Cambodia, Sihanoukville, The Cambodian Children's Painting Project (CCPP) & other NGO's

Six months in to our world adventure and the time has come to start our two months of volunteering for the Cambodian Children’s Painting Project (CCPP) in Sihanoukville on the south coast of Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand.  With two pretty hectic months I am going to break the blog down into two parts. Part one will give you an insight into the project and our daily working lives plus the good work done by other NGO’s in the area.  Part two will cover our life of living in Cambodia, the people we met, the places we went and of course Cambodian Beer. 

Welcome to CCPP

The CCPP project works to give local children a safe environment to learn and be artistic in order to keep them away from the dangerous situation of living and working on the beaches. 

The CCPP doors are open to young people of all ages and offers them a chance to play, learn, paint, free healthy meals, water, medical care, dentist, safe environment to socialise with friends, clothing & footwear and access to English education.  The project offers support to the whole family and enrols young people at the local Khmer school.  The project started around 6 years ago when a painter came to the beaches of Sihanoukville to paint and caught the imagination of the local children who were working on the beaches. CCPP now has a volunteer house which includes two galleries where the children’s art work is sold by volunteers with the proceeds going both to the individual artists and the educational fund.  The project now has close to 150 children who participate regularly. The main education takes place on the larger campus just a short walk away from the gallery which has great facilities to make the project a huge success. 

The Main Gallery inside the CCPP House

Inside the CCPP Campus

It was hard work but extremely rewarding. We worked a six day week Monday to Saturdays with Sunday’s as our days off. The shifts were a combination of the following - 8am – 12pm/ 12pm – 2pm/ 2pm – 5pm/ 5pm – 7pm.  The shifts were made up of Art lessons, English lessons, Activities, Yoga, Karate and lunch cover at the centre with the children. There were also shifts at the CCPP Gallery where we opened the doors to the public in order to sell the paintings and promote the project. Studio shifts were where the preparation work was done for the centre. These included cutting and painting the boards which the children used for painting, plus painting & stretching canvasses as well as some manual labour in the blistering heat like building walls and cementing floors.  You could say we were extremely busy but there was never a dull moment as each day was different and the time just flew by.

Art Sessions

Teaching English

Karate Kids

Starting the day with morning Yoga

Serving up lunch usually about 120 bowls

The New Creche

Lunch is noisy time

Gallery Set-Up & Ready for Business

Studio. Time for some manual labour



Leaving our mark and this stuff will never come off. Smirf Feet

Improving the Main Gallery. New display walls & a lick of paint

We also had days out with the children which they were always excited about and it was great fun as everyone piled into the CCPP truck.  We took them swimming at the beach and visited the local Pagoda.  We were there for the Khmer New Year which meant the most hectic day of the year was upon us.  We took the children to the Pagoda in the morning with offerings for the monks.  The afternoon was spent carrying out the local tradition of a giant water fight and throwing of flour/talcum powder at the centre. It was messy carnage but everyone had an absolute riot. Getting clean was another story.  We also played party games and following tradition the children were given small amounts of money as gifts.

Everybody into the CCPP truck

Fun at the beach

Plenty of excitement on trip out

Locked in its time to head home to the centre

The Pagoda



The children sharing New Year offerings with the Buddhist Monk's



Everybody In!

The New Year Water/Talc Fight is Underway

Not a Good Look!

It was amazing how quickly the eight weeks went for everybody. It took us a few weeks to settle in and learn our roles but all the volunteers became best friends and helped each other out.  The CCPP staff are a great group of people who welcomed us into the local community as well as giving us much needed Khmer language lessons. It is surprising how much Khmer we actually picked up in our time there.    

The pictures will show how amazing the kids are much better than I can ever express in words. The children were just so fantastic, their energy, humour & their cheekiness.  They made our time there so worthwhile and we felt privileged to be there. It was an experience that both of us will never forget, both heart warming and mind opening to the dangers that these children still face in today’s world. 

Finding my ARTY side

If you would like to find out more about the project and the possibilities of sponsoring a child, donating or purchasing one of the fabulous paintings from the children then check out the website below. The Cambodian Children’s Painting Project relies on the kind hearted people who fundraise and put on art exhibitions worldwide to keep the friendly doors open.

www.letuscreate.org

Being able to stop for two months and settle into a local community also enabled us to find out about and visit other NGO’s in the area that are carrying out great work to help Cambodia develop. 

ChildSafe Network

ChildSafe works to protect children from abuse. They educate tourists and travellers in order to protect the local children. They also monitor suspected abusers in the area and will respond to calls if someone sees something suspicious.  There are around 1000 children who live and work on the streets & beaches of Sihanoukville and the children are at great risk of abuse. While travelling check out the ChildSafe tips.

 For more information check out the website.

www.childsafe-cambodia.org

The Starfish Organization

Starfish is another wonderful NGO in Sihanoukville. The project provides a range of programs for people of all abilities and disabilities.  ‘This is vital in a country where an estimated 1 in 10 people have some form of disability’.

They sell wonderful hand made products & if you are ever in Sihanoukville check out the amazing cafe which serves delicious food, especially the chocolate brownie.

To find out more check out the website.

www.Starfishcambodia.org

M’Lop Tapang

This is a very large NGO in Cambodia which works with a large number of former street children and their families developing skills for the future. The products in the shop are made by parents of former street children; the sales help and support various vocational training programmes. The products are made from recycled materials which also helps the local environment. 

For more information check out the website.

www.mloptapang.org

The Dump

Towards the end of our time working for CCPP we were able to visit the local rubbish dump site on two separate occasions.  The dump was located about 40 minutes Tuk-Tuk ride away from Sihanoukville.  We took large sacks of rice & clothing to help the local families that live and work on the dump sites.  Nothing could ever have prepared us for this experience.  This is a hard one to write about.  We were covered head to toe with long trousers, socks and shoes and when getting towards the dump we had to put our face masks on as the burning rubbish was intense and the swarms of flies like nothing we have ever seen.  As we entered the site we saw the vast rubbish dump and the houses which were built on top of the rubbish. We had never seen living conditions like that. Forty families live on the dump. The sense of community spirit was heart warming.  When we arrived one person would see us and within minutes the whole village knew. If one family wasn’t there they would let us know (via the CCPP Tuk-Tuk driver who was translating for us) and they would save rice for them.  These families often don’t have enough food to be able to eat every day. 

Our visit was shocking and upsetting. On the second visit we were more prepared but it is still a difficult experience. They invited us to see their houses and we also walked across the rubbish to see families who were out at work. It was the most grounding experience we have ever had.  It makes you think how can you help and make the help and support sustainable.  There are organisations who raise money for dumps around the world but you feel so much more needs to be done and it again seems to come back to education.  One of the projects that have raised money for this dump is the Small Steps Project. 

For more information check out the website.

www.smallstepsproject.org

This blog is a little bit different to the other ones you may have read but I feel it’s important to try and help increase awareness where I can.  My time in Cambodia really was a life changing experience for me and it makes you appreciate where you come from and how lucky we are. It puts your life in perspective and even though you can’t change the world every little helps.

Pattaya, A Week of Luxury in the Amari Resort with Family & Crossing into Cambodia (Federbrau Premium)

With being so excited we waited at the arrival gate eagerly behind the railing looking like tramps with our rucksacks, the time felt like hours but everything was on time and going to schedule for once in our current lives.


Bangkok airport is pretty nice, which is what you would expect from one of the main gateways to South East Asia and even though we realised we were watching the wrong electric doors we suddenly saw Kate’s mum, her husband and little sister walking towards us. Some heartfelt hellos and giant hugs followed like we were being saved from a desert island. A little like the airport scenes in the film Love Actually.

Here comes the little one

All accounted for next stop Pattaya

It was great to see them and we were met by a chauffeur driven mini-van that would transport us the two hours east to the Thai Holiday Resort of Pattaya. Not in The Lonely Planet we had no idea what to expect, but look at us travelling in luxury. Not the norm but very welcomed and at 9 o’clock in the morning we started the holiday with a cold large beer on route.

Archa Beer at 9am. Nice nutritional breakfast

Now we could definitely get used to this lifestyle the problem would be that our travel fund would probably last about two weeks. We arrived and checked into the Amari 4-Star Resort, which was out of this world. An amazing place and so posh we felt a little out of place with our rucksacks, holey t-shirts and baggy pants.

We Arrive at the Amari Resort

Looking Nice

Perfect we could get used to this

The week we had together was so beautiful and so much fun. Pattaya was not a great place to be but it was convenient from Bangkok and the Hotel made up for the town. Pattaya itself is the original Thai holiday resort wall to wall with girly bars and famous for its prostitution and old men looking for company if you get my drift. This is something that you can keep out of mind’s eye if staying in lush accommodation like we were, but we could understand why The Lonely Planet doesn’t mention the place. Not really what most Backpackers are looking for.


We had an amazing week none the less. The poor beaches were packed with sun lounges and umbrella’s a millimetre apart blocking out the sun but again not a problem if staying at The Amari. The two large swimming pools one being an infinity pool did just the trick with sun-lounges that were more comfortable than the beds we usually sleep in with fluffy white towels at your disposal and poolside service that delivered delicious food and ice buckets full of beer. Sometimes Chang, sometimes Singha the daytime offer was buy one get one free. Don’t mind if we do!

Time for some pool action

The girls wrapped up nice & warm while the rain falls

I didn't even have to move to receive this Singha

The hotel rooms had everything that you could possibly want including dressing gowns and slippers and the best night’s sleep ever with air-conditioning, duvets and the fluffiest pillows ever. We would definitely be well rested after this week and well fed. With the weight dropping off us at too fast a rate it was time to fatten up and the days usually started with the best breakfast known to man.  I am even excited writing this blog entry.

Room equals excitement

Each morning breakfast went on for hours and included about five courses. The options included, Continental, Japanese, Thai, Indian, and English. You name it and it was there. Most people probably chose one. I just went for five different breakfasts every morning washed down with every fruit juice imaginable and unlimited coffee, at last not with condensed milk.

Again the evenings were about a few beers and more delicious food in restaurants where we found some really good Chinese, Indian and Japanese Restaurant’s. Eating and drinking with family for a whole week. What more do you need?  

Waiting for a night out

It's been a while but ready once again for some Indian Cuisine

All together at the Japanese Place. Great Food

The Chinese Banquet

We received Christmas presents from home all wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper which was such a nice surprise. New clothes went down a treat not to mention a pack of Cadbury’s Whispers, Double Decker’s and a giant bar of Dairy Milk.

Opening Christmas Presents

Oohhh! the Retro Whispa

These won't last long

We were definitely in our element but the week wasn’t just about eating and drinking. We all had a couple of great days on some Scooter’s seeing the local area around Pattaya. It was great to get out into the country side even though one of the bikes broke down on day one. It all adds to the list of stories but on our last day we headed a little further to visit a bird reserve out in the sticks which was good fun if not a little tiring. We must have covered 100km that day on motorways and busy city streets. It is official I now think me and Kate can handle these Scooter’s pretty much anywhere, and I must say Kate’s mum definitely took one for the team being on her own in the crazy traffic. Hat’s off.

It's Scooter Time

Burning Rubber

The Scooter left all alone while Wildlife spotting

Great to get out of Pattaya City to a National Park

We followed this little fella on his epic journey

Scooter maintenance from the locals

This guy jumped out of a tree at us. Scared me to death!

My turn to drive. Look it's easy!

Before taking the Scooter’s back Kate and I couldn’t resist checking out the famous Walking Street in downtown Pattaya. It was an eye opener with bikini clad girls trying to get people into the bars. We drove through once with Kate snapping away hanging off the back of the bike like an undercover reporter. We rode around on the way back!

Walking Street on our undercover run

VW Camper-Beer Bar

Not quite Hollywood

On most days when late afternoon came around the men were usually left at poolside with a beer entertaining ourselves by shrinking people in the pool with thanks to the suns reflection through the water. You might say a science experiment or kids will be kids. At the same time not far away and with much more style and class the girls were pampering themselves at a Thai Spa. I got in on the action once and on another day actually visited the hotels gym. What was I thinking?

Time for some well deserved pampering

Some crazy guy is taking photos from outside

I am shrinking!!!

Thai Massage very relaxing

With the week coming to an end and March nearly with us the time was coming for Kate and I to head across the border into Cambodia to start our time working at the Cambodian Children’s Painting Project in Sihanoukville. This meant organising our travel from Thailand into Cambodia. This extract of information is mainly a heads up for travellers that find themselves in Pattaya. The place is pretty expensive and it is way over priced when trying to book transit across the border. Everywhere was trying to charge the equivalent of about £60 per person. It is much cheaper in Bangkok or maybe follow what we ended up doing which we will get to in a little while.

With time up in Pattaya the time came to once again say our goodbye’s to family for yet another six months, but what a great week we all had together and I am forever in their debt, a perfect Christmas present of luxury accommodation and a much needed meal or two. It was just great to see them other than on Skype and to catch up about life at home and what we had been up to on our travels.  Time for one last Thai beer to sample before we exit Thailand.

FEDERBRAU PREMIUM, EUROPEAN STYLE LAGER, THAILAND, 4.7% ABV

Federbrau Premium Lager was launched in Thailand in 2008 by Thai Beverage the owner of Chang Beer. It was labelled as an all round premium beer and was to be the only beer distributed in Thailand that strictly adheres to Germany’s legendary Reinheitsgebot law, Germany’s Purity Law of 1516, which stipulates that only natural ingredients of barley-malt, hops, yeast and brewing water are used in the brewing process.

Literally translated from German Federbrau means ‘Feather Brew’ that suggests a light smooth taste. One thing that instantly came to my mind was how the Thai people would pronounce the name Federbrau.

After some research I learnt that promotion was to represent an upscale high quality beer whilst encapsulating the ideas of confidence, social inclusiveness, approachability and freedom?

Not surprisingly Chang Beer tries to avoid any affiliation with the upmarket competitor and back in 2008 the new brand was looking to spend 200 million baht in the first 9 months of advertising to really bring the brand to market. Over the years in Thailand as we have said before many premium beers come and go. With now being in 2011 this was the first time I had really seen the beer whilst travelling around the country and that was in a supermarket so maybe it did not take off as expected.

With an alcohol content of 4.7% it was a smooth and refreshing golden blonde lager with an authentic European taste, quite well balanced with malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness, nothing too harsh and quite pleasant but nothing to rave home about. I am glad that i took time out to sample the brew but I won’t be rushing out to try another one any time soon.

Another Beer to try

Federbrau Blonde Lager

http://www.thaibev.com/en08/product.aspx?sublv1gID=11

With plenty of farewell tears it was time to go our separate ways. One group off back to England and the other group that being us praying we make it into Cambodia before our 15 day visa expired.

Now when travelling as some of you know, you sometimes have a plan of how and when you will arrive at your next destination but sometimes the minor details change along the way. This journey was more the latter.


Deciding not to pay over the odds of about 3.000 Baht (£60) each we booked a mini-bus from the hotel to the border for 750 Baht. It was time for DIY Travel. Thinking that the one bus would get us to the border would have been too easy. Three different min-buses later on the same ticket (keep hold of it) and seven hours on we finally arrived at the Thai/Cambodian Border Crossing. We had heard lots of horror stories about this particular border but it was not that bad. A little hassle but nothing out of the norm we stamped out of Thailand and walked into Cambodia. With a Tourist 30 day Visa on arrival and loaded up on US Dollar to pay it was one of those days when they wanted Thai Baht instead. We luckily had some with the cost being 1,200 Baht about £22. Always make sure you have both US Dollar and Baht available. It apparently depends which way the wind is blowing for the Immigration Officials. With visas sorted it was now time to start the second leg of the journey.


This is a good time to explain that from Koh Kong just inside Cambodia there is only one daily bus to Sihanoukville at 8:00am every morning. You definitely miss this which is why usually you have to spend one night in Koh Kong waiting. Now at our final bus switch in Thailand we met Mario from Finland and Marco from Italy. Marco knew this journey very well and was not going to stay a night over the border. This is when the four of us booked and decided to share a private taxi. We paid $60, $15 each for the privilege which was OK.


Now back we go to Cambodia! With passports and visas all sorted our taxi driver was waiting for us and with another five hours to go we hit the road to Sihanoukville. Again not one taxi all the way. It ended up taking three but eventually we arrived in Sihanoukville at around 7:30pm.  

Welcome to Cambodia

Pit-Stop on our way to Sihanoukville



Car 2 of 3 and our new travel partners



So let’s round up the day. Pattaya, Thailand to Sihanoukville, Cambodia will take you twelve hours, three mini-buses and three taxi’s costing about 1500 Baht per person. That’s half the price of what travel agencies in Pattaya will charge you and much quicker. You arrive on the same day without a stopover in Koh Kong.

You will definitely need one of these on arrival

Where there’s a will there’s a way and we were even one day early to start our volunteering. With being early evening and dark we headed straight for Serendipity Beach and checked into Sokhom Guest House and Restaurant for $10 per night. We had no idea where The Cambodian Children’s Painting Project was but knew it was pretty close by.

The morning view of Serendipity Road

Sokhom Guest House

With time for a quick delicious Pizza after the long day travelling accompanied by a local rat we decided to hit the sack for some sleep. At the last minute we decided to check our facebook and couldn’t believe one of the messages. Clay and Lisa who we enjoyed the tubing with in Laos had just checked into what we thought was the same hotel. Unbelievable and we arranged to meet for breakfast the following morning.

Well that was the end of a great week and an emotionally tiring day but the next chapter was upon us. We couldn’t believe it but here we were in Sihanoukville in Cambodia on the eve of starting work as Volunteers for the Cambodian Children’s Painting Project. We started to arrange this part of our trip twelve months ago and yet here we were excited at the prospect but nervous as hell...