Last Wat

Dara picked us up about 07:30 and we took a long ride (1 hour) to our final temple of Bantey Srei.

This is the first one we've been to that seemed to be set up like a standard tourist attraction that you would see anywhere else in the world, by that I mean a welcome centre, toilets, information boards etc which gave the impression that the site would be quite large. It was the first time we had any real hassle from young children to give them money, we had one boy follow us for about 5 minutes repeatedly saying "Mister give me one dollar, go to school". It's hard to say but if these children are allowed to spend their days collecting money for the family and not go to school then it will get to a stage when they are not young anymore and what will they have then? School here is free but they need to pay for their uniform. It's clear that some families wouldn't have this money, which makes it harder still to keep walking on. We've given small change to a lot of disabled musicians who play at the temple exits, it's designed to allow them to raise money without having to become beggars.

The temple itself was surprisingly small considering how the welcome centre had been set up. The temple was built in the 10th Century. The biggest difference was the carvings, in a lot of the new temples they are not so deep, but these were very thick and because of that are much clearer than in other places. Maybe the newer temples were too large to carve in such a way.

On the way back we stopped in to look at the Cambodian Land Mine Museum. It's small in size with 4 rooms, but it had my attention the whole way round. The museum was started by a man named Aki Ra, he was taken by the Khmer Rouge when he was 5 years old and his parents were killed by them. At the age of 10 he was a soldier, learning how to fire guns along with his other friends, who he saw come and go. Also during this time he started to lay thousands of land mines, not really knowing the extent of what he was doing.

Around the age of 14 he defected to the Vietnamese army fighting against the Khmer Rouge. Once they left, he continued to fight against KR and worked with the UN, and trained as a De-miner. After that he worked with some NGO's to help clear villages of mines. They estimate he's cleared over 100,000 mines, initially he used just a stick and a pair of pliers to do it. He also started collecting the mines, weapons and shells he came across and then in 1996 (when he was 26) opened a museum close to Angkor Village. 10 years later the government closed the museum (he didn't own the land) and through donations he managed to move the museum to its current location. They also stopped him De-mining using his current technique, changing to international standards and he still carries out the work today.

The museum lists information of his clearing activities, gives information of different types of mines and also give accounts from children who have lost limbs & family members to mines. He started to bring affected children back with him to his house. The current museum has a care centre to help those affected. Once old enough, the charity works with organisations and universities to get the children jobs and living normal lives.

There are still many mines to clear, they think they should all be gone in the next 10 years. Aki is a very interesting man, might have to read his story at some point in the future (the museum said that it's too sad for him to continually talk about it so they made the story into the book).

We went back to the peace cafe for lunch, I had a Papaya Salad and a Coconut/Watermelon/Banana and Lime shake.

In the evening we went to watch "The Giant Puppet Parade", which is organised by the same charity as the circus. Children go to workshops 3 weeks before and create large puppets that then get paraded around the streets. There were about 8 giant animals, including an Owl, Snake & Fish. Some people playing drums and the Cambodian Scouts were also there. It was an experience to see.

Opposite the parade was 'The Khmer Kitchen' that we ate at on the first day. I ordered another Lemongrass Ice tea, and a dish called 'Prahok Kateas' described as; Chopped Pork with Coconut, Tamarind & Chilli. It came out in a small clay dish, same consistency as a red curry but more brown in colour. Some raw green beans, white cabbage and cucumber was on the side with a plate of rice. I thought it might taste similar to a red curry or something like that but it was completely different. The first taste that came to mind was "Beef Monster Munch". I said "Very good" another 5 times again after it was finished

Temples; 10
Tuk-Tuk Rides; 15
Bowls of Rice; 23