I would 100% recommend my guide Saron. http://www.sarontours.com/

I found him via Tripadvisor. He charges a very fair price, brought a knowledgeable tuk-tuk driver also for a fair price (rather than me getting ripped off), advised me not to give money to the orphans because it’s bad for their development (they turn to begging instead of school), and gave me real local tips with no hassling of any kind. Best guide I’ve ever had.

Yep I’m around Munich – quite busy with the new business (http://guidedmunich.com – Photo course tours), but there’s always the chance to meet up! Cheers, Dave

Sorry if it came across that I was suggesting you or others should donate to Bronwyn’s activities, the link was just for an insight, the photos and for info.

Your idea of direct donation is certainly a great way for travellers to make a real difference themselves.

By the way, I live in Munich too, so maybe we’ll bump into each other sometime!

Cheers, John

I know what you mean about the guides. I was tipped beforehand by a friend who had been to Cambodia, who said to look on Tripadvisor to find a guide with the best reviews. My guide Saron was amazing, didn’t suggest any random donations, and even told me how most of the charities are fake. Based on that alone (not even mentioning his great tour guiding skills) I recommend him to everyone now.

You’re right that Cambodians are quite cheerful, considering the country’s recent past and current status. But I hope they are on the way up! Cheers, Dave

A friend of mine has been doing a similar thing in Phnom Penh, in her case taking rice and fruit to the people who lve and work on the rubbish dumps there. You can see some photos in one of my facebook albums. You can also find out a bit more about Bronwyn’s work with various Cambodian charities on her website.

http://www.bronwyncarnegie.com

Just a little about the floating village on Tonle Sap lake. I did a trip on the lake last year with two friends and a local guide, similar to the one you did one youself. The guide spoke quite good English and gave us a lot of good info about the lake and the floating village. He showed us the floating church, basketball pitch etc., and told we could buy school books and pens at the floating shop to donate to the floating school, which we thought was a good idea. When we pulled up at the shop we were shown packs of exercise books priced at $15. One of the friends with me lives in Thailand, and knew a pack like that should have been less than $5. When we said we’d rather give the money directly to the school, our guide said the teacher would keep the money, but said ok when he realised we definitely weren’t going to buy the books. When we got to the floating school there was one well-fed teacher and one student. The other children were “away fishing”. We thought a bit and eventually gave nothing. Our assumption was that we would have paid the shop $15, the books would have been given to the school, and the shop owner, guide and teacher would get $5 each and the books would have been back in the shop the next day. This may not have been true, but there was certainly something not quite right. We later gave the $15 to my friend in Phnom Penh to buy rice.

Giving rice directly to the families on the boats, as you suggest, would be better, although not sure the guides would be so keen to stop to distribute to more than two or three of the boats. As you know, there are a lot of very poor Cambodians living it shacks along to road leading to the lake, who I’m sure would be pleased to accept a donation of rice.

Anyway, your suggestion is a very practical and direct way for travellers to help the local needy. I find the Cambodians to very friendly and cheerful people, despite the very hard lives most of them have to bear.

There are some great photos on your site Dave! You might like my FB album of Transport in Asia. Not as good as yours, but quite amusing.

Cheers

John

I was struck by my tour guide’s comment that he’s smaller than all his brothers & sisters by quite a bit, because he grew up in a tougher time and his mother couldn’t afford milk. :-/ Let’s help out by giving some kids a good month, one bag o’ rice at a time!