Day 12

Hi again,
Today we packed all our stuff into Sky's tuck tuck and started our long trip home. We hung out in the lounge while we were waiting for our flight, then flew to Hong Kong, and after spending a couple hours in the lounge there, we started the final leg of our journey home.

Well thats about all, thanks for reading!
-Chloe :)

Day 11

Today we didn't do too much, we just sort of relaxed and enjoyed our last day. After breakfast we phoned Sky and asked her to drive us to the Russian market, but since its new years its mostly closed until sunday. We managed to by a few more tourist nik naks though before returning to the Billabong. We sat by the pool and I did some homework for a few hours until I needed a break. We took a walked down to the "mall" and enjoyed comparing prices on things here with things back home. We got some more ice cream (how can you tell I like ice cream?), some snacks and went back so I could continue my homework and mum could work on her tan.

For dinner we ate at the Billabong and then ventured around the block in search of sleep.


-Chloe :)

Day 10

Happy Chinese New Year!
We woke up early and said by to Carrie and Rosie who were of to the airport to go home. After we sent them off we hung out at the Billabong for a while and then called Sky and asked her to take us to the Royal palace. We wandered through the gardens, ran through the sprinklers, went into the throne room and then jamed with the palace band. After we had finished with the palace we went and had ice cream with Sky. Turns out mum and Sky had secretly booked me a hair cut at her hairdresser and they didn't really give me any choice on the matter. My mum got her hair clipped too but the hairdresser didn't speak english so she cut it a little too short.

We still had a couple of hours left till dinner so we asked Sky if she new of any cool places to visit. She took us to a bridge by the river where during the water festival in november 2010 thousands of people had crowded on the bridge and then when it bounced under the weight, fearing it was about to collapse the people started to stampede. Over 350 people died that day from either being crushed or drowning in the water below. Sky said that the disaster hadn't appeared on the news though so she wasn't supposed to say anything else.

Once we had taken some pictures we followed the river to the main strip where we got out and took more pictures of people releasing birds and preforming other new year rituals. We hung out there and took pictures of the boats going up and down the river, the sunset and just the general crowd. Then we went back to the Billabong for a bit and asked Sky if she new of any good restaurants. We took her out for dinner to a thai restaurant where she tried wine for the first time and told her a bit more about herself. After dinner we Sky drove us back to the hotel, We said goodnight and then went to bed.

-Chloe :)

Day 9

This morning it was time we went our seperate ways, so we said our goodbyes and then half of us loaded into a van going back to Phnom Penh and half of us loaded into a van going to Batdambang. The drive back to Phnom Penh was about four hours long and we amused ourselves by looking at each others pictures and listening to the kareoke recordings.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh we said by to Collin, who was staying with a friend, and then the rest of us checked into the New York. We unpacked and then walked around the block to the Billabong (we were going to go there but it was full) to go say hi.

Then Carrie, Rosie, mum and I jumped in a tuck tuck and drove to the Russian market though we didn't get a lot of time for shopping because they closed at five. After we did all the shopping we could we went to the Watt monkey temple.

We fed the elephant out front and then climbed the steps to the temple at the top. Without a guide we were a little lost but we wandered around anyway taking pictures and watching people preform new year rituals. When we were done with that we walked back down to the bottom spotting monkeys along the way. We watched them give the elephant, who Carrie decided was named Steve, a bath and then realised the tuck tuck driver that had driven us there had waited for us. So we asked him to drive us to Ocean for dinner. He seemed a little confused by said he knew where it was and told us to get in, but of course he didn't.

It was going fine until he started stopping at every other tuck tuck driver and asking for directions. At the third stop Carrie and Rosie got out to go get mojitos. We had stopped for so long that Steve passed us and soon the police were yelling at us to move so we had to go. Carrie and Rosie came out with a map with directions so we gave it to him and started driving again. Then he stopped again, and again, and after six more stops we realised he couldn't read. After Carrie and Rosie had finished their mojitos and split my mums we arrived at Ocean having toured around most of the city for three dollars. Allan, Anitra and Dan were already there so we grabbed another table and had dinner. Allan soon went off to do his own thing and then after dinner the rest of us squeezed into Sky's tuck tuck and went back to the hotel for the night.

-Chloe :)

Day 8

Ok so today was the second build day, we did our usual morning routine and then drove to the build site. We bandaged up and although a little slower then the day before, started building. By noon we had built finished eight more houses to add to yesterday's fifteen and a half. We gave the families their blankets and then breaked for lunch. While we were eating we spotted a mother hen with her baby chicks. She let us hold her little ones for a while and they were so cute though we didn't want to push our luck so we returned them after a couple of pictures.

After lunch we packed up and moved to where the last one and a half houses were on the opposite side of the village. We soon realised why the one house had been left half done, it was because it had the floorboards from hell. They were so hard that in one spot it took us seventeen tries to finally get a nail in without bending it. Not to mention the fact that one of our hammers actually snapped clean in half while we were hammering there. The floors weren't our best work but by the end of it the home owner seemed pretty happy with it. We met up with the other group that had been working on the other house and I guess their house had been pretty bad too because they had broken three hammers while working on it.

Once we were all done we gave the two remaining houses their blankets but had to avert our eyes because one of them had a new born baby that none of us wanted to bring home. We left soon after that wanting to let them get setup and enjoy their new homes.

For dinner we went to the restaurant next door (this one had less bugs) were people toasted again and again about how great the build was and good cheer was enjoyee by all. When we returned to the hotel where someone bought a box full of beer and started passing bottles around until everyone was ready for kareoke. The kareoke actually didn't sound half bad, and it wouls have probably continued long into the night if it weren't for the fact that the internet turned of at 9:00. So that kind of ended the party. After that the majority of us went off the bed but there were still a few stragglers that were left to finish the beer. But it's a small town after all, whats the worst that could happen?

-Chloe :)