Volunteering at Pagna Language School, Lvea Village

Background...

Pagna

Pagna was born in Lvea village and grew up in a poor rural family with 10 brothers and sisters. From an early age he worked hard to pay for his education and spent three years living as a Buddhist monk, during which time he learned basic English. Once married, Pagna moved to his wife's village, Kampong Phluk and was saddened upon seeing the young children fishing on the lake from dawn til dusk. Children in rural Cambodia rarely gain more than a primary school education as they have to fish and farm to support their families. Wanting to help the children to have a better life than himself, Pagna founded Pagna Language School, where he teaches free English classes to the local children.

Once word got around that Pagna was teaching English to the children in Kampong Phluk, the villagers from his home, Lvea, started asking him to teach English in their village too. With the help from his friends, Pagna raised enough money to build a school in Lvea; and one month after it's completion, the school received its first foreign volunteer teachers: Me and Ric!

The School...
A single layer of roughly cemented bricks, a chain-link fence and a corrugated steel roof make up the 5x10m classroom of the school in Lvea. The earth around the school in uneven and prone to flooding, there is no bathroom and no safe drinking water for the children to drink after they cycle to the school from their homes. Inside, the desks, donated by the local state school, are made from planks of wood and bamboo. The school is a work in progress; thanks to generous donations the roof was completed and a solar panel was installed whilst we were at the school. A well is being constructed and soon the children will have drinking water.

The school. The uneven land floods often.

Digging of the well started while we were at the school. With our donation Pagna will buy a water filter and the school will have safe drinking water.

The Children...
Every class at the school was full, often with three children squeezing in together on the narrow wooden planks that serve as chairs, writing with pea-sized pieces of chalk on ancient chalk boards. When we first arrived they stared at us, faces expressionless: for many it was the first time they'd seen a westerner, let alone be taught by one. As each day passed, however, they warmed to us and beamed at us with pure happiness in their smiles. The daytime classes were beginner level; learning the alphabet and simple phrases, the children were aged from around 5 to 14 years old. There was one evening class for older children and some adults, they were somewhat more advanced and once they overcame their shyness they really impressed us with their English. 

With one of the morning classes.

Learning the alphabet and some new vocabulary.

The Teaching...
Despite being thrown completely in the deep end from day one, and having to teach with neither a minute to prepare nor any books to work with, Ric and I rose to the challenge and threw ourselves into the teaching. It was the first time we've ever taught in tandem and I'm proud to say that we did a pretty damn good job; any couple ever in need of communication therapy should try teaching an improvised lesson together! For me it made me realise how much I enjoy and miss teaching; it brought back memories of Korea and has fueled my desire to teach again in the near future. After the first day it became clear that school is seriously lacking resources and inspiration; Pagna has never had any formal teacher training and is working without a salary. With this in mind, Ric and I set about designing something resembling a curriculum, we worked on vocab lists and lesson plans whenever we weren't teaching. By the end of our stay we handed Pagna a respectable amount of lesson plans which hopefully he will be confident enough to use in the future.

The Homestay...
Pagna had arranged for us to stay with a local family in the village, as there aren't any guest houses or hotels in the area. It turned out to be an incredible experience and one we'll cherish for a long time. We stayed with a local man named Wanah, a bachelor and an important figure in the community. Wanah is the director of the local state school, he also owns the village hall where local marriages take place, and which was to be our home for the week. While he slept on a platform behind the hall, Ric and I had the entire top floor of the hall-come-barn to ourselves. Wanah is possibly one of the nicest people I have ever met; even though he doesn't speak any English he managed to make us feel like part of his family; his nickname is 'Smile' and it's well deserved, his beaming grin could cheer me up even on the worst of days. It seemed that Wanah was a central point in the community; people would turn up to charge their phones (as he had electricty), people gathered to chatter on his platform home, the children would meet up and play in the garden, people came by to sell their wares; and of course, a fair few number of villagers came over to have a nosy at us! There were four boys living with Wanah, aged from 6 to 18. We found out that the boys were orphaned by parents either unable or unwilling to take care of them, and that Wahan had taken them in and was supporting them to get an education. His generosity and benevolence was inspiring. Wanah  was also an amazing cook! We went to the village expecting to eat a simple diet of rice and little else, and were blown away by the delicious stir-fries and flavoursome soups prepared for us three times a day. We both gained weight during our time in Lvea thanks to Wanah's huge portions of tasty food, and our inability to move very far in the stifling heat. 

Wanah and the boys.

Two of the boys having a sneaky peak at us through a trap door in the hall.

Where Wanah and the four boys slept and ate. Wanah is in the background cooking up a storm on the wood fire.

Village hall, wedding venue, home for visiting foreigners. On the right side of the house you can see the urns that collect rain water.

Our beds inside the hall.

Village Life...
Lvea village is truly a beautiful place; rice paddies as far a the eye can see, farmers ploughing their land with traditional ox-pulled ploughs, raised homes made from palm leaves and bamboo. The conditions in the village were very basic; there was no running water, only rain water collected in vast urns, and water from the well that had to be boiled before drinking. The toilet was a squatter with a bucket of water and our beds were reed mats on a wooden bed frame. There was electricity in the village but only in rudimentary form; a naked bulb hanging from a lone wire. That said, it really wasn't so bad, the biggest problem for me and Ric was the heat. With no air conditioning and no fan, we were constantly drained from the hot, stuffy atmosphere. After six days everyone in the village knew us, they'd stare, wave and say hello and they cycled past us. We only saw two cars during the six days we spent there. It does however, have its downside; we were awoken at 5am every morning by a chorus of cockerels, geese, pigs, cows and dogs! We'd stumble sleepily onto the veranda at 6am to find that the rest of the village had already been up for several hours; men were busy ploughing their fields, the children were already out herding the cows and the ever-wonderful Wanah had cooked breakfast for us and boiled water for us to drink. It amazed me how the children would be up working in the fields at the crack of dawn, go to school all day and then return to work again once school was finished. Then there was me, too hot to even go for an afternoon stroll without passing out and getting dehydrated, while children as young as 5 were out working and studying 12 hours a day. I felt shamefully lazy by comparison. Another thing I noticed was that young children were frequently left alone, sometimes in charge of even younger children. In the village it's quite normal for parents to leave young babies in the care of their 6 or 7 year old children for the day while they go out to work in the fields.

One of our students getting water from the well outside her house.

A typical house in Lvea village.

Land is intentionally flooded from the stream and the water used for irrigating crops.... and for boat races!

Local children come to say hello.

Returning from the fields at 5am.

Houses made from woven palm leaves.

Rush hour.

Our Donation...

Thanks to generous donations from our friends and family, at very short notice, Ric and I were able to raise $320 for the school. We spent $20 on paper, pencils, chalk and basic stationary provisions for the school, as well as a couple of soft balls that the children loved playing with. The remaining $300 will buy a water filter for the well and will pay for the uneven land to be filled in around the school, so the children and teachers will no longer have to wade through a moat to get to class! Thank you to all that donated.

If you would like to find out more about the school or make a donation please visit the website: 

http://pagnalanguageschool.org/ 

If you are interested in volunteering at the school please contact Pagna or Lisa:

pagna@pagnalanguageschool.org

lisa@pagnalanguageschool.org

+855077709192

Kampong Phluk Floating Village

Siem Reap is located on the north shore of Tonlé Sap lake, one of the biggest freshwater lakes in Asia. The lake is unusual because its size increases from 2,700 square km in the dry season, to over 16,000 square km during the rainy season (May-September). For most of the year the lake drains into the Mekong River in Phnom Penh, however when the rains come and the Mekong overflows, the tributaries change their direction of flow and the Mekong drains into the lake! Fun fact of the day.

Around the edge of the lake are many 'floating villages' that house fishermen and their families. Homes, schools and hospitals are built on bamboo stilts high enough to allow for the river to rise by up to 15m. 

As we were visiting at the start of the rainy season the stilts were still mostly visible and we were able to admire the intricate wood structures supporting the houses - made entirely from wood and rope. House boats, floating restaurants and fish farms lined the sides of the river and children splashed at the banks, jumping in off the sides of boats and watching us curiously. 

Kampong Phluk floating village.

Our tour took us along the river, past the floating village and flooded forest onto the vast expanse of Tonlé Sap where we saw local fishermen using ancient techniques. 

The area is very poor, most families support themselves by fishing. Children growing up in the villages around the lake rarely get more than a primary school education as from an early age they are expected and required to help with the fishing that supports the family. Everything, including our tour boat, was made from wood using ancient technology. The steering mechanism on the boat was two ropes attached to a steering wheel at the front and the rudder a the back.

During our time in Siem Reap we got to know a man named Pagna who has set up a school for the children living in Kampong Phluk. Over coffees Pagna told us about his own poor upbringing in a small village outside Siem Reap, how he lived and studied with a monk who taught him English, and that after his studies he was moved to start an English school so that the children could have better opportunities in life. It was a moving story. Find out about the school at http://pagnalanguageschool.org/

We booked our tour to Kampong Phluk through our Guest House, on a tour that supposedly donates part of the $18 fee back to the community to fund schools and hospitals.

Fishing on Tonlé Sap Lake.

Siem Reap

We spent nine days in Siem Reap, phenomenally long considering the town itself is nothing but a tourist hub for people visiting the temples, but we had a grand time!

We checked into a cheap little guest house on the edge of all the action. £3.60 a night got us a large double room, cheap polyester sheets and a bathroom smaller than most wardrobes. The owner was great fun though. (Boomerang Guest House)

When we weren't visiting the temples we spent our time around the pool of a nearby (classier) hotel, got $3 massages that included a free beer, walked up and down the river, shopped, and over indulged in some amazing food and drink. There are so many bars and restaurants in Siem Reap that we were completely spoiled for choice; from super cheap roadside restaurants to five star steak houses, there's everything you could ever wish to eat here. One evening we went to Temple Bar, slap bang in the middle of 'Pub Street', and sat down for a fancy meal and traditional Apsara dance show. The meal turned out to be quite shambolic; upon sitting at a table overlooking the busy street, we were lectured by one of the waiters on the political corruption in the Government, how Vietnam is taking over Cambodian businesses, and on his opinions of the neighboring countries. Finally, 20 minutes later, we were able to pick up the menu and order a bottle of wine - much anticipated after a whole month of drinking only beer! The wine (French Chardonnay) took another 30 minutes to arrive, and the food came on a banana leaf platter with no plates. Fortunately is was delicious and the Apsara dancing was very pleasant. Another one of our regular haunts was on the edge of the market, one of the cheapest and perhaps best places to eat in town. However, after eating there a few times we came to recognise the exhausted face of the one waiter, who served there from open to close (breakfast til late evening), and that of his young son who worked there instead or perhaps as well as going to school. 

The massage doubled as a Khmer lesson; we impressed and amused the masseurs with our rudimentary language skills.

Swimming pool at neighbouring Riverside Hotel.

Fancy, but where are the plates?

Apsara dancing at Temple Bar

When we weren't eating we did manage a few cultural museum and temple visits: The Angkor National Museum, for an extortionate $12 each, was rubbish. The artifacts that were spread across eight galleries could easily have fit into one. The written information was repeated over and over and the displays were much of the same in each gallery. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you're seriously into archaeology and/or ancient history. The one thing I did take away from the museum visit was a better understanding of the religions in the region; how Cambodia was once an Hindu country and how that transformed into Buddhism, and in fact, Angkor Wat is a Hindu Temple. We took bikes out to the Land Mine Museum, which again was not worth the $5 entrance fee. In fact to call it a museum is to use a lot of poetic license. It comprised two sheds containing a handful of artillery: land mines, grenades, missiles, etc. The bonus was that $2 from the entrance fee is donated to the local childrens hospital, which we had to pass in order to get to the museum, and to the temples on the other days. The pavement on each side of the road outside the hospital are lined, day in day out, from dawn til dusk, with mothers shading small children from the heat of the sun. A sign above the entrance informs tourists of an outbreak of severe hemorrhagic dengue fever. It was sad and distressing to see, and although we were too wimpy to donate blood, at least some of our tourist money was going to the hospital.

Preah Prom temple in the city centre.

On one of our less energetic days I did a 'restorative' yoga class above a vegan cafe (Peace Cafe); it was in a traditional raised wooden building and the rain drumming on the tin roof above the dimly lit room was very atmospheric. I was so relaxed afterwards that I had to go for a massage! Peace cafe also advertises free Khmer classes on weekends, we showed up both days at the specified time but found no Khmer lesson. 

Tuk-tuk driver having a snooze in the afternoon heat.

Rainbow after a heavy rain shower.

The Temples of Angkor

When we first arrived in Siem Reap we didn't have a clue about how much it would cost to go around the temples, we thought we could walk around ourselves, earning us a few sniggers from the locals - the temple complex covers 390 square miles! Fortunately we had the good sense not to go with the first enterprising tuk-tuk driver we encountered, who offered us his services over three days for $80! After a couple of days weighing up our options, we ended up spending our three day temple passes ($40 each) as follows:

Day 1 - Half-day tuk-tuk sun rise trip
As we expected, the sunrise in the middle of monsoon season was not worth the 4.20am wake up call, it was black one minute, grey the next, however it did mean we were among the very first tourists arriving at the temples. We started at Angkor Wat, the most celebrated temple that even features on Cambodia's nation flag. I expected it to be bigger.

Angkor Wat at 7am

The next stop was the ancient walled city Angkor Thom, which once was home to one million people who lived in hutments around the temples. The main temple, Bayon, was much more enchanting than Angkor Wat, with it's crumbling walls and carved faces. 

Bayon, at Angkor Thom.

Carved faces of Bayon.

From Bayon we exited Angkor Thom via the East gate and stopped at two minor temples, Thommanon and Chau Say, and then Ta Keo, which we climbed to the top of in the powerful morning heat.

By 10:30 our tuk-tuk had whizzed us around to Ta Prohm, the 'Tomb Raider' temple. Unlike the other temples, Ta Prohm has not been restored to its former pristine glory, it is overrun with jungle: giant snake-like roots and creepers, and the stones from many of its walls lie scattered in piles on the floor. I loved this temple. It felt like another world, tropical, ancient and wild. The trees burst out from the walls, their roots twisting around door frames. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. 

The outer wall of Ta Prohm.

Demolished by nature; Ta Prohm.

After a long time exploring Ta Prohm we were pretty exhausted from the heat and our early start. We stumbled through Banteay Kdei temple before flopping into the back of the tuk-tuk and heading back to the hotel for a well deserved nap!

Taking a tuk-tuk on our first day visiting the temples a was great way to familiarise ourselves with the route and the distances before taking to the roads ourselves with bicycles.

[We booked a tuk-tuk through our guest house and paid $12 for the small circuit of the major temples. If you haggle with the drivers sitting around the Old Market in Siem Reap you can get expect to pay $10]

Day 2 - Late afternoon jaunt up the mountain
We used our second day of the temple pass to climb Phnom Bakheng mountain. The temple at the top of the mountain is dubbed 'sunset point'. Fortunately, after our grey-scale sunrise at Angkor Wat I managed to talk Ric out of going there for the sunset, and I'm glad too as it poured it down that evening! An easy 15 minute meandering climb brought us to Phnom Bakheng temple and the stunning 360 degrees view of the temple complex and Siem Reap. 

Angkor Wat is significantly more impressive from afar. View from Phnom Bakheng.

From the temple you can see the perfectly flat, green countryside that surrounds Siem Reap: paddy fields and forest as far as the eye can see.

We arrived at the temple at around 3:30pm and it was deserted, we had the wonderful view to ourselves. It didn't take long, however, for the crowds to arrive, competing for the best spot to watch the sunset. As the temple started filling up we made our way back down the mountain, passing packs of tourists power walking uphill for the much acclaimed sunset. At dusk, when the heavens opened, Ric and I shared a cruel laugh from the safety of our tuk-tuk at the poor fools crammed at the top of the hill.

Phnom Bakheng

Day 3 - Biking to the far out temples
On our third and final day of temples we bit the bullet and hired bikes for the day; at only $2 each it was much cheaper than a tuk-tuk! I was actually (secretly) dreading the bikes as it's so hot and humid here, but Siem Reap is completely flat, and even I was able to cycle around with little difficulty. 

We set off early, before it got too hot, and stopped at a roadside restaurant opposite Angkor Wat for breakfast. We then ambled around Angkor Thom; Baphuon temple with one entire side made out of a stone carved, reclining Buddah; the Terrace of the Leper King and Elephants Terrace. 

Our bikes at the north gate of Angkor Thom.

By the time we got to Preah Khan it was boiling, I was tired, and then I split my pants! So that pretty much signaled the end of my bike ride and I left with the shame of having flashed two dozen Chinese tourists.

Ric carried on and completed the entire temple complex on his bike! He returned three hours later with sun stroke and spent the rest of the evening in bed. 

Prae Roup, the last one Ric visited.

It took about half an hour to cycle to the complex at a leisurely pace, it wasn't a difficult ride. From Siem Reap to Preah Khan, one of the further temples, it takes about an hour non-stop. It took Ric eight hours to cycle around the full outer circuit of temples (starting and finishing in Siem Reap.) It's certainly manageable even for a novice cyclist like me. It was a nice way to experience the temples and we could go at a leisurely pace having already visited the main temples in a tuk-tuk on the first day.

Three Days in Sleazeville (Sihanoukville)

We spent three days in Sihanoukville, the Benidorm of Cambodia, where instead of stag parties, the tourists are all old, fat European men with tiny, young Asian girls.

Ochheuteal beach where we stayed is a nightmare; beach hawkers outnumber tourists by about 5 to 1 so the minute you sit down you're bombarded by offers of massage, manicure, pedicure, threading, sun glasses, bracelets, boat trips, and so on. The threading (hair removal) women are the worst "I show you no pay no problem" and they'd start threading my legs whether I liked it or not! If that wasn't bad enough we got a bag stolen on the beach while we were swimming, but fortunately it only contained a dress and a t-shirt.

In contrast, the two beaches on either side of Ochheuteal are lovely; Otres beach to the south is a long quiet beach with up-market resorts and Sokha beach to the north has pure white sand and is hawker free. 

Sokha Beach, Sihanoukville.

We checked into Big Easy Guest House first of all, a buzzy bar with shabby bungalows out back. The food portions in the restaurant were huge, great value for money but we checked out after the first night after a generator kept us up all night making a weird noise like a herd of donkeys! After that we thought we'd got lucky at a really quiet place called Chan Sovannkiry but it turned out to be one of the few hotels in the area that openly allows prostitutes to visit. I was kept up all night once again, this time by the repulsive English man in the next room negotiating and then entertaining his young Cambodian friend. 

It was a Buddhist holiday while we were in Sihanoukville and the beaches filled with Cambodian tourists. In the evening groups of families gathered on the beach to set off hundreds of fire works and light paper lanterns. We sat in the middle of it all and soaked up the atmosphere.

Although we'd planned to stay longer we couldn't take the sleazy atmosphere any longer, not even the $0.50 beers could persuade us to stay! We booked an over night bus to Siem Reap that promised five star luxury: private pods with TVs and wifi. We should have known better! We spent the 12 hour bus ride in a 2ft by 5ft coffin with no lights and the bus didn't even have a toilet on board!

First Impressions of Cambodia

The eccentric Austrian, who was actually an Israeli with an Austrian passport, soon turned into the tag-along from hell as we left the island with him in tow. It quickly transpired that he had no idea what he was doing or where he was going and so he followed us across the border into Cambodia, to the border island of Koh Kong - and checked into the same hotel!

The differences between Thailand and Cambodia were evident as early as the border crossing; the Thai official stamped my passport and handed it to me with a smile and a thank-you; at the Cambodian side three guys tried to take my passport off me and get my visa for me, the border official tried over charging us by $5 each and the taxi mafia meant we couldn't haggle for a cheaper fare into town.

After that poor first impression things got better. We checked into a nice hotel with a swimming pool for just $8/night and swam in the pouring rain. We visited the local market and stocked up on food: a baguette filled with at least six unidentifiable fillings, mangosteens, dragon fruit, lychees and BBQ chicken from a street vendor. In the evening we ate at a local street cafe and were excited to get free iced tea with our meal (which I believe is standard in most non-touristy Cambodian restaurants), then we went to a TV bar! Dozens of rows of chairs were lined up facing five flat screen TVs, each showing a different programme. There were no other women in there, just solo men or small groups, watching their chosen show. Ric got to watch football while I enjoyed the cheesey Thai pop music videos on another screen. We ordered two beers and instead were brought two iced coffees made with condensed milk, which turned out to be delicious.

TV bar.

Cambodia uses both the American dollar and it's own currency, the riel. This is really confusing. You can pay for something with a $10 note and be given 50,000 riels back in change. Or worse, they give you change in a mixture of both currencies. This is going to take some getting used to.

Also, randomly, a lot of women in Koh Kong were wearing pyjamas, the two-piece button-down patterned type. Shop owners, waitresses and people riding around on bicycles, all wearing pyjamas. Looks comfortable!

Early the next day we escaped the clingy Austrian/Israeli and caught a bus to Sihanoukville. The route took us through the Cardamon Mountains where we passed countless raging waterfalls and lush greenery.

Unfortunately Cambodia earned itself another strike when the bus driver made us get off the bus on the outskirts of town where we had to get motorbike taxis into the center. No doubt the moto-drivers offered him a share of the extortionate rate they charged us! 

The Lonely Island

I expected Koh Mak to be quiet - it is a small island and we're visiting during low season - but I was shocked when we were the only two tourists to get off the ferry at Ao Nid Pier! With no accommodation planned, we hung around at the pier for a while and were lucky to meet Nu, the manager of Monkey Island Resort. He gave us a lift to the resort and offered us a sea front room at half the usual price. Only later did we realise quite how lucky we had been; most of the resorts on the island are closed for the summer! We're the only guests staying at Money Island  Resort and I estimate we're probably two of about 10 tourists on the whole island. We literally have a tropical island to ourselves!

Our hut at Monkey Island.

The view from our beach hut.

There are no high rise buildings here, nothing taller than two floors. There's almost no traffic apart from a handful of scooters (that Ric will not be riding) and a couple of jeeps. There is no noise other than the sound of the waves and the birds. It may actually be paradise.

Where the island lacks people, it certainly doesn't lack animals. Each resort, restaurant and shop has a hoard of cats and dogs surrounding it and I can't tell whether they're pets or strays. One dog followed us home from the shop one evening and has faithfully stalked us ever since. We've named him Patch, (the same name we give to every dog we befriend), and he sleeps under our porch and comes to sit next to us wherever we go. Patch fell out of favour with Ric when we woke up to find our companion had chewed to pieces two of Ric's shoes. Two lefts ones as well, leaving him with two mismatched right feet!

We've mainly passed our time here reading, swimming and walking on the beach. Ric left me for three days to complete a PADI Diving Open Water Course with BB Divers which he really enjoyed, while I passed my time alone frying in the sun and trying to read Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

Scuba Ric.

We hired bikes for a day and explored, finding the rest of the island even more deserted than our empty stretch of beach. We rode through forests of trees where each tree had a little bowl attached to collect the sap, we got stuck in muddy jungle paths, and had to push our poor bikes up steep dirt roads. I enjoyed our biking venture but I think my cycling-aficionado boyfriend was bit put-out at having to ride a girls' bike with a basket and no gears!

Since arriving I've discarded shoes, my watch and any clothing other than a bikini and sarong. We're so chilled out that we've started to lose the plot; I accidentally covered myself in deodorant instead of mosquito repellent one evening and the other day I caught Ric applying toothpaste to his shoulders instead of sun cream! 

We found a restaurant that was open and ate there twice a day until the chef got over-friendly and started sitting at our table and flirting with Ric. He smelled like stale alcohol and smoked at the table while we ate. One night at said restaurant, waiting for our food to arrive and fighting off the attentions of the uninhibited chef, I noticed that my lips were burning. I assumed I'd got mosquito repellent on them and sought to sooth them on the cool glass of my chilled beer. When the burning intensified I wiped my mouth with a napkin and was surprised to find some small red specks on the tissue. On closer inspection of the beer bottle, I found it to be completely covered in chili flakes! No wonder my lips were burning, I'd attempted to cool them with the source of my pain! I can only imagine that Ric's admirer had set the trap out of jealousy! Definitely my least favourite person on the island!

The worst thing about this island paradise is the biting bugs: mosquitos, sand flies, horse flies, fire ants... Ric and I look like we have chicken pox we have that many bites on our bodies! No amount of repellent can keep them all at bay and worst of all, the sand flies are small enough to fit through the holes in the netting of our mosquito net!

After a week at Monkey Island we moved into a hut at Ao Pong Resort, right next to the pier on the other side of the island. We fancied a change of scenery and the room was cheaper. Our new accommodation is a bit shabbier than Monkey Island and is literally crawling with wildlife! At night the beach comes alive with hermit crabs wobbling to and fro, giant butterflies with wings like black lace make me think I'm on the set of Jurassic Park, crickets sing us to sleep at night and in our bathroom the walls are striped with living lines of red ants. If that wasn't enough I almost had a heart attack when I discovered a monstrous spider hiding under the toilet seat! On the bright side, we do have company here; an eccentric Austrian film-maker who filmed me and Ric for an hour while we sat around chatting our usual nonsense.

As if to signal the time for our departure, the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Heavy rain and thunder storms set in and we've been left stranded in the resort's restaurant, eating and reading books until the sea is calm enough for us to head back to the mainland. 

Toilet Troubles in Trat

From Bangkok we got a very fast minibus to Trat. I'm sure the driver was trying to break the land speed record: it took us five hours to get to Trat, it should have taken seven! 

Trat is a small town in south-east Thailand, a necessary stop for anyone heading into Cambodia, or like us, going to the Koh Chang Archipelago. There isn't much there other than a few guest houses and a really good market.

By day the market sells every type of household gadget and children's toy imaginable. By night it's a busy food market selling everything from yummy chocolate cakes to fried noodles to roast duck heads. We ate: octopus dough balls (Ric), sweet and sour pork and rice (Ric also had seafood), hoi sin soaked boiled eggs and a pancake topped with raisins, sugar, condensed milk and chocolate sauce.

Octopus dough balls at Trat's market.

Night market, Trat.

Accommodation was super cheap in Trat; £3 for a huge room and the food at the guest house was really good. However, contrary to the welcome message in the front of the menus, the owner was anything but warm and welcoming.

After visiting the evening market Ric and I sat in the restaurant playing cards when one of us had to go to the bathroom and blocked the toilet. As we were the only guests staying at the guest house, one of us decided to do the honest thing and confess to the owner the nature of our toilet troubles, so that we might clean it up. The "warm welcoming" owner scolded the guilty toilet blocker, saying that we must inform her when we are wanting to use the toilet (as you do!). She then turned to her friends, family and staff who were sat around her and translated the embarrassing incident to them in Thai. The owner and her entourage spent the remainder of the evening giving us filthy looks and expressing their disgust at our indecency. 

Luckily we didn't have to spend too long at the blocked loo guest house and the next day we caught a "fast and smooth high speed catarmaran" to Koh Mak, the smallest island in the archipelago. We were expecting to pay 550baht each for a taxi to the pier and the boat ticket, so imagine our delight when we discovered a special offer selling both for 300baht! Bargain!