People Improvement Organisation (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

The People Improvement Organisation is an organisation which had provided help to thousands of children in distress. It is somewhere where I think tourists should pay a visit. You can visit their website or facebook page to learn more about them.

The place I went to used to be a dumping site where children hunt for items to salvage. The founder of PIO, Phymean Noun, was determined to bring these children out of poverty by seeking to provide them education.

The organisation welcomes volunteers to plan their own programmes for the students. The programmes could include English lessons, Art and Craft, and many more, as long as they are beneficial to the children. They need volunteers to plan their own activities and provide their own materials for lessons prior to the start of their progammes. From what I learnt most volunteers at the organisation stay their for at least two weeks, at most 6 months.

It will also help the centre if volunteers would like to adopt a child to go through education, with a monthy standard fee of 50 USD. Part of this money would go to the running of the shelter and the maintenance of the schools.

There's still trances of it being a dumping site beside the PIO school.

Entrance to the vocational training schools where students learn skills like tailoring, computer skills etc.

These are the paintings in the common area of the shelter.

This lady, Ms Aurelia Gimenez, used to be a volunteer for six months at the organisation but had become the communications manager at the organisation. She can be contacted at aureliadaniels@hotmail.com, if you wish to volunteer at the organisation or adopt a child.

This student was making a bag out of recyclable materials. The items they made are sold at the souvenir/gift shop at the entrance of the vocational training school. They are really nicely made and are really good and meaningful souvenirs for tourists.

You can have a view of the once-dumping site from the classroom block.

Sambor Prei Kuk - Prasat Sambor (Kampong Thom, Cambodia)

Kampong Thom is a place with quite a few precious ancient relics. The Prasat Sambor is an area which contains relics dated back to the 5th, 6th centuries. The place is really impressive, it is a pity that this ancient site had been destroyed by the war.

This temple had a long history, currently, its relics are covered by an old, strong tree.

It is not obvious in the picture, but it's actually a crater created by a bomb during a war.

It will be good to engage a local guide to learn more about the history of the place because there wasn't any explanatory boards.

P.S: The guide above is Mr. Cheng Chenda, he provides tour to many historical sites. He can be contacted by (855) 17 282 749

Hmm... This is not an autumn scene, the leaves turned brown because of the dirt from the road.

This is the only information board I saw at the entrance.

This is the 'Holy Pond' where people used the water to wash off their sins.

The Royal Palace (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Operating Hours: 8am - 5pm
Entrance fee: 3 USD

The Royal Palace is pretty big so be prepared to spend a lot of time walking. It will be good to engage a local guide so as to better understand the history. The palace was built in 1866, and has undergone several restoration projects.

Silver Pagoda

this used to be the Royals' residence

A view from the front gate

One important thing to note is that visitors have to be properly dressed. Bottoms have to be beyond knee-length, and tops should be t-shirts, no spaghetti or tank tops are allowed in.

Caversham Wildlife Park (Perth, Australia)

Directions: Take train (Midlands Line) to Bassendean Station, from the station, take bus 955 or 956 and alight at Lord Street before Youle Road (well, the best way is to tell the driver where you're going and he'll let you know when to alight, since there's no bus announcement or significant landmark)

Cost: 25AUD

After you alight at the bus stop, walk towards the Whiteman Park entrance, and wait for the shuttle bus to bring you to the village where the Caversham Wildlife Park is located. The first bus only comes at 1030, if you are feeling adventurous, you can take the walking trail to walk into the park. It was quite a long walk (20-30min) but it was really interesting as I saw several wild kangeroos on my way in!

Okay so, when you are at the Caversham Wildlife Park, the few things you should not miss are the Farm show, the koalas visitation timings, the kangeroos area where you can walk through and get really close to the kangeroos. I was not so interested in birds but there were a huge range of birds display as well. Oh and I really love the area named the Molly's Farm! The farm show was really interesting! It includes a demonstration of sheep shearing, whip cracking and other surprises!

Since you're visiting Caversham Wildlife Park, you should walk around the 'village' too! There are a few museums like the revolution museum which shows the change in the transportation in Western Australia, there's also a tractor museum. There's also a 'train station' which allows you to take an old-style train for a fee of 10AUD.

Rockingham Wildlife Encounters Three-Island Wildlife Cruise (Perth, Australia)

Direction: Take train to Rockingham station and take bus 951 to Rockingham Wildlife Encounters ( tell the driver where you're going and he'll let you know when to alight)

Cost: 25AUD

Timings: Three-Island Wildlife Cruise is only available in Winter when Penguin Island is closed. There are two time slots per day: 1115, 1315

Tip : Do check their Facebook page on the day you are going as they will cancel the cruise if the weather is unfavorable

The ticket seems to be expensive but it was pretty worth well for me as I really love the dolphins and I was really excited to see them in their natural habitats.

There were about 200 dolphins living in the region and the people proctecting the area do not feed them or alter their natural environment. Besides dolphins, I was also able to see the sea lions, pelicans, auspreys and other birds.

I'd definitely hope to visit the Penguin Island or swim with the dolphins in the summer. The Rockingham Wildlife Encounters offer different tour packages of these sorts, do check out their website for more information. But of course, during the winter your only choice would be the Three-Islands Wildlife Cruise.