Let’s take a flashback today to the Cambodia stop on my RTW trip…exactly this time last year; I was traveling with a friend through SEA.

I’m not sure what it is about music, but it just bridges gaps. Perhaps it’s the nature of music – inclusive; everyone who can hear it feels a part of the experience.

Laura’s green guitar and with a hand-embroidered Laotian pink strap was like a magnet for all of the children hawking bracelets and guidebooks near the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. As soon as our tuk-tuk puttered to a stop at the Wat the children came running from all directions.

I won’t lie, their purpose was two-fold because as much as they were immediately drawn to Jixie (the green guitar, yes, it had a name), they were also incredibly keen on guilting us into buying one of everything they were selling..

Laura and I were absolutely exhausted from a day hiking up the steep ruins of Angkor, not to mention we were grimy, hungry, and just a little cranky when we made our tuk-tuk made the final stop for the day to watch the sunset over a nearby lake. Our grand plan was to relax by the lake in solitude and eat our sweetly salted pineapple fried rice.

Then all of those plans came crashing to a standstill as a dozen kids of various ages held our hands, petted, cajoled, begged and looked longingly at the green guitar – the brave kids even snuck out a hand to pluck the guitar string.

At this point Laura and I were fighting the experience; I absolutely love children, and they generally love me too…ut I was tired, so we pushed ourselves along toward the lake’s edge with the tightly packed throng of children still latched on while we encouraged them to go target other tourists.

But the guitar was just too much to resist for the kids and we had no choice but to surrender to the moment. And once Laura pulled the guitar back out, the kids transformed. They had quickly ditched their baskets of bracelets and instead perched on our laps, hung around our necks, and sang with us dozens and dozens of songs. Everything from Frère Jacques (they knew it by heart…it helps them win over tourists if they can sing/count in multiple languages) to a cutesy Thai pop song that I just now got stuck in my head again for the first time in nearly a year!

Through it all though, it occurred to me that the guitar was the bridge – its presence altered the kids from a pushy hard-sell (which is a hallmark of the children around Angkor and Siem Reap in general) to a genuine experience where the kids were more interested in our attention and affection rather than our Western dollars.

And that experience was amazing. As memorable as the temples in fact. The sound of their young voices singing aloud – confidently from the older girls and with a weak timidity from the boys and little girls – rejuvenated our spirits more than our planned quite introspection would have ever. For that I am incredibly grateful that Laura decided to bring Jixie to the temples that day – it’s my sweetest memory from Angkor.

As a PS of sorts – expect a video of this soon! They were too cute not to film  :-) Oh – and most of these shots were actually taken by the kids!