Habitat for Humanity Global Village Trip to Cambodia

In November 2018, I embarked on my third and, to date, final Habitat trip. This time to the small city of Battambang Cambodia. I will let you know two things from the start. First, this was my absolute favorite Habitat trip so far. By a long shot. Second, my fun was tempered the entire trip because back home my father started his final decline. It was far sooner than we were expecting, and far quicker than expected. He was gone before I made it back.

Getting to Cambodia from Atlanta took some effort. First, there was the 16 hour flight from Atlanta to Shanghai. Then came the 20 hour layover in Shanghai. (Pro tip – You can leave the airport and sight see without getting a formal visa.) Then a relatively short 5 hour flight to Siem Reap. I will talk about this last stop another time – But that is absolutely a town worth visiting!

Once in Siem Reap, we were checked into the Frangipani Villa Hotel. This hotel was fantastic! The food was awesome – The breakfast was so amazing! I didn’t try it, but everyone else raved about the breakfast soup.

Anyhoo, we stayed there a couple nights on the front end, and then after the build we stayed there a couple more nights. After the trip, I also went to Phnom Penh, and I’ll write about that another time. But put it on your bucket list.

After a couple days we boarded a bus for the long drive to Battambang. We were staying in the King Fy Hotel:

Once checked into the hotel, we met our hostess. Her name is Theary, and she was absolutely amazing:

Theary laid down the law of the land, and told us about our project. Then she diverged into the fun stuff. She asked if we would like to try some of the local flavor. We said yes! Also, every night she would go out to dinner with us – And Battambang has some really good restaurants! But on the way to dinner the first night she asked me if there was something we might *not* like to try. I said dog might not be a good one, but everything else was ok. So every day at lunch, she would bring us some treats. Here we have stewed frogs, fried crickets, and fried rat.

The house itself was challenging, but we also finished this build. This is us looking ever so chic as we walked out to the build:

When we arrived, all that had been done beforehand was installation of the concrete posts on which the house would be built:

I did not take pics of this but the first task was to strip the bamboo that would become the floor. So large bundles of bamboo slats had been delivered and we had to use large knives to strip off any knots or sharp edges that would cut bare feet. This took a lot of time. I was also tasked with boring out grooves in two large planks, for the stair treads to fit in. Before long, though, the floor beams had been hoisted into place:

Once the walls were framed in the roof beams were put in place:

Then came the roofing material, and window frames:

Finally, and I believe around this time we had finished nailing the bamboo down for the floor, we started to add in the walls:

This is the finished interior:

And in true Habitat form, there was a wrap up party:

One of the items that all new Habitat homes in this part of the world must have is a water connection. So while we were there the local government official came by, and collected the one time fee (~$6), and connected the water to large vessels outside the home.

I took a lot of pictures on this trip. But in true fashion, I wrote down no ones name. So here are pics of the wonderful people associated with the build:

Across the board, without any exception that I could find, the people in this part of the world are among the most kind and friendly I have ever met! They are warm, and will give you a big smile in a heartbeat. But also, seemingly across the board too, they will all tell you a horrific tale if you ever ask what it was like under the Khmer Rouge. I’ll post about that another time. I believe it’s important to not forget such atrocities.

Theary provided entertainment for us each night. Again, she was awesome! One night she took us to a local circus – A sort of Cirque du Soleil performance, but with youths from all over Cambodia. It was great. Another night, massages at the massage school for the visually impaired followed by dinner. And then there was the night of the cooking lesson:

Battambang was a great place to visit! I never once felt unsafe there – But I am a guy. There is a lot of colonial architecture still present, and a good bit of it is being transformed into restaurants and shops. The ATM’s there will ask if you want the Cambodian currency or US dollars – And every business will take American currency, but they will give your change in Cambodian currency. And most of the younger generation speaks English, better than Americans! We spent 5 nights in Battambang, and this was a fantastic experience.

I’ve mentioned before that I was supposed to go on a fourth trip in November 2020, to Vietnam. We all know how 2020 went though, and the trip was cancelled. But I wanted to go on that trip mainly because Vietnam was always in the news when my generation were kids. And always for a bad reason. I wanted to go there, meet the people, and put that negative image of the country behind me. But as of now, towards the end of 2021, Habitat still has no trips planned, anywhere. Hopefully things will open up in 2022.

I have at least two more posts to write about Cambodia. We had a spectacular tour guide for the temple complex in Siem Reap, and then I went with another team member to Phnom Penh for a couple nights. There is just so much there to see! Plus I could do an entire post on the 20 hour layover in Shanghai.

And so that is it for my Habitat trips. So far. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them.

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