Back to Phnom Penh

Monday morning found us in a tuk-tuk, heading out of Sihanoukville about two kilometers to a children’s shelter called M’Lop Tapang. As I previously mentioned, our ultimate boss, Rick, called in a few favors to get us a tour of the shelter so that we could have the opportunity to compare a Cambodian shelter to the Laos shelter we had already visited. Before our trip to Cambodia, we had been in contact with a woman who volunteers for the shelter, Kate, who had told us we could have a long tour of the facilities during the morning and so, on Monday morning, we set out to visit M’Lop Tapang.

A little background on the shelter…the M’Lop Tapang shelter is a large facility that aids 2,500 children in the Sihanoukville area. It was created in 2003, beginning as a small shelter that provided education services to street children who were no longer attending school. After the shelter received a large grant from a donor, they were able to expand and continued generous funding has allowed them to become an extremely large facility. Their primary purpose is to aid young street children in continuing their education and job skill training for future employment.

We arrived at the shelter before 9 am and were able to begin our tour early. The entire facility is surrounded by a large metal fence, complete with guardhouse and security personnel at the entrance. Although children are allowed, and even encouraged, to come and go as they will, adults are more strictly supervised. No outsiders are allowed around the children without prior approval and a rigorous sign in process. We met Kate at the guard station and after filling out entrance sheets and getting a numbered tag that identified us as visitors we were permitted inside to begin our tour.

The M’Lop Tapang complex includes several buildings including a main structure that houses the classrooms where children learn and study, a medical facility that treats the children and their families, a day care center for babies who are being mistreated or neglected at home, a large cooking facility, a sports area, and a special set of classrooms for children with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. It was incredible to see this shelter, a truly well-oiled machine that works to aid the most disadvantaged sector of the Cambodian populace, the children. We spent the morning touring the facilities and learning about the shelter, its goals, and its work from Kate. After witnessing so much poverty and despair in Cambodia, it was heartening to see a group that is trying (and succeeding) in rectifying the problem.

One of the major issues in Cambodia is the lack of fertile land. Although the Cambodian countryside is beautiful, the land itself is not very fertile for growing crops (one of the reasons they have to buy so much food from the Vietnamese). Many farmers in the outlying provinces hear about the growing urban center and tourism in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville and believe that they will become very prosperous if they move to the cities. Unfortunately, this is not the case and a lack of jobs and housing often lead families to send the children out to beg for food or sell trinkets to tourists, meaning that children don’t get an education. M’Lop Tapang works to send these kids back to school and teach their parents how to earn a living without relying on the kids. We had an amazing time touring this facility and it has inspired us to do a comparative analysis of laws in SE Asian countries concerning human trafficking.

Our tour of the shelter concluded, we jumped back in our tuk-tuk to return to the Sihanoukville bus station for our return journey to Phnom Penh. This bus trip was much like the others that preceded it and simply solidified my desire to avoid all forms of public transportation in SE Asia for the rest of my life. I managed to survive the trip, however, and we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, at the riverside, at 3 pm. After dropping our bags off at our guesthouse (the same guesthouse we previously stayed at), we rushed out to eat a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. Well, I have now tried Mexican food in three SE Asian countries and can honestly say that it really should be avoided in this region of the world. Now, I know most of you are not surprised by that statement. I mean, really, this is SE Asia here, quite a ways from Mexico and any influence of Mexican food. All I can say is that hope springs eternal and my withdrawal from the wonderful world of Mexican food has knocked all my common sense right out of my head. So, I tried the Mexican food and was once again sorely disappointed, so I am giving up! I will wait until my return to the US and will stick with food from countries a little closer in locale or who colonized the region. :) A sound plan, I think. To give you a little example of the Mexican food…imagine an Asian individual, who has never left Asia, looking at a picture of Mexican food (a taco perhaps) and thinking, “I could make that.” Then imagine that Asian person, trying to cook the Mexican food without using a recipe. In that instance you might get something similar to what we ate…”Mexican Rice” aka Fried rice with beans added.

After lunch, Zenia and I walked down the road to a DVD store the proprietor of Tom-Cat Cinema had told us about. You see, much like other Asian countries, Cambodia is home of the bootleg DVD. However, buying bootleg DVDs in SE Asia is a bit of a gamble. There are myriad problems that can occur when you buy movies from an unknown source including discs that simply don’t work, language issues, discs that won’t play in DVD players, etc. Therefore, it is always a good idea to get a recommendation from someone about where to go. The owner of this shop was extremely reliable, going so far as to play each DVD in a player to show you the quality of the video and that it will actually run. Well, Zenia and I went a little crazy in that place, buying a sack full of DVDs each…but when the DVDs are $1.50 per disc, can you blame us? So, now my suitcase coming home will be filled with DVDs, weighing me down and posing potential problems at customs. :) The price we pay for entertainment. It will be worth it!

After dragging our purchases back to our guesthouse, we decided to freshen up and go out for a nice evening. Now, we have been trying since our arrival in SE Asia to go out at night to enjoy a little social interaction – aka go to a club. As you may have noticed, we have not been successful. But Zenia was determined and we had spotted an interesting sight during our first foray into Phnom Penh and the riverfront district, a reggae bar, which are supposed to be pretty fun. So, we got all dressed up and headed out, only to find the reggae bar closed! Yup, our plans to party in SE Asia are just not to be (which really doesn’t bother me as I don’t like to party). We ended up sitting outside a nice bar, drinking bloody marys and enjoying our evening of relaxation, our last evening in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.