Cambodia: Children in Charge

---

Hello Loyal Blog Followers. It's been ages since I have written a blog. I am now travelling in the South Island of New Zealand. My time has been consumed with seeing this beautiful part of New Zealand before the snow flies. Additionally, I wanted to do a few multi-day hikes before they closed for the winter. Thus, I have had limited internet access.

Alas, I am bound and determined to finish off my blogs from my SE Asia trip this week. Although, my blog entries will be nearly 2 months late, I have safely stashed all of my Asian memories in my little noggin. These memories are patiently waiting for me to put my fingers to the keyboard. Like wine, they have gotten better with time!

So where did I leave off before taking a month's blog sabbatical? Ah yes, the Mekong Delta. On the morning of March 1, we left our Mekong Delta boat and transferred to a boat headed for Cambodia. After three hours had passed, our boat pulled up along a riverbank. Upon disembarking, we were immediately bombarded by about 15 children, asking to carry our bags in hopes of receiving a tip. A few members of the tour group were obliging. I was impressed to see the children (ages 6-10 years) hustling up the sandy riverbank carrying bags twice their size. I fully expected to see a Vietnam/Cambodia Customs building at the top of the riverbank. Instead there were two bamboo shelters 100 meters apart. We were bewildered and had absolutely no idea of what to do or where to go. Our tour guide was nowhere to be found. What were we to do??

This is when the children came to our rescue. A 10 year-old girl kindly informed us that we were to wait in the nearest shelter if we were going to Phnom Penh. If we were going to Ho Chi Minh City, then we were to wait in the other shelter. She politely added that we had to "line up in single file"!!!

We did as we were told and waited in the nearest shelter (albeit not in single file). The children tried to sell us hacky sacks and other gizmos to pass the time. A few children offered to give neck and shoulder massages for a small fee. After a half an hour had passed, our tour guide returned with our passports and Cambodian visas. (She had gone ahead on another boat to obtain visas on our behalf). She told us to cross the Vietnam/Cambodia border and pointed to a sandy path leading to a barbed wire fence. The fence resembled the cattle fences on my family’s farm.

We were a little leery about approaching this questionable border crossing. There wasn't a building to denote an official border crossing. The children must have detected our apprehension because they instructed us to follow them as they bounded along the sandy path to the barbed wire border.

At the border crossing, some men in uniform met us. These men took their job very seriously (perhaps to compensate for the lack of an official-looking border). Consequently, they spent a ridiculous amount of time checking to make sure that our passport photo matched our face. Heather managed to get a smile from one of them as he looked from her face to her passport photo for the sixth time.

Meanwhile, the children were literally running between the borders. A uniformed man scolded the children however; this did not stop them from scampering between the Vietnam/Cambodia borders. The children followed us into Cambodia and showed us where to catch the boat that was hidden by a riverbank. If it weren't for the children, the dual country ambassadors, we'd still be searching for the Vietnam/Cambodia border crossing.

Now onto the second part of our journey: the boat ride from the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. The boat was a small motorboat that barely fit all 18 members of our tour group. Remember we are "beefy Westerners", so a boat that fits 20 Asians comfortably should only fit about 12 Westerners!! Needless to say, we were crammed into the boat along with our heavy bags. A few people sat on the boat's helm because it was too crowded inside the boat. The boat had a roof to shelter us from the sun but no sides. We had to crouch to find a seat on the two benches situated on either side of the boat.

The boat was very hot. We pulled the shades down on the sides of the boat to prevent the sun from burning our exposed necks and backs. By drawing the shades, our boat was almost completely closed-in. It soon became very stuffy. To add insult to injury, the two women sitting across from us were chain smoking. It was unbearable. We tried to sit on the floor beneath the cigarette smoke but the boat's driver immediately pounced on us. He informed us that is upset the balance of the boat. A few people tried to hang their feet out the sides of the boat to cool off, but they were also reprimanded. Basically, we had to sit upright on the benches to prevent the boat from spilling us into the water.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a white-knuckle 4-hour boat ride. Especially when Heather came back from sitting on the helm to escape the cigarette smoke. Her eyes were full of concern when she told us the boat was only a few inches above the water. She noted that our driver was purposely hugging the shore in case the boat tipped.

It was extremely nerve-wracking when a huge cabin cruiser (about 20 times larger than our boat) tried to pass our tiny boat on the shore side. Our driver panicked. He hurriedly waved his hands and shouted at the driver of the cruiser. We were scared that our boat might get swallowed up in the cruiser’s wake. I was pretty sure that I could swim to shore if the boat capsized, but not if my head got smashed by a piece of luggage or by the boat itself when it capsized.

During this tense period of time, the chain smokers/brandy drinkers decided to use the washroom. They couldn’t have picked a worse moment. Did they not know that most boats in Asia don't have bathrooms? Oblivious to our dicey situation, they clambered to the back of the boat. They opened the back door. This released a big, billowing cloud of blue smoke. It smelt like burnt oil. The driver hollered at them to shut the door and get back to their seats. Clearly, our boat didn’t have a toilet.

Thankfully, the cabin cruiser exercised extreme caution when it passed our boat and no harm was done. We burst into laughter when we saw the back end of the cruiser. There was a man having an outdoor shower at the back of the boat! It was not the most private spot to put a shower.

After our nail-biting fiasco, we were relieved to find out that we only had to endure another 30 minutes on the boat. Our attention was grabbed by the activity occurring along the shore. It was bath hour in Cambodia! Children and oxen were taking a bath in the river. I watched as men washed their oxen. The children gleefully splashed and waved at us as we passed by them. We saw women working in the fields above the riverbanks. Men were hauling water from the river up to the fields. Everyone stopped to wave to us. It was a heart-warming sight.

Safely on shore, we vowed never to take another boat in Asia. We waited for a bus to take us to Phnom Penh. During our half-hour wait, I noticed two young boys staring at us from the street. They seemed to be very curious yet timid. Their faces were dirty with mud. They weren't wearing any shirts and their shorts were filthy and ripped. One of the boy's shorts was about 6 sizes too big for him and on inside out. (I don't think it was a fashion statement). The other little boy’s ear was merely a bit of crumpled skin around the ear canal. My heart went out to these boys. I offered them a couple of oranges and some wrapped crackers. They immediately took the oranges but needed encouragement to take the crackers. Perhaps they had never seen or eaten crackers before? I dearly wish that I could have done something more for these two boys. Their forlorn faces tugged at my heartstrings.


If our Cambodian boat was a "Yikes" then our bus ride to Phnom Penh was a "Yikes-a-Doodle". It was a 20-seater mini-bus. Our luggage occupied 3 seats. This meant that 21 of us had to cram into 17 seats. There wasn’t an option of using two buses. Somehow we all managed to squeeze into the bus. Just when we thought our driver couldn't stuff anyone or anything else on the bus, along came a 50 lb sack of bananas. We were learning that in Asia, no inch of transportation space is wasted!

Two people were stuck in the back seat with a leaky air conditioner. They tried to tie a plastic bag to the a/c to catch the drips but it immediately filled with water within seconds. Meanwhile, the stacked luggage sitting in the seats next to them kept falling on their heads. Finally, we voted to turn off the a/c so that they wouldn’t get drenched. We opened the windows to try to cool off. This resulted in a bit of a dust storm on wheels! We didn’t mind, however, because anything was better than being on that tipsy boat.

Both April and I covered our faces with our shirts and took in the sights along the road. Meanwhile, Heather's attention was focused on the Cambodian guy seated directly in front of her. His seat was broken. Consequently, he was almost sitting a “V” position atop of Heather's lap. He didn't speak any English. He did seem to mind that his seat was broken. Heather had to frequently push his seat forward to keep it from resting on her lap. Apparently, this guy's position was more comfortable than the guys in the truck driving behind us. The truck was covered with people. Guys were sitting on the truck's roof and hood. I couldn't even tell you the colour of the truck because it was covered with people!

We were told that our bus ride to Phnom Penh would be 90 minutes instead of the normal 40 minutes because the road was being fixed. After driving on the road for about 10 minutes, in her astute judgement Heather exclaimed, "The road's not being fixed! It’s being built!" We weren’t driving on an actual road, but on mounds of unpacked dirt (Supposedly the foundation for the eventual road?). Consequently, the drive was a bit precarious, but we were beyond getting stressed about dicey transportation.

I drank in all of the sights along the road side. The sunset was gorgeous amidst the dusty horizon. I marvelled at the number of people sitting at the outdoor dinner table (10-20 people). They seemed to be laughing and joking. I smiled as I saw children and teens playing foot volleyball and soccer. Despite the decrepit homes (many were merely lean-tos) and poor living conditions, the Cambodians seemed to have built a strong sense of community and family. They looked happy. It was a beautiful sight.

We finally arrived at Phnom Penh after 12 hours of travelling. We reserved a room at a hotel that was recommended to us by the tour guide. When we arrived, we quickly discovered that it didn't live up to its advertised description. Too exhausted to change hotels, we decided that we would only spend a night. We got a room with 5 beds! We could have used those two extra beds earlier on in Thailand when we slept 3 to a bed!!!! The room was dingy, didn’t have any natural light, and the a/c barely worked. We weren't expecting the Ritz but our tour guide geared us up for a 3-star hotel!

We were giddy from our day of travelling in dodgy transportation. We laughed ourselves silly as we reflected on the day's events. I was in hysterics when April said, "The children were in charge at the border" and impersonated the little girl who told us to “line up in single file” at the border. Thus the phrase, "children in charge", was coined. Without a doubt, it was definitely the most entertaining border crossing that I've experienced. Only in Asia could children leap from one border to the other without being arrested!

---

Photos

A Common Cambodian Sight
And I thought we had it bad with 21 people crammed in a 17-seater bus!

A Cambodian Sunset
Isn't it beautiful?

Our Cambodian Boat
Don't we look like a jovial bunch of passengers? Our boat driver is on the left.

Bath Time in Cambodia
The children stopped to wave to us while having their bath.

A Wet Ride?
Even a plastic bag was no match for our bus' leaky A/C.

In the Cambodian Mini-Bus
Believe it or not, I loved this ride. My shirt made a great dust mask.

Comments

[Rich - Heather's Dad]

Great descriptions
Thanks for sharing the great stories and memories. You've now completed the third and final description of that boat ride and they all confirm a parents worst nightmare! But thank goodness for the openess and easy communcation by children. Sue and I still remember this willingness of children to help from our travels years ago. I hope your NZ travels are going well and you'll continue to complete the blogs. Heather arrives home tomorrow so it's a pretty exciting night here. Take care.