Cambodia has a terrible history. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge was in power and even after they were driven out by the Vietnamese, there were still many civil wars in the country. This has resulted in millions of mines in Cambodia, even today it is estimated that 6 million mines can still be found in Cambodia. At the Cambodia Landmine Museum and Apopo Centre in Siem Reap, you will learn more about Cambodia’s history and mines.
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Cambodia Landmine Museum
Today, because of the war in Cambodia, the country still suffers from millions of mines scattered across the country. Since the 1970s, mines have already killed 64,000 people, and every day that number grows. Often children play in the jungle where they step on a landmine or they take it home where the landmine eventually explodes. Because of this, Cambodia also has the relatively highest number of people missing an arm or leg. Every year, thousands of people lose a limb (and friends/family members) to landmines. At the Cambodia Landmine Museum, learn more about the various mines that can still be found in the country. It also tells a lot about the museum’s founder, Aki Ra. He himself found and dismantled all the thousands(!) of mines you see in the museum. Today, he passes on his knowledge to locals so they can carefully and dismantle the mines themselves. Most notably, Aki Ra is a former child soldier and had to place many mines himself.
A ticket to the Cambodia Landmine Museum costs $5 per person. If you want more information than what’s on the signs, a free guide is available (of course, a donation afterwards is appreciated). Our guide, Hak, was able to tell us very much, including his own story. He was playing in the jungle with his brother and sister at age 10 when he stepped on a landmine. The explosion caused him to lose his right leg. His brother and sister who walked behind him died from the poison released in the process. This is because the mines are also full of poison, causing many more people to die in the immediate vicinity of the explosion. Hak was lucky that he survived and “only” lost his leg but his brother and sister did not survive. After the rehabilitation and the prosthesis, he wanted to help local children and started a school where English is taught as well as becoming a guide at the Cambodia Landmine Museum. A fierce story where you see the impact of the mines with your own eyes.
We had developed such a nice relationship with Hak that we spent a week volunteering at his project in the local village! You can read more about our amazing experiences in this article.
Apopo rat center
The company Apopo was founded by a Belgian, Bart Weetjens. He started Apopo to train rats to detect different things. Today, Apopo’s rats are used around the world to detect mines and test tuberculosis cases.
In Cambodia, they are only used to track mines. Since 2015, the rats have been sold from the training center in Tanzania to Cambodia. The rats are specially trained to catch on to the smell of TNT, the explosive substance found in mines. When they smell this they start digging for the mine, when they are near they stop and continue looking for new mines. Before they can do this, they are trained for 9 months to 1 year. Rats have such a sensitive nose that they can smell the TNT up to one meter around them and one meter deep. For the rats, it is not dangerous: the mines only explode when there is a weight of 3 kilograms on them. An average Apopo rat weighs 1.5 pounds.
The rats are described as HERO rats because they do heroic work. The tennis court they can “mine” in 30 minutes which takes 4 days with the metal detector! So the rats play a very big role in making Cambodia as safe as possible. Every day the specially educated trainers set out with the rats to make parts of the Cambodian jungle safe for the locals.
On a tour of the Apopo center in Siem Reap, you will learn more about Cambodia’s mines and rat training. At the end, you also get to see a demonstration of a rat looking for a mine in the field. The tour is very interesting and takes about an hour. At 08:30 the Apopo center opens and from then on the (group) tours start. The last tour begins at 4:30 p.m. A tour costs $8 per person. This money is used to pay staff from, care for the rats and detect and dismantle the mines.
It is recommended to combine these two activities during your visit to Siem Reap. Through this, you will learn what impact mines still have on Cambodia today and see firsthand what it can do. It is very impressive and admirable to see the brave people and rats working hard every day to make Cambodia safer.
Want to see more of Siem Reap? Then check out this Siem Reap mini-guide on the 12 best activities, restaurants, accommodations, transportation and more tips!
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