Countdown to Sydney

We are now officially in the last two weeks of our adventure. We're spending the remainder of this week in Siem Reap, visiting the temples of Angkor, and then are spoiling ourselves with a week in a resort on Phu Quoc Island, just south of the border of Cambodia and Vietnam.

We found Phnom Penh a really interesting experience. Cambodia has been through so much conflict in the last hundred years, and many of the Khmers live in poverty. We were told by a woman who works at the Australian embassy that the government here can't support the Cambodian people, and they rely on donations from other countries and tourists. It particularly affects the children, with hundreds of street kids begging or selling books/jewellery/post cards, and others getting involved in the horrible sex trade. We had heard lots of things about kids here, but we never realised just how serious it is.

We made it a mini-mission while in Phnom Penh to eat at restaurants that trained street kids, to travel in tuk-tuks with drivers who are part of the "Child Safe" program (keeping street kids out of dodgy situations), and to buy souvenirs from shops that help charities or orphanages. Another part of this mini-mission was to find a REAL massage parlour (ie. not a brothel!), and get as many massages as possible. We had a great time supporting local business!