Fur-ther Adventures in Phnom Penh

After the two days exploring the recent history of Cambodia, we went a little more lighthearted, and saw another grand palace. It was beautiful and hot. Then, the national museum (it was pretty okay, and hot!), then a stroke of luck when we stumbled across a cafe called Friends, which we had read about in our bible (Lonely Planet) - this was a cool place that gave kids from disadvantaged backgrounds (and there are a lot of these in Cambodia), and gave then an unrivalled opportunity to get thorough training in the hospitality industry - in waiting, cooking and managing. As an added bonus, the food was fantastic! A definite winner.

Giant Pigeon attacking Angkor Wat

Then, we took ourselves (or rather, were taken via tuk-tuk) to another temple, the post-office (finally!), and to a travel clinic for my last rabies jab. I won’t go into detail (ask us about it sometime), but suffice to say that it was a bizarre experience, and the bottom line is that I’m now fully immunised, just in time for our last day, and…

Animal sanctuary! A place a little out of town, spread out over Tamao Mountain. We were shown around by a surprisingly knowledgeable ice-cream salesman, and I think the fact that his bike had a coolbox full of goodies attached as a sidecar helped us keep motivated. Poaching is a big problem in Cambodia, particularly of things like sun bears, who are indigenous, and have the misfortune of being on the recipe for some Chinese medicines, so lots of them have been rescued and are being well looked after at this place. We were immediately greeted by a pack of very curious and cantankerous macaques, with a slightly less cantankerous group of locals happy to sell us bunches of bananas to pander to the crowds. It was fun trying to get the food to the little ones, or those with babies in tow, as the big ones certainly knew how to throw their weight around. Word of advice though, don’t try teasing them with bananas then not letting go! But of course, you knew that.

Whilst there, we also got to feed fish to some otters, which was also super-cute. We saw some flying squirrels, and lots of hot looking bears, and an elephant with a prosthetic leg! Apparently he had looked the wrong way at some poachers, or had been unlucky enough to be on the recipe for another medicine. Regardless, he looked very well, and enjoyed a bunch of bananas for the trouble of wandering over to say hello.

Lastly, I should mention that Zoe made friends with some very nice monkeys - a blind spider monkey who enjoyed holding hands, and a blonde gibbon who liked having her arms stroked. An excellent experience, and one that won’t leave us any time soon.

Oh, and we had ice-cream in a hammock, which was pretty chill! Thus marked the end of that spell in Phnom Penh. More to come, as we gradually catch up with ourselves - stay tuned for the north!