I have so much to tell you about Blend! The recap will wait until tomorrow since it’s Tuesday and there is a Tall Tales post coming your way.
Siem Reap is the Cambodian city full of temples, dust, heat, and tourists. Rob and I spent a long weekend exploring via bicycle and tuk-tuk (a motorbike driven taxi). Apart from the stunning scenery and mysterious temples, there were tons of children.
On the roads the children cycled next to us, two or more to a bike.
In the temples, the children played hide and seek with each other while their parents worked on selling their wares. These temples are basically their backyards.
The majority of the children we saw were working. Looking cute with a pout, this little girl laid on this temple entrance and asked for money.
At Ta Prohm (where they filmed Tomb Raiders), the children were swarming. A basket full of bracelets, fans, and postcards hung from their shoulders and instead of letting you enjoy the view, they ran right up to every tourist and started counting their 10-pack of postcards in five different languages (English, Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish).
They wouldn’t touch you, but would stick to your side as you walked around the temple. Rob and I were amazed at how persistent and intelligent they were. How clever of them to learn all those languages to appeal to the masses.
The moment that made me laugh was when a few kids took a short break to just be kids and play a quick hand game. Their parents, who were selling racks of clothing behind us, had turned away for a minute and the kids took advantage of the lack of eyes on them. Fundamentally, kids are the same everywhere, aren’t they?
Then they were the kids who seemed to have it all together and living a different kind of lifestyle.
It broke my heart to see these young children working so hard for a few pennies. I didn’t buy anything from them, except a pineapple for a snack, since I didn’t know where the money was truly going. Hopefully their destinies have not already been made for them.
RQ: Have you seen a lot of begging children in your travels? How would you respond to the working children?
I’m Brooke Selb, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach specializing in helping busy moms and moms to be to easily juggle mom life with family friendly recipes, and easy exercise routines to help you achieve your fitness goals that fit in with your already busy life with sound nutritional advice.
Your pictures just tug at my heart. It just amazes me. When I was in Africa, we saw A LOT of children in need. Most of them only wanted to touch us and say hi, but some of them in more touristy areas would ask for pens (I guess this is one of the first English words they learn and know well). We gave away a few soccer balls and nick-knacks along the way, but only to children who were alone and weren’t asking for anything.
That’s so kind of you to give them toys and such. Even those little things mean so much to them. I can’t even imagine what Africa was like. How long were you there?