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Using hand made leather hand puppets, children from a local orphanage re-enact traditional stories on a white sheet in our hotels restaurant.

The story telling consists mostly of shadowy guys fighting off evil spirits, monkey gods causing trouble, and princesses getting kidnapped by nasty devils, only to be rescued by the valiant king. Accompanying this is music played on bamboo xylophones and steel gongs and a rapid Khmer dialogue peppered with Larry Grayson impersonations.

Following this, we watched traditional Apsara dancing - performed by children aged 8 or under. This graceful form of dancing involves slow movements and amazing flexibility - double jointed kids are chosen especially for this art form.

The show ends with a display of bamboo dancing - a little like 'double Dutch' skipping but with bamboo poles in place of ropes which are clattered together as the dancers hop in and out of the gap between. The pace builds and the dancers whirl and clap - remarkably no ankles are broken.

A few days later, we took in a show by adult Apsara dancers - a world-class troupe who play to a packed buffet sitting of Japanese tourist buses. Truly this is graceful dance - all the movements fluid and synchronised and all the dancers faces locked in an enigmatic smile.

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