At the PEPY Friends School

Bokor Hill Station

Below are photos from Bokor Mountain, inside Bokor National Park. In the 1920s the French elite built a resort here complete with a large hotel, casino, church, shops, etc. The resort was abandoned during the civil war in the early 1970s--now remain only the senescent (gotta love the thesaurus) skeletons of the structures. However, Bokor Hill Station, home to the rangers who monitor the park, has bunkrooms and a kitchen for visitors to the park who wish to stay overnight.







After three hours in the back of a truck, we arrived at the top of Bokor in a downpour, and the mountain completely clouded over. Visibility couldn't have been more than about 5 meters. We explored a few of the eerie buildings--my first thought was that the place seemed like a setting for a horror film. Later a Korean man told me there was indeed a Korean horror film, R-Point, made on site in 2002.





In the late afternoon, the clouds finally began to clear, revealing a splendid view of the coast and Gulf of Thailand below. From the top of the once-grand Palace Hotel & Casino and the precipice of Bokor's sheer ocean-side face, we were treated to a rather stunning sunset...

Cycling to Kep/Kampot Video

This short video by PEPY intern and fellow pseudo-cyclist Tim Rann, featuring our mini adventure to the coastal towns of Kep and Kampot, as well as Bokor Hill Station.

Oddities

One always encounters peculiar sights when travelling, but few stranger than the following, which I observed while cycling through the Cambodian countryside.

1. A 6 year-old girl on the side of the road, having a smoke, looking just as cool as could be. She had one hand on her hip, and was puffing on the cigarette like a movie star.

2. Riding on the back of a motorbike, an apparently sick woman carried her own IV, suspended from a metal rod just like in a hospital room.

3. This billboard Yep, those scarf and sweater clad kids are blasting off on condom rockets into the cosmos of love (or perhaps, the cosmos of unwanted pregnancy prevention).

Cycle to Kep

This past week Cambodia celebrated the Buddhist celebration of P'chum Ben, or Ancestor's Day, which lasts anywhere from 5-9 days depending on to whom you talk. We at PEPY happily recognized the national holidays, and enjoyed a 5-day weekend. Jonathan and Tim, two other interns, and I took off on mountain bikes, and cycled down to the coast for a mini-adventure. Actually, we hopped on top a mini-bus until we were well out of Phnom Penh, but we did cycle over 100km on our first day, down to the sleepy town of Kep. It was a gorgeous day and a superb ride through the graciously flat Cambodian countryside. Below are photos and captions from the first part of our journey...


Yes I have the yellow jersey, but Jonathan (center) is the only real cyclist in the group.

From the top of the mini-bus. This cool lady rode on the back and collected the money. Why were we on top you ask? The 15-passenger bus already had about 30 inside. Not exaggerating. At one point, even the rooftop became too crowded, and I was STANDING in the rear window on the left side, arm's reach from the passing vehicles! The words for crazy in Khmer are "lop-lop" and "chkua-chkua". This voyage was both.

Finally! We're off the mini-bus and almost on our way...

Roadside view on a brilliantly sunny afternoon.

Along either side of the road, there is a house about every 50-100 meters. As we passed each home, 98% of the time, kids and adults too, come out beaming smiles and shouting "HELLO" and other bits of English that they know, like "Whatyourname?" and "Are you marry?". It seemed the further we rode, the more friendly and spirited the greetings became, often as if they had been waiting for us to pass. This happened for the whole of the 100km, even the last two hours when we were pedaling in the dark and could not see the houses from which the voices hailed.

Smiling faces like this one, for the entire ride.


Afternoon begins to fade on palm-dotted rice paddies. Also, Cambodia has the best clouds. Ever.

Cows, ever present on and beside Cambodian roads.


Another stunning view, on the right a gate leading to a pagoda.

A high-school boy, whose name I've already forgotten, who rode up next to me on his motorbike, and traveled alongside for 20 minutes while I pedaled. He and a friend were on his way to English class, and couldn't believe their luck to meet a foreigner on the road. We chatted a good bit before pulling over briefly to take this photo. He was so excited to speak English, and couldn't wait to tell his teacher that he had a real English conversation on the way to class. When he finally rode ahead, a bit late for the lesson, he shouted back to me "Good luck, thank you so much" at least a half-dozen times.

The beauty of Cambodia is often masked by its poverty, muddied rivers, littered roads, and ramshackle buildings--especially if one remains in the city. On this day however, some truly gorgeous faces of Cambodia were revealed, filling me with satisfaction and wonder.

Temples of Angkor

I think any attempt to describe the temples of Angkor will be futile, for photos certainly do not capture them, and I simply cannot put them into words, at least not after a single morning there. Nevertheless, accepting the inevitable futility of my effort, below are some pictures and captions, that will hopefully provide at least a glimpse of my first experience at the temples.

Accompanied by friends Sofi and Steve (not their real names, which you nor I can pronounce correctly), riding in a tuk-tuk on the way to the temples. Along the way, S & S teach me the versatility of a silk scarf. Requiring a nickname of my own, Steve now calls me "Yei", meaning "grandmother".



Near the entrance to Ta Prohm temple, which was perhaps my favorite. A kind elder Khmer gentleman showed us around the temple grounds, directing us to little secret nooks and stone carvings that most visitors probably miss.



One of the countless kid vendors who hang out around the temples, hawking t-shirts, bracelets, scarves, sarongs, etc. to the international stream of tourists. They are incredibly witty and clever merchants, and speak bits and pieces of probably a dozen languages. I heard 8-year olds switch from Khmer to English to Japanese to Spanish to Chinese to French in a matter of minutes. This particular girl, upon learning I was from the United States, rattled off in a single breath, all 50 states AND capitals, in no particular order, starting with Montpelier Vermont and ending with Raleigh North Carolina. Another girl, who was tired of me politely rejecting the above-mentioned wares, asked what I DID want to buy. When I said "nothing", she said that "nothing" would cost me 10 bucks.



I haven't a clue to who this deity might be, but I liked how the carving was fractured.



Unfortunately most of my photos from Bayon temple, my other favorite, were very washed out--very difficult to capture the intricacy of the faces and facades.



A profile of one of the many serene faces of Bayon.



Khmer girl in a red scarf. Wandering through Bayon temple, one comes upon a great many doors and windows, many of them opening to the smiling Buddhas. The light coming through the openings has an incredible effect inside the dark hallways.



A horse, with the main and largest temple, Angkor Wat in the background.

PEPY school visit

This is a blog I wrote for the PEPY website about a recent trip to one of our schools. Its work-related so perhaps a slighty dry, but offers a bit of insight to some of PEPY's efforts.