Kristina & KrisMom go back to Cambodia 2010
 

Hello Fodor's Friends!

Once again I'm missing the grand Fodor's GTG in Boston. While I hope to make it to one someday, my reason for missing it this year is valid; I'll be in Cambodia for the first 2 weeks of October.
Some of you may remember when my mother and I visited in 2007 and spent some time with the Ponheary Ly Foundation while there; http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...d-cambodia.cfm

Now we're returning, just in time for the beginning of the school year to spend about 10 days in Siem Reap with the foundation. We're not sure what we'll be doing while there beyond the first few days (which will include a visit to our adopted school in Koh Ker), but my best guess is we'll do anything Ponheary and Lori ask us to do! We'll also be staying at the Ly family's Seven Candles Guesthouse, which should be very different from when David and I stayed there in 2002.

This trip won't be all work however. Our time there will fall during the Buddhist Festival of Pchum Ben which should be interesting, and we hope to visit Battambang, Kauphong Khlang and Phonom Kulen.
Even though I've visited the Angkor temples twice before, I'd like to go again, this time with an emphasis on taking photos because I now have a better camera!
We'll also probably spend the last night of our trip in Phnom Penh on our way home. If anyone has a favorite hotel there, let me know as I still haven't booked that night.

Before we leave, we're fundraising to send the first Koh Ker girls graduating the 6th grade to secondary school. The school is 25 miles from their village and they will be living in a house the foundation has set up just for them. Please check out our fundraising page; http://www.razoo.com/story/Koh-Ker-A...yang-Dormitory
Some of our Fodor's friends have already donated and I thank you for that!

This is going to be very different from the types of trips I usually take but I'm really looking forward to it. I'll do my best to post some updates here while we are there. Of course, after we return I will do a full trip report both here and on my blog with photos.

Can't wait to hear/read all about it, Kristina.

In PP, you might want to check out The Quay. When David and I were going to go 2 years ago, that was our 1st choice (and it had just opened up at the time--not sure if it's such a good deal anymore, but worth a look!)

I owe Lori & Ponheary my long-overdue services, but until that happens, I'll have to vicariously live through you.

Can't wait to go along on the journey! :)

Have a great trip - will you be tweeting/blogging?

Looking forward to your report. I just sent in my Rotary club's annual donation to the Foundation to coincide with the beginning of the Cambodian school year.

Filmwill-The Quay looks nice, though a lot of the TA reviews mention noise as a problem and I'd have to have a room with a window. I am a sucker for a room with a view and those are nice. :-)

thursdayd-I will be tweeting for sure (@wired2theworld) and blogging if I have time, but it's hard to do all the photo editing from my netbook.

Craig-That's great (about the donation)!

lots of people complain about noise on TA... i wonder if most of them live on farms miles from anything....most places where this has been mentioned i find not noisy at all... fyi

Bob, in general I agree. However, in rooms which front busy roads as the Quay does, I've had the experience of being kept up all night by the roar of motorbikes more than once.

Here I am sleepless in Chicago ... the first of three trips in three weeks for me, culminating with cambodia. I can't wait to get back, and see Ponheary and Lori.
Recently the Ponheary Ly Foundation gave me the honor of inviting me to join the board, which I accepted, making this trip even more important to me.
Both Kristina and I heard from Lori this week--she celebrated a good birthday and is looking forward to a slew of visitors to start off the new school year.
We are grateful to all of you who have generously donated to the foundation, and look forward to putting those dollars to good use. If you have had a chance yet, here is that link again. http://www.razoo.com/story/Koh-Ker-A...yang-Dormitory

Quit the yammering already and go get packed.

Don't forget to bring me some cheese :)

Looking forward to following you two on this trip...tweets, blog, or here! :-)

Really looking forward to your trip report they are always fabulous.
Have a great time.

Thanks LCI and Smeagol!

Right now we are looking at a hotel in Phnom Penh called The Pavilion. Searching here did not yield much, but it looks quite nice for $65/night for a twin room. No real "view" but it's only for 1 night so I'll live.

what kinds of cheese....american cheese food?

I took a look at the Pavillion for a friend when I was in PP and it's lovely but if you can afford the mid to higher range rooms, you should book one of those.

moremiles-Thanks! We did end up booking a twin room at the Pavilion so I will report back.

what kinds of cheese??

Bob-Cheddar, Blue, something I can't remember, and a big block of velveeta!

Leaving in mere hours...

Greetings from Siem Reap! We've been here for 4 days and I've only just now been able to come up for air and stay up past 9pm!

The flight over on EVA was great; on time, decent food, comfortable. The Taipei airport has free wifi and great noodles. What more could you want in a layover? We were out of the Phnom Penh airport with all our luggage, visa on arrival, within 1/2 an hour of landing. Took 4.5 hours to drive to Siem Reap.

The last 3 days have been a whilrwind of work helping out with the first days of school. Exhausting but rewarding. I can't even put into words the immense changes at Koh Ker school. Suffice it to say I burst into tears on arrival at seeing the kids, so much happier and healthier than they were 3 years ago.

The other thing which has changed here is the food. Almost every thing we've eaten here in Siem Reap has be really good. Lori's (offwego) recommendations have been spot on.

We are staying at the Seven Candles Guest House and it's really quite nice here. Tomorrow I'm going to do a one day temple tour just to photograph things (since I've already been twice in the past).

Glad you made it there ok. Looking forward to more info.

What great news about Koh Ker school! I'm sure you all are a big help to Lori and Ponheary.

The food is good in Cambodia-don't think I ever had a bad meal in SR and Lori has the best recommendations.