Please help Babel Guesthouse survive COVID19

BABEL Guesthouse still need HELP to survive COVID19!

Covid 19 closed down the Cambodian borders April 2020, and overnight Babel Guesthouse was empty.

About the same time the government decided to build a big road just outside Babel Guesthouse, and take 5 meters of our beautiful garden.

We were about to give up.

But with support from a fundraiser we could keep our staff and hire our Tuk Tuk drivers to tear everything down, and build it all up again.

It took a year to build it up to what it is today.

But this city is still empty.

Angkor Wat still has no tourists in sight.

Without tourists, the rooms at Babel are empty, and again our Tuk Tuk drivers have no jobs.

In fact, all our staff are at risk of loosing their jobs.

But YOU can help us through this!

Do a virtual check in at Babel. Spend the night in one of our beautiful rooms. Enjoy a relaxing breakfast prepared and served by our wonderful staff. Go with one of our Tuk Tuk drivers and explore the empty temple area, and get unique footage of magical temples - without tourists.

And this way you can help us get through this. So we are still here to welcome you when boarders open again!

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:

All donations over 50 usd will be rewarded with a personalized video. We will special make a video just for you.

We will check you in and take you to your room.

You get to join us in the kitchen to see a meal being prepared for you, and you will get it "served" by our staff (who gets to eat it themselves).

You will get a day with one of our amazing Tuk Tuk drivers (who gets a job, hurray!). WE will join him to the temple area FOR you, and take unique footage of an empty Angkor Wat, and other exiting temples - without tourists!

We will put this all together in a video - just for you! It will be sent to you via WeTransfer on your email. And you can enjoy a little piece of Cambodia at your home, knowing that YOUR contribution is helping all of us in Babel Family!

You can donate via PayPal or debit/credit card directly through this site.

For those in Norway preferring to use VIPPS, you can send your donations to John Daniel Solhaug 92244988. (All donations over 500 kr will be rewarded with a personalized video).

All funds raised will go towards securing a steady income for our staff and drivers in this difficult times and make sure Babel once again will be ready to welcome guests coming to explore the magic of Angkor Wat.

If you came across this and never heard of Babel Guesthouse before, here is our background story:

Babel Guesthouse is owned by the Norwegian couple Katrine and Simen who have been back and forth to Cambodia since 2007. They have a strong passion for Responsible Tourism, and have always run Babel Guesthouse with an active focus on giving back to the local society.

“We only hire local Staff and Tuk Tuk drivers who receive good working conditions, plenty of training, on site English lessons and the possibility to be sponsored with higher education trough Babel Education Program. We work together with several organizations and like-minded businesses to support the local community and protect the environment, and we try our best to pass on our knowledge to our guests so that their visit can benefit the local community.

We constantly seek ways to become more Eco-friendly. We use Bamboo straws in our restaurant, we use biodegradable rubbish bags in the rooms, we don’t sell plastic bottles and we offer free water for refill. We donate our used cooking oil to make it into biodiesel. And we buy it back and use it in our generator. We have implemented many initiatives over the years, you can read more here: https://www.babelsiemreap.com/environmental-initiatives

In 2018 we brought our concept to another level by opening up Cambodia's first Zero Waste Bulk store – Babel Eco-Shop and Refill Station. Our vision with our Eco-shop is to make it easier for travelers who wish to reduce their traveling footprint to choose plastic free alternatives. In our Eco-shop you´ll find various items perfect to bring on your travels or for your home. Everything is Eco-friendly and locally made – creating jobs!

We were a bit “sick and tired” of guests complaining about all the plastic pollution they see in Cambodia, claiming that the locals need more education. And at the same time they come back from the night marked with their hands full of plastic bags, plastic bottles and other unnecessary single use plastic items. We wanted the traveler to see that its time for THEM to see that they can actually do something themselves. There are so many options for you to use less plastic while traveling, and in your daily life. And it is really not that hard. We all just have to start thinking differently and change our habits.

It surprised us to see how quickly our shop became popular. We have learned that people WILL choose Eco-friendly if it is available for them. It is very motivating to see that people are willing to change their habits, people are willing to learn and people are positive to change. If we want a future on our planet, we have to do things differently.

To continue all this work - we need your help!"

Katrine and Simen