Taking an Alternative Route from Guangzhou to Hong Kong for a Flight to Cambodia

I went to Cambodia for two mission trips more than a decade ago. Our mission teams were there to help run some summer camps for disadvantaged children while I was providing some training for youth leaders and young teachers. Since then, Cambodia has always been on my list of mission service work.

Going from Guangzhou to Hong Kong would have been easy and simply by the fast train. Unfortunately, there were so many people travelling before and after the Chinese New Year that we were unable to get the fast train tickets to Hong Kong. We had to look at the other option which was taking the bus back to Guangzhou from where we were so that we would not miss our flight to Cambodia. After some thirty hours of bus ride, we just made it back to Guangzhou well after 10 p.m. Due to the time lost casued by the delayed bus ride, we needed to ensure we could catch the flight from Hong Kong to Cambodia the next morning. However, the trains were fully booked to HK too. The alternative was to get to the border city of Shenzhen, China so that we could cross over to Hong Kong early in the morning.

We did just that. After picking up our suitcase from J. s place, he ordered us a Didi which took us to Shenzhen where we slept overnight at a hotel ( much cheaper than if we stayed the night on the HK side). The next morning, we took a bus specifically for taking passengers from Shenzhen to the HK airport. The company looked after our luggage and delivered us to the airport. No hassels at all.

We boarded the plane and flew to Cambodia without any incident. Eliz. arranged for us to stay at J's house which was closer to the school. J. and her roommate came and picked us up from the airport. It was nice having someone familiar with the local schools and area who could provide us assistance should we require any. We purchased a SIM card for easy communication with our local host.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church where most expat. attend their Sunday service. It was a real blessing for us as we were staying in a house where there was a young Cambodian teacher was living. I was scheduled to do some teacher training and I had my PPT prepared already.

However, I would like my PPT to be presented in both English and Cambodian as there might be some teachers who might not understand me completely. I asked this young teacher to help me edit the Cambodian language of my PPT. She happily agreed and did an excellent job translating it which helped me tremendously in my training presentation. Looking forward to working with the Cambodian teachers and learning more about their schools. RT, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 02172024