I arrived in Kompong Cham on another un-exciting bus ride from Phnom Penh. I had actually come here as there had not been any buses to Sen Monorom, which is where I actually wanted to go to. I’m glad I made the stop!

After negotiating some moto-drivers and getting a baguette, I walked around and found a hotel. The choices were un-inspiring, so I went for the one I liked the most. This, I think, was the biggest hotel in Kompong Cham, but I liked the vibe so I stayed there. After spending one night there, I got told the next morning that I could not keep the same room, as it had already been let out to another guest, so I began contemplating the home stay, which I had seen advertised on leaflets. I didn’t particularly want to keep travelling, as I had done much of this the day before, so I gave the bloke on the leaflet a call. He was very friendly and talked about all of the things that I could and didn’t need to do, so I agreed for someone to come and pick me up at 13:00. They arrived at 12:30, having sat outside for half-an-hour and I got on the motorbike and we went to Chiro village.

Once in the village, I met his family and they showed me my bed. Later on, the same person took me across the road to the school, where a group of 8-11 year olds were having an English lesson. After listening to some French tourists destroy the pronunciation of words such as “refrigerator” and “telephone”, I decided to get up and give them an English lesson. I got up and went to the front and got all of the children to repeat the words with correct pronunciation, breaking them up into syllables. It seemed to work, as you could tell what they were saying at the end of the lesson.

After the English lesson, the bloke who had been taking the lesson (not originally from Chiro but still Cambodian), took us and a load of the children down to the river for swimming. Here me and another French tourist threw children about for about 40 minutes to an hour, before heading back for food. Most of the French tourists departed and I was left with one in my family’s house, who was actually really easy to get on with. We ate and then got taken to the music school-teacher’s house, to hear some of the children practising music for a performance to other tourists in the city. They do it every night, doing the show at weekends and it was very good. I got savaged my mosquitoes, something I paid for in Sen Monorom.

The next day I said goodbye and the mother of one of the children who I had been throwing around in the river got all teary. I had only been there for a day, but I think she had got quite attached and didn’t want me to leave. I decided that I really needed to be in Sen Monorom, so thought I would continue and got the father of the family to drive me back to the city. Here I got on a bus to Sen Monorom.