Day 6 (Michell & Melissa)

Boomz, Sugar Cane, Pass-it-on, Stream, Village Living, Agricultural Training Centre

The day started especially early today at 5am, because we were supposed to head out for Angkrong village. For the city-dwellers amongst us who haven’t experienced rural living, there were plenty of uncertainties, ranging from sanitation to shelter and security.
Breakfast was more gratifying than yesterday since we knew what to order after having had yesterday’s breakfast. After breakfast, it was time for most of us to hit the toilets (aka shit) before we moved out into the rural areas where proper sanitation may be a problem.

Splendid view of the fields and mountains in the distance

Sepia shots just have this tinge of emo-ness

During the bumpy ride towards Angkrong, we heard a sudden ‘boom’ (not the kind you would expect from Ms Ris Low). So we had a punctured tyre and we started taking photos around the place while waiting for our ever-helpful-and-thoughtful truck driver to replace the tyre.

See our ever-helpful-and-thoughtful truck driver in tyre-replacing action

Imagine your vehicle breaks down in this kind of ‘ulu’ place, you don’t know how to fix it and you can’t find any help…

And we’re set to hit the road again!

Upon arrival at Angkrong, we participated in the pass-it-on ceremony, during which villagers who have benefited from the cattle rearing programme of Sustainable Cambodia become donors and pass on cattle to their neighbours after the cattle have successfully bred. Villagers were given an update on the statistics of the programme and we were told that the area surrounding Angkrong were heavily mined during the Khmer Rouge era.

Waiting expectantly for the ceremony to begin
After the pass-it-on ceremony, we were treated to an early lunch of Khmer noodles and sugar cane for dessert! By sugar cane, we don’t mean drinking the juice, but actually biting into the cane and then chewing the fibre =D There’s a first time for everything, and while almost all of us were having sugar cane in this manner for the first time, the tough sugar canes certainly were a challenge to our pearly whites.

Yummy lunch!

Yes, we bite!

Then we made our way to a stream to take a dip. We stayed there for a few hours and had a second round of lunch there. I guess most of us ended up overeating on this trip =(

I got peace by the river…

and pose by the river =)










The sugar cane chewing never stopped, hahaha






While the others played with water!







We then went on to take a look at some of the Sustainable Cambodia project sites in Kravanh village.

A half-completed SC well


Nature’s indicator of groundwater, according to a Cambodian elder who served in the military. The bigger the size of the mound, the greater the amount of groundwater in the proximity.



Having a look at the SC fish breeding pond



We settled at the Agricultural Training Centre for the night. Guys had to use an open shower, which was only a water pump on a concrete platform with no walls, but the girls didn’t have it too good either. Their shower room was a small wooden hut that had no light.
Dinner was awesome, especially the peanut chili sauce that came with the grilled fish. It was so good it could be eaten on its own. The soup was delicious, we loved the sweet pumpkins.



Dinner spread!