Questions Answered
This is going to be long, but you’ve askedme lots of questions, so hopefully this answers them all.
What am I actually going to be doing onthis trip to Cambodia? Is it another volunteer trip? Or just vacation? When am I going and when will I be back? And why Cambodia of all places?
This is a cultural immersion trip foradults over age 50. (We’ll see how it goes, and maybe the next crazy trip Itake should be for adults with bodies that feel over 70 years old.)
So, what does “cultural immersion” mean?Instead of just seeing the sites, we will learn more about them and in between,learn about the culture, history, and religion of the country. One day, we’reeven having a cooking class.
Our itinerary looks something like this:
Day1: Orientation and acclimation to our surroundings, a short tour of the capitalcity of Phnom Penh, which will be our base for the trip
Day2: More orientation, visit a local market, visit our first Buddhist temple WatPhnom, watch the movie “The Killing Fields”
Day3: Visit the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison Museum (this will be our most heart-wrenchingday, but a necessary day to understand the culture)
Day4: Visit a pepper farm, salt farm, and durian farm (yes, the world’s moststinky food), visit the beach on the Gulf of Thailand
Day5: Bokor Mountain, waterfalls, sunset cruise for dinner and to see fireflies
Day6 and 7: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest up, then travel to Siem Reap the nextday
Day8 and 9: Explore the vast Angkor Wat temple complex (the whole reason I wantedto take this trip in the first place)
Day10: Visit floating village and the Landmine Museum, dance show during dinner
Day11: Travel to Battambang, ride the bamboo train
Day12: Visit grape farm, a couple more temples, a cave and watch bats leave thecave at sunset
Day13: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest
Day14: Visit a silk farm, pack to leave the next day
Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? But soworth it!
We fly out of Chicago this Friday morningat 12:30! And arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 11:15 Saturday morning (that’s11:15 Friday night for you at home, I think). We leave Phnom Penh on Sundayafternoon on September 29 and get back home to Chicago Sunday night. It’s timetravel. I can never put my brain around it.
One more question you may have – whatorganization are you going with? ProjectsAbroad is the world’s largest provider of international volunteering,internships, and meaningful travel experiences. They’ve been running for over30 years and have been trusted by over 130,000 participants who’ve joined theiraward-winning trips.
They run projects on four continents,including countries ranging from Botswana, South Africa, Mongolia, Philippines,Romania, Argentina, Galapagos Islands, and Fiji. If I were younger, I’d love totry some of their other trips, but most of them sound even more strenuous thanthis one to Cambodia. Please click this link to their website, though, to readmore.
Click this link to find out more about thespecific trip we will be taking. Oh, and when I say “we”, I mean me and mytravel partner Denise. She is a fellow retired CMA from the eastern part of ourstate and has been to Kenya with me a few times. There is another woman whowill be joining us, also, but I don’t know anything about her yet except thatshe’s from Great Britian.
How did I find out about Projects Abroad?As you may remember, I’ve wanted to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat since Iwas in 6th grade. Feeling that I’m getting too old for many morelong trips, back in January of 2020, I did a Google search of volunteer tripsto Cambodia and this one came up first. After doing more research, I askedDenise if she was game to join me. She said, “yes”, and we signed up. Then afew weeks later, COVID-19 bowled us all over and grounded us for the next twoyears. Last year, my back pain and immobility caused me to cancel a third trip.But here we are, finally doing it.
Hope that answers all of your questions. 😊
Me and Denise in Kenya in 2015
