New Futures

We headed to Takeo and grabbed a tuktuk to the orphanages guest house. No one was around so we kinda just hung out with no real clue what to do! Around dinnertime everyone surfaced and we got the gist of how things were run. The next morning we has lovely egg sanwiches and then headed over to the New Futures orphanage. Upon arrival we were inundated with 52 kids shaking our hands, hugging us, and asking our names. So incredibly friendly and happy! We got a bit of a tour of the facilities, and then it was play time. We spent the next few days playing hardcore vollyball and football with kids who were about 4ft tall, and chatting about our lives. The kids are so incredibly amazing and driven, all want to learn English so they can get good jobs. The orphanage takes great care of them, they all attend school and take English lessons, everyone helps cook and clean, and the kids all look after each other. Ages 6-19, the kids look remarkably younger than their western counterparts, but can eat at least twice as much rice as the hungriest westerner in one sitting. They want cuddles and to hold hands, are interested in politics, and all have such a positive outlook on life. It was so heartwarming and incredible for us to experience this part of Cambodian culture, and it was absolutely one of the highlights of our entire trip thus far. We handed our camera over to the kids and they froliked around and took pictures of the orphanage in their eyes. Just amazing. We plan on staying involved with the orphanage in the future, and are in the process of setting up penpals in NJ at my mom's elementary school, and will also be setting up some sort of non-profit booth or something at SNWMF10. If you are interested in getting involved, have the lucky opportunity to be in the area and want to visit, or just want to make a donation, get in contact with us and we will help sort you out. $20 will feed the kids 3 meals a day for 2 days- a 100lb bag of rice. Oli's mate Andy is currently making a new website for the organization and we will post the link when it is completed.

With heavy hearts, and after postponing our departure for 2 days, we took a bus back to Phnom Penh and then to HCMC, Vietnam. Riding on the bus from 8am to 4pm, we arrived and grabbed a room at Madam Cucs in the backpacker district, $13/night for ac, fridge, hot water, and cable tv. Also includes breakfast and dinner! Not bad. We settled in that evening excited to explore a new country in the month ahead.

The next morning we headed over to the British Embassy to sort out a new passport for Oli since his old one has been filled. It was pretty time consuming, but on the upside, during the embassys lunch break, we headed over to the zoo to say whats up to the animals. We were walking along, and saw a deformed bunny hopping around in a cage that was entirely too large for it. Then we noticed a huge lion napping in the background. THEY HAD POPPED THE LIVE BUNNY INTO THE CAGE FOR THE LION'S LUNCH! We were horrified. Well, I was. Oli was excited to see the outcome. The lion was lazy and didn't really stir, so eventually we headed on without witnessing the carnage.

After finishing the passport process, most of the museums were closing within the hour, so we headed back to the hotel to chill. We had been laying low for the past 4 nights as I had gotten some sort of violent allergy/food poisoning to some delicious fish and chips whilst in Takeo and was still not feeling tip top.

This morning we headed over to the Co Chi tunnels, in which the Viet Cong has hidden out during the war. The whole thing was a bit less authentic than we wanted it to be, but it was kinda cool anyhow. We did end up climbing through the tiny tunnels, on our knees, which was pretty interesting. The tour took a long time, and we ended up grabbing some Indian food when we arrived back in the city. Yum!

We will be in HCMC for a few more days to check out the museums, then heading to Dalat in the north. Pix from the orphanage up soon!