Jungle Child
Hello out there,
Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious structure, was probably one of the major highlights of my trip through Southeast Asia and the main reason for coming to Cambodia. Even though I did not have time to see all the ancient temples and buildings, it still was an incredible experience of discovering some of them in the middle of the jungle.
But like you can probably guess, places like this attract a lot of people. To escape these crowds, I, therefore, decided not to take the direct way in between the sites and instead walk a detour that goes deeper into the jungle. On the trail, after finally being by myself, I heard some rustling leaves in the trees above me. Expecting to see some monkeys swinging around, I was quite surprised to look into the eyes of a young girl. She was standing on one of the branches high up in the tree. Then I recognized a young boy next to her picking some of the leaves. After we stared at each other for a moment, I pointed at my camera. She nodded, so I took this picture. Then she came down and gave me some leaves. She indicated, that I should chew them. Well, I did, but it did not taste very well. Later on, I asked one of the tour guides at the temples and he explained to me, that the leaves are used to clean your teeth. A really great experience.