The dustier side of Cambodia

On the recommendation of friends, we decided to head out into the “wild east” of the country, along an increasingly bumpy and dusty road. Our first stop was in Kampong Cham, a sleepy town on the Mekong river. The wide waterfront walkway looked like the face of a town prepared for a boom in tourism that hasn’t yet happened. There wasn’t much to see other than a couple of temples (with monkeys!) which we avoided because we were all “templed out” after visiting close to a dozen temples at Angkor Wat (and because I still don’t like monkeys!!). The bamboo bridge across part of the Mekong was interesting – a shaky man-made structure built every year during the dry season to cross the shallow and un-navigable crossing to a large fruit bearing island in the middle of the river. It seemed like an aweful lot of work only to be washed away each year during the rainy season when the river swells to almost four times the size at which we see it.

At the end of the bright-orange-dusty and very bumpy road was Sen Monorom, set atop dry deforested rolling hills – hardly the jungle we had been told about. With our bags covered in the orange dust, we settled down two smartly dirt-coloured bungalows on the hills above town. In hindsight, our location was not so smart given the gusty wind, but at least we had solid windows unlike some of the other bungalows! I never thought I would be so cold in southeast Asia!!

The next day with a Cambodian Christian missionary and his two friends in the back of our truck, we set off on the even bumpier road to the Sen Monorom waterfalls. At his request, I posed for a picture with the Christian and his friends in front of the waterfall – normally something that I avoid doing. We exchanged e-mail addresses so I could send the photo to him, after which he called his wife on his handphone so that I could talk to her! In broken English, she managed to ask me if I was a Christian. When I replied “not really” I got a very sad “oh, sorry!”

A blind musician and his friend playing homemade instruments caught my attention next. They wanted to hear themselves so, surrounded by a couple dozen people attentively watching my camera, I videotaped them playing a song and then played it back to them. Kendra was on the other side of the crowd, similarly amusing some children by taking pictures of the group and then showing them. I think we must have spent close to an hour surrounded by Cambodians!

On the way back to the town, we stopped on top on a mountain and I was reconciled with my new Christian friend. He told us all about the deforestation of the mountains at the hands of large multinational corporations fed by the Cambodian government. He also told Claire and I his personal story of life under the Khmer Rouge. Claire and I have both been reading biographies of survivors from the war, but hearing it from a living, breathing survivor was so much more powerful. The emotion in the man’s voice was so captivating that we momentarily forgot the chilling gusts of wind blowing at us from all directions.

The next day, in our new Lacoste sweaters, purchased in the tiny town’s market, we set out on our elephant trek! Beautiful but very slow creatures. And not a very comfortable ride, but at least I can say that I did it!