Better together


A twin-centre trip to Cambodia and Bali reveals some of the tourism initiatives shaping a more sustainable future for travel, writes Rhonda Carrier


DESTINATIONS CAMBODIA & BALI | ASIA


a travelweekly.co.uk


t the Phare Ponleu Selpak arts school in Battambang, Cambodia, I watch spellbound as You Sarann,


a 24-year-old trans woman, demonstrates movements from the native Apsara dance – 1,500 codified hand and finger gestures symbolising facets of nature, such as seeds being planted and leaves unfurling. Sarann is learning traditional Khmer dance with support from the Tui Care Foundation, and the non-profit school is, in turn, funding her university degree in psychology. When she graduates, she wants to become a therapist using dance and other arts to aid self-expression – something that doesn’t exist in Cambodia at the moment. Later, I bump into Sarann and her friends dancing along with the crowds at the S’Art Urban Art Festival (pictured), a colourful six-day event designed to revitalise the arts scene and draw tourists to Cambodia’s third-largest city. Battambang was once renowned as a centre


for creativity, until the brutal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s wiped out its artists and clamped down on all forms of cultural expression. Now, amid a throng of happy locals, I lose myself


² 13 AUGUST 2026 41


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