I am an amateur.

This tiny girl came up to the table where I was eating dinner on the first night I was in Phnom Penh Cambodia. She said nothing, and did not move. I did not know why she was there. I took a couple of photos and showed them to her on the preview. She looked at my camera screen without a smile.

Then she stepped over to the tuk tuk driver I was eating with. He gave her some money and she left.

He told me she was begging and I had no idea. I later found out this is common over there. Any time I went out anywhere in that city, some small child or other would come up to me silently and look at me.

Cambodia is the only place on my travels in SE Asia where this happened. I wonder where the parents are; and why children are used for this task. Is there an adult out of view somewhere or are these children on their own?