Cambodia snuggles right up to Vietnam’s west border…and is also strangely shaped: long and narrow (all of the SE Asia countries have these southern tails, odd). It too is waking up to internat’l tourism and our first port of call, Sihanoukville (named after King Sihanouk) on its west coast, had its start in the 1950’s as a resort where the well to do (aka the French) could get away from the heat of Phnom Penh just up the road. (On the ship we watched a wonderful documentary on the Clouded leopard, a beautiful and endangered creature – due not just to deforestration but also poaching – which calls northern Cambodia home.)
The country’s history shares some of Vietnam’s, as it too was part of the French colonial empire; independence came in 1953 but then the country got caught up in internal strife and the American (Vietnamese) War. Trying to get at Viet Cong camps, we bombed northern Cambodia and even Sihanoukville; recent revelations indicated that we dropped more tons of bombs (at Nixon’s insistence) on Cambodia than the Allies did in all of WWII! (And it is the third most landmined country in the world.) Then Pol Pot (the Hitler of Cambodia)/Communist Kymer Rouge took over in 1975 and things got immeasurably worse, as depicted in the Killing Fields. He was responsible for the deaths of about a quarter of the population, leaving a peculiar age pyramid. Professionals and intellectuals (or just folks who wore glasses) were killed and others were forced into labor camps to turn the country into an agrarian paradise…which did not happen. Oil and gas fields in territorial waters may bring prosperity soon, but right now it’s a desperately poor place. Another problem is corruption – right up there with North Korea and Myanmar (aka Burma)…which bodes ill, as does the poverty, for elimination of the illegal trade in endangered animals/parts/skins/tusks (such as the clouded leopard and elephants) and for keeping the country beautiful (developers only interested in the bottom line are moving in from China and Russia among others). If anything, the Cambodians are even more polite than the Vietnamese…much bowing…and less hawking. My day (after Bill saw the ship physician again and is now on more antibiotics; he is getting sicker rather than better which is v worrisome to us both) started with a visit to a village school, a true village school as opposed to the more upmarket one visited in Vietnam. The children and teachers were charming; the kids sang Oh My Darling Clementine in Khmer and were all smiles. Half of the population is under 21! Note that slates are being used rather than more expensive paper.
There was much activity in the school yard – a new religious statue being put into place and some gardening (note the fowl family).
The gold stand that vaguely resembles a bird feeding station is a spirit house, almost all dwellings have them (even the shrine/stupas) to bless the dwelling. Along the road, there are stores selling them much as one would see bird baths or gargoyles for sale outside a store in the US.
The houses in the village were on stilts and pretty basic. The family sleeps on the (literally) ground floor in hammocks. I was given a variety of reasons for the stilts…the most intriguing one being that it enabled the family to simply shift to another location by bringing in an elephant to move their dwelling. Less poetically it could be flooding.
Cars are too expensive for most people, so mopeds rule here too. Here is a village gas station.
Almost everyone is Buddhist and there are many newish and colorful temples (called wats)…and many equally colorful stupas (shrines for cremated ashes).
I was surprised by the water feature with little boys happily peeing away…in front of a temple.
And of course elephants.
And Buddha with his protective cobras.
One of the many grim acts of Pol Pot was to not only destroy the temples but kill the monks. But, they are back in great numbers as service as a monk is more or less mandatory for all young men (some of whom are still boys). They wear the traditional saffron robe, have their heads shaved monthly, and beg for all their food (they cannot take any money – just food, which must be eaten by noon). Note the tin food containers (tiffin) in the photo.
The temples were lovely - and ornate, with glorious interiors.
The monkeys find safe haven – and possibly food – in the temple areas. The photo is of a jackfruit tree – a huge fruit that is the size of a volleyball, it is used as a veggie when small and not ripe but as a fruit when it is matures. When it is still small, it is used (or was when our guide was a boy) by teachers as punishment – miscreants would have to kneel on it (it is spikey).
At the end of the excursion, we were taken to and let loose at one of the resorts built by the Sokar Development Company: a huge 5 star clearly for foreigners (rooms from $200 to $1000 and that may include all meals). This was not what we came to Cambodia to see but the beaches were dazzling (and large containers of cut up fruit, your choice, were $1 so I sat and watched the azure water and relished the sweet – if exceedingly warm – papaya).
What we didn’t consider visiting (it involved a three day excursion which Bill is too sick to even think about) is the highpoint of Cambodia: Angkor Wat…in the north. What a story! The Khmer Empire – with a city of over a million – was highly advanced, wealthy and cultured when Europe was fumbling around in the Dark Ages, and lasted about five centuries. It was visited in the late 1200’s by an emissary from Timur Khan (descendent of Genghis), probably seeking tribute; the Mongols – austere and totally warlike – from the colder climate in China had apparently had their fill of jungle battles and didn’t invade. The emissary was captivated by the richness of the place, the graciousness of the culture (Hindu turned peaceful Buddhists), and the beauty and willingness of the females and thought about deserting. Instead he took copious notes about everything including the fact that the entire empire was dependent on rice which, in turn, was dependent on their very sophisticated water management/irrigation system. After he left, with his notebook which apparently survived the ages, things went sour… there were invasions from envious outsiders, notably the Chams, and ecological disasters caused the water to dry up. And then jungle took over. Europeans knew nothing of this wonder (tho the Jesuit priests here in the 16th C. were aware of it).
Still with me? In the middle 1800’s a French natural historian with wanderlust came to Southeast Asia. In Bangkok, he dined with the King. This would have been the monarch of The King and I who was much smarter than the movie/play made him out to be. One of his v clever moves was to sign treaties with both Britain and French so that if either one of them tried to colonize the country, the other would undoubtedly step in. An intelligent ploy as Siam (now Thailand) was the only SE Asian county NOT to be colonized! (The son of that King, the little boy who was taught by Anna, the English governess, visited England and Queen Victoria and took further steps to modernize Siam; his love of all things English is the reason traffic here is on the wrong side of the road, unlike the other former French colonies. Anna’s son was so taken with Siam that he returned as an adult, served in the army, and created a business – still going.)
Anyway, the natural historian (who of course shot all the specimens he found) stumbled across Angkor Wat totally by accident. After spending three years here and then dying, he did produce a book which got back to England but went largely unnoticed; the site has now come into its own and is being restored and preserved…and visited by hordes of tourists. A gd reason to return some day.
The sailaway at dusk was lovely.
And then a quick overnight sail into Thailand and into the port of Phu My so that most of the passengers could go to Bangkok. Bill was not doing well at all and I didn’t think disappearing for endless hours was wise. And who could pass up an opportunity, closer to hand, to play with elephants? This is a non profit sanctuary for the pachyderms…retired ones. Their union is not as strong as that of the koalas but the elephants and their keepers (mahouts) looked in gd shape. I was a bit timid to jump right in with them at first…feeding them while keeping out of the way but then got the hang of it (peeled bananas for the baby, the bunch for mom). We were not deterred from strolling among these behemoths – something that would not happen in the US and certainly not without signing a lot of waivers/release forms.
I then moved on to putting the whole bunch right into their huge maw. (My mouth is open in all the photos – either from amazement or, while up on the elephant, terror). Getting on this beast required defying gravity and the pushing and pulling of two mahouts. It was a bumpy and fairly terrifying ride…no reins, no saddle. I can now cross that experience off my list.
Thailand looks far more prosperous than either Vietnam or certainly Cambodia and there are lots of international visitors. We got to see the effects of this in our port the following day, on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand and southward down the east coast…to the island of Ko Samui, a popular honeymoon spot for Americans, among countless others. It must have been gorgeous at one time probably not long ago…and some of the private beaches owned by the top resorts still are…but fast food (McD, Pizza Hut…even Seven Eleven stores) and tacky hotels have had their way.
We visited way too many Buddhist and Hindu temples (climbing the 75 steps to a v large Buddha, and walking around the temple hitting the bells three times…one for the Buddha’s teachings, one for the monks and one to cleanse the mind), which became blurrier with the heat. I started out listening carefully to the guide and held out through the first Buddha…then I used what little effort I could muster into just taking photos. The heat is completely sapping. There were many locals at the temples today for tonight is an especially auspicious one – a full moon in the third lunar month.
I had forgotten to mention that we are now firmly in the lands of not just bring your only toilet paper but possibly your own toilet…I didn’t think to take photos, a gd thing. I have also made a mental note to myself to bring skirts on any future trips that have similar plumbing.
Monkeys (macaques) are used here (after training…at a monkey school) to bring down the cocoanuts on the remaining plantations and they were amazing to watch. Again, they seemed to be well treated and in good health…tho probably not unionized.
Other than the monkey workers, the most amazing bit was running into a fellow from Union, Missouri with whom I shared a platter of pad thai in a seaside bar/restaurant before going back to the ship. (Union is a small town near an even smaller hamlet, Owensville, where my family was from…astounding to run into someone from those parts so far afield!)
And then…under the aforementioned auspicious full moon, we glided off straight south, leaving Thailand and sailing along the east coast of Malaysia (Malaysia has two parts – where we will be but also on the other side of the South China See, in northern Borneo) for a day and another night, into Singapore! As we left the Thai port, a sight of other travellers.
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