Today
we ventured out to experience how the Cambodian people live – we
set off to visit the floating villages. We jumped into a boat and
headed up through a river to the largest lake in Cambodia, along
both sides of the bank, hundreds of floating homes lined the banks
floating on the river. The people live on the water, the children go
to school on floating class rooms and we were amazed to see that
everything from cats to dogs to monkies lived on these tiny
houseboats..
We had one stop at a little cafe (not like any AUS cafe)
to find they were farming massive crocodiles, fish and snakes.. A
five year old boy came running out with a huge snake around his
shoulders asking for $1 for a photo of him... If that sounds bad,
this is worse, while we were cruising up the river our boat was
boarded by children again to beg us to buy things from them (it was
like they were pirates) unbelievable!
Once
we were back on dry land we headed to the children's Orphanage. Our
tour leader Imbi spends lots of time supporting various charitable
organisations and said it is an amazing experience to spend a few
hours with the children. From the minute we arrived we were welcomed
by the most beautiful, charismatic, amazing children.
They ranged
from 4 to 16 years. Dan and the boys played a modified hackie sack
game while the girls played many different games with the girls and
younger boys. We laughed, played, danced and sang. It was an amazing
experience but also quite sad. One girl didn't let go of me the whole
afternoon, made me a necklace and wanted to come on the bus with me
when we were leaving, it was heart braking.. I know why Angelina
Jolie adopted a Cambodian as they are just so cute!
Today
we ventured out to experience how the Cambodian people live – we
set off to visit the floating villages. We jumped into a boat and
headed up through a river to the largest lake in Cambodia, along
both sides of the bank, hundreds of floating homes lined the banks
floating on the river. The people live on the water, the children go
to school on floating class rooms and we were amazed to see that
everything from cats to dogs to monkies lived on these tiny
houseboats.. We had one stop at a little cafe (not like any AUS cafe)
to find they were farming massive crocodiles, fish and snakes.. A
five year old boy came running out with a huge snake around his
shoulders asking for $1 for a photo of him... If that sounds bad,
this is worse, while we were cruising up the river our boat was
boarded by children again to beg us to buy things from them (it was
like they were pirates) unbelievable!
Once
we were back on dry land we headed to the children's Orphanage. Our
tour leader Imbi spends lots of time supporting various charitable
organisations and said it is an amazing experience to spend a few
hours with the children. From the minute we arrived we were welcomed
by the most beautiful, charismatic, amazing children. They ranged
from 4 to 16 years. Dan and the boys played a modified hackie sack
game while the girls played many different games with the girls and
younger boys. We laughed, played, danced and sang. It was an amazing
experience but also quite sad. One girl didn't let go of me the whole
afternoon, made me a necklace and wanted to come on the bus with me
when we were leaving, it was heart braking.. I know why Angelina
Jolie adopted a Cambodian as they are just so cute!
