Sala Bai

All our trips include a lunch at the wonderful Sala Bai hotel and restaurant school in Siem Reap. You can choose from excellent quality Cambodian or western food served up by friendly and attentive students for just a few dollars – certainly some of the best value food we found in the city! If you like the idea, we can also arrange for you to stay in the 4 rooms above the restaurant.

Sala Bai was created by the French NGO 'Agir pour le Cambodge' in October 2002. Each year the school trains – free of charge – about 100 young disadvantaged Cambodians, particularly women. After nine years of operation, 803 Sala Bai students have been trained for careers in the growing hospitality industry, enabling them to achieve economic independence and improve the living conditions of their families.

During the 12-month training, the school covers the students’ training fees (lessons, school supplies, books, uniforms) and daily expenses (accommodations, food, bicycle, insurance and medical expenses) and devotes the last month to helping them find their first job. All the graduates have found work within 6 weeks, earning up to $200 per month.

Sala Bai is also scrupulous about helping the most disadvantaged people in Cambodia, even to the point of visiting each student’s family in advance to determine that they earn less than $300 per year. The results are astounding – many students have gone from village life without ever having seen a tap, to working in 5* hotels within a year, changing their lives and pulling their families out of poverty.

‘Without Sala Baï training, I would never have found this job nor reached this salary. Sala Baï has not only trained me in the hotel and Tourism industry but they taught me how to struggle and be patient in my work. ... With my salary, I can pay for the rent, I save some money to go on to University and I help my family up to half of what I earn’ - Ret Saran, 21, Front Office graduate.

Visit Sala Bai's website www.salabai.com or watch the inspirational story of one graduate.