When I was a little girl I always dreamt of being able to
travel for work … and at age 22 I actually get to! A couple of
weeks ago, just one week before Christmas, Tom, Adam, Steve and I boarded our
flights for our three working-day trip to Battambang Cambodia.
I have been to Cambodia a couple of times as a child, and
while I had never been to Battambang itself the fact it was only about 3hrs
from Bangkok meant I felt completely at home - and also a little silly for not
arranging a pre or post-trip visit to my friends in Bangkok (next time guys!).
We were visiting Battambang to meet with one of Oaktree’s
partners and to film for the upcoming Live Below The Line (LBL) campaign; my
job (as the boys will happily point out) was really just logistics and supervision
of the team as most of the heavy lifting had been done pre-departure.
We were actually only in Battambang town for three days, but
were lucky enough to do quite a bit during our down-time, most of which
consisted of naps in hammocks, catching up on some reading and drinking about a
million watermelon shakes (which are my absolute favorite).
Battambang is Cambodia’s second biggest city, with a
population of 4 million people –
although I don’t think you could tell that by being there because of the lack
of hustle and bustle on the streets and also because of the absence of tall
buildings. The city itself is
built along a wide river and like Bangkok, the cool weather at dusk brought everyone
out of their homes ready to spend time with family and friends, walk in the
gardens by the river, work out on the outdoor exercise equipment and join some
kick ass public aerobics classes.
Cambodia is a beautiful place, filled with an incredibly sad
history, but also with so much hope and promise for the future. Meeting the
people who worked at our partner project was hugely inspirational and I could
not be more thrilled with the work they are doing there.
Apart from work, we also ate lots of great food, made some
lovely friends, ate some more great food, drank a few beers, ate a few fried crickets
and cockroaches, lost a pub quiz, got massages and took a ride on the legendary
“bamboo train”. Then we blinked and it was all over … just four days later we
got back on a plane and headed home.
It was awesome.
TRIP RATING: 5/5 WATERMELON SHAKES
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