Day 184 – Siem Reap, Cambodia

August 9th, 2019

Today we slept in and had a nice breakfast that was included with our hotel.  We set out walking, looked around in shops and saw more of Siem Reap. I was excited to get a much needed $4 pedicure.  I’ve always wanted to do the kind where you put your feet in a fish tank and all the little fishes nibble off your dead skin.  They have that everywhere here although I knew it was mostly banned in the US and Canada.  I did a little reading before to find out why, and unfortunately found that this is not good for the fish.  The type of species that does this is native to the middle east and they are shipped in little plastic bags of water where many die in transport.  This species of fish will eat dead scales in the wild as a survival mechanism if they do not have an adequate source of their preferred food.  So, in the spas they are not properly feeding the fish so that they are starving when people put their feet in the water.  So anyway, in an attempt to be supportive of the little fish, I opted for the standard, regular, old- fashioned pedicure and hope they used properly sanitized instruments. 

At 4pm we met Mr. Gecko who we hired to be our tuk tuk driver for Angkor Wat tomorrow (it is normal for Cambodians to go by their surname).  He took us to the place to buy our tickets so that we can be ready to go for the sunrise in the morning without having to worry about stopping and getting the tickets before.  He then took us outside of the main temple to watch the sunset.  We never really found the spot we were supposed to go for the sunset, so we just walked around the little village and got some dinner.  I had bought us tickets for the Cambodian circus in Siem Reap.  After the sun set we had Mr. Gecko drop us off at the circus.

This circus is made up of local Cambodian performers.  In the 20^th Century much of Cambodia’s art and culture was lost in a civil war while intellects and artists were targeted and killed. After the 1990 Paris Peace Accord, refugees along with a French art therapy teacher founded an NGO that created Phare Ponleu Selpak Artistic and Social Center.  This school of the arts continues to help underprivileged and youth at risk.  It achieves financial sustainability by its creation and operation of “Phare the Cambodian Circus”.  The circus has the mission to provide jobs and a way of living for local Cambodian artists as well as support the school so they can continue educating youth and support the development of art in the community.  The stories of the performers are quite incredible.  Two of the main performers are brothers who can make a living to support their family by performing in the circus every night. They live in a single room and three siblings sleep inside and the mother sleeps outside.  It is their goal to make enough money to build a better house so the Mom can have a place inside to sleep.  This is just one of the stories of the many students that are lucky enough to get to go to the school of the arts which is funded mostly through this circus. 

For me, this was honestly a highlight of our trip in Asia thus far.  I loved everything about it.  The performance was fantastic and the cause it supports even better.  I thought this was an awesome way for tourist dollars to positively affect the community.  It is perfect to have the circus here in Siem Reap since so many tourists come here for Angkor Wat.  We had a great night and I think this is an absolute must-do for anyone coming to Siem Reap!