Meet Sambath

Everything got better when we met Sambath.

We had no plans in Siem Reap. To be honest, we had no idea that we were rolling into such a gem of a place when we arrived.

We were having an afternoon swim at our hotel when Sambath, our TukTuk driver asked us about our plans for the next few days. We said we were visiting Angkor Wat.

He informed that us that our temple ticket would let us in to as many as 50 temples and not just Angkor Wat. We had no idea. He explained that he could take us on a tour of the temples, driving his TukTuk inbetween.

It seemed that we would’ve missed out if not for this information or ended up paying someone else to take us once we realised what opportunity awaited us. We took Sambath up on his offer and the next day he arrived promptly at 7am as agreed.

We just had a fantastic day. Sambath was a great driver and knew a bit about temples and Siem Reap in general. It felt like we secured a driver-cum-tour guide for a great price.

From that moment, every time we needed a tuktuk, we just called Sambath. To be honest, it didn’t feel like we were calling a local driver for a service, more like calling on a friend who we looked forward to seeing and hoped he enjoyed our company. It felt like he was just with us on our trip like a third member of our party 😁

We took Sambath for lunch, while dining he took a small portion of rice and put it to one side, within a small dipping bowl, along with one piece of fried pork. Dessert was fruits and a piece of pineapple joined the small platter.

I asked curiously what he was doing, but suspected it was an offering. Sambath explained he was making his prayer hoping to give the tourists who choose him a wonderful experience – and that he did.

Sambath gave us Cambodian fruits to try including beautiful pink coloured tamarind and mangoes picked freshly today. We told each other stories and generally had the loveliest time. We definitely won’t forget Sambath and how we all enjoyed a few days exploring Siem Reap. If I returned I would message him straight away!

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