Pursat

Pursat is a province of Cambodia, and also the name of its capital city, which is where we have been for the last couple of days. We went to visit our sponsor child we have through Sustainable Cambodia. We were the only Westerners, and the only people who spoke English, on our bus over there. We had to catch the bus to Battambang, but then get off halfway when we got to Pursat. It was a bit risky because we had no-one who we could ask to let us know when we were in Pursat, so every town we went through saw me trying to gesture to the man in front of me, asking which town we were in. At one point I glanced out the window to see "PURSAT GUESTHOUSE" on a sign, and then what followed was something like:

Amiee: Pursat?!?
Bus Crowd: Pursat?
Steve: This Pursat??
Bus Crowd: Pursat
Amiee: We get off Pursat!
Bus Crowd: Pursat?
Amiee: Yes! Pursat!

At which point the bus crowd got the bus driver to pull over and let us out!

Pursat really doesn't see many tourists, and we really notice the difference. Here, we're a bit of a novelty still. The cute little girl sitting in front of us on the bus here thought we were hilarious and couldn't take her eyes off us the whole way (she wasn't so sure about Steve's beard though...). For the first time since we've left, we actually had trouble communicating because no-one speaks English (or if they do, very little), so Steve and I are doing our best to learn a few words/phrases. We've been eating at a restaurant that benefits children who have been victimised by various awful things; they did all the cooking and serving etc and it was really yum. The bill for a whole meal came to 15,000 riel, which equates to about $3.75US... we gave them a 5,000 riel tip and the girl was just so astonished and so grateful! It was very lovely, and a lot different to the kids in tourist areas that EXPECT you to give them things and ask for it.

New Years Day we were meant to visit our sponsor child, Lakana, and then tour around the villages and see all the projects that Sustainable Cambodia has in place, except Steve decided it'd be fun to get food poisoning instead. We think it must have been the fried eggs he had for breakfast, although I had an omelette and was fine... maybe he was just unlucky. Anyway so after a bout of vomiting and losing his voice from it all, the SC guys thought it'd be best to take him to hospital. We were very lucky to have the SC people with us so they could translate, especially when the doctors decided to give Steve an injection in his butt. I was frantically trying to make sure that yes, it was a sterilised needle, before they jabbed it in him! After about an hour of being in the hospital, we decided it would be best for Steve to just rest at the guesthouse (where there weren't any passersby stopping and staring at him through the windows). A good time had by all!

Yesterday we went to visit the various villages surrounding Pursat that are supported by SC. The highlight was definitely visiting the preschools; the kids are just so cute. We noticed that they had so little to play with there; one preschool had a couple of wooden building blocks, and another had just 1 skipping rope, and yet the kids were very well behaved. We then visited Lakana and her family, which was lovely, even though she is very shy :) She wants to be a doctor or a nurse when she grows up, her mother explained that it is because her siblings often get sick and she wants to be able to care for them. Very sweet girl.

The women at the Pursat Guesthouse are just absolutely lovely and very helpful. Yesterday I wanted to go to the local psar (market) to find some toys to buy for the preschools. After doing some charades-style acting with the woman to try and explain, she hailed me down a moto and told him exactly what I was after, where to take me, and then haggled a fair price for me! I think the moto driver was a bit world-weary though, because instead of slowing when he came to an intersection, he decided just to constantly blast his horn in the metres leading up to the intersection, and then just drive on through at full speed. This was all well and good until someone failed to realise what the constant honking meant, and I almost ended up smooshed to death (ok so maybe 'smooshed to death' is a bit dramatic... but it would have hurt!) by another moto; the guy skidded and almost came off his bike to avoid us... about 30cm away!

This morning we left Pursat and caught a bus to Battambang, where we are staying for the next 2 nights before heading to Siem Reap!