Our Last Day

Our 16 day whirlwind tour of Cambodia has all but come to an end. We have done everything possible, particularly yesterday. Our day began on the bus and tuktuk at 8am.

We went off to a local orphanage in the jungle where the kids are taught a great deal but particularly painting and dancing. These children are in the care of an Australian lady from Melbourne and a Khmer man (and his wife) who was separated from his family in 1975 at the age of 5. When he was able to make his way back to Phnom Penh in 1979, he was wandering the streets and a surviving Uncle recognised him, took him in and educated him. When an adult, he decided to help other children on the street, believing his rescue meant he had to repay society. He began the Orphanage we visited. The children learn art and sell their paintings at Ta Prohm temple, where we met our first young person from this orphanage. We were touched by the children, their gentle demeanor, their dancing skills and their art gallery. Naturally we bought art-the only way they are able to support themselves.

Next off to a Palm Sugar village, we watched the process of making palm sugar, had a talk of the various uses for all parts of the tree/vine, ate palm sugar sweets, bought and continued on our way. Next stop was the fantastic "Bantey Shrey" temple. This is further out than most temples and was built in the ninth century of pink sandstone. The decorations are beautiful, although the temple itself quite small. Lunch was at a local restaurant near the jungle - an amazingly small price negotiated by our ever present saviour - Chong Ang. As a tuktuk driver he is great, as a translator he is fabulous and as a person he is wonderful.

Then off to the Land Mine Museum. This was fantastic, an American living here for the last few years helps the Khmer man who established it when he began his self styled 'de-mining' process some years ago. He has been removing and blowing up land mines around the Siem Reap region for many years. We were not lucky enough to meet him this week, as he was in Phnom Penh on a land mine course. In the process of helping the villages he also found many children, victims of land mines without arms, legs, feet etc.. They started another orphanage for these victims. They are helped with adjusting to society, prosthetics, learning a trade and in some cases helping with 'de-mining'. They have just set up a scholarship fund and hope to have their first young girl go through to uni next year with a scholarship. The talk we had was absolutely fantastic, he was engaging, entertaining and passionate about helping the Khmer victims in this region. He and his wife sold up everything in the states and moved here to work for at least 2 years. His description was great, but very sad and intense.

It was here we thought - too tired now, back to the hotel before our farewell dinner....but Chong Ang had other ideas and before we knew it we were heading to the Silk Farm....to die for silks! The credit cards got a work out here - no bargain hunting here, just indulgence...oh well its only once.