See The World

with BILL'S EYES

Another early start being picked up and taken to a fancy hotel in the centre of Siem Reap which is where we will join our fellow river cruise travellers, before being bussed for 4 and a half hours to our waiting River Cruise boat.  

The Great Lake (Tonle Sap Lake) is in a low water state just at the point it flows into a river. So the riverboat cannot ply the lake waters safely, and we consequently start our Mekong River cruise further down the river from the low water point, but the cruise ship will travel up the river to near where the water is low, turn about (and do the hokey pokey) and then travel back towards Phenom Phen. 

We are lucky and occupy seats at the front of the bus, and I spent all my time observing the buildings, the people, the fields, and the traffic that we pass. Our trip takes us inland from the lake area almost to the geographic centre of the country of Cambodia, so much so, that it seems very dry and the standard of housing, shops and roads is less than what we have seen so far, but the same in many ways as well. 

Almost every house in a village seems to have an open area to the front, in most cases the front boundary of the open area, which sometimes has a roof poking over it cantilevered from the house structure, or a free-standing roof. Many of the houses use the open area and covered area in front of their homes for selling things. 

The covered areas reach the side of the road and most times take over what would be the footpath adjacent the roadway.  

Thus almost everyone with those types of area or cover with their home has something to sell. Be it petrol in large glass bottles, bottled water, iceboxes full of goods that should be frozen, but that would require a refrigerator.  Cartons of cigarettes, cane baskets, fish, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables, furniture, reinforced concrete columns (presumably to use to raise the floor of the residence off the ground when building a home), timber, bamboo, cans of soft drink, Buddha statues, street food, and more. 

Most of the open areas in front of the houses include a knee-high raised platform on which people can sit to talk and entertain their family and guests. Living and working in their own home is life.

I have just begun to describe the living conditions, which appear basic. However, all the children have clothes, and there is an abundance of outside cooking going on at seemingly every fourth area outside a home.  In some areas there are tables and chairs as if it is an alfresco dining area so that people can sit and eat whatever is on offer, others provide a takeaway experience however rudimentary, so everyone seems to get fed.

We stop at a diner mid-way to our destination, and I buy a Magnum ice cream for 2.50 US dollars, and the shop has all manner of trinkets and groceries for sale, catering for the busloads of foreign tourists brought in by the tour companies moving tourists between Siem Reap and Phenom Phen. 

We travel along more country roads with the surrounding areas becoming greener as we travel further South and towards the Mekong river. The roads however become narrower and the bus driver has to slow down when a slower moving Tuk-Tuk or farm tractor travelling in the same direction as us needs to be carefully overtaken. Occasionally, a cow or two casually cross the road, especially as they tend to wander out of the front yards of the houses where they are kept, sleep and poop. 

In small villages, the cows live under the house of the owner of the cow. A cow is a very prized possession as they are about 2,500 US dollars to purchase. The area under the house is where most of the people live most of the time, so for some, the cows are as important as the people are. The raised first floor of the home creates an open shelter area below it, and it is a cooler spot through the days' heat and humidity. 

People greet their friends, offer them a spot on the raised platforms under the home structure so they can drink and chat, the older people sit and watch the world go by, the small children run and play, and the cows wander about wherever they want.

We arrive at the river and our home for the next seven days awaits us. The bank of the river still needs to be walked down, and the path is rough, no red carpet today. 

The crew greet us with a cold face cloth and a drink, and we gather in a room usually devoted to casual seating for tea and coffee drinking but at this time converted into a theatre configuration for a presentation.

After a short information and safety session, and we are off to our room to relax before we go to the dining area for a buffet lunch. 

This is the first time we are able to chat at length with the other passengers.  As you would expect, the passengers are from many other countries, and we learn over the next few days there are couples from Germany, Britain, New Zealand, and the Bahamas. English is spoken by most however haltingly, and we as always are most grateful. Most of the couples are seasoned travellers, but for some of them, this is their first time in Cambodia.

As we will learn over the days ahead, there are lots of activities to keep us active of mind, body and soul during the day. So within a half an hour of the end of the lunch period, we gather at an open to the air area on the upper deck. We hear about an Organization for Basic Training run by a Non-Government Organization (NGO) that provides education to the children of the Chiro village located near our docking point along the Mekong River. 

The children quietly sit about the front of the gathering, and all the children are in a school uniform, which includes bright and clean white shirts. The children perform music on instruments brought on board.  The instruments include an elongate hollow bulbous base made of wood with five maybe six strings running on the top and along its length with a bridge and fretboard like a guitar which is played in a sitting position, some percussion instruments and four tall self-standing bongo drums.  

A young man explains, in English, the teaching program they run for the children and also explains that he and his partner are donating their time as teachers having learned to be teachers in France. 

However, it is the children that have our complete attention, their smiles and enthusiasm as they sing and perform a short pantomime are infectious, and our fellow passengers are smiling just a broadly back at them. As would become the norm on board when we visit or receive local charities, we have the opportunity to donate in this case to the school. 

The river cruise operator has a choice of what is interesting and entertaining events for its passengers.  I am pleased that they chose to support NGOs that are proving education to the youth of this developing nation, which as we will learn over the coming days Cambodia is a country of ancient-roots but only part of our modern world for the past 20 years.

As mentioned, there is more stuff to do.  Once the vessel has moored against the river bank, seemingly at no particular spot, since there is no wharf, some steps are dug by the crew into the soil of the river bank.  We eagerly accept the cold bottle of water provided to us as we leave the riverboat, and we state our room number to a staff member checking us off the vessel.  We walk off the plank and up the now crudely stepped river bank, with more staff located next to the steeper steps to assist us when necessary. There is no path across the field in front of us and no-one to say to go any particular direction, but we can see a bus some 300 meters away and head in that direction keeping a wary eye out for cow dung.

The children that had entertained us moments ago are pilling onto the bus and taking their seats while waving and smiling towards us as we unsteadily traipse across the field.

The heat of the day hits us as, but more so, the humidity. I am already taking a swig of cool water, knowing it will not be cool for long. 

We are off to see Wat Hanchey a 7th-century pre-Angkorian temple, located on a hill near the river in the Kampong Cham region. The bus ride we take is short, and before we know it, we have the option of traversing 303 steps to get to the hill-top vantage point or stay in the bus and be driven up an access road. 

I chose to stride up the steps trying not to hold on to the serpent-shaped handrails located on both sides of the steps. Although it is hot, I need the physical activity after the long period of sitting on the bus that morning and the sitting we did during the performance by the children. 

My heart is racing when I reach the top of the steps, and a drink is in order, but I feel good. I began taking photographs while the bus meanders up the hill with the passengers who did not wish to exert themselves.

The river is about a kilometre wide at this point, and I can see a few tributaries of the river guiding the brownish coloured water further inland. I can see that the land either side of the river is replete with crops and there is in the distance I see areas of fallow land. A strip of land lies between our hill-top location and the main river. We are not yet near the delta region of the mighty Mekong river, but it looks like it to me.

I turn away from the views to note our guide is carefully explaining that we are not merely looking at a building as we walk to towards the temple. The temple is the reason for the village being where and what it is. 

The Buddhist monks of this temple live a strict and demanding life. They also provide education for young boys that are sent to them from all over the district to join the Pagoda. In many cases, the boys would not otherwise get an education, or in some cases, their family is unable to support the boys since they are too young to work but are still a drain on the family.

The temple is surrounded by meeting halls and common spaces for events and celebrations. Some buildings are used to provide health services and community support. The monks provide spiritual support for the mostly Buddhist villagers, but some villagers who follow the Hindu faith.  There are statues of some of the hundreds of Hindu gods sharing the common areas about the Buddhist temple. 

The monks in their bright orange cloth are the spiritual and school teachers of the young boys, but the life of the young boys is not an easy one. The boys are up at 4 a.m. to clean their sleeping quarters and other buildings. They are sent out of the temple to collect food for breakfast and lunch. The young boys in their orange cloth walk in the village from house to house and shop to shop each carrying one of three different gold or silver coloured containers with lids, one container for rice, one container for fruit and another container for meat. 

The young boys do the cooking, and the monks get fed first. The monks and boys only eat breakfast and lunch. Mediation and teaching of the tenants of Buddhism (which is not a religion but teachings about how to live life) are for the morning and the teaching or writing, reading, maths and typically the English language, is for the afternoon.  Not sure about how young girls in Cambodia receive their education, but we have noticed many of them in school uniforms, so the public school system is there for them.

We were there in the late afternoon, and we saw a group (what is the collective noun for monks?) of 7 young boys moving timber in a wheeled tray not sure where to, but at the same time talking loudly and animatedly to each other as they worked. One boy stood on the front of the A-frame used to tow the laden tray, and the weight of the load on the tray tipped the A-frame upwards, and the young boy was flung into the air, landing at a running pace and skilfully jumping into the air again after landing. Seemed just like children all over the world would play and have fun.

We walked about the village centre’s concrete expanses, interrupted by statues and small temple-like structures having one or two openings into a clean tiled floor and a Buddha statue on a raised platform. Fresh flowers, usual lilies in pots are arranged on the top surface of the platform inside the temple-like structure. The outside of the small temple adorned with carvings and patterns provide colour and smell to the village. 

The carvings include a warrior, a fierce looking dude with his arms and hands in what seems to be a contorted pose, but I am sure there is a meaning behind every pose. 

The roof structure of this small temple is much like other temples we have seen, and I take a picture of the sun peeking between two of the many minarets that are arrayed along the four apexes of the roof rising to the peak of the main spire. No display of gold but there are other colourfully adorned temple-like structures, some having relief paintings telling stories likely with a strong moral. 

One painting that catches my eye depicts a baby in the talons of a large bird being carried away from a mother standing in a river, arms raised in distress. Not sure what the tale is, but I hope there is a happier end to the tale.

As we walk about the small village children, follow us, hawking their wares (pencils, etc.), or for two of the children, it is a matter of closely following one of the tourists and looking at them with a forlorn expression, waiting for money to be given to them.

While the tour guide spoke to us in a shelter out of the sun but still very hot, four young boys in their bright orange cloth and shaved heads came to the shelter to speak with the guide. 

The guide follows the Buddhist philosophy, and he received a blessing from them. The boys are 7, 8, 8, and 12 years of age and the older child has been with the monks since he was five. We were able to ask questions, and the guide asked them those questions on our behalf and translated the answers.  

The boys were respected by the guide and respectful of the guide, answering all his questions. I have included some of the information they told the guide in the description above. It seems there is a public face to project hence the serious faces, but sometimes they cracked a smile between them.

We are better for the experience of seeing and learning about temples and how important and integral they are to village life all over Cambodia, but returning to the vessel and having a shower and later a beer or two was pretty good also.

Day 6 Cambodia and Vietnam