An essential part of any volunteer's time.

There are just too many stories of overseas volunteers having things lost, stolen or vaporised during their time in country. I have one more tale to add to this canon of catastrophes:



Yesterday I went with Joe and Kafia to the Cambodian Cultural Village, a theme park of sorts that showcases the various houses and lives of all the people that live in Cambodia. We watched a mock-up wedding ceremony where Joe volunteered himself to be the groom (very well done, I might add). Kafia and I braved a ghost-house representation of Hindu hell and we were about to try our hand at archery when I noticed...

My wallet was gone.

I asked our guide to help me look for it, who consistently acted as if it were an inconvenience to him. He was extremely unhelpful and uncaring (what a surprise), as were the rest of the 'staff'. Eventually I decided to pack it in and go to Plan B. I uttered a few expletives at the guide and wished him farewell before going back to the Centre and activating my backup travel money card.

All in all there was about $30 in the wallet, along with my Australian ID card and a (now deactivated) credit card. It's only money...

Lessons learned:

• Don't lose anything in Cambodia.
• Don't rely on any Cambodian person to help you.
• Don't assume Khmer people are good at their jobs.