101 Challenges:

Location: Siem Reap - Cambodia

We were supposed to go to the orphanage yesterday but the director, Gerald, was in the USA and wasn’t due back until today, so we held our plans back for 24 hours and took all our goodies with us today. Technically we should have been in Bangkok right now, but when you look in to the eyes of these kids, there’s no way you can justify any act of selfishness.

So, after storing all the goodies we bought a couple of days ago in our hotel room (much to the bemusement of the cleaners) we headed back to the orphanage and gave the gifts to Gerard and Nimol (who was easy to find this time as she was standing at the gate on our arrival). They were incredibly grateful and asked us to pass on their thanks to everyone who donated. Thanks everyone who donated. Done.

We spent the whole day playing with the kids and looking around the orphanage. We got to muck around at playtime which was great with Lee chasing bubbles blown by a kid about five but with a mentality twice Lee's age and Lindsay playing (losing) some sort of marbles come snooker game too. Once 5pm came, it was dinner time and we sat with the brilliant lads and gals whilst they ate and helped out a few with their homework straight afterwards.

Then we were allowed to watch the kids chanting in a chorus of amazing little voices before it was bedtime. So we went upstairs with the staff and said goodnight before buggering everyone’s hard work up by giving the already hyper and bouncy kids some 600 lollipops. Oops. They turned brilliantly mental! Jumping higher, singing and shouting louder, fleeing around the rooms like mini road-runners.

Sensing it was probably now a good time to go, we said our farewells and thanked absolutely everyone for letting us be part of that amazing place for a couple of days.

The orphanage and its staff and the kids have all had such an overwhelming impact on us that it’s hard to put into words. Lindsay, back home, works with nothing but negativity, seeing everything bad in the world and nothing good (no, he doesn't work at McDonalds). After seeing what amazing things amazing people are doing to help amazing kids, he’s seriously contemplating giving six months of his life (maybe more, maybe less if alcohol gets its way) to this place (if they’ll have him) after the 101 Challenges are complete.

If you do any research on Cambodia over its past 35 years of history, then you’ll see that the country has been ripped to its heart with horror, terror, injustice and everything in between. To see children, as young as nine months and ranging up to 17, all with stories of the unimaginable, managing to raise a smile and actually look happy, then it’s all too easy to put your life in to context.

We arse about. That’s who we are, what we are and what this project's all about really. But, to come to the self-realisation that nothing can ever be as bad as what a tiny four year old has already gone through then, quite simply, and very easily, you realise that life for anyone reading these journals is f*cking brilliant in comparison.

On a lighter note… Potatoes! They’re great!

We almost forgot to mention, on the 31st of March, we went to Angkor Wat with our Slinky.

We’ve carried the little bugger around in our bags for three months now. He’s never shown any thanks and frankly, has just got in the way. So the day had finally come to set him free. And, he loved it!

The sights that surround Angkor are simply mesmerizing. The temples are stunning and so beautiful that it’s hard to take everything in, especially when you’re trying to fly a slinky down some stairs.

Firstly, we had to find some stairs. As everyone of the 3000 or so tourists were walking around, taking pictures and gawping at the beauty of the place, we were running around like blue a*sed flies, searching for a decent set of steps to allow us to pull off this challenge.

All of the major stairs were closed off for renovation in the main temple which did not please us one bit, so we had to settle for some baby steps. We really should have prepared for this challenge. Neither of us could make that bloody slinky work. We tried to tip it over the top stair – nothing. We edged it to the edge and to let gravity tip it over – nothing. We rolled it – nothing. Lindsay even launched it about 40 feet into the air in a hissy little baby tantrum – still nothing.

Eventually though, the slinky did what it was supposed to do. It slunk down those 8 or 9 steps in absolute glory. We were elated. So happy that technically, we had just completed another challenge. But, something was missing. Together, we felt that more could be done.

More could. Angkor Tom (or however you spell it). We never counted, but there’s probably 500 steps or so to this temple. Steep steps. Staring up at it, we now had mental erections – this was the big one, the glorious, this was our little slinky’s final calling – his destiny.

After all the fun the three of us had (the slinky’s included there) we headed off to eat some Durian fruit before heading home. Mmmmm – sticking something that smells like a toilet after Lindsay’s visited it for the 12th time in any one day, into your mouth and chewing and then swallowing, isn’t exactly the best way to enjoy lunch.

Durian fruit stinks and your brain doesn’t let you forget this when your munching down on it. Trying to swallow is hard – because your belly’s shouting “No Fecking Way Is That Coming Down Here Mate!” But it’s only a fruit after all and so Lindsay tucked in – this was much nicer than chicken feet. Lee squirmed like a girl – obviously, unlike his younger brother, his nose isn’t used to horrible stenches.

Tomorrow we leave for Bangkok and we have a partial challenge failure to admit. We were supposed to eat fried tarantulas here but we couldn’t find any anywhere. Apparently there is a lack of these creatures around these here parts so they aren’t on the streets for sale so readily or easily. And if what we are told is true then we don’t want to be eating anything that is technically endangered (even if only locally) despite them being horrible eight legged furry beasties which we don’t see the ecological point of.