Firstly and most importantly for the safety of Cambodian people, is APOPO (Anti-personnel landmine product removal), a charity set up by a Belgian, to help clear landmines and unexploded ordinance from the land, as Cambodia was heavily bombed and mined, during the Pol Pot era and a number of civil wars.
Rats, specifically the African Brown Pouched Rat, can clear an area the size of a tennis court in 30 mins, whereas using metal detectors would take 4 days. This is because the rats can smell just one micron of TNT and ignore the metal, whereas the detectors find all metal items, taking time to clear each find.
Landmines go off if something more than 5kg stands on them, whereas the rat only weighs 1.3kg. They did a test run for us and Hero Rat Silver found 2 buried items, with a very tiny amount of TNT in them. They use ropes across the area and go across and upwards to cover an area with two handlers. The rats reward is banana or peanuts, they only work 3 hours per day in the early morning, the rest of the day is for play and relaxation.
They have 59 rats currently in 4 areas, they live for about 7-8 years, take one year to train, work for 4-5 and then they are retire to live in 5 star luxury. I had a hold of Jordan, who is 3 years old.
The charity works internationally, in areas where the land needs clearing, they are already signed up to enter Ukraine. They also help educate the people about risks with spotting landlines and ordinance, support those that have been injured. Currently the rats are helping to identify TB, from swabs taken, as this is on the rise in many countries.
We were really impressed with the work they are doing and have adopted a Hero Rat working in Cambodia via www.apopo.org
Restoration
We were lucky, for once, to be in Siem Reap, when they opened the Conservatoire D’Angkor, we were unlucky though that it started raining as we got into the complex, but our tuktuk driver came dashing to our rescue with an umbrella.
This complex is where they restore and make replacements for many of the carvings and statues from local temples. Sofia, one of the Restoration Team, kindly took us around one of the buildings, where a number of original heads, are stored with yellow stickers, showing they had made a replacement to be returned to temple. Lots of pillars with various writings on, including old Khmer and Sanscript, many pieces found had been looted originally. Fascinating place, with a never ending workload. Very privileged to have been able to see this.
Relaxation
The rest of our time we spent around the local town. Of course visiting the Hard Rock Cafe, another Tshirt to make up for non in Phnom Penh. Red Piano Bar, supposedly the bar of choice for the Tomb Raider film crew, we first went here in 2006, didn’t recognise the place! A lovely meal in Indochine, an upmarket Cambodia Restaurant, a few drinks here and there, the odd tuktuk ride for $1 or $2 and relaxing by the pool at the hotel.