There are a number of NGOs and social enterprises in Siem Reap helping children and young adults. One of the interesting things we noticed were the signs about proper traveller behaviours that protect children. As much as I have always enjoyed taking pictures of children, the sign that said children are not tourist attractions made me gulp over those past pictures. Unfortunately there are many children trying to sell here instead of being in school. Intrepid strongly discourages buying to discourage this behaviour.
Haven is a lovely social enterprise run by a Swiss couple. The young adults learn cooking and hospitality skills and are then helped in securing jobs. And the food was delicious.
We stopped at a very rustic place where the children and youth learn the skill of tooling leather pictures. It is also an orphanage. After purchasing a small picture for $2 the man operating it called all the kids together for a picture and then they broke into Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up”. I have to admit it was a special moment. The local man was orphaned during the war and this was his way of helping others which is a common theme with the Cambodian people. His organization is called Angels Cambodia.
Phare Ponleu Selpak is another NGO that provides social, education and cultural services to children and their family. The kids train in acrobatics, juggling, balancing, contortion, trapeze and clowning and then entertain in nightly shows. The show was fantastic. Prior to the show you are able to enjoy “street food” on site. The food is delicious and yes perfectly safe to eat.
The last NGO visit was to Kompheim village where HUSK NGO provides support to 5 villages in the area. Their three goals are education, health and environment. They have built some homes and will continue to build more as money becomes available. They have also provided water purification to all homes so they can use the water from the ground by filtering it and avoiding more plastic bottles. A walk through the village again reinforced how friendly and gracious the people are.
They have built an English school - we enjoyed the enthusiasm we observed from the children during their class. Lessons are around games and students are able to earn “dollars” which they can then use to buy many things like books for regular school, uniforms, food and bikes.
In keeping with their goals, the school was built by using plastic bottles filled with plastic bags and placed between frames and then covered with concrete. The bottles act as bricks. Very innovative! They pay the families to bring in the bottles.
The local Buddha temple is in the centre of the five villages. There we met the 90 year old monk who some how managed to avoid the Khmer Rouge during the war years. Some of us participated in a water purification ceremony which is described as a cultural experience rather than a religious experience.
We also visited some small villages to taste local products and see the local people. All of them are so welcoming and happy to see you. Considering Cambodia is 154 out of 174 countries for being the poorest countries in the world, it is pretty remarkable.
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| Making a coconut muffin - delicious |
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| Frog anyone? |
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| Palm sugar |
Tonle Sap Lake is the largest lake in Asia running 160 km east to west. During the rainy season it floods the lands around for many km - the size varies from 3000 sq km in dry season to 12000 sq km in rainy season. The last major flood was in 2011. Apparently the lake has numerous fish which is where the local seafood comes from. Although Kampong Phluck is described as a floating village, it is on land. All buildings are built on stilts and they are very high - prepared for rainy season. It is pretty clear this is a very poor area.
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| Community office |
Tuk tuks are the mode of transportation and we used them a lot to get around to see the city. Sunsets, lights, the King’s residence, a Raffles Hotel - lots to see.
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| Royal residence |
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| Selling things for offerings |
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| Raffles Hotel in Siem Reap |
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| Pub Street - bars, restaurants and lots of noise |
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| Our hotel |
Sunset River cruise in one more different boat!
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Dining experiences were also tasty and well presented.
The Apsara Theatre is a beautiful facility. Dinner was great and the dancing was lovely - very much like Bali ese dancing. Unfortunately we were all too tired to really enjoy it.
Lum Orng was amazing. It is a relatively new restaurant listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world on 50 Best Discoveries. Although we started to question where we going, when we arrived everything was first class. The venue, the service and the food were fantastic.
Siem Reap has a lovely new airport that just opened in Oct
Another tour is completed. There is a significant contrast between Vietnam and Cambodia. Clearly there is a lot more money in Vietnam and as someone said they appear to be striving to be more western like. Not Cambodia, they are still recovering from an awful war that really only finished in 1999. That is not very long ago. They are proud, they are so friendly and so gentle. The smiles feel genuine while they provide excellent service. Heck the cars even stop for you and when you say no to a seller, they don’t push any further. It has been a very enjoyable place to visit that you should not miss!
But what a tour blog be without a couple of cat pics!
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