Getting Inspired at Aspire Cambodia

The next stop on our travels from Hong Kong through Asia by road and rail was Cambodia. We loved Vietnam and now we were on a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. Before we left home, Sue and I had decided that we wanted to do some volunteer work on our travels.

Sending pics by Wifi from a bus Ho Chi Min to Phnom Penh

We joined a group called Workaway  which arranges volunteers in many countries all over the world. Anyone who can offer free accommodation in return for some help can register on the site.

Phnomh Penh 

We arrived in Phnom Penh after a long bus journey although we did find it hugely entertaining to have free wifi and we could send photos back home as they happened - on one occasion when our road turned into a river during a thunder storm and later when passing Buddhist monks, rice fields and buffalos. I had been to Phnom Penh around 5 years before and was troubled by the poverty and upset by a visit to the Killing Fields and torture camp S21. Cambodia's people suffered terribly from Pol Pot's regime and lost 25% of its people to starvation and torture. The country is trying hard to recover from this horrific legacy but it takes a long time to recover from such a past.

We stayed just one night before leaving for Siem Reap where we would be helping out at the Aspire Childrens Home. Siem Reap is also close to the famous World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat which we wanted to visit. Our very sweet driver Sam Nong collected us by Tuktuk and took us the 7 km to the orphanage.

Bumpy ride in the back of Sam's Tuk-tuk

Sam would be our guide and driver for our entire stay at Siem Reap and he made sure we got to see and buy everything we needed. He and his wife and family are also part of the bigger extended family at Aspire. Sean Somnang is the owner of Aspire Childrens Home and he provides a home and education to thirty orphaned or destitute children. Five of the children in his care have already been to college or are working. One couple married and three still live and work there. With the help of donations Sean has managed to buy a piece of land and over years has put up a temporary school and several small houses and sheds.

The children with teacher Pandit love learning English 

 These are homes to girls and boys dormatories, a volunteer house and some makeshift homes where Sean has allowed some needy families to come and stay. It is where he and his wife, mother and children also live. Ducks, chickens, geese and dogs wander everywhere and first thing in the morning the chickens have to be evacuated from the open air classrooms! The atmosphere is happy and loving and complete feeling of one big happy family where everyone does their chores and older ones help the little ones with great love and care.

Conor and Sean with Neath and Neang

It was baking hot when we arrived and all the children came out to see us. The beautiful smiling faces were instantly uplifting and welcoming. Sean makes sure the children all learn English - not only is it helpful for getting a job but has also become a common language between South East Asian countries and enables them not only to travel to English speaking countries but also to communicate with each other in a common tongue.

Happy faces in the classroom

We helped out by  giving classes in English every day and the children were delighted to have native speakers to help with pronunciation. Seans dream is to build a proper school for his own and the local poor children and to date has built the basic structure of a fine building.

With the help of donations bit by bit the school is taking shape. As soon as we saw it we realised that our friends and family back home would probably  love to help out too. So we set about raising funds as quickly as we could. Incredibly in just over ten days we had raised enough to complete the dowstairs windows and doors for four classrooms. We also bought some badly needed supplies, games,  books and lots of food. Cambodia is a relatively expensive country in SE Asia and the cost of supplies is surprisingly high so it was wonderful to see how well Sean spent and accounted for every cent we gave him.

Time for serious study

On our final day we had a party for the children and they danced and played traditional Cambodian music for us.  It was the best of fun and a happy day we will remember all our lives especially our attempts at joining the children on stage for the fun. We were joined by Irish volunteers Sean and Conor from Dublin and teachers Neath and Neang both former children at Aspire.

 

The children love to go to school 

         To round off our memorable stay in  Siem Reap, we booked a few days in the Antanue Spiritual Resort & Spa through Agoda.com. For a paltry $10 per night each  we got a lovely twin room and breakfast served to our room each morning. The hotel has a nice pool and the sweetest staff who help with anything they can.  From here our trusty Sam took us to the world heritage site of Angkor Wat at 4.30 am to see the sunrise.

Final day party with all the children 

Not only is this the best time to arrive, before most of the throngs of tourists, but it also means getting in five or six hours of sight seeing before the burning sun zaps any remaining energy you have left! This place has to be experienced. Ancient  cities and temples spread over 160 square kilometres, some up to one thousand years old, lay buried deep in the Cambodian jungles until rediscovered over the past 60 or so years. One in particular was made famous in the Lara Croft - Tomb Raider film of 2001. Major excavation work is going on to save many ruins from being lost to the jungle yet again.

  

Bayon Temple part of the Angkor Wat Complex

Tomb Raider Temple Angkor Thom

                         The ancient ruins of Angkor Wat is spread over 160 square Kms.  It is the largest religious monument in existance and a Unesco world Heritage Site.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat 

    

Hong Kong to Hanoi overland.

Sue and myself first met over eight years ago while volunteering in Mombasa, Kenya. We had a lot in common including being single mums with grown up children and a shared sense adventure. We lived in different parts of Ireland, me in the capital Dublin and she in a small town in the south of Ireland Tramore in County Waterford.

We had travelled on short trips together both in Ireland and various countries in Europe but never for more than a week so this promised to be a lot different. Both in our fifties and after downsizing our homes, we decided on some overseas adventures in Asia. We booked return flights to Hong Kong and decided we would see as much of Asia as we could in 3 months.

Our plan was to use trains and buses instead of flights, so we could really experience the different cultures. Following an eleven hour flight from Amsterdam we finally touched down in Hong Kong and made our way to our very trendy and reasonably priced funky hotel on Kowloon.

Junk Sailing in Victoria Harbour 

Hong Kong Harbour Skyline 

                                                                     





The Hotel Sav supplied us with a free smartphone which allowed us to travel and explore Hong Kong with ease. Numerous special offers and money off vouchers were listed along with recommendations for restaurants and shops. The phone even gave us free local calls to make bookings or buy tickets and the SatNav meant we were never lost. The hotel also supplied a free shuttle bus also so we could travel to the Victoria Harbour area and even to and from the airport for free. 

On the second day we decided to take the Big Bus Tour which takes visitors on a trip around Hong Kong Island. Out to Stanley Market and the nearby Repulse Bay close by where many wealthy Islanders have expensive beach-side homes. Later in the evening a trip around the harbour in a Junk followed by the nightly fireworks display as the sun set, rounded off an amazing day.

Nightly Fireworks Display Hong Kong 

Galleria Shopping in Kowloon

Leaving Hong Kong after a few days we boarded the train to Guanghzou - formerly Canton. The two hour journey was very pleasant. We then had to cross the huge city of 14 million people by metro. Our next train was the brand new high speed bullet train. The large station which was built to house the train, was in stark contrast to the traditional older stations we were used to. The train got us to Nanning in under four hours, a trip which took thirteen hours by normal rail.

High Speed Bullet Train Guanghzou to Nanning

       
China was a very different experience to Hong Kong. Getting from the train station to the hotel was particularly difficult as our directions were printed in English and of course none of the taxi drivers could read them. English speakers were rare and we found this particularly difficult especially when ordering food. Lots of restaurants show pictures of the food served, although what appeared did not always resemble the picture! Sue managed to entertain the staff on a few occasions doing chicken impressions to try to find out if what we were ordering contained chicken! The children especially stared at our unusual hair and faces, though a smile is the same in any language so this always helped convince them that we were human!

Nanning was sweltering and even the locals looked uncomfortable. We took ourselves off to the beautiful Qingxiu Mountain Park which was nicely cool and overlooked the city. The sounds of birds and cicadas was a great respite from the noise of traffic and we loved the beautiful gardens set out in themes. The park was filled with beautiful trees and lakes. There are also ornate wooden buildings and temples celebrating many different neighbouring countries and regions of China.

Qingxiu Mountain Park 

Tai Chai in the Park 

That evening we treated ourselves to a two hour long head, foot and back massage. The entire session cost just €11 and our sweet massage therapists were shocked when we offered a tip along with the payment. Tipping is not normal in this part of China and we had our money returned to us when we offered to tip a taxi driver on another occasion.

Leaving Nanning for our next leg was tricky. Even though we were close to the railway station we could not manage to carry all of our bags over the uneven pavements, so there was nothing for it only to hire two motorbikes to take us. We each climbed on the back with rucksacks on out backs and suitcases between the feet of the drivers. We had some giggles as we passed numerous entire families of 4 or 5 on other motor bikes, and seeing their expressions of surprise as we passed them. We must have been a strange sight - these two middle aged aliens with luggage pilled high on the backs of motorbikes racing through the traffic.

We got our overnight train from Nanning to Hanoi without too much trouble and fortunately had the four berth cabin to ourselves. The journey took from 6 pm until 5 am. It was a bit of a hassle having to take our luggage off the train and go through security twice in the middle of the night as we passed out of China and into Vietnam but it made our arrival in Hanoi very welcome indeed.

Nanning Skyline

Traditional Chinese Artwork

 Nanning Sculptures

           

             

Cold Turkey

I love to holiday in Turkey. There is so much to see and do in this country which straddles both Europe and Asia. Turkey hosts more than 30 million tourists each year, the majority of whom visit the cities and coastal tourist resorts.

10th century frescos in Goreme

             

13th century Caravanserai 

Antalya

Camel trekking in Cappadocia

Eastern delights on the Silk Road

In November 2014 I got the opportunity to travel firstly to Antalya and then through the mountains to Cappadocia in Central Turkey with my son. We both had birthdays coming up and when a cousin told us about the Turkish Government subsidised trip - it didn't take long to decide that we were going. It had been many years since we holidayed together and it was a great chance for us to spend time together before he left to live in Australia. Turkey has a booming tourist trade in the summer months but many hotels lie empty in the winter months. The Turkish government subsidise some of the costs for holiday makers which makes this a very enticing and economical destination if you like unusual locations.

Following a couple of days chilling in Antalya, we took the long bus journey through the Taurus Mountains of Central Anatolia to the Unesco World Heritage site of Cappadocia. The region is famed for it's 'Fairy Chimneys' and was certainly not disappointing. Originally covered in lava the local people dug deep into the soft stone often to depths of 8 or 10 stories, to construct underground cities. Partially as a defense against invaders, the cities also protected the residents from harsh winters and hot dusty summers. Over time erosion has given way to an incredible fairy tale landscape. The dramatic open air museum of Goreme contains the remains of 10th and 11th century homes and many churches with brightly painted religious frescos still perfectly preserved. On our return, we stopped to take refreshments at one of the 13th century Caravanserais dotted along the famous 'Silk Road'. These stops were used for many hundreds of years where travellers would take rest with their camel trains and trade their silks and exotic eastern delights en route to Western Europe.

Dining Al Fresco

One of the many underground churches in Goreme

LA - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Phoenix - LA

The US has many wonderful places to visit and the Grand Canyon was on the 'must see' list since forever. We decided to fly to LA and stay in Hollywood - do the touristy stuff and head by car to The Grand Canyon via Las Vegas.

Hollywood walk of fame

The Chinese Theatre

          

                       

   

Santa Monica Boulavard

After visiting some friends in the hills outside LA at Callabasas, we set off on the 700 KM drive to Vegas. The scenery was hot and dry in northern California and during a short stop for coffee, we thought our eyes were deceiving us from the relentless sun, when we spotted dozens of tanks and war memorabilia. The fact that it was also Memorial Day in the US, the day when all soldiers who lost their lives serving their country were celebrated,  made this scene all the more bizarre. General Patten's Memorial Museum stand where hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent to train for desert warfare in WW2.

General Patton War Museum 

 Seven hours later we arrived in the hot, dry and windy desert city. Las Vegas is an experience. A huge eye-popping over-the-top indulgence where anything goes. Hotels with thousands of rooms - endless one armed bandits and flashing advertising bombard the senses. Accommodation is cheap to entice you to stay!
                                                                                                         

   
Caesar's Palace, Bellagio and zip lining on the Strip. Indoor pool complete with sharks - Las Vegas has everything and more....      
                                                                                      

Moving on from the madness of Vegas, our next stop was the massive Hoover Dam. Las Vegas consumes vast quantities of water as does many surrounding towns and cities. Creating the massive dam and Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, on the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona ensured that this desert region would have a plentiful supply of water.

Next Stop - The Grand Canyon. Nothing can compare for the incredible views of the first sight of the Canyon. A spiritual place for millennia much revered by native Americans.

                                                             



                       

Next stop Phoenix Arizona. A long drive took us to the luxurious Scottsdale for a few days R&R. The hot dry Arizona desert was a stunning backdrop for the last stop on our mega-trip. Painted wagons and cactus plants decorated our accommodation. 

Phoenix Arizona

Scottsdale Arizona

And so back to Long Beach, California before our return home. The last day trip to the Mission San Juan Capistrano with relatives finished off a memorable and happy holiday that will rank among the top 10 places to see.

         

On the road - Route 66

     

Queen Mary Long Beach