Today was a much cruiser day as we didn’t need to be anywhere until 10. So we got up slowly and had breakfast at the hotel.
We had booked a cooking class at Paper Tiger Eatery (Le Tigre de Papier) which is an eatery in pub street that has been around for a while. The cooking class lets you choose and entree and main to learn to cook. We met our beautiful Cambodian chef Sinuon who would walk us through the process today. Anthony and I decided to decide and conquer the menu with Anthony choosing to do Fresh Chicken spring rolls for entree and Chicken Amok for main. I choose the green mango salad for entree and Beef Lok Lak for main. We would make the same dessert which was fried banana with passionfruit sauce.
We first went for a walk through the local market to check out the fruit and vegetables for sale. Some things look so different compared to stuff in Australia.
Then it was time to peel,chop and put together some masterpieces of food. It was actually so rewarding and Sinuon was the best and happiest teacher to have. Her zest for life and cooking was contagious. Finally after much laughing and making big flames happen on the fire we had finished all our dishes and it was time to eat!
The food was delicious and it was rewarding having done all the hard work to make every little part of the meal. Such a great experience.
From here we ordered a Tuk Tuk to go to APOPO. The strangest thing was the Tuk Tuk driver was Sinuon’s husband. Even she looked shocked. Such a small world.
Apopo was actually the whole reason I wanted to come to Cambodia.
APOPO primay job is using trained African Pouch rats (hero rats) to remove landmines and other explosives in Cambodia. They have been doing this since 2014. As a bit of history Cambodia is one of the most mine-affected countries in the world with over 1, 000 km² of land surface still contaminated by landmines. It is estimated that many hundreds of thousands of landmines and other explosives continue to litter the countryside. They have over 40,000 amputees which is the highest ratio of mine amputees per capita in the world. This is also still a huge problem as in 2024 5,757 were injured or killed by land mines. Most of them being children. So the work that is done here training the rats is so important.
If you are interested in learning more here is a good video to watch.
We spent some time learning about the Hero Rats and how they are trained and used. We also got to see the different types of mines and explosives. We then had Gertrude come out to show us how the hero rats work. They can small even the tiniest amount of tnt, which is important as a lot of the mines in Cambodia ara actually plastic and not metal like normal explosives. They are attached to a leash as will work a small field. When they find TNT they dig at the ground. Then the explosive squad come in. The hero rats only weighs 1.4kg so they never set any traps off. APOPO has never lost a rat or had an injury in all the land they have cleared. Rats can clear a tennis court size area in 30 minutes. If you were using metal detectors it would take 4 days as it will pick up every metal fragment. Our guide did say the hero rats cannot work in rice fields for mine detection as they just eat the rice.
We then got to hold 2 of them. Jordan and Valarie came out to meet us. They were so cute and snuggly. This is such and amazing company and the work they do is so important to get the land in Cambodia to be safe for farming and living. We spent a fair bit of money in their shop as the money going back into the business as to local communities. The hero rats and APOPO are champions and should be applauded for the work they are doing.
For the afternoon we went and found some good Melbourne coffee for Anth and then it was off to Made in Cambodia market. The made in Cambodia market is a small market which has local artisans selling their wares. Its a great place that isn’t too pushy with business but a great place to look at some skilled workers. We bought a ring each made from the brass shells of a bullet and I got a jasmine lip gloss.
We then did a quick tuk tuk over to the Royal Independence garden to see the Flying Foxes wake up. They were so loud but it was cool watching them fly around screeching and squawking. We went back to Paper tiger for dinner and then called it a night.
