Day 5: Catch ya Phnom Penh. Hello Kampong Thom!

Call on me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known - Jeremiah 33:3 ​

Thursday we had a well needed recovery day to give us time to process and pray about what we experienced in the previous days. So in true Melbourne style, we hit up the Russian Market.
Walking out of the hotel into the muggy humidity, we could measure from our back-sweat that today was peak heat (33°c with a humidity rate of 92% reow)
We got into our fave tuk tuk with Mr. Balenciaga cap driver - a thrilling (but safe) tuk tuk ride ensued.
We all arrived at the market, thrilled, excited and sweating, not only from the heat, but with anticipation of acquiring a mint condition knock off Gucci bag (p.s we found some)

After a solid two hours of bargaining in small groups, we had lunch and then walked back to Morijana to surprise the ladies with a donation of fabric and cards of thanks to Lyn and Ruth for helping us the last few days.

Now it was time to head off to Kampong Thom, but not before paying for our cheeky late night room service (it only cost us six bucks) which consisted of a decadent chocolate ice cream and a tasty banana brûlée.

A relaxing 2.5 hour van ride from Phnom Penh allowed us to wind down from the hype of the market, cool down in air conditioned locomotives, and experience the beautiful Cambodian country side engulfed in the orange light from a breathtaking sunset. Its easy to say we felt God’s peaceful presence.
This sense of peace was not mirrored during our use of the grossest service station toilets known to mankind.

We arrived at the Kampong Thom Village Hotel and ramped up the air-conditioning.
Emily found a lovely spot for dinner on TripAdvisor, so we headed off to the Love cafe. Not having tuk tuks in the country side meant we had to walk to and from dinner on foot which led to more back sweat, many laughs and some throwing of bugs.
I’m excited for what Kampong Thom has in store for the team.

Lots of love and God Bless,
Harriet Brown (the better Harriet)