Trust in the Five Year-old.

rehearsing for their upcoming play.
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This southern area of Cambodia is completely beautiful and untouched by tourists.  If you want to be in a rural part of Cambodia that is within an hour moto ride form a National Park, the ocean, caves and miles of rice fields... this is the place for you.

Skip Sihanoukville and save yourself the money.  This portion of our trip showed us that not only are the people in Cambodia beautiful... the land is, as well.  The agriculture that surrounded us just left us wanting to drive around on motos, daily.

Skip Sihanoukville and save yourself the money.

i am in love with this building.
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The caves.  Scary as hell, but absolutely worth the scare.  As you moto through rice fields and villages and come across hills that pop up out of nowhere.  You approach the caves and children come out of the woodworks.  They all want to be your tourguide, for a small fee.  We set out, on our own, in search for the temple inside of the caves.  We couldn't find it.  We did find many bats, not by choice and a small insect creature which has haunted me ever since.

school's out.
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Before we knew it, there were five children helping us find this temple.  They were weaving us in and out of tunnels so small that we were crawling.  We were going deeper into the earth's core by sliding down a piece of wood that had been laid down as a ladder without any rungs.  We all had our own moments of panic.  Do we go on?  How will we ever get out of this maze?  Where are we?  How far down do we go into these tunnels?  With one headlamp and a candle... I found myself happier than ever that we had these children with us.  They knew these caves like the back of their hands.  Here is this five year-old laughing at me bc I'm so hesitant to go in such small spaces.  On the flip side, here is a twenty six year-old that wants nothing more than to have this five year-old hold her hand and lead the way.

the casino at bokor hill station.
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Kampot is home to a music school for orphans and children with disabilities.  I spent one morning and one night at this school.  It was great.  I felt like I was at home with all of the children, instruments, dancing, singing and acting.  It made me miss teaching a great deal.  It felt so wonderful to have children calling me teacher.  Watching them work and strive for their very best was a sight I miss seeing.  The music, eerie and gorgeous.  The instruments were great to explore.  The pitches, sizes and methods of playing them just intrigued me.  I wanted all of my students to be with me at this very moment... I wanted them to learn as much as I was about how similar and different music really can be.