HeroRATS: Arriving in Cambodia
by Christian
for Tuesday, July 16
Today we flew on an airplane from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a town in Cambodia. On the plane, I read a book on my kindle. One of the stories in the book happened to be about this organization called HeroRATS. They train rats to sniff out and claw down to landmines. Landmines are bombs hidden an inch underground. When someone steps on it, it blows. There are lots of landmines in Cambodia because of all the wars here. HeroRATS is trying to find and deactivate these landmines because they kill or injure more than 1000 people every year. The rats used in HeroRATS are special because they are larger than normal rats and have great noses to sniff our mines. But what makes them most effective is if they step on the mines, they are too light to make them blow up. We looked it up and saw there was a HeroRAT visitor's center in Siem Reap. We made an appointment to visit it on Thursday.
When we landed at the airport, it was different than other airports because we got off the plane outdoors. A driver picked us up and took us to Sidewalk Never Die Hotel. When we got to the hotel, I was really excited to swim. It was really hot outside and it was fun to swim in the hotel pool.
for Tuesday, July 16
Today we flew on an airplane from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a town in Cambodia. On the plane, I read a book on my kindle. One of the stories in the book happened to be about this organization called HeroRATS. They train rats to sniff out and claw down to landmines. Landmines are bombs hidden an inch underground. When someone steps on it, it blows. There are lots of landmines in Cambodia because of all the wars here. HeroRATS is trying to find and deactivate these landmines because they kill or injure more than 1000 people every year. The rats used in HeroRATS are special because they are larger than normal rats and have great noses to sniff our mines. But what makes them most effective is if they step on the mines, they are too light to make them blow up. We looked it up and saw there was a HeroRAT visitor's center in Siem Reap. We made an appointment to visit it on Thursday.
When we landed at the airport, it was different than other airports because we got off the plane outdoors. A driver picked us up and took us to Sidewalk Never Die Hotel. When we got to the hotel, I was really excited to swim. It was really hot outside and it was fun to swim in the hotel pool.
Here we are at the Sidewalk Never Die Hotel
My first thought about Cambodia was, "Wow. They really need air conditioning here." It is really hot. Our driver said it was this hot because the rainy season was supposed to have started already but there has hardly been any rain. There were lots of motorcycles on the roads and the tuk-tuks looked weird because they had motorcycles pulling them.
I'm excited to be in Cambodia!
eating dinner at the Golden Pumpkin, a restaurant across from our hotel
Hero rats sound neat! I used to have pet rats when I was a kid. I like hearing about them being helpful animals and not just pests. Your hotel name reminds me of the James Bond movie tomorrow never dies
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting about HeroRATS!!! Very smart of your mother to have you read that book! It also reminded me of Julie's pet rats and we thought Jeff also had a pet rat or two. At least he did a report on having a rat as a pet that I (Grandma) just saw as we've been sorting preparing to move. According to some of what he read for his report they make good pets. We also like the names of your hotel and restaurant and like everything you tell us. We love you all and love what you all write on your blogs. You're having another experience of a lifetime! Love Grandma and Grandpa Huber
ReplyDeleteGrandma Albrecht I can't figure out how to post so that it automatically has my name on it. So some of my other comments are from unknown, but I hope you can figure out they are from me. Why do they call it the Sidewalk Never Die Hotel? There has to be a story there. Swimming sounds like a good idea. I often wondered why anyone moved to southeast Texas before there was air conditioning!
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