Battambang, Cambodia

This is a post after the story of Malaysia Flight Paper.

Cambodia is not a country with the snow like I dream, but Cambodia is a country with a thousand of loves that changed the way I think, see and act with others.

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August 3rd, 2016

01:42 pm

We arrived in airport, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Irfan just passed the immigration first. I was in my second turn. I was so surprise because the immigration staff was a Cambodian woman who has English-Cambodian accent. It was lil bit hard to get her point when she said "Thumb" but I thought it was "Tounge". uppss sorry. We needed a longer time to fix our registration because of some failures in catching the point.

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We saw someone raised a paper written our name in front of the airport. He was Fazy, one of staff from University of Battambang. He and his friend picked us up by a car. We sat behind the driver, and got a culture shock for the first time because in Cambodia, they have different side of way. It is the contrary of Indonesia. The different right-left when they drive a car. Wherever this car, we felt like in danger. haha

Our first Cambodian food, 

August 4th, 2016

05:13 am

First morning and first time, my eyes wake up in Cambodia. I believe that it was not in my dream because it was so different. I usually wake up in my home-Indonesia with the sound of Adzan (the way Islam calls Muslim to pray), but this morning there was no Adzan.

Yaah.. Cambodia is one of country that their societies are mostly Buddhist. 

In this country, my team and I were going to have lot of precious experiences, and begin today even I found my roomates, Yudit and Nana go back to sleep after praying hahaa. They look so tired because of yesterday flight.

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We stayed in the dorm of UBB (University of Battambang). Irfan's room was in the first floor and girls were in the second floor. Yesterday we already discussed that we would do all activities in girls' room such as cooking, eating and all preparation for our program. The room was simple and enough for us. There were toilet in room, fan, small refrigerator, small stove, one broom, two chairs and two bads that we made it one. We have small balcony and I thought that it was a good place to dry our clothes everyday. 

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I sat in the balcony with a glass of water and my journal. I could see some students wearing white and black as their uniform in the garden behind the dorm. I guessed that they were students from agriculture. They were talking each other while some students bring their note book and write something. What so funny, I could hear they were talking khmer (Cambodian Language). I couldnt hold this smile, and told myself that their language is madly out of my mind, and their accent is very unique. .I spent time to clean up the bathroom. It was not dirty but it's like too long to be abandoned. I used some rapping plastic to cover the buffer balcony. So it could be used to dry clothes cleanly.  .

Yudit and Nana wake up when Irfan knock our door. Then the first discussion was about what to eat today. Irfan clarified himself as a chef and these three girls become his assistants. After cooking, we called bong Roury to have breakfast together. Bong is the way to call brother. Bong Roury is one of UBB student that ever visited Indonesia with the same program (students exchange). He stayed in Bengkulu,Indonesia about 6 months and studied in my class with two other exchange students, Theavy and Ravy. We are already know each other.

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01:08 pm

We have schedule to meet the rector of UBB at 11 am. We wear our almamater and bring some gifts that we already prepared from Bengkulu, Indonesia. The rector was a woman. It was nice first impression. She gave us shall and UBB note book. At that day, we also met Fazy and Chamroeun.

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03:46 pm

We planned to go to market. Bong Roury treated us how to get there. He kindly accompanied us because it was the first time for us. In Battambang, they have public transportation like in Indonesia, but it's not Angkot or Ojek. People call this, "TUK-TUK". To use tuk-tuk, we need to pay 1 person 1 dollar, then they say we can go everywhere no matter it's near or far.

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Arrive in the market, this head is getting crazy and much dizzy because of language and money.

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We only can communicate with English at that time. Even English is a second language in Cambodia, but in market we really need to work harder to be calm and understand Cambodian body language. Oh Man!

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Lucky us! Tuk-tuk driver could speak English. He kindly helped us.

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Cambodian use two currencies. They use USD Dollar and Cambodian Riel at the same time or they mix them. In August 2016, 1 Dollar is about RP13.000, 1 Dollar is 4000 Riels. 1 Dollar is 40 of 100 Riels. So, 1.5 dollar can be 1 dollar 2000 Riels or 6000 Riels or 60 of 100 Riels. Huuuuu I hope you keep enjoy your reading hahaa.

Beside that, Cambodian also counts normally until 5 and after that they will have such kind of formula to count 1 to 9.

1 is Mui,

2 is Phi,

3 is Bay,

4 is Buun,

5 is Pramh.

and the next will be..

5+1=6 is Pramh Mui,

5+2=7 is Pramh Phi,

5+3=8 is Pramh Bay,

5+4=9 is Pramh Buun,

and 10 is Doph.

Everything happens in the market and makes us believe that we really need to learn Khmer, their language. Even we just know some of words that we may use in our daily activity here.

Night comes....

I watched Yudit was busy with her new lesson. She read some Cambodian words that will be needed in market. That is what I adore from Yudit. She has a big willing to learn something that she and everyone among us need. 

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To be continued..