You'll learn a lot of weird and wonderful things in Southeast Asia, some of it even quite useful. For example, I now know that no matter how loud I scream, the spider still won't go away (or my husband come to the rescue anymore). I can enter, use and leave the tiniest bathroom without touching a single surface with anything other than the toe of my shoe. And I've learned that Cambodian food is not just dumbed down Thai food.

There may be trouble ahead ...

But out of all the things I’ve learned, I think that if I were auditioning for Mastermind in the morning my specialist subject would really have to be poo. I can talk about that for days. Five years in Asia will do that to you. I can spell diarrhoea now without having to look it up. I can talk about colour, consistency, frequency, longevity, fragrance, causes, related symptoms, remedies, dehydration, fatigue, whether to eat or not eat, how to get your husband off the sofa to go buy you chocolate, stomach cramps, abdominal cramps, kidney functionality, water, water and more water, until I literally puke. And once I’ve done with that, I can start telling you about when I was peeing green in India.

Being blessed with a stomach that was only ever meant to consume food prepared by famous chefs in the pristine kitchens of expensive hotels has given me a special insight into the power of poop to take the shine off your day. In fact, most expats in Asia can talk fulsomely about poo, to the extent that we occasionally forget that people back home don’t always find the subject quite as fascinating as we do. Especially during mealtimes, apparently.

If you do come down with a dose of something unpleasant, you have first my sympathies and second, some of the things I’ve learned. Here they are.

You’ve got diarrhoea, and that’s really wonderful news! Honest. This means your body is doing what it needs to do to flush out evil aliens that don't belong there, and everything so far is running according to plan. I've had the variety where all you get is the most agonising cramps, and it turns out that this is simply a trigger for the hospital to administer $1,700 worth of tests that you absolutely do not need. The morphine was jolly nice though.

Most bouts of diarrhoea last for one to three days, leaving you slimmer and clear-skinned, and all for the price of a meal that just happened to be dodgy. There are places in Thailand that charge thousands of dollars for the same result, with the additional torture of tofu. If you want to complain about that, well I just don’t know what to say to you. You do however need to do certain things while this is happening, to help your body do the excellent job that it’s doing.

Don't ring your mum, she'll only panic and imagine that you're being eaten alive by ferocious, necrotic Asian bugs hitherto unknown to science. She'll put the local funeral parlour on speed-dial and start sighing at strange moments, thereby freaking out the rest of the family who'll conclude that she's been given an unwelcome diagnosis and is hiding it from them. See how these things can spiral out of control.

Instead, drink lots and lots of water and get hold of some oral rehydration therapies (Royal D sachets from UCare at the top of Pub Street cost about 500 riel a packet and one should be taken after each bout). Drinking water on its own is not enough as you may be sodium deficient as a result of passing so much liquid through your system so rapidly. Also, and somewhat perversely, your body’s capacity to absorb liquid is diminished as a result so oral rehydration therapies don't just introduce liquid, they also restore the body's capacity to make the most of it.

Some say you shouldn’t eat when you’ve got food-poisoning, but I prefer to continue to eat small amounts of plain food that has lots of fibre as this can bind with the toxins helping to flush them out. If you don’t want to do that, you can also buy sachets of Smecta from the chemist. They may also have charcoal, which does the same thing, namely pass through your system while hopefully absorbing all the nasties on the way.

Cambodia doesn’t do kitten-soft toilet paper, so learn how to use the bum-gun. It is your friend, believe me.

No matter how tempting it may seem, wine corks are not the answer. Nor are other bum-stoppers like Immodium, unless you’re planning on going somewhere. Your body really is working with you not against you, though I know it's doing things that feel more like treason than collaboration.

If, by day four, you’re still doing the wild-eyed tango in the direction of the loo, then you have a bigger problem. It is possible that you may have E. Coli poisoning, which can mean seven to ten days of black/bloody diarrhoea, very exciting cramps and nausea or vomiting, often with a mild temperature. E. Coli was my doe-eyed muse for this particular post. It usually finishes without further incident, but needs to be kept a close eye on. Oral rehydration should be continued at all times, while antibiotics and pain killers should be avoided if you think you’ve got an E. Coli infection.

Self-diagnosis is not the greatest idea however, especially when you’ve got travel insurance to back you up and you should seek out medical advice if you’re still sick after four days. It is also possible that you have giardia, which is a more serious condition, the symptoms of which include violent diarrhoea, excess gas, stomach or abdominal cramps, and nausea. Giardia can sit in your system causing disturbances for a long time, so needs to be checked out and you may be prescribed antibiotics.

If you show signs of a high fever or feel seriously weakened, then seek out medical advice instantly, regardless of how long the diarrhoea has been happening.

And finally, do use the opportunity to hog the remote in your hotel, pile up rubbishy books that you wouldn’t be seen dead reading in public and make sure you’re waited on hand and foot until it’s all over, and then an extra day, for luck.

Tags: bad stomach, diarrhoea

I was going to write about the best spots for sinking a beer while watching the day slip down over the horizon, but something has come up so you’ll have to wait for that little ray of sunshine. Instead, it has come to our attention that at least five female expats have had their bags snatched (in one case an attempted snatch) over the last week or so. This is highly unusual in Siem Reap, and travellers are therefore advised to take extra care with their belongings at the moment.

Lurking dangers in Siem Reap.

The snatches usually take place at night and are conducted by one or two men on a motorbike who swing close and grab. In almost every case, the person they stole from was carrying a bag across their body, as we are all usually advised to do. More alarmingly, some of the victims were on bicycles, though thankfully their straps snapped before they could be dragged off.

Prevention is always better than cure, so people should take more than the usual precautions. In particular, if you have a small backpack, use it, with both straps. If you don’t have one, it might be worthwhile picking one up cheap from the stalls at the front of the Central Market (overlooking Sivatha Boulevard). Better yet, ditch everything at your hotel, and just carry the cash and bits that you need in your pockets. If you are carrying a bag with the strap across your body, make sure the bag is not roadside. Don’t carry all your bank cards, and leave your passport and other valuables in your hotel safe or other security deposit system.

Be extra-extra vigilant if you're cycling or on the back of a moto. One piece of advice suggests putting your bag in your basket and tying the straps around the handlebars. This saved one potential victim, but you also run the risk of being seriously thrown from your bike. If the bag is being snatched from your body, being dragged off your bike, or a moto, can result in terrible injuries and, in Phnom Penh and Thailand, has resulted in people being killed.

If your bag is snatched, don’t fight the snatcher or chase after them. Thieves in Cambodia are treated brutally when caught, so he’ll have little to lose from making sure he can get away by whatever means necessary. In Phnom Penh, mugging victims have been shot for resisting.

Please do report the incident to the tourist police, and your guesthouse or hotel should be able to manage that for you. The police can’t react if they don’t know, and the more incidents that are reported the more pressure will be brought to catch the thieves. You are highly unlikely to recover your property through reporting to the police though, so don’t get your hopes up too high on that. It’s also a good idea to report it to your embassy.

Clusters of robberies like this often occur in the period running up to major festivals and events in Cambodia, and elsewhere. Under normal circumstances, it's not easy to think of a safer place than Siem Reap, and we hope this cluster will end soon.

Tags: bag snatchings, crime

“O would some power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!”
-- Robbie Burns, To A Louse

We are sometimes the worst judges of how we and our actions are perceived or experienced by others, and never more so than when we’re in a strange environment where we do not speak the language or understand the unspoken codes. As much as our communications channels are stunted, the critical faculties that so ably reveal to us the tricksters, cons and charades at home seem to melt away when exposed to the tropical heat. Our sense of wide-eyed wonder is activated and captivated by the beauty and novelty of everything around us, and sometimes it forgets where to draw the line.

Everything in the garden looks rosy, though, emm ... that's actually an hibiscus ...

When I lived in Phnom Penh, I regularly bought books and newspapers from the kids on the riverfront. As a process, this sure as hell beat pulling a copy of The Economist off a sterile shelf in a newsagent and handing over the cash to some hang-jawed check-out worker at home. In fact, copies of The Economist used to come running down the street after me yelling “Lady, lady! Here your Ecomis!” They were wonderful kids: cheeky, bold and full of fun, they put an extra shine on my day. I had no idea, then, that I was doing them so much harm.

On International Volunteer Day this year -- December 5 -- a group of Siem Reap-based volunteers got together to launch a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of the issues around buying products from street kids in Cambodia. Think Twice! hopes to put that apparently simple, honest and open-hearted transaction in its proper context, to help visitors see beyond the smile and the banter to the effects their actions really have on the lives of others.

Buy books from adults, not kids.

With their confident sales pitch and irreverent jokes, these kids certainly don't look that vulnerable, and it may seem that giving a dollar, or more, for a few beads or postcards is helping them -- giving them money for school, food and their families. It’s not. It is sustaining a system that keeps the kids out of school, that exploits their charms for labour, and that exposes them to the dangers of sexual predators, traffickers and drug dealers. Selling newspapers and souvenirs on the streets is often the first step on the path to life as a sex worker. I was horrified when I learned from an aid-worker that most of the kids from whom I bought my Economist in Phnom Penh, some of them really young, were almost all sexually active and available, for a price.

According to reports by World Vision and the Consortium for Street Children , there were an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 street working children in Cambodia in 2001. In Phnom Penh, 88% of vulnerable children, including street children, had had sexual relations with tourists. While those figures are now a decade old, with more tourists in Cambodia today than ever, the incentives for putting kids on the street are correspondingly higher. Edited, full report here (page 32), but sample size very small and the report is a decade old.

I stopped buying from them because without a customer to buy the products, the families and the middle-men who put the kids on the street no longer have an incentive for doing so. According to the director of one children’s charity in Siem Reap, many of the kids working the streets in Siem Reap aren’t even from Siem Reap province anymore. They have been brought in to tap into the lucrative market in tourists’ sympathy and desire to connect with Cambodia.

The children themselves do not see the money that they work so hard to earn. Some will go to their families, the rest to the middle-men who supply the postcards and beads and books.

When you see the young girls selling flowers in bars at midnight, just imagine, would this be acceptable if she were your daughter? There are alternatives. Families do struggle here, but support is available from a network of hard-working locally based charities that provide education, healthcare, vocational training and other material supports for families in need. Examples include Anjali House, Grace House, the Green Gecko Project, the Sangkheum Centre, Sunrise Children’s Villages, The Global Child and many more. You can help them with donations or, in select cases, offers of voluntary support. They really are effective in helping the families they reach, and you can help them to reach even more, even better.

Cambodian kids, on the long road to school.

Don’t just take my word for it. The Think Twice! campaign is supported by businesses and organisations all over Siem Reap, and you’ll see posters, stickers, flyers and postcards everywhere soon. Moreover, the campaign is backed by the International Labour Organisation, UN Volunteers, Australian Aid, Friends International, Childsafe Network, ConCert Cambodia and Anjali House.

For more information on the campaign, check out the Think Twice! facebook page. And if you’d like to understand more about the context of child street begging and vending, you’ll find some helpful information here:

http://www.thinkbeforegiving.org/

http://www.mediaglobal.org/2011/02/04/letting-parents-earn-and-children-learn-in-cambodia/

http://www.concertcambodia.org

Tags: Street kids, Think Twice!

Driving around Siem Reap on Friday afternoon felt almost like a journey along Memory Lane, so long it seems since you used to reach your destinations with eyeballs swimming in dust. Throughout most of town, the floods that have plagued Siem Reap for six long weeks have almost entirely subsided, and the watery streets are back to their usual dusty selves (see here if you'd like to donate to help recovery). The transformation, for everyone who’s been wading through the murky mess for so long, feels almost freakish.

The road to Chong Kneas: prepare for a bruising.

If you're venturing out of your hotel and around town, be warned that some areas are still a little bit tricky, in particular the lanes to the southeast of town in between Wat Damnak and the Ring Road, where I managed to find the muddiest road in Cambodia. A big thank you to the six local women who hauled me and my bike out of the morass, without even laughing once.

The road down to Chong Kneas and the Tonle Sap is still awash in places though, as with so many other roads in Siem Reap now, that’s hardly the real problem anymore. In Cambodia, as elsewhere, roads are considered an investment in the future, though this tends to be restricted to the futures of the road-building companies who do such a poor job they have to be called back in again usually within six months to a year of laying anything. Since getting the job depends less on your capacity to actually do it than on who you know... well, it gets boring talking about this after a while. To add to the shame of it all, this willful incompetence creates what amounts to an informal tax on the Cambodian people, albeit one that accrues to the benefit of manufacturers and suppliers of spare parts for motorcycles and other vehicles instead of to the government.

And so, the roads around much of town look like a petulant giant has taken his monumental sledge hammer and pounded them to a pulp in a fit of giantly pique. There are holes that can fit entire trucks in them, and the road to Chong Kneas is particularly bad. If you’re going down there, prepare to be bruised. The same can be said for High School Road, and the north river road, on the eastern side though to a much lesser degree. The road directly alongside and behind Wat Damnak is absolutely punishing, and you can’t help but wonder how anyone is going to get down there on a bicycle for a while.

In the town centre and along Route Six however, the roads have held up bravely, except for the one linking Sivatha Boulevard to Pokambor Avenue (at the junction with Hospital Street), but that’s always a disaster. While Route Six is also fine, the road linking that with High School Road is a virtual honeycomb of mud and puddles.

Outside of Siem Reap on the other hand it’s a different story, and much of the surrounding countryside is still flooded. A local pilot assures us that at least the prison is completely surrounded, Alcatraz style, meaning we should all sleep safer in our beds, so that’s nice.

Tags: floods

Amid the hullaballoo about floods in Thailand (and them slowly moving toward the capital, Bangkok), Cambodia is suffering from widespread floods as well. Five weeks of flooding, 17 out of 24 of Cambodia’s provinces under water, 200,000 hectares of agricultural land washed out, 34,000 households evacuated and 247 people already dead. The scale of what has happened in Cambodia in the last month or so is almost unprecedented, and the human toll will continue to be counted for a long time to come. Families’ vegetables plots have been washed away, livestock lost, the price of rice has shot up, and for many people, already living a hand to mouth existence, their ability to earn a living is gone or profoundly impaired.

It's time to lend a helping hand...

Cambodians need help, and they need it now. Fortunately, after some unforgivable delays, the national government and international community have mobilised relief support to some of the worst hit provinces, including Kampong Thom, Siem Reap’s neighbour to the east. It is to Siem Reap’s benefit that it was not as severely affected as Kampong Thom, where many villages are under two metres of water, however this means that Siem Reap has been left off the list of target provinces that will receive support from the government and international aid agencies. Siem Reap has to fend for itself, more or less.

Fortunately, local organisations are working hard to reach out to the communities that they work with and establish what their needs are, and then reaching out again to their networks of friends and supporters to raise funds to meet those needs. This is where you come in.

Michael Horton is the founder of ConCERT, an organisation founded to connect communities, environment and responsible tourism. He spoke to some of his member organisations this week to find out what was going on. They reported back that the most urgent need is food. According to Grace House, “People are in desperate survival stages. They need food. They can’t go to work, and when you’re living hand to mouth, that’s fatal."

Grace House is collaborating with Raffles Hotel to raise funds for relief support to the families that work in Siem Reap. If you would like to help them, you can do so either by visiting the hotel or contacting Grace House through their website.

Another organisation for former street children has entered into a collaboration with three different hotels, with the aim of raising funds to supply 10 tonnes of rice to families affected on the riverside and in Kampong Thom. The Green Gecko Project is building on its long standing relationships in town, and visitors can donate through their special webpage, or by contacting Hotel de la Paix, Heritage Suites Hotel, Golden Banana Boutique Hotel & Resort, or Exotissimo Travel Cambodia.

The children themselves originated the idea for this project and have been the driving force behind it.

MaD, Making a Difference for Good, works with rural communities and its projects are about 50 kilometres out of town in areas that have also been badly hit. They desperately need support to help deliver rice and building supplies to these communities and donations can be made by contacting them through their website.

If you happen to be in town and are just walking around not sure what to do, feel free to drop into the ConCERT offices too. Michael Horton would be glad to talk to you about how you can help.

Tags: charities, floods

So I guess it’s oopsadaisy if you came to Siem Reap in the last few weeks. Well, it is rainy season and you knew that. Though it’s not likely that many of the guide books would have warned you about the rising tides you may have seen outside your hotel or guesthouse and, to be fair, the flooding in Siem Reap, at least on the scale seen this September, is a relatively recent phenomenon.

It's not actually supposed to look like this...

Siem Reap has been deluged in the last few weeks, leaving everyone in or near the centre of town wading through murky waters if they want to get anywhere. There are a number of reasons for this, some natural (rainy season, high Mekong), and some entirely human-made (e.g. a ring-road that blocks the water's natural flow towards the Tonle Sap and turns the southeast of Siem Reap into a giant bowl of seriously dodgy soup).

Philosophy 101.

It never rains but it pours: the bad news for anyone coming here in the next few weeks too is that the rainy season isn’t over yet and the Pacific typhoon season is also due to continue until November and could have some residual effects in Cambodia, as with Typhoon Ketsana in 2009, although mid-September’s flooding was unrelated to anything like that. The good news is that at least you get some kudos from home and, for the tenacious, you may still be able to do some of the things you planned on plus have some extra stories to report back with. Who knows, you might even be able to add high street wind-surfing to the list.

The floods reveal a great deal about Cambodia's ongoing capacity problems, and the international support that underpins that capacity (fabulously paid here today, gone tomorrow consultants don't have to live with the shortfalls, inconsistencies and lack of continuity in their work). But they also reveal a great deal about the Cambodian nature. If you're staying in a hotel, chances are you're dry most of the day and can have a hot shower to warm up and clean off all the bacteria in the water. For many Cambodians, those options simply aren't there. Worse, imagine nursing a child in an increasingly damp and dirty house. Moreover, over Pchum Ben, the response of non-governmental organisations has been virtually non-existent, because it's a holiday, as dire an excuse for a failure to meet genuine humanitarian needs as is imaginable.

But it’s an absolute wonder to notice as you wade through the swirling waters (don’t think about the brown) the cheerful way in which Cambodians just get on and do their thing even though their home and half their belongings may very well be under four inches of water. It’s very humbling, in fact. Even a week into the floods, as some locals make their way, hollow-eyed with tiredness, through the waters on their way to the market or their job, there is still a smile for passers-by and even the chance for a good-natured giggle as this passer-by almost took a tumble into a fast-moving river.

Always look on the bright side of life...

Kids of course will make hay whether the sun shines or the rains pour, and they have a ball when the floods hit. Their own giant swimming pool and so many targets for splashing they can’t work out where to start. Ingenuity rules too, as some kids will find pieces of Styrofoam and then wait for the waves from the giant 4x4s as they cruise past. High street boogie-boarding, sorted. High street wind-surfing doesn't sound quite so improbable now. Rafts will be made, and during Ketsana several entrepreneurs rigged up canoes, boats and rafts  and used them to give lifts, mostly to the ladies it should be noted.

Don't think about the brown ...

Adults too set about pitching their stalls, driving their motos, going to their jobs or hauling their belongings out of harm’s way in the best way they can, and usually without a trace of complaint. Imagine that happening at home? Phasing Cambodians is tough to do.

If you do go for a wadeabout, voluntarily or otherwise, the only recommendations are to wash your feet and legs properly when you get back to your hotel preferably with Dettol and especially any cuts as the water is seriously filthy, and get your hands on some worming tablets which you can get cheaply from UCare.

Don't drink the water....

Aside from that, take a leaf out of the Cambodian notebook. This is not something that should phase anyone – it’s a little bit different, even a little bit fun, albeit a little bit wet. You’ll soon dry off, and don't forget to smile.

Smile.

The images above were taken after Siem Reap was hit by Typhoon Ketsana in 2009. The ones below are from the third flood that has hit this town in September 2011, with more expected.

No pushover this mama...

Learning to walk, or to swim?

And the winner is....!

Some kids get all the breaks

There is never any excuse for a lack of grace.

This may not be the ideal way of resolving sibling rivalries...

Tags: floods

Gangs of Westerners roam Thailand hunting out affordable plastic surgeons in order to ameliorate, elevate or eradicate various bits and bobs about their person, and the land of smiles is a top destination for cheap dental surgery too. Of course, the idea of seeking out dentistry in Cambodia while actually conscious and in control of one’s destiny is an absurd one -- or so you’d think, but things do change.

Smile if you want to go to the dentist!

Reports kept coming back of a dental surgery in Siem Reap where foreigners were braving root canal work and crowns and all kinds of weird, wonderful and terrifying things. No-one had been taken to with a rusty pliars, or had an eye taken out with that horrible pokey, scratchy thing, so it was rumoured. Naturally, the reports were at first greeted with a good deal of skepticism, but finally it had to be tried, and the experience was an utterly horrible one  – just like going to the dentist at home.

The surgery is called Pachem, and it’s on Charles de Gaulle Avenue, on the road that leads towards Angkor Wat. It’s not possible to recommend somewhere based on third party reports alone so I went for a scaling, polish and bleaching and I’ll tell you how much it all cost later. In the meantime, as you would expect at home, the surgery is immaculate, the receptionists speak English and, comfortingly on purpose I’m sure, the first thing you see is a very equipped looking sterilisation room.

The three dentists who work out of the surgery have been trained in Phnom Penh and Malaysia, and the new and modern equipment comes from Japan. I’m only Irish, it should be said, and not American. It wasn’t that long ago in Ireland that all a model needed to make it to the top of her field was a full set of her own teeth, so it’s possible that state-siders might dimly recall the same equipment from their own trips to the dentist in the 70s, but from where I come from it looks modern and up to date.

The service was prompt, polite, efficient and professional -- in fact that bit was much better than going to the dentist at home, where service providers tend to look at their customers in the same way most people would regard a rat's leg in their sandwich. I had a short chat with the dentist, who listened and then professionally carried out the work as requested, without trying to sell me porcelain veneers. He didn’t talk to me about his golfing weekend while I sat there with a gob full of pink paste unable to yawn  either – so that bit was better than the dentist at home too, come to think of it.

The next bit, the scaling, was the same screechy horror it always is. I tried to push myself physically into the comfy leather chair I was reclining on like I always do, and she very patiently kept going, making that awful noise with the sonic scaler, frightening me and my teeth to death. Of course, one of the nice things about Cambodia is that everyone is so much gentler here than at home. So, yes, that bit was slightly better too.

It’s a broad-service surgery, offering dentistry, orthodontics and periodontics. For simple matters like cleaning and bleaching, it’s hard to go wrong, especially when compared to the prices at home. It’s as well to know they’re there for emergencies too so, for example, a temporary crown is only $5.50. More permanent crowns start at $139, a big drop from the costs at home. Root canal work ranges from $35 to $68, and fillings from $8 to $19, though up to $300 for a gold one if you’re feeling trashy.

The decision on whether to go through with these procedures would have to be based on your own determination following a consultation with the dentist.  For the simple procedures above though, a scaling and polishing will only set you back $15, nothing compared to the cost at home, whereas the home bleaching kit was a snap at $99. Now, say “Cheese!”

Pachem Dental Clinic
242 Mondul, Siem Reap District
T: (063) 96 53 33; (013) 83 83 03
www.pachemdental.com

Tags: dental work, dentists, root canal

So many tourist markets, boutiques, jewellers and craft shops in Siem Reap can make shopping here a real pleasure. On the other hand, if you have a case of the midnight munchies, or just need batteries, its charms can seem a little over-worked. The practical things in life can rarely be found in the bottom of a recycled, eco-friendly, socially conscious, vegetarian handbag.

There are plenty of supermarkets in town though, and you’ll be stunned at what you can buy in them. Cambodia may be classified as a Least Developed Country (LDC) , but it’s an LDC that signed up the World Trade Organisation when it really had no business doing so. Good for you if you want to buy Marmite, Budweiser or Tim-Tams. Terrible for Cambodia’s balance of trade and virtually non-existent local industry.

But that’s a separate issue -- back to the batteries.  The main supermarkets are the two big ones quite near each other on the northern end of Sivatha Boulevard, Lucky Market in the Lucky Mall and Angkor Market. Then there is the smaller 24 Hour Market also on Sivatha, at the very end of Pub Street, and the Apsara Market on Wat Bo Road. The Angkor Trade Centre on the riverfront near Old Market also has a small supermarket inside. There are a couple of other, smaller, ones, but these five should serve most people’s purposes.

Not for sale!

On Sivatha Boulevard, Angkor Market is definitely the best, despite being only half as big as Lucky. The only problem is that dog food is more expensive here, though something tells me that might not be a problem for the average reader of this post. Angkor Market is locally owned, and the staff on the till are super-friendly and helpful if you’re stuck for anything. The staff on the shop floor tend not to speak English so go straight to the till if you have any questions. Of greatest concern to expatriates, who are quite civilised despite appearances, Angkor Market has the largest wine selection. But, whether you’re looking for batteries, food, drinks, magazines and newspapers, stationery, toiletries and cosmetics, or even more practical stuff like, for example Tupperware, it’s all here too. As for all supermarkets, you can’t get minor pharmaceuticals, like pain-killers or bandages, which are only in pharmacies. There is an ANZ ATM outside.

The Lucky supermarket in Lucky Mall is much bigger than Angkor though doesn’t really seem to have that much more. It's kind of like a reverse tardis. On the other hand, the supermarket shares space in the mall with other shops that may make going here a good idea. On the ground floor is a uCare pharmacy, a couple of mobile phone network operators, numerous ATMs, Bambou Indochine clothing shop, and a very pretty souvenir shop called Iris. Upstairs there is a department store, and you can buy all sorts of electronics on the top floor.

Going back into town, you’ll find the 24 hour supermarket at the very end of Pub Street. This is a definite stop off for the midnight munchies, and we can recommend the Walkers Shortbiscuits thoroughly. They mostly sell drinks and snacks, with assorted toiletries, batteries, some patés and pickles and rather random things like tahini. Condoms are available here too.

On Wat Bo Road, near the European Guesthouse, is the New Apsara Market, which has more dry or tinned consumables like pasta and sauces, snacks, drinks and stationery. They also have a small range of books and guidebooks. Neither Apsara nor the 24 hour market sell fresh fruit or vegetables. A note to the wise: if you do buy fresh fruit or veg at the markets, clean them thoroughly, then clean them again. Aside from the frightening chemicals the farmers use, the market sellers spend all day coating them with fly spray.

The Angkor Trade Centre has a supermarket inside, as well as a pizza restaurant and ice-cream parlour. The supermarket is small to mid-sized but the stock is poorly selected, and always manages to not have exactly the very thing you're looking for. It's freaky. Better hop on a tuk tuk and go to Angkor Market.

And if you're heading to Phnom Penh, we've already covered the best supermarkets there.

Angkor Market
Sivatha Boulevard
T: (063) 76 77 99

Lucky Supermarket
Sivatha Boulevard

24 Hour Market
Sivatha Boulevard

New Apsara Market
Wat Bo Road, near the European Guesthouse
T: (012) 941 474

Angkor Trade Centre
Pokombor Avenue
T: (063) 766 766

Tags: supermarkets

It’s difficult to imagine what a child sex abuser might look like, but if you have suspicions about someone, knowing what to do when you’re in a foreign country, one that to many appears essentially lawless, can be difficult. Fortunately, Cambodia is not lawless, and there are agencies that can help anyone who has suspicions.

Don't be intimidated

In 2010, a British man was arrested in Siem Reap on suspicion of sexually assaulting minors, for which he was later convicted. A shocking feature of this case was the number of comments on a public Facebook group page from former volunteers at the orphanage founded by the accused who clearly had suspicions (that page is no longer available). It is probable that some of these people certainly did report their suspicions to somebody, though not apparently to the board of governors of the organisation, which might have been a logical first step. But many may not have, perhaps because they didn’t feel that they had sufficient evidence to do so, or because they didn’t know what to do, or whom they could speak to. This case reflects a number of issues that arise in relation to what is rather innocuously (even inappropriately) called "child sex tourism".

One is that anyone can be a child sex abuser. There is no profile, and they come from every background and every country -- including Cambodia. In the case of the British man above, he was in so many respects perfectly ordinary.  Educated, well presented, engaging, a great organiser, and to those that met him, he was firmly committed to the task of educating Cambodia’s children.

Which leads to the second issue. The behavioural pattern of abusers in Cambodia is changing.  Children selling on streets long provided easy prey for paedophiles in Cambodia. But with increasing scrutiny, the ability to openly pursue these children has been limited. Some have altered their strategy by co-opting the parents of the child into the process of grooming him or her for sex. Outsiders, seeing a child in the company of a foreigner and a local will often assume that the child is safe.

Others, aware of the pressure to learn foreign languages in Cambodia, become teachers, giving them access and status. Others still set up orphanages in a country that has no shortage of institutions for children, many of them unnecessary.

Seila Samleang is the director of Action pour les Enfants (APLE), a local NGO dedicated to tackling child sex tourism in Cambodia. He advises anyone who might have suspicions to call their 24/7 hotline number 092 311 511, or to email them at reportabuse@aplecambodia.org.

If you fear that someone is abusing children, it is extremely hard to put aside the fear of making a false accusation. After all, unless you catch someone red-handed, how is it possible to really judge what is grooming of a child for sex, or normal affection?

According to Seila, if anyone sees anything that they feel is irregular behaviour towards children or could put them at risk they “should not fear that they’ll be in trouble if they wrongfully accuse or report somebody’s behaviour.  APLE agents will work out to determine what happened in a professional manner and in accordance with their code of ethics and respect for human rights”. APLE has a large team of trained investigators.

If the person you have suspicions about is working for an orphanage, shelter, school or other establishment, particularly one that puts them in contact with children, then contacting a member of the board of governors, or other responsible person, could be advisable. The tourist police in Siem Reap are helpful too, and can be contacted on (012) 402 424, (012) 969 991, or (012) 838 768.

For more information on the situation in Cambodia, the Childwise website is an excellent source of information.

Tags: child rape, child sex, crime, tourist police

In the beginning there was only one. Then before you could say “Holy mackerel!”, the infection had spread all across Siem Reap, consuming human flesh and provoking howls and shrieks from susceptible young women. There’s now a rash of garra rufa in almost every part of central Siem Reap, and there’s no escaping their relentless necrotic appetites.

Just insert one foot at a time and the attendant will ladle the fish over your feet ...

The town is awash with large tanks filled with freshwater fish, the garra rufa, that delight in devouring the dead skin on feet. The first was a freakish novelty that appeared in the Angkor night market about two years ago. “That’s cute," everyone thought. Then one became two, then two became too many to count.

Admittedly, it’s not completely unpleasant having your feet nibbled, though many would doubtless prefer the Princess Fergie school of toe-nibbling to having actual schools of fish perform the dirty deed. The sensitive among us clearly find the experience so earth-shatteringly, ooh, ticklish, that screams, shrieks and loud whoops are in order, causing numerous people to drop their beers with fright. Actually I made the last bit up, but to the screamers, do you have to? Really?

Another concern is animal cruelty. Is it really fair to inflict the sight, and stink, of male backpacker feet on poor, unsuspecting fish who are just showing up for a day’s labour, trying to keep their heads above water like any honest worker? We’ll be conducting a poll on this later.

But, more seriously, concerns have been raised about health risks arising from the possibility of transferring infections through open wounds on people’s feet. The technique, originally developed for sufferers of psoriasis for which its effectiveness is questioned, has been banned in several American states.

The jury is still out on whether this is simply over-fussing by legislators or whether there really are risks that should be addressed. In fairness to the fish tank operators in Siem Reap, I have noticed that they seem to very regularly filter out the debris from the water.

The real problem with it though is that after 20 minutes, you still have to go and spend $5 on a real pedicure by a being possessed of lungs rather than gills to finish off the job.

Tags: Fish pedicures, Health