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Published: December 17th 2009
Soooooo. Been around a bit since my last blog. Had a little explore of the eastern chunk of Kampuchea, none of which I had ever seen but which was in fact lovely. Despite being the area of most Khmer Rouge and landmines (the infamous k5 belt, the largest minefield in the world, is along the border with Vietnam) it was safe as houses and all sleepy. Our first stop was in Kratie (pronounced Kracheh but spelled wrong for no reason) which is a dreamy little town along a river with no real western nightlife to speak of and actual old people! Genuine ones! We met some gnarly old dude who ran this restaurant who userd to be a history teacher before the Khmer Rouge turned up. I cant explain what a rarity this dude was. All intellectuals were either murdered or 're-educated' as part of the year zero bullshit. A french speaking teacher of history is the antithesis of year zero, which was the attempt to wipe the slate clean of all existing and past foreign influence in Cambodia and all decadent western, technological ideals and 'return' to a simpler agrarian culture loosely based on ancient Angkor. This meant deleting (as
it were) all the history and existing culture. Year Zero. Our history begins now etc. How a history teacher survived the past 30 years I cant imagine nor did I ask but he was sweet and alive so thats awesome.
Anyway there wasnt a huge amount to do in Kratie but that was part of the appeal. Something they do boast of are the tattered remains of a species of river dolphin. All 75 of these doomed dolphins live in a protected patch of river and you can go out in a boat and watch them mince about in what I'd like to think is a melancholy manner. We watched a small pod of them play about for a while which was neat but dont expect any photos as my camera is not meant for action shots of proper wildlife. These surviving cetaceans are barely hanging on due to hunting, pollutants in the water, Chinese dams ruining the river and thus their food and the sad fact that they are now either old or inbred mutants. Its not very likely that they will make a blossoming comeback but one can hope.
Theres also an island off of Kratie
called Koh strung?? which we decided to ride around on pushbikes. There are a few inhabitants but no shops or guesthouses or anything silly like that, although there is a homestay you can check out. This island was idyllic bordering on the obscene. It was all overgrown palms and bananas and rice fields and cows wandering about and dirty kids playing about. It didnt take very long to circumnavigate this joyous node of tranquility but we bumped into a gang of local builders working on a house and joined them for some rice wine, yummy pork and incredibly limited but amusing 'conversation'. We agreed unanimously (as literally all Khmer people tend to vocallise) that I look like a cow, what with my silly face and everything. Untold hilarity.
Ratanakiri was our next port of call, a poor as hell province in the far northeast corner home to most of the enthinc minororities in Cambodia, even though many have lived there since forever. We stayed in Ban Lung, which acts as a handy gateway to pretty much everywhere in Ratanakiri province. Before I continue to regail whoever reads this trash with my exploits I would like to first mention the
phenomenon known as " cambodia snow" , also refered to as dust. This is not average dust, nor is it spectacular, what it is is EVERY.WHERE. There are only 2 colours in Ratanakiri, water and dust. This red menace is apparently impervious to washing and hangs about in clouds like youths in a Tesco car park, not actually threatening but you wish to avoid it anyway.And cant.
So we visited the obligatory waterfalls, which were rad and much needed in the dusty clime (sorry), some of which you could power through and hang out BEHIND the water. Much fun. Theres also a volcanic crater lake we enjoyed a number of times, super beautiful, clean water, good times. One hiccup was Adams gastronomic gaffe. What we believed to be soem sort of rice cake was in fact a honeycombe." Even better" I hear you cry?!Wrong! Honeycombes are filled with bee larvea. Which are maggots. And taste like it. I backed off after one mouthful but Adam, being the bigger man, scoffed the lot. All macho acts end in a fall however and he become super allergic and swelled up like an angry flesh balloon covered in itching powder.
Ratanakiri
is also home to untold rubber plantations, pretty much owned solely by one Khmer family, making it the only resource or thing of value in Cambodia not owned by China!yay! We visited some gem mines as the area is meant to be know for them. All the actual mines are owned by china now (get used to this theme in my posts) but what we saw was something even more lame. For the unemployed or unemployable, which is a huge chunk of the populace, one option before begging is to go out onto some public land and dig own. The fields behind houses are speckled with tunnels, much like a termite infested wardrobe, which are scary as hell. Around 12meters deep, barely wide enough to fit in and no safety gear, or even ladder down, gem mining looks decidedly shit. After lowering yourself down using holes in the side instead of a ladder or rope, you might expect to spend up to a month in each tunnel looking for gems, connecting all the previous tunnels. The chance of finding a gem is about the same as a fatal cave in and the 'miner', should he be lucky enough to find
anything, wont get alot. A ruby the size a pea will apparently fetch these daring diggers 30 entire dollars! After being sold to a jeweler in town who will polish and cut the gem, its value increases incredibly but the disused gemstone mines are used as toilets. Somewhere in there is poetic irony.
All this waterfall/lake action needed some hard work to frame it so we decided to have another little trek, this time into the Virachey National Park, I think. We walked around 5-6 hours a day for 3 days through a varied woodland which at times had a touch of the Downs about it. Like Bexhill but with mountains instead of people. It was super pretty and our guide, a ranger named Mr Smey was a bad boy. He was bushcraft master 2009. Every plant we passed he did something cool with. I ate raw ratana vine (which he later cooked in a curry and tasted alot like artichoke heart), drank from water vines and learned how to make boat varnish out of sap. There was also the bamboo banquet. He cut down soe bamboo trees of various size and filed them with food. One was filled
with the ingredients for a jungle stew, others sticky rice and others had tea in. The bamboo tubes were laid over a fire and the joy inside cooked slowly as bamboo is, amongst other things, fire proof. The stew was then poured into our bowls out of the bamboo and it was good! Such a neat way to cook, loved it. The next day we trekked up to a small village of ethnics called the Klung I think, who may be part of the Khmer Loeu, or Highland Khmer. They live, or used to live, in a totally different society from Cambodians. When Mr Smey spoke of him or villagers going to Banlung he referred to it as "going to Cambodia". The people live by animist believes and regularly make sacrifices to forest spirits. In fact we arrived just after a taboo had been lifted off the village, put on after a buffalo had been sacrificed. No entry or exit. Timing. They tend to live in a place until some people die then they move on away fro the bad mojo, also when the rice fields go fallow they move on to better ground. The past 15-20 years have seen
huge changes in their life. Khmerisation has been enforced and they are under pressure to stay put, learn khmer and join the rest of society. Clearly I dont like this. They also saw their first whitey only 15 years ago, apparently the sight of a barang (foreigner) would inspire people to run away and cry. Awesome. Part of the changes are also better farming techniques. Instead of letting the land go fallow they now plant cashew trees until its rice time again. When its dry season it doesnt rain at all for more than 6 months but when the rain come it doesnt stop for weeks. Maybe a half hour gap in the morning then it gets going again. For weeks. How mental.
We got there the night of a party as a few of the villagers were going all the way to Kratie to dance for someone or something. This is a trip which only happens once a year so its big news. We got to see lots of dancing and music and it was a treat. Drank the weirdest rice wine ever. A jar of fomented rice husks drunk out of a bamboo straw.Hmm. Also an amazing view
of the stars.
Now its time to do nothing and spend nothing for a bit, until xmas and new year time, pretty much done trvelling though I will still be moving about. Gota get my brain face on as soon I will be Mr Pat the teacher. Or clown, we'll see how they take me.
Much fun.
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bro
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haha
"cow"boy pat and his dolphin mice!!! :D