It’s been interesting to observe (and experience) Cambodian traffic these past few weeks. At first it seems completely chaotic. There are vehicles going in every direction seemingly without any regard to the road rules (if indeed there are any). The traffic in Phnom Penh this week has been particularly crazy because of the general election that happened over the weekend. But as we’ve been driven around we’ve noticed that there are some “rules”.

Rule number one: Drive on the right side of the road…or the left…or any space you can find. Here in Cambodia like the majority of the world, they drive on the right side of the road. However, if right side of the road is blocked by traffic then some people won’t hesitate to drive on the left side of the road to get around the traffic. If, however, the left side of the road is also blocked with traffic then the footpath is another option (but only if the footpath is not also blocked).

Rule number two: The bigger the vehicle the more right of way. On Australian roads you have to give way to whoever has the right of way on the road but here not in Cambodia. Here the bigger your vehicle the more right of way you have. So if you are driving a car you don’t have to give way to a motorbike or a tuk tuk (that’s a motorbike towing a passenger trailer). Lately, we have been getting around in a 12 seat van. A number of times when travelling in the van I’ve had to brace myself as the driver pulled out from an intersection in front of a dozen on-coming, speeding motorbikes who in Australia would’ve had the right of way…but not here. The motorbikes would just go around you with no complaint. During our trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh our driver often pulled out onto the other side of the road to overtake someone when there were motorbikes coming the other direction. Again, they just moved to the side and went around us – no complaints.

Rule number three: Honk your horn and honk it often. If you are ever thinking of investing in a Cambodian company, invest in one that make horns for motorbikes and cars because here they use them all the time. Our driver is constantly using his horn to warn the smaller vehicles ahead to watch out and move over. When they use their horns though it’s a friendly “beep” not an angry “get out my way” honk. You would think with such chaos on the road that there would be a lot of road rage but not as far as we can see.

Rule number four: Obeying traffic lights is helpful but not necessary. Traffic lights are quite rare here and it seems that not everyone takes much notice of them – even when there are a dozen police officers directing traffic at them!

Rule number five: The number of passengers or the amount of goods you can carry in your vehicle is not limited to the number of seats or space you have. We have seen trucks with at least 20 people standing in the back, 8 seater vans with a dozen people in it including luggage, a regular sedan with 8 people in it – one of the passengers was sitting in the drivers seat with the driver and a family of 5 on one 120cc motorbike. And the same principle applies to transporting goods. We’ve seen people on motorbikes carting ladders, aluminium framing, water barrels, zincalume sheeting. We’ve even heard of people carrying large livestock on the back of a motorbike but we are yet to see that with out own eyes.

To get a feel for the traffic see below:

Today our new friend Sonai (she’s the manager of NACE where we will be working) took us out food shopping at the local market. We’ve been told that it’s cheaper to shop at the market, so we thought we’d give it a try. There was certainly a lot of fruit and veggies and meat sitting around.

The kids were excited to find an escapee crab dodging all the feet walking along the broken wet pathway. We walked past large fish still squirming, waiting to be sold, chicken heads, feet and various other kinds of fly attracting meats. The walkway was very narrow with various coverings over the top and then you’d hear a beep as a motorbike squeezed past! The different odours became too much for the kids and we decided we’d stick to what we knew best…the supermarket! We discovered a new one today that sold some familiar products much to everyones excitement. We haven’t found a McDonalds yet, but we did splurge and buy some Coco pops for breakfast tomorrow!

Yesterday we visited NACE the community centre (see below) where we’ll be working. We’ll be discussing the program we have come up with in a meeting with the staff and interpreters tomorrow.

On Saturday, we are going for a tour of the city with Vana and Inpa on tuk tuks. We’re living on the outskirts of the city and the city centre we are told has broader and greener walkways. We’re looking forward to that as it isn’t easy to get out and go for a walk where we are because of all the traffic and crowded footpaths.

P.S. Bek is feeling much better now. Thanks for all your prayers.

We seem to take a while to get organised over here! Maybe it’s because we feel like we’re on holidays and don’t need to get up quickly and off to school. Well, we missed our bus to Phnom Penh. We didn’t really want to leave. Thankfully our friends Jia and Me were able to hire a mini bus for our family that left at a more civilised time of 10:30am. This meant that we felt better if we had to stop off for Bek if she was feeling sick. We’d read and heard a lot about the crazy driving and got to experience it first hand. We made it safely and a lot quicker than if we went on a large bus, but our driver didn’t slow down for anyone! Let me tell you, Cambodian roads at full speed are awfully bumpy!

We arrived in Phnom Penh Sunday evening and the traffic here is pretty crazy. It will take us a while to get used to it. In fact, we haven’t really ventured out much apart from going to the local super market, which does have some familiar items, although a lot more expensive than Australia. We bought some Australian oranges and Chocolate crowns that were a comforting reminder of home.

The other place Cam and Bek have been is the International SOS clinic today. Bek is still sick and so with the help of Vana, the missionary we will be working with, they went off to see a doctor. She was put on a drip and given antibiotics after finding she has a parasite in her system. Now she is back home again with her bag of ‘goodies’ (antibiotics, gastrolite, tylanol, probiotic solution and imodium) and we feel much better knowing what’s ailing her and having the medicine to deal with it. Thank you for your prayers, but we’d still love you to keep praying as it will take a few days for her to start getting back to normal.

Our accommodation is comfortable. We are living above a family in three rooms with access to our own lounge area and kitchen. There are other rooms above ours, but no-one else is staying here at the moment. We were a little surprised to find out that there is no hot water here especially knowing that means we’ll be having cold showers for the next 9 weeks. Thankfully the weather is warm, so it is a refreshing start to the morning! Also, it seems we can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet or we’ll block the drains! This one is taking a little longer to get used to. All toilet paper goes in the bin! But, our hosts are friendly. Posda is only 16 yrs old and she lives with her family below us. Her parents don’t speak English, so she is the one we deal with. She has taken us to the supermarket and given us a phone and whenever we need anything she is there to help us. Apparently they’ve been running this guesthouse for 5 years. It seems like a great way for her to learn English and for the family to make extra money.

Tomorrow we are going to the Community Centre to meet the staff and translators. It will be good to have a look at where we’ll be working and go through the material with the translators to see what will work and what won’t. It’s good that we still have over a week till we start work so that Bek can recover, but it will also be good to start the program so the kids can make some more friends and we can get into it.

Yesterday we met a Canadian woman named Lisa. She is starting up a tour around her Cambodian friend Sokai’s village. She asked us to be her “guinea pigs” to see what we thought of the tour.

So today we went to the village on tuk tuks and walked around the markets and rice paddies and watched handicrafts being made including miniature ox carts made from timber, bracelets, boxes made of palm leaves and Cambodian violins made from timber and cow bone. Lily enjoyed helping make the boxes and the boys had a wonderful time playing soccer with the children from the village. It took the boys from the village a while to join in, but once they did, they all had a lot of fun. They enjoyed giving the boys the ball donated from the Marrickville Red Devils Academy before we left.

We also got to eat some Khmer food cooked by Sokai’s cousin inside their timber hut. The hut was basically two levels of a flat timber floor (that had quite a few holes) that they slept and ate on.

The village is in one sense quite primitive. There’s no running water only an old iron hand pump that brings up water from a well. There’s lots of rubbish around. There’s no mains electricity only generators and car batteries but they power the television that everyone watches at night. Sokai told us lots of the men get up at all hours of the morning to watch the soccer.

Tomorrow we are off to Phnom Penh. We’ll be sad to leave Siem Reap and the friends we have made in such a short time. We’re not sure what to expect of Phnom Penh, but it’ll be good to spend some time settling in before we start working. Bek is still unwell, so we’re hoping and praying she’ll be okay for the 5 hrs bus trip.

So, we’ve been in Siem Reap for 5 days and so far only one of us are sick. Poor Bek has been drinking too many fruit shakes and despite not asking for ice and being assured there’s no water, it seems they might be the culprit. Please pray for her as she tries to sleep off her tummy bug.

The temples have been amazing. We love the massive stone blocks, intricately chiseled with either stories of battles or women wearing different skirt designs depicting different eras or massive faces carved out with lichen growing on them, surrounded by dense green jungle. It’s been fun traipsing over the fallen stone and walking over the uneven floor that so many have passed over for the past 900 years.

Our favourite temple was Ta Prohm, otherwise known as the Tomb Raider Temple. There were many massive trees that have grown over the temple with their roots holding the rocks together.

Today we also ventured out to Tonle Sap, the largest natural lake in Cambodia. The water was a white tea like colour and along the edge were floating houses. Apparently it’s free to live there, so lots of people live in the houses along the river. They move their house up or down stream depending on where the water is. It’s very dangerous living there as boats drive past too fast causing waves and the little children can fall in and drown. Apparently 10 children drown a year. There is a floating school, but not all the parents send their children there because they don’t see the point of an education when they could be getting their kids to work and make money now. Often the parents have a small boat that sells something like soft drink and they sidle up to a tour boat and the child jumps into the boat trying to sell you things. Again, this is very dangerous for the child who can slip and fall in as they try to catch the tour boat.

We think we may have fallen victim to a scam today, but still not too sure. We were told that there was a floating orphanage that we could buy some rice from the community market for the kids to eat. So we bought some rice and took it to the orphanage and the kids sang for us and we took photos and they showed us where they cook the rice. But, when we got to our van, the driver explained that it wasn’t a real orphanage and that they children were fed at home. The rice would probably be split among the teachers. Oh well, at least someone will enjoy our 50kg sack of rice!

The elections are coming up soon and we’ve been hearing a lot from the people what the government is like here. If you are a member of the family in government, you receive all the benefits. If not, there are little benefits and it is very hard to make change. The government have made another party to outdo the opposition to ensure they will win. It seems they will win, which is not good for the Cambodians. There is a lot of corruption and things are not getting better for the people.  We’ve been told that by the next elections in 5 years time, things may change when there is enough educated, young people to make a stand and take on the government. In the meantime, the help the people get from other countries, whether its a children’s hospital free of charge from Switzerland or a water refiner at the floating village from the US, or even the jobs created from tourism, it all does seem to make a difference.

We only have one more day in Siem Reap. We will be sad to leave because it truly is a beautiful town. The old market where the children enjoyed bargaining for some football jerseys, t-shirts and parachute pants is like a scene from Hollywood.

Tuk Tuks are everywhere and at night with the lanterns shining in the trees along the murky waters of the river, it’s hard to believe its real. We’ve met some lovely people and nearly all of them have a sad past of growing up seeing killing around them or having lost a parent, sibling or limbs from land mines. Despite all this they’re a remarkably gentle natured, humble people and we are really enjoying our conversations with them.

We hope all is well at home. We are still looking at our watches and thinking what is happening in Australia. I hope Kids club went well today! Zane, you’re right, the pirate pants are everywhere. We are appreciating your prayers.

After 2 flights, 4 passes through immigration and 13 hours we have made it to Cambodia. At about 11am Sydney time this morning we touched down at Siem Reap and was immediately struck by how beautiful and lush this place is and how thick the air was with humidity. We have spent the day recovering from our journey and making some new Cambodian friends at the Guesthouse we are staying and taking our first ride in a tuk tuk. For the next few days we are going to spend some time looking at the famous temple complex of Angkor Wat.

Thanks to all of those who saw us off at the airport, to those who sent us their good wishes and to those who prayed for us. Our journey here was quite stressful and tiring but God has kept us safe and we are looking forward to the adventure that lies ahead.