Last Bicycle Day

Monday January 23: Today was our last day as a group. We went to Phnom Tamao Zoological park, about 40 km from Phnom Penh. It is a zoo where they care for and house animals rescued from the illegal trade of animals and animal parts. This is the place that Michaela discovered on previous trips to Cambodia and encouraged us to support with bicycles. Being as today was the Lunar New Year the zoo was extremely busy. The entrance road was lined for kilometers with beggars who threw water onto the dusty road in the hopes that they would be rewarded with money. Cars in front of us were throwing money out the windows and the beggars scrambled to pick it up. The money was likely 100 "real" notes which are worth 2.5 cents each. First we distributed 100 bikes to local area school children. The recipients were the very neediest students from 11 neighboring schools.  The children were very polite and well behaved. Then it was off to lunch in the zoo at a picnic area where there were all kinds of creatures being cooked - spiders, frogs on a stick, whole chickens including heads and feet, many other unrecognizable bugs etc. Linda had rice, I had nothing as I was feeling very good today and didn't want to spoil that. The chicken heads did look good though. We were being hosted by an organization called "Free the Bears". We gave our surplus food to the kids who go around and collect recyclable cans. Then we had a VIP tour of parts of the zoo. We saw elephants including one who had a prosthetic leg since he lost one front leg from being trapped in a trap. Next off to see the  Indo Asiatic tigers. They were very beautiful and we got very close to them.  One of them roared and lunged at Keith Montgomery. Then we headed to the main event which was the sun bears. They are the worlds smallest bears and are often killed for their gall bladders or to make bear paw soup. They are quite funny and seemed to want to perform for us. We also were taken to a private area where the keeper brought out a very tiny baby for us to see and photograph. We also saw some kind of fox, wild water buffalo which are different from the domestic and, gibbons. Most of our group is heading out tomorrow (Tuesday) and we head to Vietnam on Wednesday. Can't believe the Cambodia part of our trip is over. Linda got quite weepy at dinner tonight while giving a farewell thank you to the team. A few others spoke as well of how much they loved our time together helping 1097 children. Although this is the last post for our bicycle distribution project, please stay tuned to our blog for news on our tour of Vietnam. Posted by Dave