We moved to Sinnouckville for our last time at the beach. What was supposed to be a 3.5hour bus journey turned into a 5.5hour journey after the fan belt broke on the bus. There was nothing else for it, we were all made to stand at the side of the road in sweltering heat. One man started hitting a tree with a stick- rather odd we thought!! Then berries came falling down. He offered some to Tim. They were called Pring and tasted like bitter red grapes. Lisa declined his offer of some!!
Eventually we arrived and got on the back of motorbikes with our enourmous back packs and day bags as we set out to find somewhere to stay. We checked into a place right on the beach and spent the afternoon sunbathing. It was late afternoon, after watching a glourious sunset that a group of people, both westerners and locals, got up from a bar and just ran into the sea fully clothed. They all played around and we asked an Aussie woman in her 50s, called Kerry, what was going on. She ran an outreach program for slum orphans (who used to live on rubbish tips in Siem Reap). She had brought them to the beach for a holiday (it is the Khmer new year here). They had all got very excited as none of them had seen the sea before (not even the adults). We got to speak to some of them and all of them said they had drunk lots of the water and couldn't believe how salty it was. We told them all sea water was like this!! We offered out towels too as they were uncomrtable and cold when they got out of the water (some were in jeans). It was then Kerry told us about volunteer programs in Siem Reap and gave us a contact of someone if we had a spare afternoon to go and help out. We both hope we will be able to do so as it was fantastic to watch them enjoy their first trip to the beach. They were all lovely kids who dreamed of visiting Brisbane - where Kerry is from.
This is Kerry's website!!
http://www.newhopecambodia.com/index.php
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