So, we’ve been in Siem Reap for 5 days and so far only one of us are sick. Poor Bek has been drinking too many fruit shakes and despite not asking for ice and being assured there’s no water, it seems they might be the culprit. Please pray for her as she tries to sleep off her tummy bug.

The temples have been amazing. We love the massive stone blocks, intricately chiseled with either stories of battles or women wearing different skirt designs depicting different eras or massive faces carved out with lichen growing on them, surrounded by dense green jungle. It’s been fun traipsing over the fallen stone and walking over the uneven floor that so many have passed over for the past 900 years.

Our favourite temple was Ta Prohm, otherwise known as the Tomb Raider Temple. There were many massive trees that have grown over the temple with their roots holding the rocks together.

Today we also ventured out to Tonle Sap, the largest natural lake in Cambodia. The water was a white tea like colour and along the edge were floating houses. Apparently it’s free to live there, so lots of people live in the houses along the river. They move their house up or down stream depending on where the water is. It’s very dangerous living there as boats drive past too fast causing waves and the little children can fall in and drown. Apparently 10 children drown a year. There is a floating school, but not all the parents send their children there because they don’t see the point of an education when they could be getting their kids to work and make money now. Often the parents have a small boat that sells something like soft drink and they sidle up to a tour boat and the child jumps into the boat trying to sell you things. Again, this is very dangerous for the child who can slip and fall in as they try to catch the tour boat.

We think we may have fallen victim to a scam today, but still not too sure. We were told that there was a floating orphanage that we could buy some rice from the community market for the kids to eat. So we bought some rice and took it to the orphanage and the kids sang for us and we took photos and they showed us where they cook the rice. But, when we got to our van, the driver explained that it wasn’t a real orphanage and that they children were fed at home. The rice would probably be split among the teachers. Oh well, at least someone will enjoy our 50kg sack of rice!

The elections are coming up soon and we’ve been hearing a lot from the people what the government is like here. If you are a member of the family in government, you receive all the benefits. If not, there are little benefits and it is very hard to make change. The government have made another party to outdo the opposition to ensure they will win. It seems they will win, which is not good for the Cambodians. There is a lot of corruption and things are not getting better for the people.  We’ve been told that by the next elections in 5 years time, things may change when there is enough educated, young people to make a stand and take on the government. In the meantime, the help the people get from other countries, whether its a children’s hospital free of charge from Switzerland or a water refiner at the floating village from the US, or even the jobs created from tourism, it all does seem to make a difference.

We only have one more day in Siem Reap. We will be sad to leave because it truly is a beautiful town. The old market where the children enjoyed bargaining for some football jerseys, t-shirts and parachute pants is like a scene from Hollywood.

Tuk Tuks are everywhere and at night with the lanterns shining in the trees along the murky waters of the river, it’s hard to believe its real. We’ve met some lovely people and nearly all of them have a sad past of growing up seeing killing around them or having lost a parent, sibling or limbs from land mines. Despite all this they’re a remarkably gentle natured, humble people and we are really enjoying our conversations with them.

We hope all is well at home. We are still looking at our watches and thinking what is happening in Australia. I hope Kids club went well today! Zane, you’re right, the pirate pants are everywhere. We are appreciating your prayers.