30 Apr 2018
Nine students and five teachers from Oberon High School travelled to Cambodia on an 8-day cultural excursion during April 2018.
They started the journey with voluntary work at the Free the Bears enclosure located just outside of Phnom Penh. This experience saw the students work alongside the bear keepers; cleaning pens, making enrichment treats and feeding the bears. The heat was a shock to the system this early on in the trip but everyone started to slowly acclimatise for the rest of the trip. After the voluntary work, students explored the city of Phnom Penh via Cyclos; they explored the King's Palace, visited a temple and attending the killing fields, along with S21. This was a huge culture shock for a lot of students and the exposure to such a horrific site was definitely one of the most personally challenging aspects of the trip.
Leaving Phnom Penh, the group began to travel to Siem Reap, where they would spend the rest of their excursion. Along the way, the group very luckily was given the opportunity to visit ‘Tarantula Town', where both students and staff bravely tasted tarantulas, crickets and scorpions. The group arrived in Siem Reap towards the end of their new year's celebrations and all enjoyed watching the water fights between locals that accompany this celebration. Exploring Siem Reap enabled students to visit the local markets, attend a circus performance, visit a floating village, partake in a cooking class and explore the grounds of Angkor Wat.
The students and staff had a fun filled 8 days, learning about the Cambodian culture. A massive thank you must go to Society and Culture teacher, Mrs Sandra Mackay-Galea who spent endless hours organising such an amazing trip!