Breakfast Fun

This morning we slept in a bit and headed out for breakfast. While we were looking around for a place a couple of street kids started following us and asking for money and food. We don't like to give out money so we decided to take them to breakfast with us at the Red Piano. At first they were very apprehensive and didn't want to cross the ropes into the seating area as a waiter was watching them. I signalled to him that they were with us and it was OK. As soon as they sat down they started smiling and laughing. There was one boy who was 10 and had only one leg due to a land mine accident when he was 2, and a girl that was 11. We had a small tourist booklet with us and they were reading it and laughing and telling us the Khmer words for some of the pictures. The boy spoke very little english and the girl spoke none. Despite this it was so much fun laughing and talking. They ordered some fried rice to share (huge portion anyway) and some drinks. They taught us a hand clapping game, the type when you lose you get a slap on the hand and a tickle. I still don't know how it was won or lost but it was fun. They then persueded us to buy them an icecream across the road. I had to lift the boy up over the ropes to leave and from then on he got 'stuck' a lot as I had to lift him over pebbles and any other obstacle he could position himself behind. We took some photos and said goodbye and waited for the bus to pick us up to go to Kompong Thom. It was a fun morning and it felt good to spend only a couple of dollars to make the kids' day and let them eat some good food.

The bus to Kompong Thom took about 3 hours, which was comfortable and not too long. We checked into a hotel overlooking the river and went out to get a late lunch. We had a lazy afternoon and booked our moto drivers for a tour for tomorrow.