LONG BEACH - The towering spires of Angkor Wat are breathtaking, as is the whir of motorcycle traffic in Phnom Penh. But if you want to see the real soul of Cambodia, the heart of Khmer, Belmont Shore Travel has the tour for you.
Cal State Long Beach educator Alex Morales, members of local nonprofit Hearts Without Boundaries and Belmont Shore Travel are joining forces to offer a two-week Cambodian Humanitarian Tour that they promise will change people's perceptions of the country.
"We will meet and connect with everyday struggling people," said Morales, who regularly travels to the country on educational and humanitarian trips. "We'll show the poverty that you read about but may not see."
"This is a chance to see the real stories, the real life of Cambodia," says Peter Chhun, founder of Hearts Without Boundaries, a nonprofit that helps Cambodian children receive medical help in the U.S. that is not available in their home country. "Instead of me telling you (about life in Cambodia) you can come and see the real thing."
The trip will include standard features such as a trips to the magnificent Angkor Wat temple complex, the killing fields, the royal palace, the national museum and a cruise on the Mekong River. But it's the rest that will steal the visitors' hearts.
Tour members will help deliver rice and noodles to remote villages, visit orphanages and victims of land mines, go to a children's hospital with medical supplies
"We'll spend two days in provinces where there won't be any other tourists," Morales says.
Hearts Without Boundaries has brought two children, 10-year-old Davik Teng and 1-year-old Soksamnang "Lucky" Vy to the United States for live-altering heart surgeries they could not receive at home.
Both live in tiny villages and bamboo homes without electricity or running water.
"We'll be able to see the children and visit them in their villages," says Morales. "That will be even better than the temples. It's the personalization."
Lakhena Chhuon, who operates Belmont Shore Travel says the visits to the homes of Vy and Teng should be particularly touching, especially to those who have heard their stories or followed them in the media.
"With Davik and Lucky you have two kids who had nothing, and they came to the United States and had their hearts fixed and now you see two kids who have a second chance at life," Chhuon says. "That pretty much speaks for itself."
Chhun, a producer at NBC, helped introduce Cambodia to the world in 2002 when he spearheaded the drive to have Matt Lauer visit Ankor Wat for an episode of the Today Show's "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?"
Now he wants to encourage people to learn about the other side of life in Cambodia and maybe become inspired to make a difference in the country that still struggles to climb out of poverty and escape the lingering ghosts of genocide and the Khmer Rouge.
The cost of the tour is $2,300 per person and includes air fare, hotel costs, ground transportation, admission costs to sites and events. Food is not included.
Information is available by calling Belmont Shore Travel 562-439-2129 or by e-mail at belmontshoretravel@yahoo.com.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291
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