There are far more concrete statues in Cambodia tan there are in Borneo. As a would-be expatriate journalist in Kampot writes, It makes sense when a large part of the population cannot read, ... ie 'Turn right at the rhino and then left at the horse.' Besides random African animals Batambang has many pictures, statues and tableaux with obvious didactic roles. The Killing Cave Take the painting in my second picture. It is labelled For Foreigner. The Khymer Rouge killed many people. They took them to the hole above a limestone cave, knocked them on the head, a [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia has just one long railway line left in operation. It’s narrow too: the rickety rails are just one meter apart. I visited the Phnom Penh railway station and found the schedule had changed from trains on every second day to one a week. Now one up-train leaves on Saturdays, and it turns into the down-train which returns on Sundays. I didn’t want to wait in Phnom Penh til Saturday, especially when I learned that the train often takes hours longer than the scheduled sixteen hours to Battambang. So I chickened out and made a five-hour bus journey along a newly [View Full Entry]

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A drive around Kampot gives an insight into the developing economy of the Cambodian countryside. Go there quickly while there is still little tourist infrastructure! Technically this is a poor area, but the amount of work being done and the cheerfulness of the people make it hard to believe that it can remain so for long. So three of us set out in a tuk-tuk, the national flag waving behind us ... my apologies to friends who know what a durian looks like and have seen half a million papaya trees in fruit: these are exotic things for other people I [View Full Entry]

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Sihanoukville, Kampot, Kep: casinos, crumbling towns, and ghost resort. Kampot was the main centre on the Cambodian coast until Sihanoukville was founded in 1964. Now post-war reconstruction is focusing on this ugly place. Kampot is surprisingly unchanged; it's hardly received a facelift. All the buildings in Kep were gutted during the war, and it is still full of the shells of once-affluent holiday houses. The seafood remains great. Travel Notes Kampot is two hours by taxi, US$20, from Sihanoukville. Kep is another forty minutes by tuk-tuk, US$8.00. Stay in Sihan [View Full Entry]

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The boat stopped running. -- But I have a ticket for the boat. Here it is. I bought it last night. The boat’s not running. I didn’t want to believe this. I’m so used to transport operators claiming that opposition services don’t exist. But it became increasingly apparent in the mini-chaos on the Cambodian border that the boat touts were not there. So my journey from Bangkok to Kampot turned out to be entirely by bus. I put up my hand to 100% failure during the first four days of my trip. In Thailand I had to choose between taking a [View Full Entry]

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Thailand to Hong Kong by Boat and Train: Why on earth? -- I want to go the slow, smooth, old way. I’m bored with planes and buses. But can it be done? When I imagined the journey the answer I gleaned from the guidebooks was: Yes, it can be done. But I’ve heard recently that the road between the Cambodian coast and Phnom Penh has been properly surfaced and the old railway line closed. So it seems the answer is: Not entirely. Never mind! I’ll just have to do my best. My schedule - insofar as I have one - [View Full Entry]

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What rainforest? asked local voices at the Rainforest World Music Festival. Rainforest, longhouses, oil palms, logging: these are the story of the Trans-Borneo Highway in Sarawak. A romantic notion of the longhouses has them all buried deep in the rainforest, with the communities leading a happy, subsistence lifestyle. In reality there are increasingly groups of longhouses close to the highway, sometimes within sight of each other. Here, as everywhere, people like being close to amenities and communications networks, and the government encourages people to take part in the mode [View Full Entry]

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The Rainforest World Music Festival is a public party with a family reunion feel. Even the Malaysian Prime Minister attended this year. It was a shame it rained so hard the night of his visit. The rain hardly deterred the crowd, many of whom danced up to their knees in mud on the two nights following the downpour. Visitors rubbed shoulders with performers from around the world at mealtimes and in the jamming sessions that took place after hours. Here are links to videos of some of the groups that I enjoyed this year: [url=http://gillianperrett.multiply.com/video/item/17/YAKHOUB_SISS [View Full Entry]

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Rentap, the Iban warrior, resisted the White Rajas. The Brooke Family ruled Sarawak from 1841 to 1946. The three Rajas, James, Charles and Vynor, were absolute monarchs in Sarawak, but loyal subjects of the British Crown at home. Thus for one hundred years Sarawak was ruled by a family of English commoners. If James was a old-style buccaneer who struck it lucky, Charles was an able and committed administrator, while Vynor’s rule saw Japanese occupation and disintegration. Where you going? You are alone? -- Yes, I am. Wonderful. Much handshaking. You should go to [View Full Entry]

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All Sarawak towns have an emblem, something familiar from their locality. It is always represented prominently in painted concrete, oversize. Mukah Mukah is a sleepy place on the coast, pausing between the old and the new. The old town has a few wooden shophouses left, but change must be rapid, because it far less cute than the guidebooks suggest. The tall houses are long gone as the Melanau people converted to Islam and Malay ways of living a long time ago. It is friendly community with villages all mixed up: Malay, Melanau, Chinese, Iban; a friendly community where a [View Full Entry]

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