Well Singapore Airlines could not have been more helpful when they got the story. It was indeed a very comfortable flight on their new A380 plane, especially as economy is spread over two decks so you can run up and downstairs to keep the blood flowing. Add better legroom, larger video screen and excellent service it was a good flight.

However once disembarked at Singapore I was exhausted beyond reason. Fortunately the airport has luxuries such as a free cinema where you can relax between flights, and a crash out zone where £15.00 will buy three hours sleep. By the time I came round I didn’t know which planet I was on. Utterly disorientated I had no idea of the time (I had slept past my alarm and the wake up call failed.) but still managed to make the onbound flight to Siem Reap.

A little of the background then, last summer my family and I were staying in Siem Reap for a few nights, before flying down to Thailand, to visit the highly the ruins of Angkor just outside the town. There, in a little coffee shop, I found an advertisement for an NGO (Non Government Organisation) called the Cambodia Orphan Fund who wanted a person to improve liaison between the tourist industry, incoming visitors and the charity itself. I arranged to link up with Nick the owner, later the same day, and was offered the job on the spot.

We are an Orphanage to 35 children who sleep at the school, with another 100 coming into lessons over two shifts during the day. We are building a series of further education facilities throughout greater Siem Reap, where we will provide English Lessons and the infrastructure for the local people to develop the facility further. Thus COF is in my opinion one of the most forward thinking and delivering NGO’s in town. So with the good grace of the organisation I work for I was granted a sabbatical to return to Cambodia for six months, to take over the marketing side of the charity. Consequently, one year later, I stepped back into the towns dusty streets, this time a resident and into my new home in a small but friendly guest house in Taphul Village.