After months of planning and preparation the wait is finally over! Please make your way to Adelaide airport for your flight to Phnom Penh. On arrival you will be met by your guide and driver and transferred to your hotel. After check in we will have a full group pre-trip briefing before heading out for our first taste of Cambodian cuisine at a local restaurant. Overnight 3* hotel Phnom Penh

Meals:  D

Our next stop is a very sobering one as we visit Cambodia's bloody past. Whilst this is a very confronting visit, it is important if we are to understand the country's recent history and how the people are looking positively towards the future. First stop is Tuol Sleng Museum. Originally, this building was a high school until it became the Khmer Rouge’s main interrogation centre. During this period it was known as ‘S-21’. We then stop for de-briefing and lunch at a local restaurant (lunch is at your own expense) before proceeding to the Killing Fields, a stretch of countryside where over 10,000 people were executed. The remains of some of the people are stored in a memorial to remind people of the atrocities the Khmer Rouge inflicted on other Khmers. We will then head back into town and visit the National Museum, housing the world's foremost collection of ancient Khmer artefacts. Late this evening we have time to reflect on the day and debrief. Tonight we have dinner at the Friends restaurant, a training restaurant for disadvantaged youth. The restaurant provides education and job training to street children. The visit helps support the training of these kids by being their guest. Depending on availability we hope to have the manager of the restaurant and some of the workers speak with our group about their experience. Overnight 3* hotel Phnom Penh **Today lunch is at your own expense

Meals:  B,D

After breakfast at our hotel we will head out for a very special day. We drive to Phnom Tamao to the Free the Bears wildlife sanctuary to join their "Keeper for a Day" program. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to get behind the scenes at one of the best wildlife centres in South East Asia. The facility, set up by Perth lady Mary Hutton, now houses over 100 Sun Bears over a 7 hectare area. We will help with the bear enrichment program. Late this afternoon we will return to Phnom Penh and enjoy a low key dinner.

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we leave Phnom Penh for Siem Reap. A short distance outside of Phnom Penh we will stop in the town of Skuon to see their most famous speciality: deep-fried tarantula! A stop off on the Hamish and Andy gap year Asia program, this town is home to the favourite snack of many Cambodians. Many local buses stop here at the market to buy a bag of the “ch’ngain” (tasty) eight-legged creatures. The spiders are caught in the soft ground of the surrounding countryside. We continue to Siem Reap. On arrival we will check into our hotel before heading to the Angkor National Museum. This interactive museum showcases artefacts from the Golden era of the Khmer empire. We will then refresh at our hotel before heading out to dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner we head to the famous Phare Cambodian circus. Despite being known around town as the Cambodian circus, it is anything but a traditional big top. A non-profit school for the arts, Phare is a demonstration of the graduate students’ acrobatic abilities. Exceptionally talented players act out everything from Cambodian folklore to the very real history of the Khmer Rouge; a must see for anyone visiting Siem Reap. Overnight 3* Siem Reap Hotel **Today lunch is at your own expense.

Meals:  B,D

Today we make our way out to the magnificent temples of Angkor where we will explore the surroundings from handle bar level! We will have a full safety briefing with our guide as well as being sized up for our bike. Cycling is a wonderful way to explore the temple complex as it is relatively flat and we can travel along small shaded streets and avoid the queues as we enter the temples. Our cycling is fully supported, anyone needing a rest or not comfortable can ride in the support vehicle. The largest and most impressive of all the temples in Angkor is Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was built between 1112 and 1152 by King Suryavarman II and dedicated to Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation. It is the best preserved of all the temples. Its layout and its scale are simply breathtaking: the wall surrounding the enclosure measures 1,000 by 800 meters in length and the moat, said to represent the oceans of the world is 200 meters wide. We explore Ta Prohm, known as the temple filmed for the movie Tomb Raider which is still overgrown by jungle, trees and vines. We will have lunch near the complex and continue our exploration until we return to our hotel later that afternoon. Tonight we will enjoy dinner at a local restaurant. Fully supported cycling up to 25km **Today lunch is at your own expense. **Appropriate attire must be work when visiting the temples of Angkor. Long pants (covering the knee) and shirts that cover the shoulders must be worn. Skirts, shorts above the knee, tank tops or other revealing clothing are not allowed to be worn within the temple grounds. Visitors are frequently turned away from the temples when wearing revealing clothing.

Meals:  B,D

After breakfast in our hotel we head to the famous Tonle Sap Lake, South East Asia's largest fresh water lake. The lake swells to around 4 times its normal size during the wet season. We get to explore the lake and stilt villages at sea level by kayak. Our two seat inflatable kayaks are a great way to explore the lake as they can go where the noisy long tail motorboats can not. We paddle through sunken fields and floating forests to the stilt village of Kompong Klaeng. We enjoy lunch at this village town before leaving our kayaks and heading into the countryside through small villages to Boeng Mealea. Boeng Mealea was only recently made accessible to the public and is a temple that remains un restored. This afternoon we return to Siem Reap. Kayaking approx 2 hours.

Meals:  B,L,D

After breakfast we do a double check of our gear and equipment before we transfer to the trail head to begin our trek. We hike through seemingly endless rice fields and spectacular rural scenery. This is a great opportunity to see how people in the rural areas of Cambodia go about their lives on a daily basis. Rising up from the flat countryside is the enormous Kulen Mountain, and it slowly begins to dominate the view as the trail approaches. Kulen Mountain (Phnom Kulen) is an impressive sandstone plateau in this otherwise flat area. The mountain is considered the birthplace of the Khmer empire and a sacred place for the Khmer. After arriving and walking through the village, the trail heads into the forest with the canopy high above providing shade even in Cambodia’s hottest months. After passing over a boulder passageway, you will stop for lunch along the banks of the Kulen River before heading back to Preah Ang Thom to visit Cambodia’s largest reclining Buddha. We then head to the popular local hangout: the Kulen falls. Many Cambodians gather here on the weekends and national holidays to escape the heat and enjoy some time beneath the trees. Here we are met by our vehicles and transferred to the nearby Bong Thom village stay. Our accommodation is in a traditional Khmer village where our group will sleep in a large open air dormitory. The home stay is surrounded by orchards of exotic fruit trees that we can try. The home stay also offers free English lessons to children from the surrounding villages, each day and we will be able to join in and help with the lessons. Tonight, enjoy dinner with traditional music and the opportunity to learn traditional dance. Today is a real highlight of our experience in Cambodia. Overnight in Bong Thom traditional hall

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we enjoy waking up to the sound of birds and local villagers starting their working day, heading to the fields. After breakfast, we say goodbye to our hosts and cycle out to the “gem” of the Angkor area: the pretty temple of Banteay Srei. The “Citadel of Women” remains the best-preserved temple in Cambodia. It displays some of the finest examples of classical Khmer art and is noted for its truly remarkably fine bas-reliefs. Banteay Srei is unique in that it is constructed of pink sandstone, which is seen nowhere else in Angkor. Then we proceed to visit the temple of Banteay Samre, attributed to King Suryavarman II and maintaining the same style as the mother temple Angkor Wat. This temple is still very well preserved and houses the reliefs, depicting scenes from some of the lives of the most representative Hindu gods. This afternoon, return back to Siem Reap town. On the way we stop at Preah Dak Village for a Tree Planting Project. It gives the opportunity to offset the carbon of your holidays and help a local family to potentially generate some income. All equipment needed will be provided and the students need to discuss location and plant the trees themselves. Later this afternoon we have the opportunity to relax and dinner will be arranged at a local restaurant. After dinner we have the opportunity to explore the night markets. Overnight in Siem Reap. **Today lunch is at your own expense.

Meals:  B,D

The next 3 days are special time for us as we join the local "Volunteer Building Cambodia" team. This is a real opportunity for us to hands on give something back to a remote community in need and to bring long term benefits to the community. Our work here will be a mixture of labour and construction duties as we build a house for members of the surrounding village. "Volunteer Building" is a small, Cambodian-run non-government organisation that facilitates building sturdy, wooden houses for Khmer people living without safe and secure shelter. The organisation is fully funded by volunteer fees. At the project site the students will be divided into sub groups to work on different components of the project. We will take the time to take a walk through the surrounding community whilst here gaining a better understanding of the people and their way of life. You should wear clothing you don't mind getting dirty. In addition to the friendships which will form, we will foster closer relationships between your two countries and schools. We work each day until 3pm and have time to enjoy a range of activities each afternoon including a cooking class at Komphien Village where you will get the opportunity to sample your hand made dishes and a visit to the local markets to try our hand at bartering. The project is set up alongside our Travel, Give, Grow concept offering unique experiences to help foster respect for the natural world as well as the diverse peoples and cultures that live in it. This style of travel helps develop confidence, resilience, tolerance, problem solving abilities, team work, fitness and key life skills. On the last night we will celebrate the journey with a special farewell dinner and Aspara show.

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we will have our last breakfast in Cambodia before heading out to visit Artisans d’Angkor. This brand was established in 1992 in order to support Cambodian arts and crafts and to help young people find work in their local villages by continuing the practice of traditional arts. We will discover how wood and stone carvings, lacquering, gilding, and silk paintings are created. Depending on time we may stop at the Old Market for some last minute shopping before lunch. We will be met at the hotel after lunch for our transfer to the airport for check in for our flight back to Adelaide

Meals:  B,L

Arrive Adelaide

Meals:  Nil