KOMPONG SOM. KAMPONG SOM!

Ever since our arrival at Group Home, we'd heard whispers and rumours of the so called 'Kompong Som' everywhere we found ourselves.  All the children seemed to have this mutual interest in the mysterious 'Kompong Som' and we newbie volunteers were clueless as to what, why or when this meant.  It was only recently that we found out that 'Kompong Som' is in fact the Khmer name for the province in which Sihanoukville lies, and here is where the beach is!  After much asking around, we learnt that each year, Group Home organises a one night trip to the beach in Kompong Som, which is highly anticipated and regarded by all for a LONG time leading up to the event!

The dates for going were the 8th and 9th of April, and having only arrived back from Thailand on the 7th, it's safe to stay we were both pretty shattered! However, we jumped on the bandwagon and embraced the kid's holiday spirit, helping load the bus with plenty of water for the 5 hour trip down to the beach. There were two buses for us all,  neither with air-con. Gwen and I both went on the bus with the smaller kids; Gwen at the very back had the joy of being right on top of the engine, along with the heat and noise from that. I was at the front of the bus, in the middle of two kids squished onto two seats, cosy!!!!
Five hours and plenty of toilet breaks later we were nearing the sea then suddenly we found ourselves at the top of a hill with the most beautiful view of the beach. An even better view I found was turning round and watching the children's faces as they saw the sea! Some were open mouthed, some had big smiles on the faces, some were squealing and some just didn't know what to say. It was a precious moment and one i'm not going to forget in a while.!.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel all the kids were changed in a flash and ready to go to the beach again and once there we ate and were straight in the water. (Some even ate their lunch IN the water!!).

I had a few funny experiences being with one of the younger kids, speaking Khmer to them and they'd be shouting 'MA' at me; the other Khmer people in the water looked totally confused!!

Rubber Rings

We hired some rubber rings for them, and most of the afternoon and next morning the older ones were floating around on them while the younger kids played in the shallow water.

I got a MEGA burnt face.

Playing in the water :)

Throughout the weekend I battled something i hate; seafood ...and there was a lot of it! For lunch when we first arrived there was, what seemed a tasty baguette, with crabsticks in it! Tea was in a seafood restaurant where I mainly got away with eating rice and veg, apart from the small squid like thing in my bowl, which was eaten with trepidation.

On the evening of the first night we were invited to go with the older children to the beach, but after having a lie down and watching some cartoon network with the younger kids in our room we were so shattered that we were immediately asleep! Oops.

The whole trip lasted approximately 24 hours but it was amazing watching the children be so carefree playing in the water! Some of them were barely out of it during the time we were there!

We had all adopted the same seats throughout the journey so it was back on our squished seats for the 5 hour journey home of crazy asian driving!