Week 14+ Cambodia (Phnom
Pehn, Kratie)
28th of October to
4nd of November
We’ve used so many different
types of transport now…everybody is really relaxed on travel days. We stand
were we are told to stand, wait until it looks like the people who are waiting
with us is going somewhere…walking with them and entering the bus (or whatever)
with them, get settled into our seats (luckily the numbers on tickets are still
in normal digits, so we can at least read THAT!!) and enjoy the ride!! Well, at
least that was how we left Vietnam on our Soya bus, heading for the Cambodian
boarder.
This time Arno had to prepare a bit for the boarder crossing, by
making sure he has enough dollar in his back pocket to purchase our visas. Now,
I still find this bizarre, but here in Cambodia most prices are quote in
Dollar, although the country’s official currency is Cambodian Riel. The price
was $35 per person, we did not need any passport photo’s and I am sure that the
price included a dollar or two bribery money to get us all to the front, but
that was the price quoted by the bus assistant. He collected our passports and
money and guided us through the whole ordeal exiting Vietnam and entering
Cambodia. We had to wait around here and there, but it was stress free and we
just did as we were told. Success, everybody happy!!! Praise God we could leave
our luggage on the bus. I’ve got a suspicion that it might be a different case
entering Thailand!!
So after a good 8 hours, we
arrived nice and early in Phnom Penh. We were swamped by a colorful flock of
tuk-tuk drivers as our bus pulled into the bus park (no official bus station
here…just a street that is used by the bus company to run it’s business form!!)
Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of tuk-tuk, let met explain.
So this taxi-service we encountered all over Cambodia, consists out of a
motorbike–pulled-chariot. Some of the tuk-tuk has only one bench, but we used
the two bench-facing-each-other version. The word tuk-tuk is derived from the
sound of the engine of the motorbike(or ‘moto’). With our luggage and us, the
space in one tuk-tuk is just not big enough, so a mini convoy arrived at Queen
Na guesthouse. This guesthouse was like an oasis. Run by a Auzzie and his
Cambodian wife, Bryan made us feel right at home.The pool was surrounded by
little palm trees and the cool water was luring us in!!!
Today with 2.2 million people
Phnom Pehn is the capital of Cambodia. It’s location on the Tonle Sap, Mekong
and Bassac Rivers provided a prime spot for trade and resources. Early in the
15th century (1432) when the ruling Khmer King was looking for a
place to relocate the city of Ankor (more about this amazing history later) a
certain lady Pehn found a floating bamboo with little religious objects in the
river here. This was then seen as a sign of the gods where to establish the new
capital. It remained the royal capital till 1505 when it was abandoned for 360
years due to leadership strive. In 1866 the city was established again under
Siam rule as the capital and it was at this stage that the current Royal Palace
was built. This was also the time when the French took control of Cambodia and
change this riverside town into a vibrant city. By 1920 Phonm Pehn was know as
the: Pearl of Asia. Over the following 40 years a city expanded rapidly and
infrastructure and railways were built.
During the Vietnam war in
1975, Cambodia was used as a base for the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet
Kong rebellion troops. PP increased in
population to nearly 3million, with most of these refugees. The poor people fled
before the fighting amongst their own governmental troops and the armies of
South Vietnam (plus their Khmer Rouge chums).
What followed is one of the
most horrific genocides that is not even known of by many… The Khmer Rouge cut
off supplies to PP for almost a year and this led to the fall of the city.
After the takeover they forced ALL the people of the city to march out into the
fields ‘the death march’. Old, young, poor, rich, wounded and dying a like,
were evacuated out of the city. The wealthy and educated were put into labor
camps. Trapped civilians were tortured and mutilated. Too much misery to
elaborate on. Pol Pot, leader of the KR, used a former school to establish his
S-21 detainment center. After the educated were tortured here, they were
marched to a certain aria outside PP, the ‘Killing fields’, murdered and buried
in shallow mass graves. The city was totally cut off from the outside world and
for 5 years nobody in the West even attempted to intervene. Not until 1979,
when the Vietnamese had enough and drove the Khmer Rouge from Phonm Penh.
Although very helpful, with a history of rivalry between the Cambodians and
Vietnamese this liberalization was viewed with mixed emotions. People started
to return to PP and a period of reconstruction followed. Almost two thirds of
the population of PP were wiped out during the dark Khmer Rouge years. The
scars of this atrocity lies deep – physically many people carries scars on
their bodies, not to mention the unseen mangled souls. The roads are
horrendous, no national railway exists anymore, but the people are smiling and
helpful. They choose not to dwell on the pass but celebrate every little
advancement. 20 years ago, the number of tourists entering Cambodia was just
touching 200 000, but this year nearly 4 million foreigners crossed over the
boarder. Slowly but surely the confidence of this gentle nation is being
restored. Now just to sort those roads out……..
We visited the fascinating
Royal Palace and since it was the celebration of the 10th
anniversary of the king’s coronation, flowers and bunting created a festive
atmosphere everywhere. The national museum was also a treat. We learned so much
about the ancient history of Cambodia, starting with the kingdoms in Angkor.
(More about this later…..!!)
Our guesthouse provided us
with a kitchen, oven an’ all!! Now this might not mean much to you all, but God
was really even taking care of the smallest details!! Up till now, unless we
stayed with friends, we’ve not had access to a oven. Why was an oven so
important? Well, a little girl’s birthday was approaching fast and she was
talking non-stop about this cake that I was going to bake for her. So, yes!!
She got her birthday cake!! That happy birthday morning will always be one of
my highlights of our time in Cambodia! She did not get big or many gifts, but a
tube of Barbie toothpaste, some Oreos and a little ‘Frozen’ nightdress made her
soooo happy!! Small things!! Her biggest gift – to spend most of the day beside
the pool, of course!!!
Phonm Pehn also give us our
first Cambodian barbeque experience. So you go to this restaurant and then
start ordering, form frogs to ‘cow tongue’ and ‘cow tummy’ -you name it- and
they bbq (braai) it. The fire pit is at the entrance, so as you are led to your
table by over zealous waiters, the wonderful aromas are following you. My meat
was Cambodian-raw on the inside, so I thought it better just to stay with the
cooked outside, but it was delicious. We were also introduced to bbq’ed corn.
Infused with spices and limejuice, the corn, stripped from the cob, get stir
fried. It was such a tasty new dish with amazing flavoring!!
Arno and I had sit down to
re-think and re-organise our itinerary for Cambodia. So eventually we made up
our minds. Poor Na, she booked us the bus tickets to Kratie, then had to change
them again, but at least it was possible. The Cambodian Water Festival was
approaching soon, and busses were filling up quickly as people either tried to
get to PP our out of the way of the 3 to 4 million people who were expected to
come to watch the boat races on the Tonle Sap River. After a huge tragic
incident 4 years ago, the festival was canceled. 2014 was the first year it was
happening again, so BIG festivities were planned. Bus companies also put their
fees up, so we were drawing a short straw here. At least we manage to find
seats on a bus!! Another issue was, that we were planning initially to go and
visit Kevin and Lakeanah (we met them in Vancouver) to witness what they’ve
achieved in their Manna4Life Community help scheme. Our plans could not marry
up, so we resolved in just having lunch with them in PP. Still so good to see
this couple again. A first for our trip, meeting up with somebody for the
second time!! They were making final preparations for the opening day of the
Primary School in the Villaga of Odong, 38km north of PP. A help scheme to
provide free education and life skills for less fortunate children.
We really enjoyed the Pearl
of Asia, but it was now time to visit the more rural eastern Mekong wetlands.
We booked into the Le Tonle Training Guesthouse. Youngsters who are doing
practical tourism, run this guesthouse. Everything is very stylish and the
chefs created the best Cambodian delicatessen. I had my first Amok Curry –
typical Cambodian- and we fell in love with the vegetable spring rolls. Best of
all, the kids could order pancakes again!!!!
Why did we spend another 8
hours in a bus to get to a backwater town?? We heard there might be a chance of
a lifetime, spotting the nearly extinct freshwater Irrawaddy river dolphins
here. This motivated us all!! So, at the guesthouse we use Poti’s great travel
counseling services. He organized a tuk-tuk driver for us, who picked us up
round 7am.
Our first stop was at a little village not far
form Kratie town, famous for it’s bamboo treats, Kralan. We were a bit late, but saw how some of the ladies parceled
up the last of their morning labor. They get up at 3am every morning, lighting
the fires, stuff the bamboo tubes (about 20cm long – chopped to size and prepared
the previous day) with a mixture of raw rice, coconut milk and beans. A plug of
coconut hair gets seals the tube and the open side. Now it gets laid up against
the fire to steam cook for a few hours. At the time we arrived (7:45am) their
work was nearly done. These snacks are so popular the sent it as far as Phonm
Pehn to sell in the streets and shops!!
Next stop – Mekong River
Dolphins. We were dropped off in the shade of the ticket booth to purchase our
passes, then guided on a wee footpath to the little riverboats with engine.
Each boat normally takes 5 people, but since we had a few little people with
us, the 6 of us went on the same boat. We had to cross over the mighty Mekong,
almost a 1000m wide, to a small slower section of the river. Two boats were
waiting here already. We joined the dolphin-watching game. We were not
disappointed. Although we never managed to see a full out-of-the water jump, we
were right there amongst at least 7 out of the 80 surviving dolphins. For one
moment in time we were just part of God’s awesome nature…waiting for the
surfacing sound of our animal friends, turning our heads as quick as possible,
just to be reminded that nature happens at it’s own time and speed- not always
meant for our eyes to witness, but a rare glimpse.
Our guide for the day had
another stop in mind for us. In the grounds of the… monastery were we surprised
to find a Soft-shell sea turtle Conservation Center. They started in 2007 to
dig up nests on beaches in the Mekong River and then brought the eggs to the
center to protect the hatchlings form the predators, including humans. The baby
turtles are kept in separate glass boxes filled with sand and water, until they
are large enough to be released – for almost one and a half years. A very
delicate process, but the soft-shell population has increased to more than 1500
hatchlings during the breading season in 2013. Fantastic success in saving
another Mekong species from extinction!!
A very hot but educational,
day was concluded with lunch in a tin shed between the very bumpy national road
and the Mekong River. I enjoyed that ice cold Coke!!!
Our last day in Kratie
included a little trip sideways – across the river to the Koh Tuang island –
more so a huge sand bank in the middle of the river bed. Let me put it this
way, there were 10 life jackets in the wooden water taxi… still in their
plastic packaging and securely tied with a double knot at the side of the boat,
just to make sure they do not go walk-a-boot!! ‘At least we are all water safe
now,’ was just a fleeting thought!!
We decided to wander around
on the island and not use the horse-and-cart/cow-and-cart taxi. We use our
savings to buy some milk/ice lollies from a boy on his bike, who passed us
twice on his ice cream-run around the island.
We saw some local farmers working their land in a hot late morning.
While hiding form the sun on a little covered bridge we witness a
grapefruit-famer and family nearly ramp their moto off the make-shift wooden
bridge…all in an easy stride…no bother, lifted the moto from where the front
wheel stuck itself between two planks, to continue the journey to the market.
All of this with the biggest corn-sized (‘streepsak’) bag, stuffed with
grapefruit- balance between dad, mum and baby on the moto!!
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| We encountered this little floating village. |
At one of the house-café’s I
got the opportunity to try some authentic sugarcane. The lady peeled the outer
layer off with a veggie peeler (not your IKEA version, but a bit more
robust!!). Then she halved the 50cm long cane in two with a meat cleaver,
dipped it in a bucket of water (I just pretended I did not see that…) and handed
it over to me. How to eat it: you hack away with your teeth on the side of the
cane, until you get to the juicy inners. Now you can either just suck the sugar
syrup out of the fibers, or chew the fibers. Either way, it is a process of
getting to the juices!!! It kept us all busy, while we had to wait to infinity
and beyond for the water taxi to take us back to Kratie! Lovely, just sitting
in the shade of a palm tree, watching the local children playing marbles…no
rush!!
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| My sugar cane getting prepared... |
Back onto mainland Cambodia, we
scrutinized the street for the free Dolphin Hotel tuk-tuk. Somebody told us
that, if we buy a few burgers there, we can use the swimming pool. After a very
hot day, this was all that was needed to bring everybody’s mojo back!!
Not many visitors to Cambodia
travel to the east, but we loved our trip slightly off the beaten track. This
mighty big Mekong River just blew our minds away!!
Cambodia, we are far but done
with you…onwards to the north. I was sooo looking forward in reaching our next
destination…….