Cambodia: Kdam Ha Village Medical Clinic

One of our goals for this trip had been to use our knowledge and skills, to help the local people that we meet. Through some contacts in New Zealand, we were able to link up with a lady called Adono who works as a missionary in Cambodia, working with the Girls Brigade. They run an organisation called Village Works (http://www.villageworks.com), in the small Baray village in central Cambodia, more or less halfway between Siem Reap and the capital, Phnom Penh. Village Works provides work for the local women, where they weave and sew handicrafts. At the same time, they are able to break out of the poverty cycle that sees so many women head down the wrong track.

Near Baray is the even smaller village of Kdam Ha, about 15mins off the main road. The Girls Brigade have been running outreach classes teaching English to the local school children, and with the help of Adono, we were invited by the village chief to run a medical clinic for the villagers.

Kdam Ha is about as rural as it gets. A rutted dirt road, wet with the tropical rain, leads through rice paddies to traditional Cambodian wooden houses on stilts, complete with cows, chickens and goats, and villagers peering out to see what these foreigners are up to. The village marketplace consisted of a couple of stalls selling packaged goods, and 3 ladies sitting in the centre on the dirt; one selling fish, one raw meat, one vegetables. There was a pagoda (temple) with reclusive monks, and a small school, where we were to conduct our clinic.

News of our clinic must have traveled fast, for as our white van (which looked as foreign as we did amongst the dirt road, ox-drawn carts and bicycles) drove along the road towards the school, we were followed by a stream of potential patients.

The local fish lady

The local BMX bandits - you gotta pull the bike cos it ain't got no chain

Ladies waiting to be seen by Dr Andrews

Village kids waiting to see the doc

Typical village house, no running water, just one well.

We came with our textbook knowledge, a year and a bit of experience as a house surgeon and three years of nursing,  and a box of various medications that we thought we may need (mostly antibiotics). Knowing that we certainly weren't going to be changing the world, or anything heroic given we had no IV access, imaging or other diagnostic tests at our disposal, we set about as village GPs, seeing patients who came to us with various complaints. Some had never seen a doctor before.

For the medically minded - there was a lot of basic stuff: UTIs, discharge, dehydration, lots of what sounded like sciatica and arthritic knees (from the charming old ladies who have carried water from the well to their homes for the past 70 years). In the more exciting category would be being asked to separate a boys legs that had been fused from birth (like that was going to happen on the desk in the schoolhouse!), TB, some paediatric congenital heart disease, Dengue, big tumors. It was great for history taking practice (through an interpreter), as that's all we had to go on. 

Even diagnosed some Myasthenia Gravis - a middle-aged lady with ptosis, inability to elevate her eyes, diplopia, change in speech, which were fatigable. The diagnosis was confirmed when she pulled a small pill bottle of pyridostigime, and she told me she saw a doctor in Vietnam who did some tests and gave her the pills to take. We were then able to work out how much pyridostigime she was on (which was way too small a dose anyway) and upped her dose a little, encouraging her to see a local doctor for ongoing management. It made me realise just how lucky we are in the developed world, for the management of such chronic conditions.

At the end of our time in the village, we ran a public health seminar, covering basics from what we had seen were the main health problems the locals encountered, including hygiene, the need for clean water and to drink adequate amounts of water when working in the hot sun. We had brought toothbrushes which we gave to all the villagers, and taught the children how to brush their teeth. The kids had never used a toothbrush before, and the looks on their faces when the toothpaste foamed up in their mouths was hilarious - they didn't know what to do!

Cambodia: Siem Reap - Chong Kneas Floating Village

Being a touristy town, the floating village on the nearby Tonle Sap lake and river system has been set up (apparently by some enterprising Koreans) as a tourist destination. The people living on a mixture of floating houses and boats are largely ethnic Vietnamese, and the area is interesting for the fact that twice a year the flow of the river changes direction, and the lake level changes dramatically, so the people tow their houses either up the river, or down onto the lake twice a year. Most of the people are fishermen, catching their livelihood on the lake. There are also a few floating shops, schools including a school of Vietnamese orphans, a church, and even a floating basketball court.

Not too sure if it was worth the US$20 each for the village tour by boat - unfortunately that money probably goes straight back to Korea and not into the village itself

Caching! 20 tourists, $20 each...

However, it is amazing to see how the village people live. Kids float by in buckets or washbasins with a paddle. Ladies pull up the the tourist boats selling cold coke and water. Fishermen fix their nets, whole families lying outside in hammocks. We didn't really know what to make of this tourist exploitation, but the villages were obviously very used to having the daily load of tourists ferried up and down outside.

Before visiting the school for Vietnamese orphans, we were "encouraged" to buy them noodles for lunch by our guide.

Someone must have bought them rice earlier

Crocodile farm - seeing this makes you not want to buy that croc leather wallet or bag

Notice the satellite dish? They ALL have satellite TV. How? They use car batteries for their electricity. And in order to charge the batteries, they hook them up to the motor of the big tourist boats which head down the lake from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, and when the boat comes back your battery is charged. 

Genius.

Cambodia: Siem Reap - Angkor

We're back. Back in Singapore anyway. We have just spent the last 3 weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam, and although these places do have wifi access, a) it didn't seem to be fast enough for us to upload photos onto the blog, and b) we didn't bring our laptop for fear of it being eaten by tigers. So forgive us for the recent lack of blog posts, and sit back to enjoy the first episode of our Cambodian adventure.

Siem Reap provided a nice, easy introduction to Cambodia, being the touristy gateway to the Angkor temple complex. The temples of Angkor, and most especially Angkor Wat, truly need to be seen to be appreciated. As we walked along the causeway across the moat in front of Angkor Wat, it felt eerie, massive, and full of history, like we had stumbled upon this ruin from centuries ago and time had stood still. Go there, it will not disappoint. Built in the 12th Century, Angkor represents the height of Khmer art, and was the most powerful kingdom in SE Asia until it was sacked by the kingdom of Siam (Thailand) in the 15th Century. It was 'discovered' by a French missionary in the 19th Century, and since then has become somewhat of a tourist mecca.

Entrance to Angkor Wat

 

 Angkor Wat

 Preah Khan temple - in battle with a tree

It is hard not to be touched by the multitudes of Cambodians who swarm around the tourists hoping to sell you something, anything, for $1. The stories we have been told are heartbreaking. For example, our taxi driver had his father and 5 siblings killed by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war - tourists only started coming here in 1998. The country is opening up now, and the people, who have been through so much, are lovely.

These girls wanted to sell us postcards. We wanted ice cream, as it was 35 degrees. When buying our ice creams, they asked politely if we would buy them one too. We agreed. On handing over my US$20 note to the icecream man, he yelled something in Khmer to a group of kids nearby which must have been something like "these guys are shouting ice creams", and soon we are surrounded by a group of 10 or so kids. The icecream man then proceeds to give them all an ice cream-  and then give me $2 change from my $20 note. I then posed for a photo with the ice cream ambush instigators.

Singapore: The events of the past few weeks

It has been a while since we have updated you of our travels - and not because we haven't been doing anything either. Since leaving Japan, we have travelled to Singapore where we are staying with our wonderful hosts Tarron and Charlotte in their apartment. Singapore has seen us LTD (living the dream) with some EPT (epic pool time), and catching up with old friends from our last visit to this awesome country.

Our love of Singapore is well known, and it feels like a second home to us in a way. We have visited our favourite food spots and reacquainted ourselves with the Orchard Rd shops. Something we hadn't done before however, was to see the pink dolphins at Sentosa - which were awesome, but not quite as pink as you would think. More like the offspring if, well you know, a pink and grey dolphin got together.

 Sentosa Island, Singapore

That is literally a pink dolphin

Shortly after arriving in Singapore, Matt then flew back to Auckland, for just over 48 hours and an interview. It was great to be back home although for just a short time, to feel what its like to be cold once more and  for an epic roast dinner cooked by dad. The result of this journey home - Matt got a position on the radiology training program, and will be a radiology registrar at Tauranga Hospital come December, something we are extremely excited about and looking forward to.

Feeling the need to celebrate this, we set off soon after Matt's arrival back to Singapore to Langkawi, Malaysia for some EBT (epic beach time). Unfortunately, Langkawi failed to deliver on its promised beautiful sandy beaches (which were littered with rubbish). The hotel we had booked too was filthy, which saw us check out early after just 1 of our 5 nights. We returned to Singapore a little despondent, but soon raised moral by leaving for Phuket, Thailand the next day. Having been to Phuket previously, we knew it was sure to please, and it certainly didn't fail to disappoint.

And it didn't. Phuket was epic. As much as I hate people bragging about their holidays as much as the next guy, I must say that having a penthouse with your own pool is pretty sweet.

Jill is currently in Indonesia for a girls weekend away, whilst the boys will hold the fort in Singapore. Our next stop is Cambodia for a few weeks, leaving on Tuesday. Stay tuned for our next update, until then, much love.

Japan: Kyoto - National treasures

We traveled on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) south from Tokyo to the ancient city of Kyoto, where some spectacular temples and shrines are a draw card for visitors from afar. Kyoto was hot - sitting in a valley surrounded by mountains on both sides, the temperature was above 35 degrees and the skies clear. Of the many shrines and temples to see, we decided to concentrate on two - Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple, and Fushimi Inari, a shinto shrine.

Kyoto skyline

Firstly, Fushimi Inari, a shinto shrine. It is one of several thousand shrines dedicated to Inari, the shinto god of rice. What makes this shrine amazing is the many thousands of red torii gates which form tunnel like trails leading up the sacred Mount Inari. Amazingly, this shrine pre-dates AD 794, when Kyoto became Japan's capital (until 1868).

Entrance to Fushimi Inari shrine complex

Start of the torii gates, painted in vermilion red

One of the highlights was coming across a bamboo forest, after we wandered down a side-track to see where it led. The forest had an airy, ancient feel to it. If you've seen the movie "House of Flying Daggers", it almost felt like there were warriors hiding in the bamboo trees, waiting to pounce.

The next site we explored was the Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site, and the hondo (main hall) of the temple is classified as a national treasure.  The temple was founded in AD 798 and the present buildings were constructed in 1633.  Another cool fact - no nails were used at all in its construction. The large overhanging balconies (which provide a great view of the city below), were built to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims.

Entrance to Kiyomizu

3-tiered pagoda

The Hondo - a national treasure

These guys are actually all tourists - Matt didn't get the memo on the attire

Buddhist followers lining up for some holy water

Overall, Kyoto was one of the highlights of our trip to Japan. A direct contrast to the western world, it then strikes you that when the French started building Notre Dame de Paris in 1163, both Fushimi-Inari and the site of Kiyomizu-dera had been in existance for around 400 years.

Tokyo: Mount Takao

Not too far outside of Tokyo city is Mount Takao, a lush green forest park with a shrine at the summit (we are in Japan after all). We walked up the mountain one Saturday with Luke and Vanessa, to be rewarded with a fantastic view, hot soba noodles and cold Asahi at the top.

 

Japan: Tohoku countryside

Rural Japan could not be more far removed from the chaos and neon light ambush that is the cities. On our roadtrip north we got to see some of the still countryside, which is dominated largely by rice paddies. Japan is actually self sufficient in rice - one of those "Did you know's" that became a commonly asked question on our trip as we passed yet more rice fields.