The price for a one month tourist visa for Cambodia is officially $20, however the country has a strong tendancy of government corruption. This means that the border officials have no problems at all with bullying travelers into paying sometimes as much as $35 and pocketing the profits. We had heard about this scam a hundred times and were determined to beat it. When it came down to it, despite our positive attitude, it's quite difficult to negotiate when you're ...

We're not sure if this is really worth blogging, as we only stayed in Phnom Penh one night. Nevertheless, and more to ensure our trail map is accurate, we hope you are briefly entertained. As we mentioned in our last blog, the reason for the detour was to visit one of the other volunteers, Bar, who is temporarily bedridden within close proximity to one of the better Cambodian hospitals. While riding back from the local buddhist temple during the Khmer New Year, ...

It's already been one month since we entered Cambodia, and feels like much less.. although we can't argue with the moon. And so it's time for us to go for a 'visa run' into Thailand to renew our Cambodian visas. Before we cross the border, we plan to head in the opposite direction up to Phnom Penh for the night. The reason for the detour is that one of our fellow volunteers, Bar, is celebrating her birthday in the capital city. We would have celebrated in the vi...

The former capital of Cambodia, Sihanoukville, is best known for it's white sands and the thousand or so restaurants and bars lining the beachfront. As a short getaway from the village, it was a bit strange to be back amongst the party-time backpackers, but nice to eat some western food and enjoy the salt water again. We arrived and took a moto taxi straight to Otres Beach, one of the quieter beaches a few kilometres out of the city. We spent the afternoon relax...

After nine days in this wonderful heart warming and sometimes heart breaking village we are about to head away for the weekend, and thought it was about time we try to explain a little bit about what we are actually doing here. The project is based on community agricultural development. The focus village was established in 2004 and currently supports about 200 Khmer families. There are several organisation sponsored employees and volunteers who help to manage th...