RTW Trip Day #40: Visiting the Hero Rats in Siem Reap

7 November 202

Steps: 7,671

Today we spent a few hours in the afternoon visiting the Hero Rats in Siem Reap, and it was an amazing experience! Who would have thought that spending time learning about rats could turn out to be one of the most interesting and memorable things we’ve done in Cambodia?

Hero Rats in Siem Reap

The Hero Rats program in Siem Reap is run by APOPO, who specifically breed rats and train them to detect landmines, saving countless lives in Cambodia and other war impacted countries around the world.

The tour started with an explanation of the program, and how they ‘recruit’ the rats from Africa (the rats are special African Giant pouched rats).

The guide then went on to explain how the rats seek out the landmines, by smelling out the explosives, scratching the surface so that their handlers know exactly where the bomb is so that it can be removed.

We then saw Poppy the rat demonstrate in a test minefield how they do it. It was pretty incredible to see!

The highlight for the kids was meeting the rats up close and getting to hold them. I think we all have a misconception about rats, but these animals were clean, friendly and clearly very intelligent. 

The tour ended with a short presentation and some videos showing the rats in action and some of the impacted locals, and it left all of us with a deep appreciation for their work.

Shopping in Siem Reap

After visiting the Hero Rats, we spent some time shopping for gifts in Siem Reap. We stopped at the post office to send a postcard, then browsed through a beautiful little shop called Satu that had lovely handmade items in it.

Just around the corner was the “Made in Cambodia” market, filled with handcrafted jewellery and other unique things, including alcoholic fruit jam!

The prices weren’t cheap, but everything was beautifully made. If we didn’t have more than half of our trip still ahead of us, we probably would have picked up a few more things to take home.

We had a delicious dinner at a small spot called Try Me Restaurant, where the whole meal with drinks came to less than $20, before heading back to the hotel to relax.

Tomorrow we leave Cambodia, and we’ve all absolutely loved our time here. Before arriving, it was probably the country I was most nervous about visiting, but it’s become one of our favourites. The people are incredibly friendly, there’s an easygoing atmosphere everywhere, and the food is a wonderful mix of Khmer and Thai flavours.

Cambodia, we’ll miss you!

Previous Day #39: Exploring Ta Prohm's Tree-Entwined Ruins

Next Day #41: TBC

Read About Our Itinerary here