It’s our first morning waking up on a boat on Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap river. We moved during the night, and now we’ve dropped anchor somewhere near the mouth of Tonlé Sap lake. Visits to a town called “Kampong Chhnang” and to a floating village are on today’s itinerary.
Kampong Chhnang
To get to Kampong Chhnang, we boarded smaller boats that had pulled up alongside our boat. It had been raining on and off this morning, so we were given clear plastic ponchos to wear. Sure enough, as soon as we took off, the rain started coming down hard. Fortunately for us, the boat was covered, so most of us stayed dry for the time being.
(You’re probably thinking there’s a typo in “Kampong Chhnang,” eh? Nope. That’s the correct spelling. Would you like to know how to pronounce it? That makes two of us!)
We made our way through a marshy area until we came to what must be Tonlé Sap lake. Rickety-looking structures built way up high on stilts started to appear along the shore. We were approaching Kampong Chhnang.
We docked and got out to have a look around. Kampong Chhnang reminded me of a small farm town back home, but “Cambodian style.” People who looked like they might be fishermen or farmers were going about their daily business. Nothing special to them, but interesting to us visitors from afar.
An outdoor produce market was bustling. Someone was grilling something that smelled good. We stopped at the local pharmacy to get some cough drops. The pharmacist spoke some english and was very nice. Everyone here seems nice. They must wonder what brings people like us to their little town just to look around.
A Village on Water
We got back on our boat and headed to the floating village. And that’s exactly what it is — a whole village sitting on water. We cruised close by, going very slowly. I felt kind of bad about being so intrusive. We could look right into peoples’ homes, but no one seemed to mind. We got lots of smiles and waves.
Some of the people in this floating village are Chams. (Remember “Champa?” Champa and Angkor didn’t get along back in the day). Many Chams are Muslim, and dress accordingly. I think other non-ethnic Cambodians live in this floating village, too.
I never got the full explanation of why these people choose to live on water instead of land, but if you think about it, it does have some advantages. No messing around with stilts. No concerns about rising water levels. Maybe non-ethnic Cambodians aren’t allowed to own land. I don’t know.
On the ride back to the main boat, it started raining hard again. The boat was covered, but I was sitting in the front, at the edge of where the cover started. I didn’t know it, but my plastic poncho had ripped all the way down the back. By the time we got back to the boat, I was soaked to the gills. Oh well!
Have Oxcart, Will Travel
Our next excursion, that afternoon, was an oxcart ride to a small village. Hey, why not? Who knows when the next chance to Uber via Cambodian oxcart will come along?
Whoever is in charge of these excursions has some serious organizational skills. The next time we stepped off the boat, there were about thirty carts with drivers and teams of oxen lined up, ready to go. We hopped in one and off we went.
You know what? It sounds corny, but it was a great experience. We took off across the countryside and went through a little village. The pace was slow. The ride was bumpy. The oxen, (they looked more like cows to me), had, shall we say, a certain cachet. I could smell the “country,” too. Maybe I smelled it for the first time because we were just riding along with nothing to do other than be in our surroundings.
Our next destination was one of Cambodia’s most important Buddhist monasteries. The monastery was a ways off, so we ditched the oxcarts and took big, air-conditioned buses.
Garment Factory Reality
On the way to the monastery, we went passed garment factories where people were just getting off work. Hundreds, if not thousands, of (mostly) women were being herded into the backs of open-air flat-bed trucks to be taken to their villages. It was a heart-breaking, jaw-dropping sight.
These women looked so destitute. There were so many of them. They were being loaded into trucks like cattle. It’s possible that these were the ones fortunate enough to have jobs. I can only image what working conditions are like in the huge buildings they were coming out of.
Once again, another sobering reminder of how tough life is for so many Cambodians. And yet, more often than not, when coming into contact with someone here, we’re greeted with a smile.
I poked around on the internet and found information about Cambodian garment factories getting heat for their rotten labor practices. Actually, it wasn’t the factories that were under fire, but some major clothing labels that buy their finished goods.
I don’t know if these were some of those factories. Seeing things like this reminds me that I don’t know much about this part of the world. I don’t know if these women are miserable, glad to have a job, or both. I know I feel lucky to be from where I’m from, though.
Sorry to end on a downer. We’ll pick it up next time at the Buddhist Temple, where things are guaranteed to be more uplifting.
To be continued….
