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The last two days of our stay in Siem Reap were the most enjoyable for me. Before going to Tonlé Sap (the great lake) Vanna suggested we buy a few gifts to give some of the village children on the way. We stocked up on pencils and sharpeners, some books of plain paper, some plastic balls for the younger ones and a few footballs for the older kids.
Tonlé Sap We stopped twice on the way to Tonlé Sap and distributed the goodies to some very happy children. We showed them how to use the sharpeners and watched the younger ones faces beaming with delight about the plastic balls. That was a nice idea and I am glad Vanna suggested it.
The cruise on Tonlé Sap was interesting; it must be amazing during the wet season. Even in the dry season it was very impressive. The lake keeps a lot of people fed. Vanna explained the various varieties of fish found in the lake. Our quiz that day was about how many mega-litres it held in the dry and wet seasons. I know I failed this quiz miserably.
We had lunch on the deck of a stilt
house over looking a village. The house design was very well adapted to the area and climate. The stilts obviously keep it out of the flooded lake during the wet. The other bonus of being raised so high is that it catches any breeze that is available. The inside floor boards had gaps in them to catch the breezes and it was surprisingly cool on the deck and inside the house.
The lunch was enjoyable, packaged in banana leaves. We munched away at our leisure and sipped on some cool beers. The family that owned the house were enjoying the New Year celebrations by playing cards and spending time with family.
Farewell to the French Connection That evening our companions left for Paris, via Hanoi. We had a good time with them and the balance we struck by being with them in Laos then having them set off on their own tour of Vietnam, then meeting up again in Siem Reap was great.
Cambodian Hip Hop On our final evening we engaged the services of a tuk tuk driver named Vey to take us for a spin around town. We wanted to have a look
how the locals were celebrating the New Year. We visited a temple were a hip hop concert was underway. While we could not understand the lyrics of the Cambodian songs the performers did their best to put a lot of effort into the show. It appeared to be some kind of talent quest with the audience voting via applause for their favourite artists.
During a break in the song and dance performances a monk in his mid thirties addressed the audience and had them in fits of laughter. No idea what he was saying but he had the audience in the palm of his hand.
No old monks While listening to the monk working the crowd the thought occurred to me that I had not seen any older monks the whole time we had been in Siem Reap. Across the road from our hotel was a temple with evidence of why this was the case – it had a shrine in the grounds which contained the skulls and other remains of the older monks slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge.
A roadside chat with the tuk tuk driver Vey then took us for a spin past
the Thai party on the edge of town. Not much was happening, except a sound check. Obviously Thaksin is happy for his parties to have a late start.
While we parked listening to the Thai sound check we got talking to Vey. Turns out he has an avid interest in organic gardening, has a lot of hopes and dreams for his young family and is happy that “I have such a good tuk tuk business”.
Vey told us he got started as a tuk tuk driver when an Aussie opened a new hostel in Siem Reap and helped about eight guys like Vey buy their tuk tuks. Apparently the Aussie guy suggested they could all help each other, he knew no Cambodian, they knew no English so through some co-operative effort they came up with a win-win situation for them all. Vey had nothing but praise for the hostel owner.
We also found out that Vey was doing his best to teach his kids English to open up as many opportunities for them as possible. We really enjoyed hearing about Vey’s daily life, his hopes for his kids and his all round positive attitude.
After our
Pork sausage
if it is anything like Lao sausage it would be greattrip around town we told Vey we would like to see his organic garden and if he was interested we would be happy to spend some time practicing English with his kids. He thought this was a great idea.
Organic Gardening and English Lessons Vey collected us next morning and took us to his home. We were greeted by his lovely wife Sreypou, his three children and some kids from the neighbourhood. Vey had a whiteboard in his modest living room which he used for teaching his kids English. We spent some time drawing pictures and getting the kids to tell us what the picture was of in Cambodian, then English. After that we got the kids to put the words into sentences.
Through this process we found out that some of the kids “like to eat fried fish” and others “love to drink coconut milk”, while “Rob loves to ride on elephants” and “Lorenza will go home on a plane today”. The kids were so happy and enthusiastic they filled us with sunlight and the joy of life.
The organic garden that Vey has next to his house is about 400 square meters. He is
making the most of all the space. He is composting and rotating his crops regularly. We did not know the English word for some of the vegetables and herbs he is growing, but the ones we did know included chilli, coriander, ginger and many others.
His bananas were particularly tasty and it was obvious he had a well thought out nutritional plan for his children. He told us that he felt that producing the organic food was improving the health of his family and “they do not have to visit hospitals or a doctor too much”. Vey said his neighbours were catching onto the organic idea as they had seen that his produce was improving in quality and was much tastier.
The morning we spent with Vey and his family was one of the most enjoyable spur of the moment things we have done on our travels over the years. Vey asked me to write our name and the date on one of the bricks in his living room wall to commemorate our visit. He said “I have never had a westerner visit my home, so I want to remember this”.
(We promised to send Vey some books or other materials that would help him with the English lessons for his children. Lorenza found some great flash cards in a shop near our home a few days ago so they are now in the mail to Vey.)
The people you meet
I also wanted to mention that the staff at the hotel we stayed at were wonderful. Not only were they friendly, but they were also genuinely interested in people. Just like Laos, Cambodia’s greatest asset is definitely its people. We learnt a lot from each other in our short stay in Siem Reap.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Great photos
We've been reading some of your blogs today. We miss hearing about your adventures. Hopefully you will blog again soon.