Singapore Arrival

Quick update:  The group has recently arrived in Singapore and now has a long layover, awaiting the next flight departing for Phnom Penh, which is scheduled to depart on time and arrive at PNH on Wednesday at 1:05 pm Indochina Time (UTC+7) or at 11:05 pm this evening Pacific Time.

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Friday, June 7 Last day

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We officially made it to our final day in Cambodia! We met up a little later   after our very long and activity-filled day with the temples and the circus. We got back to morning meditation, health check-in, and the way of the day. Today was a big transference day. We mainly reflected on all of the places we have been and everything we have experienced and learned, bringing significance to the trip as a whole. We got into groups of four, each group creating a poster of one of the places we have traveled to. We covered everything in Chambok National Park, Phnom Penh, Koh Pdao, and Siem Reap. After sharing, we grouped up in a circle and passed a big ball of crumpled papers around while Mony simultaneously is telling us a story of tourists (our group) traveling through Cambodia, and every time he mentioned one of the four cities we visited, the person holding the paper ball would take one piece of paper off the ball. Each paper had a question on it and helped prompt reflections of the...
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Tuesday, May 28 to Koh Pdao

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Today we finished the second half of our journey to Koh Pdao, the community we would be calling home for the next seven days. The morning started off with a popular western breakfast: star shaped pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, butter, and toast. Menlo students are usually grateful but you’ve never seen gratitude until you keep boys away from their bacon. In the hotel, we reviewed our Khmer (pronounced k-mai) language for the homestays as the families who would be hosting us did not speak English. Pum taught us the words for family members (mother = “madai,” sister = “srai”) so we could affectionately greet our new families. Then, we embarked for Koh Pdao. After an hour bus ride, we stepped foot into the ‘Hundred Pillar Wat.’ The complex was beautiful with gorgeous gardens     marvelous murals (detailing the stories of Buddhism), and amazing architecture. Then we set sail for the highly anticipated boat ride. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. The nausea was palp...
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Sunday, May 26 Phnom Penh day 2

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  Even though we have been living a lavish lifestyle in the Phnom Penh hotel, today, we embarked on the difficult aspect of Cambodian history. We went to S-21 or the Khmer Rouge prison system. We will spare you the gruesome details of how the Cambodia people were treated, but we each individually experienced the place where Cambodians were brutally tortured and killed. We each had the opportunity to listen to an audio tour of the museum and walk around on our own for a couple of hours while we processed the difficult information. Once we were done with the museum tour, we ate a delectable lunch, followed by an opportunity to meet a survivor of the Khmer Rouge. The survivors name was Arun and he was merely a child when he was forced to play propaganda music for the Khmer Rouge. After four long years of seeing his friends and teachers brutally murdered, he was sent on the front lines to fight against the Vietnamese. One day, Arun got injured in combat and he went close to the Thailan...
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