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Running amok

“I don’t feel like doing anything tomorrow,” sighed our templed-out eight year old, just four days into our 2-week holiday in Cambodia. Bundling her out of bed at 7am to take a dusty, bumpy road 16km out of Siem Reap for a day in a rural village, I started to think I’d pushed her too far. How wrong I’d be. 

It was part thanks to our brilliant guide Lee Chhun Han, 28, originally from Kompong Cham province, now living in Siem Reap. His novice Buddhist monk training has clearly given him ample patience and compassion to deal with our tired, overwrought daughter. Before long, the early start and lack of morning tv was behind her as Lee bamboozled Alethea with facts and figures about his home country. 

First stop was the local market, not a tourist in sight, just rows of women traders crouched on the floor selling their colourful wares; from rambutans and palm sugar, to homeware and secondhand clothes, all vying for a lucky pinch of the awkward blond child walking penguin-like among them. 

Through their betel-stained smiles I sensed amusement as they watched us eyeing up the trays of snails, crickets and small birds. It felt a little early for eating grasshoppers on a spit, (or let’s be honest anything remotely protein based) so we opted instead for Noam Ensaum Jayk – sweet sticky rice parcels and hit gold sampling our first Nom Khroch. Must get the recipe for these tasty sticky rice balls stuffed with green mung bean paste.



Komphein is a small village made up of around 1000 farmers, itinerant workers and their families. As we entered the centre of the village where the rundown government school and monastery can be found, I was struck by how quiet it was. Not an adult in sight, no loud generators or blaring televisions; just a few ox wandering around and the odd schoolkid bunking off class. I watched Alethea taking it all in; the waving schoolchildren some barefoot, the glaring gaps in the walls of the school. “It’s different to my school,” she remarked thoughtfully. 






We were to spend the day with a Type 1 family; with no regular income or savings, who often miss meals and are very vulnerable to illness. Widow Srey Lab earned $3 a day as a construction labourer but the work was irregular and didn’t guarantee she had enough to feed herself and her 6-year old daughter. “For many poverty level 1 families, if they get no work for 3 days, they can struggle to feed themselves. We choose to help Srey and her family as they can’t meet their basic needs,” explained Lee.

Training and support from an ongoing project run by NGO Husk Cambodia gives each host family the opportunity to earn an additional income to support their families. Sreb receives a small payment for being a host family and a larger contribution is made to a village fund. And I was pleased to hear she’s also secured a job as a gardener at a school 2km away, so no longer needs to rely on backbreaking construction work to feed her family.

Before long we were sat under the shade of a jackfruit tree weaving palm leaf roof panels for Sreb’s simple one room traditional Khmer house raised on stilts, in need of urgent repair after monsoon season. It was already sweltering hot, dust billowed up around us as construction lorries continually tore past, red ants tormented us as we wove the panels by hand, but Alethea stuck to the task at hand and by the end of the morning she proudly held up a 1.5m palm panel. 



Buzzing from her achievement, Sreb then led Alethea out into the midday sun to dig and plant a mango tree in the garden, for a future fruit crop and potential income source. Covered in dust and sweat, she got digging, not a word of complaint, surely a meltdown was not far off?

Apparently not, even after a hairy encounter in the squat toilet. A morning’s work done we strolled through the outskirts of the village, buying rice for our lunch from one family, then distributing some of our sack to another level 1 family. We stopped off at the community centre built by Husk volunteers entirely out of plastic bottles filled with rubbish. What an innovative way of building while also addressing the plague of plastic waste you see everywhere! For communities where there are no rubbish collection services available, building with eco bricks is a great solution to waste management. 



Next stop Som’s house, where we settled in for a leisurely 3 course Khmer lunch on her immaculate bamboo veranda. Keen to add Cambodian cuisine to his repertoire, Neil got stuck in, chopping the vegetables and preparing the curry paste in the giant wooden pestle and mortar under the expert guidance of our softly spoken krama-clad host. Alethea joined in with the food prep while she chatted away with Lee like he was an old friend. Melt in your mouth grilled fishcakes on sugarcane sticks – the perfect balance of  sour, salty and sweet took the edge off our hunger while a delicious traditional Khmer Somlaw Curry was prepared from scratch – soothingly mild with intense lemongrass flavours, seasoned with galangal and a hint of spice.



Our final destination brought us to Komphein Community School, an English school run by Husk Cambodia that provides free English education to children in the village and surrounding communities. With less than 30% of children completing primary school, and with such a young population Cambodia’s already immense education challenges are only going to grow. 

So it was encouraging to see so many happy children from vulnerable families in bright, clean classrooms, getting taught a solid curriculum using real books, with a focus on giving students skills to gain jobs in Siem Reap’s biggest industry, tourism. A positive note on which to end the day, topped off by Alethea’s closing remark as she rolled into her bed: “I really loved today, I’m lucky to have what I have”.

Who’d have thought it? She’d dug a huge hole in the scorching midday sun, squatted in a corrugated iron toilet cubicle with a palm-sized tarantula in residence, but our little trooper rose to every challenge – this sure wouldn’t happen back home, but hey I’ll take it –sure beats wandering ancient ruins negotiating selfie-obsessed crowds of tourists!



Tips for travelling in Cambodia with kids in tow
  • Leave toys at home and take books 
  • Pocket money can be used to buy never-seen-before Cambodian games such as sey
  • Do sightseeing in small chunks, reward with ice-cream or pool-time! 
  • Early starts beat the heat, encourage a siesta or a little downtime before venturing out again
  • Spend time finding a child-friendly guide with a reliable driver at hand
  • Have snacks they like to curb hunger pangs on the move
  • Push your children out of their comfort zone, more often than not they’ll surprise you!




Oxcart driver Mr. Dorn






Ox are a very important part of daily life in rural Cambodia and are often treated as one of the family.


The Day in a Life tour, part of Beyond Responsible Tourism Initiative, is provided through HUSK for Cambodia’s partner Beyond Unique Escapes. www.huskcambodia.org







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