse that burned down.
-130euro COFCO transport + Buffet dinner for all the children, mom and volunteers
-20euro COFCO Transport and guide Silk museum
-156euro COFCO Matrasses, Blankets and mosquitonets for all the children
-5euro COFCO Earrings for all the girls (they wear these big heavy earrings for the show, but they didn’t have normal earrings. So they were putting these pieces of toothpick in their ears to make sure they didn’t close…)
-20euro COFCO Pizza meal for Happyman and Susy
-5*5euro boxes of baby milk, several cheap meals for street children, dollar here, dollar there, ….

And I know you better spend you’re money for projects instead of giving it to people on the street, but like I said before that is easier said then done. Just believe me If I say my entire budget is spended :-)

Ons landje

Backpackers: Van waar ben je?
Ik: Van België
Backpackers:
-België? Oe ik dacht dat er geen België meer bestond??
-Ahjaa België, het land zonder regering!
En den beste van al: België, aja het land waar er momenteel een burgeroorlog heerst..

Als ik aan het reizen ben, ben ik meestal nogal nationalistisch. (in de bedoeling dan van vaderlandsliefde he) Niet dat ik mijn landje mis, maar het is soms wel eens leuk om een andere Belg tegen te komen (gebeurde tot nu toe al 1keer) of te zien dat er hier in Siem Reap Belgium wafles verkocht worden.
Nu begint dat gevoel toch ietswat te kelderen ze. Probeer onze politieke situatie een beetje te volgen, en jah tis
gewoon te belachelijk voor woorden he.

Ochja, als een het een troost mag wezen, onze zuiderburen zijn ook niet zo goed bezig he..

COFCO

Considering my former volunteer experiences weren't that succesfull, i was a bit scared for this one. But i think its just a matter of finding the right organisation, because I just love it this time. The kids are amazing, the principal although she doesnt speak a world of english is very nice and i really feel like i am making a difference.

So they are three volunteers teaching at the moment. One in the morning, one in the afternoon and i'm supposed to come in the evening. So i normally arrive around two-three oclock, and by then they allready went to school and are in the middle of a lesson of another volunteer. So i try to make my lessons a bit more fun. Playing games, singing songs and offcourse teaching them a bit jazzdance. I always knew it must be a good feeling teaching kids stuff, but now i know for sure. The smile you get when a kid finally gets something..

There are 30 kids, so its a bit tricky sometimes to give them all the attention they need. But so far ive been doing good i think. Cambodian names are a bit like chinese. I figured ill never be able to learn them all, so they all have nicknames now. We have Rudy, Sabrina, Jenna, Nicole, ... And everytime you go its "when you coming back, what time???" So im allready dreading the day ill have to say im leaving.. My cambodian visa expires the 30th of octobre so ill probably stay untill then.
And they are so generous! The principal amost forces me to drink coke (even if i dont drink coke) and the children suddenly dont like me anymore if u dont eat their food. The cook is even making vegetarian food for me. Can you imagine how difficult it is, to eat food in an orphanage? But they just dont take no for an answer... And everyone that visits the orphanage gets the same treatment, even though they dont want it for the same reason i dont want it. But that is accually a very good marketing strategy. No tourist will leave without giving something considering they received food and drinks. And most of the time they will give more than just the price for a coke and some food.

So far i want flyering with the kids twice. I just can't believe how much people ignore them. And i know there are a lot of street children around begging, but since i have been here, i have never ignored a child. I understand though some people do because they just dont want to realise want is happening around them considering the fact they are on a 'holiday'. But 'my' kids are orphans and are just giving out flyers. How hard is it to accept one? They are not taking ur hand and dragging you to a supermarkt to buy them milk! (happened to me several times..) No these kids just want to give the tourists a flyer and invite them to their danceshow. So even if the tourists are not interested in dancing, it is not that difficult to be polite.. Some people even ignore me, or give me a funny look when i try to explane them. Tonight another volunteer joined us, and is was happy to see it bugged him aswell. Im wondering who of us is gonna exploid first. I would love to give my honest opinion to some of the tourists. Because it is just one of the worst feelings ever, to be ignored.

So now i thaught them to say "hello, my name is.... Please read my flyer, tomorow i dance" because we had to make the tourists realise they were not only asking for money, they were inviting them for a show! When i arrived yesterday, the principal (and her translator offcourse) told me a lot of people allready called here about the show, and by the time the show started the orphanage was packed. I expect that didnt happen that often because the kids thanked me the whole night for my help and the principal started to cry by the look of all the people visiting her orphanage. So yeah that was a good feeling. :) However that maybe where twenty-five of the two hunderd people we spoke too. The rest ignored us.. So we still have a lot of work to do.

Byebye pink camera..

Waking up and realising your bag is missing... Well the first thing I do than is just shower, because offcourse the bag is around, I just cant find it! If there is one thing my mom taught me, it is I'm horrible in finding stuff. Mhmm but after my shower it is still gone. I keep on looking because before I tell someone, I have to be pretty sure it is gone, otherwise it would be quite embarrassing.

I didnt really panic about the bag, but the idea that somebody had to get into my room to get it while I was sleeping... And why didnt they take my laptop? (thank god!)

Well after I told the manager, I found out why. They got it from the window. I dont know how, but they managed to get it out through a really small hole with a large stick. They had to open the musquito net aswell, and afterwurths close it again..

And to think of it. Somebody opened my mosquitonet before aswell. I remember closing them before I went to sleep and thinking "stupids cleaners, who opens mosquitonets?" Now i realise it wasnt them. But when did it happen then? Did the thieves opened them before to make it easier later on. Did they allready stole my bag while i was still awake? And then there is also the possibility of someone of the staff actually coming into my room but making it seem like it happened through the window to make it look like it was someone from outside.

But i was lucky actually! It was the good type of thieve. He left what he couldnt use. So thats my wallet with my creditcard and my pass for Angkor Wat, little bits like deodorant and mosquito repellant, and the bag itself. They took 50dollars out of my wallet and my camera. Which is not nice, but i could have been wurse. Luckily i put my pictures on my laptop the day before.

I've been speaking with some germans, and they both tell me that the owner should give me some money for it considering the fact that his website says 24hours security (wich means someone allways sleeps on the sofa-most if the time drunk) and it happened in the room in his guesthouse.

But u all know im not the type to go making threats to him.. and forse him to pay for it or else.. Nelsie and me did it before in Peru, but that was because they were messing with us, and it was more a case of principle. In this case the owner feels really bad about it. They have been really nice all morning, giving me one coffee after another. Now someone just told me i can move to another room upstairs so i feel more safe. I probably would get money from the owner for reasons i wont explain now because its too complicated, but im not gonna.

And what is up with the 7 wonders of the world anyway? I couldn't take pictures of Machu Picchu because my camera didn't work anymore, so i bought the pink one there. And now i am not able to take pictures of Angkor Wat tomorow because it got stolen.. So dad you can take the pictures if we go see Petra in Jordania, i'm not taking mine! :-)

Party like a rockstar..... and then crash at 12..

Wasn't partying a lot in the beginning.. It looks like i'm catching up. It al depends a bit where you are I suppose. Phnom Phen and Siem Reap have quite the party neighbourhoods. Both of them have an "Overpoort".

Now I am in Siem Reap in a really good guesthouse. Prettiest room ever for 4,2euro. However it is not the best place to meet people. It is a bit out of the centre and there are only chinese people. Considering most of the time you meet people in the guesthouse, i thougt it wasn't gonna be easy here.

But no worries though. An hour later I was sitting with three guys in a mexican restaurant. They kinda just picked me of the street :) It was 11oclock in the morning and they allready had 2margerita's and five beers... Getting rid of there hangover of the night before I suppose. I don't think I've ever seen people drink like this.

At night we joined the rest of their group for dinner, and by the time we finished our food the whole table (10people) was singing. And not just singing a song, like really one song after another. People where really staring at us and I felt quite akward to be honest.. I suppose working in a restaurant makes you that way. So I kindly suggested we would move the a more appropriate place to sing-a-long. In the end it was a really good night, we had a lot of fun. Offcourse by the time I was getting the hang of it, one girl allready threw up and the others were falling asleep. So at twelve we called it a night. :)

Groups like this are a lot of fun to hang out with for a night and have a party with. But that is it! :)

THE Asian joke

Local: "Where you from?"

Me: I'm from Belgium.

Local: Noooooooooooooo, you're from your momma! Hahahahahahahahaha

I have heard this joke in all the countries I have been, and they all think it is hilarious! :-)

"Can i follow you?"

From the moment you walk in a store, you have someone following you. They dont ask if they can help you, they just stand next to you and watch every single move you make. In the beginning it really got on my nerves. Now i just try to tell them im just looking and if they would please go back to what they were doing.

It is a bit frustrated sometimes, because I honestly think they would sell more if they would change a bit of their selling technics.

For example everywhere in Angkor Wat there are children selling stuff. And they are good! One of them could count untill ten in five different languages. Ow u are from Belgium, capital Brussel, één twee drie vier... For a child of 8 her english was perfect. And she was original. Ok lady we play OXO, if i win you buy! I said no because affcourse she was gonna win, she probably does that every single day. In the end she won one game, i won a game. (its just a matter of who starts the game).

So its just a real basic marketing principle. Just be orginial. In the end not a lot of people will just leave the girl with nothing. I had some healthy cookies before to give to them, but i run out, so thought of giving her my labello.. But then again?? So gave her a dollar in the end.

I know in Phnom Phen we shouldnt give the children money in order to change the system, but the kids at Angkor Wat do go to school halve days. (at least that is what they told me).

Same happened with a kid selling paintings. And by now i have art enough to decorate my entire house later! But i was just godsmacked by him. He was just so enthusiastic, telling me all about these paintings. He would make a really good salesman.

And offcourse, like Joke allready pointed out on facebook, I am an easy victime... At home we see poor children too, but not all the time. Here they are everywhere. And it does break your heart every single time you have to say no.

The Khmer Rouge

As you can see on my pictures i've visited The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng museum. The Killing Fields is a site south of Phnom Phen where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge.

The Tuol Sleng Museum was a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge.

For the ones who are interested, I wrote a little summary of the horror Khmer Rouge brought to Cambodja.

The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the communist party of Kampucha, who were the ruling party in Cambodja from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot and 4 other generals.

So communism, everyone had to be the same and have the same. So they made all the people of the city move to the country side. They wanted a agricultural reformation. The real farmers were the models of there perfect society. They were pure and were not badly influenced by the capitalism. As a result they had more power and were threated better than the city people. So communism?

In their new society there was only room for the perfect uninfluenced people. Khmer Rouge cadres would look for any excuse to kill new people. If you spoke French, you would die. If you were educated, you would die. If you wore glasses, you would die. And just killing them wasn't enough. They were first brutely tortured in the Security Prison 21.

The organisation wanted absolute self-sufficiency. The people only ate what they grew on the land. There wasn't any medicin unless the one's they made themself. So many people died of fever or hunger. Even if there was enough food, the Khmer Rouge used a lot of it to trade with China for weapens.

They didnt believe in family relationships, because they thought parents take advantage of their children. Children were brought to work camps and molded into fanatical communists. Young children were also seen as being pure. From an early age children were propagandized and brainwashed - even their parents might become their worst enemies.

And then to believe the people in Phnom Phen cheered at the Khmer Rouge soldiers the first time they drove into town, because they believed it was the end of the war. They had no idea the wurst part still had to begin.

By the time the Vietnamees conquered the Khmer Rouge, they had allready killed two million people, which is 1/4 of the population.

And even then the horror didnt stop for the Cambodians. Parents went to look for their children, and ignored the land, which had even more famine as a result. The Vietnamese were seen as the good ones, but there are stories about cambodian girls being raped by them, ... and so on and so on.

I always thought that Auswitch was the wurst place i ever visited. I did not see this coming. Visiting the Tuol Sleng museum was really confronting. Going in those rooms where they tortured all those people.. They have rooms full of pictures of the prisoners. I have never seen so much fear in people's eyes.

And it is just 30-40 years ago so every single cambodian can tell you horror stories about his family.

If you see Phnom Phen now you would never guess his past. But in the bus to Siem Reap you pass the country side, the little villages, the huts, ... That really grabs you by the throat.

The whiter, the better

You know commercials always use beautifull people, so other people think that if they buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be beautifull, happy and succesfull. Well so far i have only seen white people in the south-east asian commercials. Asians just love whiteness. The whiter your skin the better you are.

It really show that we always want something we are not. Getting tanned on a vacation is considered to be a priority in the west (offcourse not to everyone) while here everyone strives to be white. Every skin product has whitening in it and everyone stays out of the sun. In the supermarket you have the tanning lotions for the tourists next to the whitening products for the locals.

It is not an issue of racism though, they just dont want to be perceived as poor. Just like in our earlier days dark skin was associated with people who worked in the fields. The upper class stayed indoors and in the shade.

So its more a matter of what they prefer. For example there are no race riots, KKK or national parties. To them it’s not about race or ethnicity, it is about class.

Although while they prefer white skinned, they don’t look at a dark skinned person and think "they are less of a person."

And they do laugh and joke about it. Something hard to imagine for us, considering that is not done in the west. I read the follow sentences in an article, and it does make you think.

"Yet the more anti-discrimination laws we(we as in the West) pass, the more politically correct we get, the more uncomfortable with race we become. The more we try to make race a non-issue the more of an issue it becomes. Maybe we should take a cue from Asia. Maybe if we want to become a post racial world we need to stop worrying about race. When you stop making something an issue, it suddenly stops being one. "

Bargaining

Its a bit complicated sometimes. At one hand I dont want them to think im stupid not to bargain and just give them there asking price, but at the other hand i dont want to affend them. In surten situations i do give the asking price because its just so cheap. Do you really want to bargain if u see the person making the bracelet them self and the price is not even a euro? Is it worth it then to try to get it for 50 cent?

For the more expensive things like rooms or tuktuks i'll try to get it down to the normal price. But for souvenirs i often give more than i should. Because it think it is a way of supporting their economy and in general it is cheap. So i rather pay to much than to affend them by barganing to a price that their not comfortable with.

For example. Their are a lot of people here on the street that sell books about Cambodja. Considering most of the books are about life in Cambodja during Khmer Rouge, they are quit popular. Most of the travellers want to read about it during there trip. The problem is that a lot of children are selling these books. So we have been adviced not to buy from children, because it is modern slavery and labor child abuse. If we would stop buying from them, the system would stop.

Today i was having lunch, and a lot of children past by. It was difficult to ignore them, surtenly because i wanted to buy one. A women at the table next to me, started to bargening with a child. She wanted to pay 6dollar for two books, and not more. The child refused, but you could see it wanted to sell. So the child kept on trying to convince the women. But the women stayed put, 6 and not more. In the end the child agreed, but it wasnt happy about it.

I think whe should be glad there's room for discussion. And in the end the aim is not to get the lowest prices possible, but one that's acceptable for both parties.

A few minutes later a amputee(so an adult) passed by with books. Buying from them may encourage others to become more self-sufficient so i had a look. I bargained but in the end i paid 10dollars for one book and one little cambodian dictionary. I was happy, i wasnt ripped of, but even more importanted he was happy.

I know this sounds a bit cheesy. But i dunno, i just dont understand how people can bargain for the lowest price possible, when we have everything and they have nothing.