October 21, 2025
Our last full day in Cambodia and we are tour free! I was up early for a solo motorbike ride to get all our laundry dropped off so we could pick it up tonight. The weight-based wash and fold laundry will probably save us over 1,000 USD compared to the crazy item-based hotel prices. A solo motorbike ride is a pleasant way to start the day even though it was doing errands. Once back at the hotel we all headed to breakfast where the Uno tourney continued.
Back at the room we did a home school session. Lenny wanted to do some picture drawing and story writing but quickly got discouraged with his ability to draw what he pictured in his head. I tried to help but my drawing skills are not much better. We have also tried to introduce some push-up breaks into home school. We want to make sure they are able to pass their ten push-up test for karate class when we return home, as both boys have expressed interest in restarting that when we return.
We had promised the boys a special fun thing to do today in the afternoon but first we decided to make a stop at spot recommended by our guide, APOPO Hero Rats. I booked a tour timeslot and we headed there on our motorbikes, about a 20-minute ride. Large areas of Cambodia have become littered with a variety of landmines throughout years of different conflicts. The African Giant Pouched Rats are trained to smell the explosives and alert their handlers of the exact location of a mine so it can be disarmed. The rats do the work for the reward of food and the handlers communicate with them via a simple clicking device. After watching the example of a grid search with two handler and a rat it was clear how slow of a process it is and how brutal it must be to do the work out in the fields and jungles with the unrelenting heat. Though the rats only work early in the morning as they prefer to be nocturnal. The rats are treated like royalty and the program is loved by all Cambodians for the deaths and horrific injuries it prevents. The rat we got to hold was named Jordan.
Next, we were off to the fun thing we promised the boys, Wake Park Cambodia. The drive was another 20 minutes, with the last third on a very bumpy dirt road. The faculty seemed out of place compared to all other things we had seen in Cambodia; it could have been in the US. It was new and had two nice clean lakes along with a few small houses you could rent if you were really into wake boarding and making a full weekend of it. The smaller lake had a sandy beach with lots of tables and chairs serviced by a bar and restaurant. We got a table and ordered some snacks, but even though we had missed lunch all the boys wanted to do was get to the other side of the small lake to the floating obstacle course and blob. I headed over there with them while Kayleen waited for the food.
The boys got their lifejackets and jumped in to swim out to the obstacle course. The whole place was on the empty side but there was a group of late teen/early twenties kids that helped the boys if they got stuck getting out of the water while I shot water from a crazy water cannon at them. After a quick return to our table to shovel down their late lunch it was back to the obstacle course, this time with Kayleen and I joining them. Lenny was fearless to jump down to the blob though Ollie was much less willing, perhaps a fear of heights starting. Kayleen gave Lenny one good launch from the blob but the rest of our attempts did not go well. The boys either landed in terrible looking positions when jumping down to the blob or when being launched and landing back on the blob again instead of in the water. We ended our blob attempts before our no injury luck ran out and changed to a game of team tag, Ollie and Kayleen vs Lenny and Kyle.
It was hot out, even with some clouds in the sky, and the water was so warm it did nothing to cool you down. We played for a while but Lenny was getting exhausted, as was I, and whining even though I helped him tag Ollie a few times. We then tried a Ninja Warrior challenge which sent Lenny over the edge because he couldn’t climb up the big slide. He would slide down over and over yelling, “Dumbest game EVERRRR.” We helped him to the top and I let him push me off into the water but even that did little to change his mood. We decided to head to the main attraction and let Ollie try the wake park.
When buying tickets at the entrance I asked what the age limit was for the wake park. The woman laughed said, “no age limit, anyone who is not too scare is welcome to go.” Clearly a different set of rules from the US! We only bought a ticket for Ollie to start and that was a good decision. The wake park was on the bigger lake and had a tow rope that pulled boarders around the lake in a circle. The boarder could decide if they wanted to go off the variety of jumps placed all over the lake or go around them. If you fell off, or went outside the markers for the path and let go, you had to swim, with your board, to an exit point on the side of the lake. Lenny was not ready for this but Ollie said he was so I stood with him while he got all the instructions to attempt to kneeboard. Listening with him I was certain there was no way he was going to remember or be able to repeat all the moves the instructor showed him, but he proved me wrong. He hopped on the kneeboard on land while holding the rope and went through all the moves he had been shown. Now it was time for the real deal.
He went to the starting platform and got into position as he held onto the tow rope. The cable whipped him off the platform like a rocket! He only made it a short distance on his first attempt but quickly swam back with his board for another attempt. Knowing what to expect now, his second run was much better and he made it half way around the lake! Once at the first big turn, where Kayleen was standing, he wasn’t strong enough to force the board to turn through the markers but he remembered to let go and swam to shore with his board. After a few more attempts with the same result, he was a bit frustrated he couldn’t make the turn and was done. Kayleen and I were both very proud of him being able to do as much as he did though, he far excepted our expectations.
We headed back to retrieve our laundry and return our motorbikes before returning to the hotel. During the ride back from the wake park, Lenny kept falling asleep on the motorbike. No matter how much Kayleen yelled or shook him, he kept nodding off right onto her throttle arm. Eventually she had to pinch him in the belly to wake him up, he wasn’t happy. Once safely home with our laundry we settle in for the night after a very busy day.
