After so many months preparing and planning for your Cambodian adventure the day has finally arrived! On arrival in Siem Reap you will be met at the airport by your experienced World Expeditions Schools English speaking guide and transferred to our centrally located hotel. We will have a full trip and safety briefing along with a local language lesson so you can practice your Khmer during the program. A little effort goes a long way when speaking with the locals you meet on this program. We then jump in a tuk tuk for an orientation of this exciting city. Tonight we enjoy a welcome dinner at a local Khmer NGO restaurant that upskills disadvantaged youth. Overnight 4* hotel Siem Reap

Meals:  D

Today we will get up early for breakfast before heading to Treak Community Centre. Treak village is about 4 kilometres to the south of Siem Reap town. Though Siem Reap is pretty developed by Cambodian standards, if you make that 4 kilometre journey it is like travelling back in time 100 years. Indeed, in many parts of the village, life goes on much as it has done for the past 1,000 years! You can see wooden carts being pulled by cows, haystacks by people’s houses where the straw from their rice fields is piled up, and pigs and hens and ducks and cows all living around and under the houses. The poorest people have no land and build little shelters out of whatever they can find: bamboo poles; bits of old tin; plastic bags; old tarpaulins; cardboard; grass; old bits of wood that other people have finished with etc. The Treak Community School has been set up to provide schooling for the young people from the local surrounds that can not afford to go to government school. We will join the school and complete a service program helping the local staff in and out of the classroom. Our group will be provided with materials and guidelines prior to arrival to help in your preparation. The group will be responsible for dividing into sub groups to work on different components of the project. On arrival we will take the time to take a walk through the surrounding community meeting the local people whilst gaining a better understanding of the people and their way of life. The people from the local village and school will be very receptive to your visit and the improvements that you are making which will bring long term benefits to the entire village. In addition to the friendships formed, it will foster closer relationships between the two countries and schools. We will return to our hotel late in the afternoon to refresh before heading out to dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight hotel Siem Reap

Meals:  B,L,D

Today is a special day as we walk or cycle (your choice) around the magnificent temples of Angkor, full of magical highlights! There is no better way to explore this area than by foot or cycling! The cycling is fully supported and we will cycle through little tracks and backroads to explore the temples. We will start by exploring the ancient city of Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Great Khmer Empire under the reign of Jayavarman VII, surrounded by an 8 meter high wall. We then continue to Bayon Temple, a 12th century masterpiece in the exact centre of the city. Possibly one of the most enjoyable is Ta Prohm temple, where the Tomb Raider movies were set and filmed. Ta Prohm is unique in that it has been left largely as it was found: overgrown by jungle. This makes Ta Prohm one of the most memorable of the Angkor temples. Photo opportunities await around every corner. We will then experience the largest and most impressive of all the temples in Angkor: Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was built between 1112 and 1152 by King Suryavarman II and dedicated to Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation. It is the best preserved of all the temples. Its layout and its scale are simply breathtaking: the wall surrounding the enclosure measures 1,000 by 800 meters in length and the moat, said to represent the oceans of the world, is 200 meters wide. We have the opportunity to visit a local pagoda within the temple where we will be welcomed by Buddhist Monks and hear about their life and understand more about Buddhism in the region. Tonight we have dinner in a local restaurant before heading to the night markets to practice our new found Khmer language skills as we barter for goods. Overnight hotel Siem Reap

Meals:  B,L,D

Today we have a big day planned. First we will visit one of the first community forests established in Cambodia. Here we will each plant a tree to help offset the carbon on our journey along with helping the local community create an income. This is a fantastic social enterprise set up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. All equipment is provided and we will learn about sustainable Forrest management and rehabilitation. We then travel to the road head to begin our trek. We hike through rice fields and spectacular rural scenery. This is a great opportunity to see how people in the rural areas of Cambodia go about their lives on a daily basis. Rising up from the flat countryside is the enormous Kulen Mountain, and it slowly begins to dominate the view as the trail approaches. Kulen Mountain (Phnom Kulen) is an impressive sandstone plateau in this otherwise flat area. The mountain is considered the birthplace of the Khmer empire and a sacred place for the Khmer. After arriving and walking through the village, the trail heads into the forest with the canopy high above providing shade even in Cambodia’s hottest months. Later this afternoon we head back to Siem Reap for dinner and rest.

Meals:  B,L,D

From Siem Reap, we head on a 40-minute drive to the mighty Tonle Sap Lake. We leave the touristy spots behind and journey to one of its less-traveled corners. After a short boat transfer, we start our water adventure as we paddle our kayaks around the floating village. We are greeted by waves of “hellos” from the locals and get to know more about daily life in the floating village. Our paddling takes us to a wild stretch of mangrove, as we learn about the importance of mangroves and storing carbon. We will take another boat ride back to the pier and bid farewell to the lake in the late morning. Later this afternoon, we head to Kompheim Village, or ‘Lady-bug’ Village. Here we wil meet a local family and learn to make traditional Cambodian Cuisine in a traditional Khmer House in this rural village; our Cambodian Cooking Classes are fully hands-on interactive classes, with individual workstations. Classes include a visit to a local family to learn about cooking in a traditional Khmer household, local food customs, and superstitions.

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we rise for breakfast before packing our bags and heading to the airport for our flight home to Perth.

Meals:  B