Having A Bad Day?

Think again...
A few weeks ago we took a small group of students from KYSD to visit Stung Mean Chey, Phnom Penh’s municipal dump. Around 10,000 people live in the adjoining slums and most, including children, seek a meagre income picking through trash at the dump. With empty rice sacks and metal hooks in hand, most are searching for tin cans, plastic bottles and other recyclable goods which can be sold for around 10 cents per kilo. Garbage trucks constantly roll through dumping trash while people swarm around looking for goods they can sell before the bulldozer quickly shovels everything over the edge. There were countless children, few people wearing shoes let alone masks or gloves and houses constructed right on top of the smoking mountains of trash. Everything ends up here, including dangerous medical waste and poisonous chemicals. This place is the closest thing to hell on earth.

21st Birthday Festivities

It was indeed a very memorable birthday this year and what a place to celebrate! The festivities kicked off with a cocktail party at my place which was a lot of fun. This was followed by a piñata with the kids at the orphanage the following day. The piñata is somewhat a long lost birthday tradition and we thought this would be the perfect place to bring it back. I spent the big day relaxing, something I’d been dreaming to do since arriving here, and of course had to live the high life if only briefly at Raffles for Happy Hour.


The rooftop cocktail party

Add one giant fish piñata, one extravagant Khmer birthday cake and 27 screaming kids, it was a recipe for a fantastic day.

Happy Hour at Raffles