Butterflies, landmines & overnight buses

Our last day in Siem Reap we got a tuk tuk ride up to a butterfly farm. The rain continued until we arrived, allowing us to see the locals catching fish and the children playing in the floods. The butterfly centre is a conservation site with profits going to support sustainable farming and ecotourism as well as the butterflies. We got a tour which included seeing all the stages of the lifecycle as well as an enthusiastic tour guide pointing out all the butterflies.
After spotting all the large and beautiful butterflies we continued onto the landline museum. This was set up by a ex-child soldier who was conscripted by the Khmer Rouge at aged 10 after they killed his parents. He later fought against the Khmer with the Vietnamese army. Since then he has dedicated his life to de-mining unexploded ordinances around Cambodia and set up an NGO to achieve this as well as the museum to raise awareness. We learnt a lot about the Cambodian war, political history and the impact the landmines are still having on the local people.
We reflected on the ride back to the city after the emotional, hard-hitting tour. We did a mandatory "Yodaiken food hunt" and walked past a perfectly good local restaurant in search of something cheaper or better. We actually ended up walking miles to have a mediocre pizza and coffee. The hotel had kindly looked after our bags since we checked out in the morning, so we spent the late afternoon catching up with family in the bar and having dinner.
We then caught our final tuk tuk in Siem Reap to the bus station, dropping our bags to have a quick peruse around the night market. We were back in time to board the overnight bus, which although looked like a regular bus from the outside, once on you saw bunk beds instead of seats. We made ourselves at home on the hard floor of a double bunk for the long trip ahead.Read more