The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Goodbye Siem Reap - Let's take a river boat to Phnom Pehn

It was time to move to our next city, Phnom Pehn. Normally a 5 hour drive, Michelle found an optional river ride with Tara River Boat Tours http://www.taraboat.com/travel-tours/siem-reap-to-phnom-pehn.html 3.5 hours of Taxi followed by 4.5 hours of gentle river. Sounds great. The Taxi was prompt and really comfortable. A driver and assistant let us read/rest and provided water and washroom stops at any time. The roads are fantastic on this flat countryside.

Soon we were parked by the river and our heavy bags were on board. The boat is old but really cool. It seats around 20 but today it was only us. We quickly met the captain, chef and someones cute small child and dog. Our stuff was stowed by our tour guide Summet. We were provided a chance to sit in the shade at the top deck while Summet fetched our freshly made lunch. An amazing salad, cooked chicken, beef, rice and plenty of fruit. After lunch Summet sat with us and we had some real conversations.

Cambodian people have experienced far too much suffering. Countless wars, genocide and occupations have resulted in a massive number of poor. Summet was born into civil war. His brother and father forced to fight. He was raised by a grandparent and is yet to find his family. He has no idea where they are. KT asked him if he can show her the Cambodian alphabet. He had a hard time with close up writing but still provided all the help he could. It turned out an accident damaged his eyes and no technology or glasses can yet fix it. He is still able to hold multiple jobs to support his wife and 2 young children whom are only seen one day a week, hopefully. Despite all the challenges, he is enormously kind and gentle. He remains optimistic of a bright future as for now there are no wars.

As we approached the city of Phnom Pehn, the river is lined with the poor. They live in shacks floating on and near the waters edge. Many of them have been displaced from their homes caused by recent development sites.. We all felt paralyzed and had great conversations of what we could do to help. The boat was soon at it's destination and we lugged our bags to the shoreline. Summets car has not very far away and we were taxi'd to our new Phnom Pehn home, the Billabong Hostel http://www.thebillabonghotel.com

Summet asked us if we wanted to do a tour the next day. He suggested the Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields. At first I thought we could decide at a later day but immediately calculated this may be our only chance we could help each other. Although the tour topics will be tough, it is the right thing to do. We committed to it and let him decide his best time for a pickup. 9 AM gave us time to rest which we do certainly need. Tomorrow will be hard.

Thanks Tara Taxi