Supporting a good cause

It was our last day in the capital today before we head to Battambang so we decided to make the most of the hostels tours and visit a wildlife sanctuary and conservation park. We researched heavily into the park to ensure that it was legitimate and only took on animals that needed it. It was a lot further away than we thought! We went in a tuktuk which surprised us with a guy who came with us yesterday. Reception gave us some lovely fetching masks to wear as the roads got very dusty most of the way. After two hours and stopping to fix the tuktuk at one point we finally made it to a long road that lead up to the park. Travelling this road was hard as on both sides were people, including young children and elderly, begging as the cars went past. It was a difficult situation to see. Having arrived at the park it was situated inside a forest area and everything was very spaced out so if felt more natural than any wildlife park back home. They also had people living in small sheltered areas with hammocks in the park that had stalls selling food for both you and the animals. We'd read online about how a large troop of wild monkeys had moved into the park to get the food so we chose not to buy anything and steer clear. Other people fed them bananas though. We walked around a large enclosure with many animals wondering around and there were enclosures inside here as well to house other animals. We chose not to have a guide but after a while we wished we had as there was no information on the animals or what their rescue story was. The main rehabilitation project at this park seems to be the sun bears and sloth bears. Since they opened in 1998 the demand for space for bears in need has grown massively so they've built 7 more enclosures and have cared for hundreds of bears over this time. These enclosures were so impressive with the layout and features inside and they did have stories up of some of the current rescued bears they house. Many had been taken as cubs to be caged for visitors to touch and look at in restuarants or other attractions. The centre responds to tip offs and with the police or government backing save these bears from this cruelty and where possible rehabilitate them to be released back into the wild. The other main enclosure here was for the elephants. All had been rescued from lives of giving tourists rides or being an attraction at a holiday resort. One elephant had injured it's foot when they saved it and had to have part of it's leg removed so no the organisation had a special prosthetic leg and foot made for him so he can still walk as normal. Unfortunately this means he cannot be released back into the wild but he would not of survived on his own with his injury anyway. We felt like the other person we were with wasn't bothered about being there so this made it a little hard as we couldn't take as long as we wanted at each stop but we still had an enjoyable day despite the blistering heat and dusty roads! It's good knowing that our money has gone to an organisation that is really making a difference in this part of the country.Read more