Italian Ice-cream in Phnom Penh

You can find ice-cream almost everywhere in the Kingdom of Wonders. However, there is only a place in Phnom Penh with an authentic homemade ice-cream. Definitely, the ice-cream experts are in Turin (Italy), but some of them have moved to Cambodia under the mission to support education for the poor with Don Bosco.

Queen Beatrix gave medal to director of the Don Bosco schools

Amsterdam. The director of the Don Bosco schools and Children Fund in Cambodia, Dutch Fr. John Visser, 78, was honored by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands with the Medal as Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Fr. Visser received the honor from the hands of the Queen on August 31 for his commitment and work for education to unprivileged children and youth in Thailand and Cambodia. The founder of the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia with Italian Br. Roberto Panetto, came to Thailand in 1956 and was involved in the development of technical schools in poor provinces of that country. In 1992 he was about to go in pension, when the Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco asked him to move to Cambodia to answer the request of the government to help Cambodian youth with technical schools. Since then, Fr. John Visser has opened with the support of a network of benefactors, mostly from the Netherlands, Italy and US, technical schools in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Battambang and Poipet and several literacy centers in different provinces. The Don Bosco Children Fund, also his creation in Thailand, has attended more than 40 thousand Cambodian children since 1993, helping them to return to school. Currently, the DBFC is developing the Don Bosco Vocational Center of Kep and it accepted an invitation of the governor of Stung Treng to open a technical school in that northern province of the Kingdom.

Lost Loves movie of Chhay Bora

Phnom Penh. The Meta House invites to the premiere of the movie Lost Loves, Cambodian Genocide Drama of Cambodian film director Chhay Bora. Lost Loves is the best-looking Cambodian film in years, according to the movie house press release. They continue stating that it is ‘almost too beautiful to look at, given its subject matter.’

Pradal serey programs this weekend

Phnom Penh. The four Cambodian channels – CTN, TV3, TV5 and Bayon – will transmit Saturday and Sunday 36 fight matches of Pradal serey. There were 11 matches yesterday, making 47 this weekend. The television broadcast of Pradal starts around 15:00, but CTN covers the night fights. Two foreign sportsmen will participate this time. Here the schedule for this weekend:

Free training opportunities for young people in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh. The KOMISO Vocational Training Center invites people from poor communities in Phnom Penh or Cambodia to join free skill courses in modern sewing, hair salon, hair cutting and motorbike repairing in its headquarters in the Banla Saet village, Khmuonh commune, Sen Sok district in Phnom Penh. Courses last between five and six months, from Monday to Friday (7:30 – 11:30; 13:00 – 17:00). The students have also six hours of moral lessons and two hours of business ethics and planning every week. The institution supports also the transport of students living in three nearby villages, New Andong and Sen Sok mainly. A house near the school was rented as a male residence for students, while offering the three meals for KOMISO students.

Sentenced to 7 years in prison for drugs

Phnom Penh. A Taiwanese man, Kuo Dayu, 43, was sentenced this Monday by the municipal court under the charge of drug trafficking to seven years in prison. The man was arrested by the Pochengton Airport police on August 29, 2010, when the authorities found 91 grams of heroin in his luggage. He was traveling back to his country. Kuo Dayu denied the charges and he said that he did not know that the drug was there and he will appeal the sentence.

A History of Cambodia by Francois Ponchaud

The French Catholic priest, François Ponchaud, will give a serial conferences for the year 2011 in English language about the History of Cambodia, from the origins till current time. Ponchaud is an expert in Cambodia about culture and history. The author of ‘Cambodia Year Zero’ and ‘A brief History of Cambodia’, is a missionary priest living in Cambodia for about 45 years. The Conference will hold on every Wednesday at 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm, from March 30th to June 29th, 2011, at Catholic Social Communications Office (CSC) # 25 street 242, Boeung Prolit, 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. For more information contact csccambodia (gmail), Tel: 023 22 41 20 (English)/ 092 79 22 17 (French). The following is the general schedule of the conferences: 30 March: Cambodia from Origin to 1863; 27 Apr: French protectorate (1863-1953); 4 May: Sihanouk Regime (1953-1970); 11 May: Khmer Republic (Lon Nol Regime 1970-1975); 18 May: Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979); 25 May: Popular Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1993); 1 June: Second Kingdom of Cambodia (1993 to Today); 8 June: History of the Church in Cambodia; 15 June: The traditional religion and Brahmanism; 22 June: Buddhism and 29 June: Approaches to the Khmer mentality.

TVKNews| ASEAN Tourism Forum

The ASEAN tourism forum in Phnom Penh has been very positive. Representatives of the Association of South East Asian Nations gathered in the capital to share ideas, projects and plans to develop an industry that can open the opportunities of development to the region. Cambodia is showing with proud its project of golf development.

New bridge in Phnom Penh

Wait the English subtitles.

‘We do not know each other… but we know Don Bosco,’ said Minister Im Sothy

Phnom Penh — DBNA – The Minister of Education, Sport and Youth of Cambodia, Im Sothy, visited this morning the compound of the Don Bosco Technical School in the capital district of Phnom Penh Thmey, and underlined the role of the Don Bosco schools in the recovery of Cambodia after the wars.

Don Bosco Casket in Cambodia

Fr. John Visser, DBFC country representative talking on the occasion of the Don Bosco Casket to Cambodia.

Phnom Penh DBNA — A delegation of teachers and members of the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia went on Wednesday, December 1st, to wait the arrival of the Don Bosco Casket in the Poipet International Gate early morning. At the other side of the border, in Thailand, a big group of also teachers and members of the Salesian Order in that country, were traveling from Bangkok to lead the relic into the neighboring country. It supposed to enter at about 10 AM, but some problems in the checking in delayed it until the afternoon.

The relic of Don Bosco will cross the former Khmer refugee camps this Thursday

Last November 17 a curious guest arrived by plane from Seoul to Bangkok and visited all the Don Bosco schools in the Southeast Asian kingdom where the Salesian educational community has been working for underprivileged children and youth since the 1930s.

How to locate yourself in Phnom Penh

Some recommendations for Spanish visitors to Cambodia (subtitles in English.)

Phnom Penh Riverside

Wat Ounalom in the Preah Sisowath Street as in the night.

If we have to start from a Point Zero in Phnom Penh, it is the riverside. Day or night it is busy and the proper Phnom Penh downtown. A recommendation to stay in the Cambodian capital is looking any hotel of that district and you have from back packers to five stars’ options. Another is to get a map of the city, since it is quit difficult to understand the city’s nomenclature plus it is easier to point out in a map the place you want to go to a moto-taxi, cycle or taxi than trying to explain it in English or any other language to your Cambodian driver.

A weekend of Pradal

It would have not sense if you visit Cambodia and do not pay a look to his national sport: Pradal Serey and Bokator (they are actually different.) Of course, if you do not like violent sports, just ignore this post and watch the dancing Apsaras. You can find the practice of Bokator even in the Angkorian inscriptions. Then, as a martial art, it means discipline and philosophy, courage and nobility.

The VIP Sport

My vacations in Phnom Penh this month made me dedicate my time to some sport and I chose a the VIP Sport Club. It is not a too big area, but the enough to hold a great professional gym, a parking area, a boxing ring, a restaurant, a good pool, a tennis court and sauna and steam rooms.

French theater for adults

Looking for special things in Phnom Penh I met today French actor Christopher Dellocque. Actually we talked too short, but I was attracted by the add I read at the VIP Sport Club. It was written in French, but easily to understand for a Spanish-speaker: ‘Atelier Theater, Adults. Vocal Technic, corporal work, improvisation, scenario and realization of spectacles.’ The workshop is doing every Wednesday in Tchou-Tchou, a French kindergarten at the 21st Street.