The Norwegian couple Katrine Solhaug and her husband Simen Julner has re-opened their Siam Reap guesthouse Babel Guesthouse after Covid-19 travel restrictions and road building in Cambodia forced them to close over a year ago.

 

In an interview with media Khmer Times, the couple talks about their struggles during the pandemic and share how they through innovative measures have managed to reinvent their business to survive the hardship the pandemic has caused.

 

Katrine originally came to Siem Reap in 2007 to run a guesthouse for one year and hired her boyfriend in Norway to come and help. The couple decided to stay and took over the ownership of Babel Guesthouse in 2011 focusing on responsible tourism and only employing local workers, providing English lessons and the possibility to be sponsored for higher education.

 

read more https://scandasia.com/norwegian-couple-re-opens-their-guesthouse-in-cambodia-with-innovative-business-solutions/

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The couple decided to stay and organized a big fundraiser for their twelve staff and sixteen tuk-tuk drivers who all depended on Babel Guesthouse for survival. But if the pandemic did not cause enough distress, a road-building project also started which resulted in Babel Guesthouse’s big garden being reduced by 5 meters and the couple was very close to giving up at that stage.
 

“But because of the fundraiser, we could give jobs to our tuk-tuk drivers to tear down the whole garden and rebuild everything. We had to make smart solutions to make it look just as big, and we had to spend most of our savings to build the place up again. It took a year, and now we all agree – it now looks even bigger, and it is such an upgrade.”

So, they raised money to support their staff during the pandemic but, when a road project affected their property, they instead used that money to pay them to adapt the property.

Clearly the Viking spirit is alive and well in today's Norwegians.

I wish them well!