Empires of the East expedition diary: Update Five

Angela and Charlotte write...
"The weekend started with a group scavenger hunt! As it was our last weekend in Siem Reap, the group thought it would a good idea to do something together that forced us to explore the town. The activities group organised a special type of hunt where instead of finding things, they would give us a hint and we would have to perform a task on camera. The whole hunt took three hours with 24 questions and tasks to complete. The team with the most points was given $20 to share.

After an exhausting three hours of making fools of ourselves in town, we all gathered at the guest house to compare photos and commenced judging them by a complex point system. The winners were Alida and Alistair, and afterwards the whole group ate together at the ‘Funky Buda’.

The final week of the project came much quicker than we all expected. After an exciting weekend full of group activities, the motivation to get up early and build was not quite there. Luckily for us we were given an extra long weekend, and after a short trip into town to organize group t-shirts, the day was mostly spent relaxing in the ever-increasing heat!

Then on Tuesday, we all piled in to the back of a pickup truck to get to the final house. Once again the lack of shade and constant heat made it exhausting work! However we were all grateful that the house, unlike last week, was not meant to be built half-submerged in water. This meant we could get much more involved without having to get worried about leaches.

The next two days ran reasonably smoothly, apart from a bit of conflict when we tried making the walls, as a dispute over the use of nails versus wire broke out. Also we had to endure the pain of getting up earlier to try to beat the heat by working from 7am! Despite the early start we all managed to have fun on site and finished in a record of two and a half days.

We were all very sad to say goodbye to the monks on Friday. Our last day with them was spent with a ceremony blessing Mark, Sathya, Ange and Kat as they became Buddhist monks and nuns for the day. After this we had a farewell party which included a variety of soft drinks, as well as chocolate brownies and banana muffins! Mark, Sath, Kat and Ange then went to have their lunch which is the last meal of the day for them; part of being a monk or nun is fasting for the second half of the day. We all wished them luck and then spent the rest of the day packing to get all that we needed for the upcoming weeks of expedition."

Click here >> for their first diary update - Khmer lessons and temple visits with monks
Click here >> for their second diary update - Visiting Sihanoukville and project work begins...
Click here >> for their third diary update - Building work and Siem Reap
Click here >> for their fourth diary update - Lessons with the monks
Click here >> for their sixth diary update - Phnom Penh and sailing the Mekong



Click here >> for Khmer lessons and temple visits with monks
Click here >> for Visiting Sihanoukville and project work begins...
Click here >> for building work and Siem Reap
Click here >> for lessons with the monks
Click here >> for blessing ceremonies as the building work ends...
Click here >> for Phnom Penh and sailing the Mekong



Name: VentureCo
Address: The Ironyard, 64-66 The Market Place, Warwick
Click here >> for details of this placement
Click here >> to see all of VentureCo's placements
Click here >> to email VentureCo
Tel: 0845 344 7523