Questions Answered

         This is going to be long, but you’ve asked me lots of questions, so hopefully this answers them all.

What am I actually going to be doing on this 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 for adults over age 50. (We’ll see how it goes, and maybe the next crazy trip I take 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’re even having a cooking class.

Our itinerary looks something like this:

Day 1: Orientation and acclimation to our surroundings, a short tour of the capital city of Phnom Penh, which will be our base for the trip

Day 2: More orientation, visit a local market, visit our first Buddhist temple Wat Phnom, watch the movie “The Killing Fields”

Day 3: Visit the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison Museum (this will be our most heart-wrenching day, but a necessary day to understand the culture)

Day 4: Visit a pepper farm, salt farm, and durian farm (yes, the world’s most stinky food), visit the beach on the Gulf of Thailand

Day 5: Bokor Mountain, waterfalls, sunset cruise for dinner and to see fireflies

Day 6 and 7: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest up, then travel to Siem Reap the next day

Day 8 and 9: Explore the vast Angkor Wat temple complex (the whole reason I wanted to take this trip in the first place)

Day 10: Visit floating village and the Landmine Museum, dance show during dinner

Day 11: Travel to Battambang, ride the bamboo train

Day 12: Visit grape farm, a couple more temples, a cave and watch bats leave the cave at sunset

Day 13: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest

Day 14: Visit a silk farm, pack to leave the next day

         Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? But so worth it!

We fly out of Chicago this Friday morning at 12:30! And arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 11:15 Saturday morning (that’s 11:15 Friday night for you at home, I think). We leave Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon on September 29 and get back home to Chicago Sunday night. It’s time travel. I can never put my brain around it.

One more question you may have – what organization are you going with? Projects Abroad is the world’s largest provider of international volunteering, internships, and meaningful travel experiences. They’ve been running for over 30 years and have been trusted by over 130,000 participants who’ve joined their award-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 to try some of their other trips, but most of them sound even more strenuous than this one to Cambodia. Please click this link to their website, though, to read more.

Click this link to find out more about the specific trip we will be taking. Oh, and when I say “we”, I mean me and my travel partner Denise. She is a fellow retired CMA from the eastern part of our state and has been to Kenya with me a few times. There is another woman who will be joining us, also, but I don’t know anything about her yet except that she’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 I was in 6^th grade. Feeling that I’m getting too old for many more long trips, back in January of 2020, I did a Google search of volunteer trips to Cambodia and this one came up first. After doing more research, I asked Denise if she was game to join me. She said, “yes”, and we signed up. Then a few weeks later, COVID-19 bowled us all over and grounded us for the next two years. 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