Some times you just have to get outa town. Melbourne is a great place to live. As a city we have been voted the worlds most livable city more regularly times than any one else. This year we were shocked to come second to some European hole. Vienna, what were they thinking, Opera houses, and schnitzel. I don't know how, but by some dark art the panel must have figured out in advance that Collingwood would be playing in the AFL grand final. A week of Collingwood gloating, and misery awaits all non pies supporters. Time to dump the canopy, and bail out for a week, while Pie's supporters drag Melbourne back to the stone age.

    Fortunately I have an escape plan. Friends of mine are spending a week in Cambodia visiting an orphanage they support. Thai has airfares on sale, my passport has a spare page in it. A bit of retail therapy and I'm there. I fly out Saturday night and return Monday morning a week later. Hopefully most of the fires will be out by then.

    Cambodia is a bit of a mystery to me, I know a bit about Pol Pot, and they have had an elected government for the last thirty or so years but not much else. I catch up with my friends at Bangkok, and forty minutes later we are flying over the flooded fields ready to land at Siem Reap. I hand the customs bloke my passport and $30 USD. He passes it down a line of ten well dresses officials who all do something, and then its handed back to me at the other end of the counter with a visa in it. At least I have created some employment here. My friends have booked up several nice hotels for their stay here, so they  can check out several different day spa's for their work. A couple of days in each the up side of this is there is a Vintage Rolls Royce waiting to pick us up at the airport. The hotel looks magnificent, but unfortunately they're booked out so I can't stay there. Fortunately just around the corner is the Frangipani where for $ 40 a night I can get a nice room with breakfast. First impression, hotels are cheap, and the service is fantastic. This pretty much holds true for the rest of the week. Game plan, Quick shower, back to the nice hotel for swim, then walk in to town for lunch. Visit orphanage, the head out for dinner.  We wander into town, and find pub street. Its pretty hard to miss. There are neon signs with arrows pointing to pub street from about 4 blocks in every direction. Pub street is not very busy, but then again it is ten o'clock Monday morning. Beers are 50 cents, so we grab a  table on the street, and become their first customers. 

    After lunch we grab a Tuk Tuk, and head out to the orphanage. The guys have bought a whole heap of crafty stuff with them, so when we arrive it's bedlam. The place is in a 2 story house and they look after 15 children from 4 to 15. It's school holidays, so the kids are at home. A face painting, colouring frenzy ensues.I get introduced. All the kids are extremely polite and speak a bit of English, which gets rapidly better once they lose their shyness. There are two broken bikes with flat tires, so my job is to teach the older guys how to fix them. We leave as it gets dark, with promises of returning the next day. Next day we are greeted by six kids on two bikes. Over the next week we fix the bikes, and get a couple more. The hotel I'm at agrees for a fee to let us bring the kids for a swim. So for three days in a row five kids, and Cathy the boss rock up at the Frangipani for a swim. Well Cathy can't swim so I spend two hours in the water looking after them. Once they are in they don't want to get out, I've never been so clean in my life. We hit the market to buy some new shelving, another football, and some more bike bits. We take the kids, and nanny's on some excursions and out for a couple of meals. I can see why they were so happy when the guy's turned up. One morning I get up early and squeeze a trip in to Ankor Wat.

    At night we do fine dinning.. Another Marie is also here volunteering so the four of us generally meet up at what ever hotel my mates have shifted to that day for cocktails, a swim, then into town for dinner. One night we go clubbing, unfortunately the grand final is on the next day. We are three hours ahead so that means an eleven thirty start after a four am finish. I get to the Sports bar with a thick head, it's full of Aussies in team kit. The Pies start strong, are three goals up at the last break, but true to form choke in the last ten minutes. That night we do a bit of retail therapy, before catching the Roller back to the plane. My work here is done. I return home to a normal Monday in the worlds most livable city.

    The Children's sanctuary is supported by the Sapphire care foundation. Consider giving them a bit of your hard earned as they distribute 100% of their tax fee donations directly to several worthy causes.

    You can check their work out at the  http://sapphirecarefoundation.org.au/, or here on Facebook.

Cheers 007