Mekong River Day 2 (Angkor Ban, Cambodia): A Temple, A Village and A School

Today we hiked up to a temple in Angkor Ban, Wat Hanchey, explored a small village and attended the school at the village.

Our hike up to Wat Hanchey was very scenic. There were gorgeous hills decorated with traditional structures and bridges. When we got to the top, we participated in a traditional Buddhist blessing and explored the grounds around it. There were a lot of food venders up there. Apparently, it’s a very common place for locals to come and picnic. We learned that there is a separate school system for monks in Cambodia. They have to learn the same subjects everyone else does in addition to Buddhist scriptures and customs. A lot of natives that become successful in life credit their success to the community and give back by building dormitories, schools or donating in one way or another.

After we got back, we had some downtime and headed out to a rural village and their school. We conversed with the students one on one and talked about their school work for a little while. Then, they introduced themselves and we introduced ourselves in front of the class. They haven’t learned much English yet but they were able to ask and respond to simple questions. They were able to tell us how old they were, where they were from, what their favorite color was and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Most of the questions that they asked us was about our occupations, where we were from, our family members and what our favorite color was. Most of the students were between the ages of 10 and 15.

When we got back, we attended cocktail hour and got briefed on our activities for tomorrow, had dinner and headed to bed.

Today was exhausting!