Cruising the Mekong, in my opinion, is the best way to experience Cambodia and South Vietnam. Life is dependant on this body of water and the people have adapted in unique ways to exploit it. We travelled on board the Toum Toui II with G Adventures and a group of 24 other fantastic people from all over the world including Australia, Switzerland, Germay, USA, Canada and UK. Our first stop was at the village of Chnok Tru where the locals specialize in silver and copper punching. Along with a demonstration we were greeted by a group of children who ran around holding our hands and playing. The older children were selling jewelry made by their parents making it difficult to determine if it was appropriate. In many cases the parents keep them out of school and use the money to buy beer but in other cases it's actually funding their schooling. What to do! A little girl stole my heart as we walked along the village chatting away with me in very impressive english. Another little girl played with my skirt and held my hand. For a few days after all I talked about was babies successfully driving Chris nuts. I later learned it was common in this village for young people to sell items in the morning and attend school later in the day easing my concern. We were also treated to a talk from a local teacher who survived the killing fields during Khmer Rouge. He's 72 now and runs a local school free for students to learn reading, writing, math and a bit of french. There are public schools in Cambodia but it's not always an option for the students to make the trip out to them so this is an excellent way to ensure they get some studies in every day. With our guide as a traslator the man told many horrifing stories from the days of Khmer Rouge which began in 1975. He explained how during Khmer Rouge intellectuals were rounded up and sent to jails all over the country to be tortured and later sent to the killing fields to be murdered. Because he was a teacher if the soldiers found out about him he would have certainly met his death. Fortunately someone warned him not to expose his profession so he lied when asked suggesting he was a farmer. He had to pretend over and over again that he couldn't read or write. The soldiers would look at this hands to see if he was lieing as well. Because he went to the gym regularly he had rough hands like a farmer saving him from being discovered. This went on for a long time as he was forced into harsh farming conditions along with some 2 million others across Cambodia, taken away from their villages and family. Many people died from starvation during this time with the soldiers thinking that a hungry person worked harder and a well fed man is lazy. After Cambodia was liberated in 1979 the teacher returned to his village where he was reunited with his surviving family and started the school. He was one of the luncky few with roughly 3 million people being killed by Khmer Rouge during this short time. Now he runs this school which survives off donations and contributions from the local village people. It's a vital source of knowledge and opportunity for the local village children. He is an inspiration and we were lucky to have met with him, it was one of the most memorable parts of our trip in my opinion and taught us a lot about Cambodia's complex and sad history. Our afternoon was much lighter as we cruised through one of the largest floating villages in Cambodia. Despite the village being in Cambodia it's made up of mostly Vietnamese families. Cambodia's traditionally build their houses on stilts where Vietnamese will opt for the floating house. It's an extremely interesting way of life completely dependent on the river for transportation and food. We headed ashore to Kampong Chhnang where we bicycled through the village to the house of a local pottery maker. It was a really fun ride but also nerve wracking with motorbikes whizzing by in all directions. The way back was even worse because it had gotten dark by the time we left for the boat! A woman greated us at her studio in the underside of a house on stilts. The way she made clay potts was fascinating to watch as she spun herself in circles beating at the clay to produce the correct shape and thickness of the clay. I imagine she's got the best behaved children in the village the way she expertly handled the whacking stick. We walked across the road to a palm sugar producer who also makes palm wine. We're pretty sure he had been quality controling the wine before we arrived because he was hilarious and all smiles! He showed us how they collect the palm juice by climbing up the tree on bamboo ladders and tap the correct branches of the palm trees. From there they reduce the palm juice in a similar way to making maple syrup to create the palm sugar. We all had a taste of the sugar and the wine, good stuff! We probably needed the liquid courage to cycle back so it worked out well. Day two on the Mekong we made our way to one of the oldest Buddhist monasteries in Cambodia, via Ox Cart. It's as luxurious as it sounds and fast too, only took us 20 minutes to get 2 km (insert sarcasm). The monastery looked pretty beaten up and the newer buildings surrounding it made it look even older. Several monks live in the monestary most are elderly people and some orphaned children as well. They are taken care of by the local villagers and in return the monks assist with village ceremonies, blessings and anything else they can do to support the village. We were privledged to have a monk bless us during our visit. We're not religious in any way but it was nice to have him say kind words over us while flicking water and after this he tied a bright red bracelet to our wrist for goodluck. That night we arrived to Phnom Penh where we had 2 days. We were treated to a cyclo tour (rikshaw) of the city upon our arrival. G Adventures supports a cyclo project which gives underprivileged people a job and also helps save the dying tradition in Cambodia. Many of the people who operate the cyclo bikes were at some point homeless, lacked proper education and training so this is fantastic opportunity for them. It was pretty hilarious to be taken around the city with them, my driver was a cheery chap who knew a few words of English and was all smiles to have me on board. We had a good laugh together when a young man on a motor bike with his girlfriend on the back smiled at me and said hello promptly followed by a hard smack in the head and a couple beats on the shoulder from the young woman on the back on the bike. That night we had the option to join a local family for dinner, 10 of us decided to do this and jumped in some tuk tuk's. The tuk tuk through Phnom Penh at night was something else, ridiculous traffic! The host's wife had prepared an absolute feast for us of local dishes that were incredible! We ate our hearts out and had a chance to speak candidly with our host and his daughter who both spoke English. He was very honest with us about the state of Cambodia and his experiences during Khmer Rouge. He explained that in Cambodia when you get married it's customary for the man to move in with the wife's family. In his house there were 5 families living together from his wife's side. 5 rooms, 1 for each family with a total of 30 members living under 1 roof. It was hard to imagine such a scenario because the house was not very large. He explained that during the day he turned 1 of the rooms into a school to teach English to local village students as well and teach them about the Khmer Rouge since schools limit what they teach about it. It was a very humbling experience and we learned alot from this man and his family. The next day in Phnom Penh was the most difficult part of our trip emotionally. We spent the morning going through the genocide museum with a local guide before visiting a killing field where thousands were sent to be killed during the Khmer Rouge. Our G guide, Sarou, was a fantastic guide and was with us all the way on our trip except for this portion. He explained that he went once when he was in school and it was not a something he needed or wanted to do again. I can't blame him, both sights are extremely emotional places to visit. They made me feel sick to my stomach and I wanted very badly to skip them. In hind sight I'm glad we visited them but it's not something I would want to do again. The Cambodian people have worked hard to ensure that their kids and future generations have an opportunity to learn about this dark time in their history so it will never be repeated and so that they appreciate what they have now.
Now the City is growing and building at an impressive rate pushing to increase it's tourism, industry and opportunities. It's really impressive how far the country has come and the future looks very bright for Cambodia.
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