While sightseeing at the ancient temples and exploring the city of Siem Reap were incredible, I had a much more memorable experience while in Cambodia. We took our tuk-tuk driver, Shuen, up on his offer to drive us out of the city and around the countryside for the day.

He picked us up and we crammed into the tuk-tuk ready to get away from the bustle of Siem Reap. As he navigated his way out of the city it wasn’t long before the paved streets gave way to gravel and then dirt roads. It wasn’t a gradual transition. There were no suburbs; we went from the urban setting to the rural landscape after traveling only a couple miles.

Riding along watching the horizon and the lush green fields and palm trees rush past was serene. Every so often the fields were broken up by wooden houses, some on stilts for when the fields flood. There were irrigation canals along some of the roads, with reflections of the numerous buffalo that roamed all over and clearly liked to cool off in the water. It was hard not to snap pictures of everything, but was also so nice to leave the phone alone and just take in the calming beauty that the country offered.

We stopped a couple times to stretch our legs and look around. I wandered down the road and met a group of kids, who came outside after their dog made it clear that he was the guard. They reassured him and stared at me curiously before smiling and agreeing to take a selfie with me, although after looking at the photo, the youngest girl seemed suspicious of this foreigner. We moved along and stopped at a food stand where one lady talked to me about the snails she was selling. It was a popular spot since there were quite a few Cambodians that stopped by and bought a snack or two while we were there. On our final stop Shuen bought some watermelon for us to munch on while we chatted with the locals. It was the sweetest and freshest I have ever tasted and these local vendors were immensely friendly. They were just enjoying some company in the shade, relaxing in a hammock and they welcomed us with wide smiles.

It was such a wonderfully fun day. I felt blessed to have been able to spend a day in a part of the country tourists don’t often experience and to have shared that fun with some of the local people. They work hard and have little but are also joyful and compassionate. Even just the small insight into what their everyday life is like that I received was meaningful and something I won’t forget.