Pnom Penh

13 December 2007
I started the trip last night and surprisingly, we reached the airport in 2,5 hours only! So, I was stranded at the airport at around 4.30 AM. My flight is at 6.55 AM, so I have quite plenty of time to kill. I fresh up myself in the toilet and then go to find the check in counter of Malaysia Airlines.

It was 2 hour flight to KL, 30 minutes transit and off I go to Cambodia. The plane transited in Siem Reap for 45 minutes. I was thinking that I might get a wrong flight. So, I asked the flight attendant and he said that the plane will go back to KL after dropping the passenger in Pnom Penh, that’s why we landed in Siem Reap first. Siem Reap has a beautiful airport. Not big but beautiful. It took us 50 minutes to fly to Pnom Penh.

Something quite ridiculous happened last night when I just realize that I don’t know where to go in Cambodia. I checked all the emails from CARAM, but none of them saying anything about the hotel’s name. So, I called Malu to ask about the venue. She said it’s in Cambodiana Hotel. So, I exchanged my Dollar to Khmer Riel and had coke at the Dairy Queen. But actually, I don’t need to change my money because US Dollar is widely accepted in Cambodia. In fact, people here prefer to have US Dollar as payment.

I took a cab to the hotel. The driver’s name was Sovan. He was very polite. He charged US$ 10 [KR 40,000] to take me to the hotel. He drives slowly around the city and explain about the tourist sites that we passed. The roads are quiet here, juts like in Vientiane. So, there was no traffic jam. Sovan said I stay in a big 5-star hotel. The biggest hotel in Pnom Penh. When we reached the hotel, he gave me his business card so that I can call him when I need a taxi.

I share the room with Vivian. It’s a big room with 2 big beds. When I just changed my clothes, the phone rang and it was Nova. She asked me to have lunch meeting to discuss about the work plan. Wow! Work already? My God!

So, we meet at the lobby. Rathi, Nova, Valentina and I. We went to a café by the Mekong river side, had lunch together and then discuss the work plan. After 2 hours or so, we go back to the hotel and continue the meeting in the secretariat room. I met the rest of the CARAM staff there. We assist Ganesh with his speech. Ganesh is the chairman of CARAM Asia. At around 8.30 PM we go out to find ourselves some dinner. We met Luna and Asem from Jordan and we decided to go together. We go to a small but cozy Italian restaurant. The price is a bit high but the food was awesome!

14 December 2007
The first thing that we do in the morning is the Press Conference led by CARAM Cambodia. After that, we have a reporting session and discussing session over the constitution of CARAM. It’s a long day and we also have evening session [which I can’t contribute much due to lack of sleep that I suffered from the very start of my trip!].

The breakfast here is great. And the restaurant is also nice. It has a big terrace facing the Mekong river. The noodle is especially delicious. So, the meals are the only things that make me awake for today.

15 December 2007
Today we’re going to have task force meeting and then an election for new board members and chairman. Jackie volunteered herself to be the election commissioner. That’s too bad because we really want her to be the candidate for board member and chairman. But I guess she read our minds. Hahaha! Things are getting a bit hot when Navuth give announcement about tomorrow’s program. Tomorrow we all have to join a long march to celebrate International Migrant Day. The long march started at 7.30 AM!!! And he said, he will pick us up at 6.30 AM sharp!!! My goodness! I’m not a morning person. And most of the participants are also not. So, start complaining about the schedule, but really, there’s nothing we can do about it. In Cambodia, people start to work at 7.30 AM and they have long lunch hours [around 2,5 hours].

In the evening we’re having a celebration party. CARAM is entering the 10th year now, so we celebrate. The party is a cocktail dinner with performances from the migrant returnees. They do role play about the life of a domestic worker in Malaysia. They also danced.

We ended the party at around 10 PM. Some of the participants go out to the bar, but all the staffs are exhausted and we decided to go to bed after the party. We don’t want to wake up late and miss the long march tomorrow.

16 December 2007
I wake up lazily at 5.45 AM. That’s also because Gita called to my room. Strange! I ordered wake up call at 5 AM last night, but no one called! Thank God Gita called. So, Vivian and I were rushing ourselves to get ready. We managed to have breakfast at 6 AM. The sun rise is actually beautiful!

At 6.30 AM Navuth pick us up and we start to walk to the Victory Monument. That’s the meeting point with other migrants. The place is not so far from the hotel. Some participants are not coming. Surprisingly, those who went out last night actually join the parade! Great!

We start the march at around 7.45 AM and reach the ceremony venue at 8.15 AM. There, we have some sort of celebration for International Migrant Day. Around 500 migrant returnees are joining the long march. The ceremony attended by the chief of National AIDS Authority and chief of Ministry of Labour. Rina from Philippines is giving out a speech as the migrant representative.

The ceremony ends at 9.30 AM and we go back to the hotel. I go back with Gita. We really need to have some more sleep. But we can’t go to sleep anyway. We just lay down, smoking and chatting. At noon we decided to go out to the Russian market. This is our last day and we don’t have anything to do anymore except shopping and sightseeing! So, off we go to the Russian market. We ride a tuk-tuk, it costs us US$ 2.

The market is a traditional market where we can find just about everything. From vegetables, fruit, bags, clothes, souvenirs, food, shoes, suitcases, sunglasses, silver jewelries, home decoration, aromatherapy and many more! We spend about 3 hours in the market. I bought 8 table runners, 2 phasminas, 1 LV hand bag, 6 boxes of aromatherapy, 3 T-Shirts, a wooden box, 3 fridge magnets. After we’re done shopping, we go back to the hotel by tuk-tuk again. On our way back, we stopped at FCC to have lunch. It was a very late lunch. We chose Edelweiss Café by the Mekong river side.

We dropped our shopping bags in the hotel and then we go out again. This time to take pictures and sail on the Mekong river. We go on the Mekong river boat tour. The ticket is only US$ 1 per person. Finally, we sail on the Mekong river. The famous river that all this time we only read in our geography books during our high school. After that, Gita and I decided to go to the hairdresser. I want to blow dry my hair and Gita wants to have manicure – pedicure. But I end up having manicure too, and Gita ends up having a blow dry also! The salon has a cable TV and when the owner finds out that we’re from Indonesia, he put on Indosiar. Wow! Impressive!

We’re very happy with the service in that salon. It’s perfect! After that, we walk and have dinner in one café by the Mekong river. The place was crowded. It’s a sign that it has good food. While waiting for our orders, some kids approach us. They sell books. And there’s this 13-year old little girl, her name is Franny. She speaks quite good English. She’s in the junior high school but she sells books in the evening. She is not the only one. There are many kids who sell books here. Franny’s face is very sweet. I hope she’s not going to be a migrant worker someday. I asked her to bring me a book by Paulo Coelho, but she couldn’t find it and she looked very upset because she can’t deliver my request. This also avoids her from getting money.

We go back to the hotel at around 10 PM. When we walk out the café, Franny approaches us and ask, “Are you coming tomorrow?” and we said that we’re going home tomorrow. She looked sad. Maybe she was going to find the book for me and bring it on the following day. So, we wave goodbye there.

It’s a nice country. Nice people too. Good food, good market. I shall come back again someday… somehow…