This is the first of three posts describing a 4 day Khmer New Year motorbike journey along the loop Phnom Penh, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kratie, Kampong Cham, Prey Veng and back to Phnom Penh. This post deals mainly with a ride through the dry flood plains of the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, between Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Thom.

This is the plan: we ride the 92km from Phnom Penh to Kampong Chhnang already in the evening of Friday, planning to get up early the next day, cross the river with the ferry and ride through the flood plains to Kampong Thom. This trip is not mentioned in any of the guide books I use but I found a helpful account of it by Mac on Khmer 440. Without it, I would not have known that this trip is possible and it also has good clues as to how to do it.

It is around 8pm when we reach the Samrong Sen Hotel in Kampong Chhnang, after a 2 hour night ride from Phnom Penh. This hotel, which is recommended, is located on the ride hand side of the road to the port, a few hundred meters after you pass the market. For $8 we get very decent rooms with fan and TV in this new and well-run hotel.

Later we talk to hotel staff, to find out about the ferry schedule to Kampong Leaeng, a town on an island opposite Kampong Chhnang town that we will have to pass on our way to Kampong Thom.

However, the guys tell us that this trip is not possible and that they have not heard of people who did it. We keep talking and later go with one of them on the bike to the port, to ask people around there.

We stop in front of the police station and talk to the officers. More people join during the course of a rather confusing discussion. At first people tell us again that it is not possible to get to Kampong Thom this way. Even attempting this trip is dangerous and ‘crazy’, because there are bandits and robbers out there. The officers accompany this piece of information with raising their hands to their heads like guns and pulling virtual triggers. They also tell us that the ferry to Kampong Leaeng is not operating tomorrow, due to Khmer New Year. When we ask for private boats they say, at first, that boats cannot land on the island because there is not enough water and because there is too much forest.

Later other people say that we can find a private boat but that it is very expensive. If we really want to cross the Tonle Sap, we should ride back either to the Japanese bridge in Phnom Penh or the ferry near Udong Mountain. It seems to emerge from the discussion that the best option for us is to take a private boat for $50 to cover the 40km stretch from here to Prey Kri and to continue from there to National Road 6 by bike. This option is not nearly as attractive as our initial plan as it does not get us very deep into the flood plains and would mean that we end up doing much of the trip on the national road. We are still not convinced that our original plan is not feasible but decide to wait with decisions until after we have talk to the people actually operating the boats in the morning.

So we turn around and have a good diner in the Monorom Restaurant about 5 km to the West along the National Road, the only place that still serves food at this late time of the day.

Next morning we get up around 7, have breakfast in the Mekong Restaurant at the national road, fill up the tank and some extra 3.5 liter gas in plastic bottles, check out, pack our stuff on the bike and ride to the port again.

Kampong Chhnang town in the morning.

Leaving the Samrong Sen Hotel in the morning.

On the way to the port.

We find the port rather busy. We ride down to the place were the ferry usually launches, right at the center of the water front. Many people are waiting for boats, many of them dressed for visiting family and friends over the holidays. Again we are getting contradicting advice. Yet nobody can confirm the possibility of going from here to Kampong Thom. People tell us that the big ferry to Kampong Leaeng is operating but will leave only at 1 pm. Smaller and bigger boats come and go but seemingly none of them with our destination and/or not willing to take our bike on board.

At the port.

During the rainy season, those houses are standing in the water.

Maraile talks to moto drivers at the riverside and Cham, one of them, takes her to the Vietnamese owner of a small private boat. She is willing to give us a ride to Kampong Leaeng for $10. The quoted price seems quite high but we accept as it is Khmer New Year and we don’t want to give up on this adventure. Our attempts to get Cham and his family a free ride to Kampong Leang fails as the boat owner insists that they pay extra.

It takes a few minutes (and a little fear on my part) until our moto is safely on the boat. We reach Kampong Leaeng about 20 minutes later, after a scenic boat ride on the Tonle Sap river.

Fearful moments

We talk to our fellow passengers during the ride. Cham is a teacher at a local high school. He was trained for teaching mathematics and physics but now teaches English, due to high demand and little availability of suitable teachers. He is on his way to visit his wife’s parents in a village on the island.

Fellow passengers.

Cham tells us that it is only about 10 minutes from the ferry landing point to Kampong Leaeng village where one reaches a dirt road that leads in a loop all around the island (consistent with the map). This road is in good condition and it takes about 1 hour to make the loop by moto bike. Also Cham did not know that it was possible to go directly from here to Kampong Thom but unlike everybody else so far he encourages us to try.

During the boat ride.

Rich people on a luxury cruise of the Tonle Sap.

Kampong Chhnang riverside.

Floating houses.

Kampong Leaeng.

After we have cleared the bike from the boat we follow the dirt road through pleasant rural landscape. After 20 minutes we stop in a village. One boy among a bunch of youngsters we ask for the way offers to guide us to the ring road. It turns out that it is hard to miss. The road is in good condition and leads through beautiful countryside and a few villages along the way. There are boats of various sizes sitting on the ground. The soil is very dry and right now this area appears an unlikely spot for boats. We also pass a number of hills. Some of them have Chenla-times temple ruins on top of them but we decide to continue and make getting to Kampong Thom our priority for today. Mac’s report and the map suggest that the trail to Kampong Thom departs from this ring road at the northern tip of the island and next to a temple.

On the island circle route.

We stop in a village when we think we are close to the northern tip of the island. The response of a group of young women we ask for the way indicates that we should go back just about hundred meters where we can see a gate indicating the location of a pagoda.

We stop at a food stall next to the gate for soft drinks, hoping to get people to tell us how to find the way to Kampong Thom. A group of about 8 middle aged men sit inside and appear pretty drunk while a dozen younger villagers are standing around. We approach the older men first but they are too drunk to be helpful. But even the sober younger men and women we ask outside say that it is impossible to go from here to Kampong Thom. We spend about 20 minutes but people insist. Yet they do seem to be saying that if one wanted to try, the way started here at the temple.

The trail to Kampong Thom starts behind the temple at this gate.

Despite all the discouraging advice we decide to give it a try, now that it is still early in the day and that we made it here already. After we pass the temple the trail branches of into half a dozen trails leading through a small cluster of simple houses. We ask one or two people for the way and they point us to a trail that leads towards a hill after we have passed the village.

Right at the bottom of this hill the track turns right. For the next hour or so we follow what looks like a narrow and not very frequently used ox cart trail. It is dry and bumpy and in places has deep and hard prints from left by oxcarts. The kind of prints that make it hard to avoid getting stuck in them with the front wheel. To the right and left are reeds, tall as men, making it impossible to see what is beyond them virtually all along the way.

We stop for a short break after about one hour. It is already getting pretty hot and we realize how painful it is going to be that there is no shade for virtually all along our way today.

We continue for another 30 minutes or so until we reach a fork in the road. Since we have left the village we have not come across anybody. However, until here the way has been very unambiguous and it is easy to identify the widest and most frequently used trail on the few occasions were there is more than one way to follow.

Also here it seems obvious that the ‘main road’ turns right but we check out the alternative, just to be sure. After only a few meters the road ends at some sort of lake, or pond, or lotus flower field. There are people working in this field but too far away from us to ask them for the way. Since this trail (the left one in the photo above) obviously leads to a dead end there does not seem to be much to ask about anyways.

At a closer look it seems the guys in the field are applying chemicals from large containers they carry on their backs.

Now we take a right turn at the above fork and follow the trail for another couple of minutes and there is at least one more track branching of to the left until we reach another lake. There is a guy bathing in the water. He does not look very friendly at first but starts smiling when Maraile talks to him in Khmer. He tells us that the track from here to Kampong Thom is better than the one to Kampong Chhnang. He also tells us that it is only about 20 km or about 1 hour from here to Kampong Thom. We just have to backtrack a short distance and follow a track to the right hand (or the left from Kampong Chhnang) at an intersection between here and the first lotus field.

Happily we do as we are told. However, the trail we get on just 10 minutes later seems to have seen substantial rain lately and has long stretches where the track is filled with mud and water.

We keep following this track. There are easier and tougher stretches but overall, this trail is definitely not better but worse than the one we were riding on before. After about on more hour the high reefs along the track disappear and we enter plains with only short but green grass and a few bushes. The view over the plains is wide open, occasionally we see exotic-looking birds, large and small. The trail is pretty good around here and we can ride faster. There are a couple of tracks, sometimes crossing each other or running in parallel.

After about 30 minutes we have passed the plains and find ourselves again on a muddy track between tall reefs and with little view other than the sight of a few dozen meters of ox cart trail in between thick vegetation. We are in the middle of the day now and it is very hot. Maraile has to get off the bike frequently to walk particularly bad stretches.

After one of those struggles with the mud I feel that the heat is too much to take and want to pause instantly. I try to find cover from the brutally hot sun by squeezing myself under some reeds but find that it does not help at all. It is at this time that we realize that we have lost 1 of 2 bottles of water, the full one, while the other has half a liter or so left. For some time it appears impossible to me that under these circumstances I will be able to cool down enough to be capable of riding to Kampong Thom.

At this point I find the police men’s mentioning of robbers out here rather stupid. Who in his right mind would be waiting out here, having his brains fried in the merciless sun, to hold up the few people insane or desperate enough to make this trip, hoping that one day somebody actually carries anything of any value, with very few ways to get away from the crime scene, none of them quick or easy.

Increasingly I suspect that we have gotten onto a wrong trail. The experience of the last two hours sharply contradicts what the man at the lake told us, namely, 20km good track and 1 hour riding to get to Kampong Thom. We check the compass and find that the track we follow leads to the east, probably already for quite some time, while at this point we should be going pretty straight to the north. And it appears possible that we took a wrong turn while passing through the open plains about 30 minutes ago.

We decide to backtrack and check if there are other trails leading north. We find one very soon, also leading through thick and tall reefs but it looks too abandoned to be the link to Kampong Thom. We continue to backtrack and follow some of the other trails in the open plains. However, we find that all of them are basically variations on the same trail, not leading anywhere else.

After we have passed the plains again we discuss and decide to turn around again and follow the track we were on. It is possible that we got onto the wrong track after talking to the man in the field. But at this stage we don’t want to ride all the way back there and given a substantial number of tracks around here, this must lead somewhere close to national road 6 sooner or later.

We pass the point were we had turned around before and continue for at least another hour on the trail through the reefs, with lots of sun, no shade and plenty of mud on the trail. Over time the track widens and the number of different tracks increases, which also makes it easier to avoid the deep mud in some places. After one more hour the landscape is wide open again.

By this time we had fallen twice altogether with the bike into the mud. The first fall gets Maraile some bruises and myself slightly burnt skin on the right leg. The second fall breaks one of the mirrors. After we lift the bike it does not start. It does not give a sound although it does not seem that any essential parts broke or have become wet.

We start to worry but decide to give the bike some time and try again. The good news is that we check the compass and find that we are traveling north, which from here makes probably for the shortest distance to the national road.

Reluctantly we start pushing the bike to start it. We don’t get the engine started the first time but at least the starter is coming back. We try one more time and this time we manage to start the engine.

We continue until we arrive at a freshly dug irrigation channel that crosses our way and reaches from one end of the horizon to the other. Afar we can recognize a couple of excavators. These are the first signs of obvious and immediate human activity since we left the village on the island. We have a short break before we continue on the dirt road along the channel to the left (north).

Exhausted.

We keep going until we follow a neat 90 degree right-turn of both channel and road.

Now we see occasionally trees and finally, people and cattle. We stop a young couple with a child on one of these modern-day ox carts. They tell us that they, too, are on a trip from Kampong Chhnang to Kampong Thom. The latter is about 1 hour from here.

Now the ground is entirely dry and much of the trail sandy. In the distance we recognize hills, groups of trees and finally, houses.

We enter a village with a well-maintained dirt road leading right through it. We follow the road and stop at the first sign of beverages for sale. We stop and buy a coke each from the friendly vendors.

There is a well with a hand-operated pump nearby and a couple of young men having a bath. We use the opportunity for refreshment, too. Then we just sit for a while with the drink vendors and some locals, talk and play with their kid.

Oddly, the guy on the left holds a dead snake in his hand.

People tell us that the main road is just 5 minutes from here and from there it is only 5km to Kampong Thom. We leave and ride the little remaining distance to the Arunras Hotel, where we have a reservation for these smart rooms with balcony on the top floor.

The last kilometers to Kampong Thom.

We are coming on this dirt road and it is here where it meets the national road, pretty accurately 5km south of Kampong Thom.

This sign reads “6” (like in national road 6) and, below, “Staung 85”.

After some rest and a shower we meet Vothear, my long time friend and guide in Kampong Thom, for diner. He is getting married next weekend. During our discussion it emerges that Maraile will return to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning, while Vothear and I proceed to Stung Treng, via Preah Vihear Province.

Smart hotel room

Views from the balcony

The plan for this weekend is to ride with Maraile on the bike to Kampong Chnang (Kampong Chhnang), spent one night and one day there with laid back activities such as taking in some of the local sights.

We leave Phnom Penh only in the afternoon and head north on National Road 5, towards Kampong Chnang and Battambang, the former being only 91 kilometers from Phnom Penh. Guide books complain about the poor quality of this road a few years ago but nowadays the road is excellent, pretty much all the way to the Thai border. The sun is setting down after we pass Udong Mountain.

10.09.2005

Arriving in Kampong Chnang only in the evening, we follow the advice of outdated guide books and ride straight to the Hotel Rithisen on the River Parkway and check in. The place is not particularly charming and the rooms are not particularly clean. Later we find that there is a new hotel, at about half way between the market and the riverfront (right hand when coming from the market), which charges the same rates but is much nicer and cleaner. I have been to Kampong Chnang before, in 2003 on the way to Battambang, but never spent a night here. I am not the only one since many people pass through this town on the way to western Cambodia and Thailand but few people stop in Kampong Chnang. Also the guide books have little to say about the place. The Lonely Planet’s ‘Things to See and Do’ starts with stating that “Kampong Chnang has nothing essential to check out, but the riverfront area is interesting to explore”.

After a short break we take the bike and cruise around. Later we find a restaurant and have diner. The rest of the evening we spend on the hotel’s terrace on the third floor.

A high variety of insects is flying in enormous numbers around the light and covers much of the walls and ceilings. At one point before we go to bed we ask one of the staff if we could get some insecticide to spray the rooms. He is so attentive that we find him a few minutes later spraying major parts of the entire terrace. Thousands of dead insects accumulate on the floor within a few minutes, and is later elegantly disposed of with broom and dustpan.

These pictures are taken in the morning from the hotel terrace.

Initially we were planning to take a boat or ferry, cross the river and visit the island, with its several ancient temples from the Chenla period including Prasat Srei and a town called Kampong Leaeng. However, we talk to people at the riverside and learn that the regular ferry will leave only late in the afternoon, too late for us. Individual boats can be chartered at about $30 for the roundtrip.

We have not enough time for the ferry and are not in the moot to invest in the boat. So we decide to get a rowing boat and explore the floating villages around Kampong Chnang town, which should be particularly interesting at this point of time given the high water levels.

This is where we find the boat, only few hundred meters away from the hotel and impossible to miss as the road ends right at the water. The place is crowded with people and we have no difficulties finding a friendly female driver who takes us around in a rowing boat.

Many members of Cambodia’s ethnic minorities live in this place, such as Muslim Cham, ethnic Vietnamese and Christians.

Children using big bowls to get around.

Maraile and I try to row the boat ourselves for some time but we fail very badly and people around us are having a good time. I now have much more appreciation for the elegance and grace with which Cambodian’s at all ages skillfully maneuver these wooden boats through rivers, lakes and rice paddies, seemingly effortless.

Back at the riverfront.

We take the bike and ride downtown, in order to visit the market and the highly recommended, inexpensive Mekong Restaurant at the national road. In one annoying episode, we leave our helmets on the bike while briefly exploring the market. The helmets are stolen when we return to the bike after just a few minutes. Later we buy new helmets at one of the shops near the market. Luckily, helmets are rather inexpensive in Cambodia, most of the more advanced models at offer cost less than $ 20.

After we finish lunch at the Mekong Restaurant we head west on a dirt road towards some close by hills with a pagoda on its top, called Wat Sahn-dtoot (Srae Thmei). We find easily a number of quite and peaceful places, some of them with magnificent views of Kampong Chnang town and its mostly flooded surroundings.

We hang out for some time, relax and appreciate the tranquil charm of the place. Later we get on the bike, ride down to Kampong Chnang town, have a coffee in the market and head towards Phnom Penh.

We visit one of the hill top pagodas (Wat Phnom Robath and Phnom Chahm-bpoo) only about 10 kilometers outside Kampong Chnang. The place offers beautiful views over the Mekong River before the backdrop of flooded plains and green fields.

One can recognize Udong Mountain from here.

Some monks are here, too, quietly enjoying the beauty of the scenery.

From here we ride down the mountain and follow National Road 5 towards Udong and Phnom Penh. From Udong, we take the alternative Road 51 down to Phnom Penh. it is very wide, in very good condition and has not much traffic. However, it does not go to Phnom Penh directly so you don’t really save time compared to National Road 5.

We have been planning on a short visit to Phnom Baset on the way but when pass Udong it becomes obvious that substantial rain is ahead of us. We keep going rather fast and are glad for every kilometer we make without getting wet.

http://cambodia.mellenthin.de/archives/2005/07/10/phnum-baset-longvaek-and-beckys-jump-into-tonly-bassac-river-all-by-motorbike/

Finally we reach National Road 4 west of Phnom Penh, still dry. We have a short break and enjoy a fruit shake at the roadside.

If you are coming down Road 51, it is on the small road ahead that you reach National Road 4.

We head to Phnom Penh and it starts raining very strongly when we are about to pass the airport. We stop and put on rain gear but wait for the rain to become weaker. This does not happen so we ride the last few kilometers in the rain.

As it happens, our project translator grew up most of the time in Battambang and he offered to drive there on the weekend with his brother and in his brother’s car. Originally I wanted to practice my moto capabilities on Saturday. However, only later I realized that it is more than 300 km to drive to Battambang and, given the uncertainty we faced about the quality of the road (which depends critically on whether or not it rains) and the certainty about the anarchic state of traffic affairs we decided to dedicate the entire weekend to this trip.

This is how we travel this time. This is … yes, a Toyota Camry. The person in the middle is our project translator. He is 34 I believe. The guy next to the car is his older brother, the driver of the car. Both have been working hard and with significant success. The older brother has attended a government educational institution with high prestige in Cambodia and has gotten a favorable position in the hierarchy of the current administration. The younger brother went to India for about six years of his live and got both a bachelor and a master degree in public administration and international relations at an institute with international reputation. The car has the steering wheel on the right side.

We started early and stopped in a village after about 40 km outside of Phnom Penh to have some breakfast. We were traveling on the national road 5 first to the north and than following its turn to the east which parallels the course of the river Tonle Sap. The place was well visited, with many children among the customers. There was a TV set in one of the front corners on which a Chinese movie was shown. This production was presented with Khmer dubbing and Chinese sub title. It was clearly fiction (with some cruel elements to it) and good fun. The population of this restaurant played close attention to the movie and everybody was laughing on many occasions. We had rice with various sorts of fruits and meat. The food was very good and really cheap.

I managed to get only about halve of the customer in this picture. This picture was taken shortly before we left and only after our translator had asked people for permission.

This is how it looks like outside the restaurant. On the opposite side of the street was a number of jeeps with a huge PA campaigning for I do not know which of the three big parties CPP, Funcinpec and Sam Rainsy. I could not understand it but what the person had to say was apparently taped, presented very loud and sounded rather aggressive to me. I did not want to catch these people’s attention and avoided taking pictures of them.

Our next stop was Kompong Chhnang, the provincial capitol of the province with the same name. 350.000 people are said to live in this province, which is located in the Tonle Sap basin. This is in some ways the heart of Cambodia, used to be part of the Chinese sea, and is extremely fertile. Only around here it is possible to harvest rice twice a year. In the rainy season the Tonle Sap Lake extends its surface seven times.

I read in my tourist guide that the port is a busy place and a good one to see. This is the water side. The mountains in the background are supposed to look like a woman who is resting on the ground. However, I did not manage to visualize her. Or she is incredibly pregnant, but I do not want to speculate about this.

People here have adapted to the changing conditions of their environment and live largely in floating houses with which they do not settle permanently.

This is about 2 km from the national road and we passed a number of busy places, among them spots were people where standing in the water, occupied with I do not know what but maybe fishing.

This is the house front along the river. There are so many white Toyota Camry that it is hard to avoid having them in the picture. This was about 9 or 10 am. I observed that this is about the time when the monks walk in groups or alone through the streets asking – actually begging – people to give. Down the street one can recognize a number begging monks coming.

Usually they stop at some point and wait in line for people to contribute. I heard on several occasions that monks are not supposed to eat after noon. Furthermore I learned that it is common for male Khmer to become a monk for some time, which is actually considered a requirement to become a real man. I do not have verification on this one. And I heard that in the countryside (which is pretty much what this country consists of) this is mostly done during the dry season when there is not too much to do in the field. This is a good chance for education, too.

This is the Stung Pursat, a river which flows into the Tonle Sap. This picture is taking from one of the bridges in Pursat, which is the provincial capital of the province with the same name.

Pursat does not seem to offer too many attractions for tourists. Under the heading “Sehenswertes” (worth visiting) there was only one item in my tourist guide. Marble statues are manufactured and sold in this museum which actually includes a library as well. However, we found both closed.

We stopped about 10 km before we reached Battambang, which is the provincial capitol of Battambang province. Battambang is with 300.000 inhabitants the second largest city in Cambodia. I heard this province is so fertile that it used to feed the entire nation. Accordingly, Pol Pot concentrated the implementation of his evil rural development strategy in this region.

This is where we had lunch. The arrangement is characteristic. In the front, were the lady is standing, there are about 12 to 15 pots with various delicious kinds of food. Interestingly, one pays in locations like this per person. So one can order and eat as much and as many sorts of food as one wishes to. This costs like 50 cent per person but I am not exactly sure.

Live appears to be rather laid back around here.

We went first to some family members of my co-travelers. Those people live in a house in the outskirt of Battambang City. Their house is built on stilts made of concrete. It is the better-off who can afford this kind of protection from flooding. Those people where very friendly and provided us with refreshments. Then we went to see the Islamic development people.

Afterwards we went to see this place were a private entrepreneur raises crocodiles. Nobody was able to tell me for what purpose or what markets. However, this is not associated with the Muslim community.

This is in the center of Battambang City, which is getting a new road.

This is one of the pagodas in Battambang and there were many colorful statues all over the compound which represent scenes in the life of Buddha. This is – obviously – when he is cutting his hair.

Later on we went to visit some other friends of my co-traveler’s family. These folks here live in very basic conditions. All of these women except for one are wage workers in very unstable work relationships. If they manage to get a job on a daily basis they get 5000 Riel (1.20 US$) per day for work on a construction side.

The male to the right is the father of the three women in the middle. He is working in unstable conditions as well but I did not manage to learn what he is actually doing. We spend a good part of the evening on the bamboo rack in front, were we ate several fruits as some sort of snack. I did not know that lotus flowers have actually fruits which are really tasty (the green stuff in the basket on the rack). Another fruit is very common around here and very delicious but I would have a hard time describing how they look or taste like(the red stuff in the basket).

Even those people are considered relatively well off, since they manage to live in the outskirt of the city. However, their land does not allow for significant agricultural endeavors and they depend on wage labor. This shack is very simple. The base is from laterite, the structure from wood and bamboo covered with mats of straw. Other walls are covered with paper taken from magazines. There is a TV set inside.

We spent a good part of the evening here and I felt really bad for not learning much Khmer so far.

We then went to visit other friends and/or relatives. Their families spent years together in the border region with Thailand in order not to be subjected to Pol Pot’s nasty policies. These people appeared to be poor as well but willing to share what they have. We had good and opulent food. Than there was a long discussion in Khmer which I did not understand. It really was a pity to sit with these people and rely on a translator.

We spend the night on some mats on the bamboo rack under this mosquito net. Unfortunately I blinded this friendly guy with my flash.

This is in the morning. The huge tank to the right is used to keep water which is being collected from the rain via the roof. I saw these containers all over the place.

Oddly, I had three issues yesterday which all involved these tanks in one way or the other. The first time was when we had lunch in this restaurant and I went out the backdoor to wash my hands. I found a number of these containers as well as soap and started to actually wash my hands in it. People around me became very nervous and I learned that I better use the bowl to rinse my hands outside the container. This was plausible to me but only afterwards.

The second time was when we visited the first family in the evening. I removed my shoes – like everybody – in order to sit on the rack. After I ate some of the fruits I felt I should wash my hands. After all, by now I knew how to properly take care of that. So I went barefoot to the container. After I washed my hands just perfectly (while my co-travelers were proliferating my earlier misfortune) I wanted to sit on the rack again. I realized only now that my feet were pretty dirty after this short walk. They were wondering how I would sit on the rack without my feet touching it and gave me a sheet. While I was politely listening to their jokes (which I could not understand) our translator indicated that I could dry my hands with the sheet now. This was a good thing because I was about to clean my feet with it.

The third time was in the late evening when people started to have a bath. Our driver tried to explain to me how to properly go about it. This involved a lot of towels. So later on I went to the container, which was not the one in the picture but another one behind the house almost in the forest. So when I was standing in front of the container and it was entirely dark in this forest I felt I better just remove my clothes and give myself a good number of showers with this bowl and then put on my fresh clothes. The driver was wondering later on how I got a bath with only one towel and I told him. He was shocked and indicated that it would have been quite inappropriate for me to meet somebody naked, regardless of both forest and darkness. Which fortunately did not and I think was not likely to happen.

In the picture he is having a bath the proper way. You get dressed in this sort of cloth which allows you to decently get rid of your underwear. Next thing is you take the bowl and start rinsing water over your body which he is (rather: pretends to be) doing in the picture. This can be accompanied by more or less enthusiastic endeavors to catch some water and actually wash your body with the hand not occupied with the bowl. When you think you are clean enough now you start to dry your skin with another towel before you start getting decently into your set of underwear while trying to manage to keep it dry to some degree. I saw people having a bath in a similar way standing in a river or lake or even pond which I believe is more effective than the next-to-the-container option.

After he finished he suggested I should have another bath. I though I better do not practice this in front of the house right now in the daylight.

This guy was causing the fruits of this tree to fall by beating at the branches with a stick.

This harvest got some attention from neighbors and passengers.

Those people have spent long and very difficult years together in what they refer to as “Thai border region”. This was when Pol Pot ruled the country and they lost many relatives and friends.

Shortly after this snap shot we left. We went to see the market but did not spend much time. Then we left to drive back to Phnom Penh. The elderly guy in the left of the picture had to travel back to the very east of Cambodia and we gave him a right to Phnom Penh.

This is how the street looks like in the morning. The vehicle upfront is a very common sight on any major road between the ‘urban’ centers that I have seen so far. This is just a cart attached to a moto cycle. Very often I saw up to 16 and more people sitting on such a cart and traveling with high speed. I believe this really is very dangerous and only on occasion see people traveling like this with a helmet on. In the background is the unavoidable Toyota Camry.

After we have been traveling for about 1 hour the engine stopped operating.

Although the starter was working the engine did not move the car a bit. We tried a couple of times to push the car to get it started but it did not work out. There was not much we could do about it and our translator hoped on a moto and went back to the next village to get a mechanic.

This took about one hour and gave us the chance to hang out in the sun for a bit. And I got the chance to sneak around and take some pictures. All sorts of people are traveling with various sorts of vehicles and very diverse speed levels.

This is a very characteristic image. The black car (a Toyota Camry) is overtaking a truck, which is itself traveling with quite high speed. I hope it can be recognized on this picture that the black car does not have a plate. However, the driver has set the winker. The white car behind the black car is another Toyota Camry. The driver of the white car is going to overtake the black car even before both reach our white Toyota, which is standing on the street. These cars are closer than it appears on this small picture and all involved cars except ours where traveling fast. So I took this picture and left the road to save myself.

In the absence of any enforceable speed limit the limit is set by the drivers’ level of carelessness and to a lesser extend by the quality of his cars’ shock absorbers. The absence of plates does make it difficult to enforce speed limits and would need to be addressed first. Another obstacle to the enforcement is that most of these speeding cars are Toyota Camry, most of those Toyota Camry’s are white and most of the rest is black. I saw a white Toyota Camry which was speeding like hell. It did not have a plate but at the plates’ rightful place a sign reading “Camry Sport”.

I really believe intelligent enforcement would provide the governments’ very limited budget with significant additional income. People who own cars and can afford to drive them can be considered very well-off. And what they are doing here is putting other citizens’ lives at risk. The core of the problem might well be that the people in charge of enforcement have no incentive because it is them who can afford cars.

Just like our car was similar to those ones we were traveling in the same spirit. I would have felt much better with a helmet but I could not even find a seat belt. “No use” is how my co-travelers commented on my failure to find a seatbelt. This is most likely true insofar the belt would not make much difference in a frontal crash with another speeding Toyota Camry. The road was – like this one – on many stretches of our journey good quality. On those parts of the road driver of cars speed up to the limit of their vehicles. This is like a national competition. So there are many vehicles on the road that we had to defeat. What really gave me a thrill is that with the steering wheel on the right each of those overtaking operations involved the other front seat passenger. This person had to give the signal on which the driver would turn blindly to the other side of the actually not very wide road.

96 normal

This is another notorious species. Those trucks are frequently loaded with incredible numbers of people who only occasionally wear helmets. However, I doubt this measure would make a big difference given the speed with which they travel and the vulnerability on the back of the truck. The fact that the picture is blurry despite the bright day light shows just how fast those people travel.

Most people did not mind me taking pictures of them.

Some time later the translator was back with two mechanics.

Those guys take their job serious. It is clear from the beginning who pays and who gets dirty hands here.

They found that some sort of transmission band was broken. This part as well as the necessary tools are not available in the village. We decided the best way to go about it was to have the car pulled to the next town, which was Pursat with about 16 km. So they went back to the village to get a truck.

This gave me more time to explore the environment. Rather robust technology is being employed to work this soil. The part which actually digs into the ground is made of steel. I saw peasants in Ethiopia using a very similar arrangement but a wooden shovel. I am a rather urban person and really do not know anything about agriculture. But I can easily imagine that the steel shovel does not use up as fast and might well dig deeper in the ground.

This is the cooling system.

I liked this one a lot.

Those folks were passing our car several times on the road and than turned and disappeared somewhere in the fields. I gave them a bright smile the first time and they returned every time they appeared again.

This is the garage where we finally found somebody who was willing to take care of the car. This was Sunday.

We went to a Khmer restaurant to have some food. Again there was a TV. A short movie was running which obviously was meant to make voting on election day (September 27) appealing to the population. This spot was about 20 minutes long and explained step by step how to cast a vote. Mainstream citizens were presented who – with Khmer pop music in the background – proudly went to the polling station to submit their vote. Afterwards the entire community – including policemen, moto driver, women and so on – goes ceremonially behind a cart on which the ballot box is moved to the authority to undergo the counting. I found this not to bad and learned in the end that this spot was produced with the assistance of GTZ.

By the time we got back to the garage there was still no significant progress and I pushed the translator to go on a moto tour to find out what’s going on in Pursat. The museum was still closed. We went to the river and met two boys who wanted to practice their English. They told us that there is an island in the river which might be worth visiting. This is the entrance to the “golden ship island”. It is called like this because it has the shape of a ship and supposedly emerged after a golden ship sank here.

There are at least three motives in this picture which are very prominent in the local architecture. This is the lion, the shell-like ornament behind it and the roof of this small stage in the back. Some variation of those can be found everywhere. Most temples carry a roof like the one in the back and even the Ministry of Interior’s main building has gotten a very similar one.

Vishnu is – behind Buddha – very often represented in statues.

In contrast, females are seldom immortalized in statues. So I am particularly happy that I can provide the following picture of at least halve a female which I though was a good thing for a change.

This is the northern tip of the island. There are a few bridges over this river but only one appears to be capable of carrying cars. At the banks on both sides of the river people are doing their laundry and going for a bath.

I did not see a single tourist in this town and do not expect this to be dramatically different on other days. So this island was not busy at all and we found only two boys in hammocks observing two cows grazing.

Then we went back to the garage, which was not very busy, too.

I beg this improvised truck is powered by a generator which returned from the death.

There was not much to do and we started exploring the surrounding. Behind the garage are a few cows. And the rail road track passes here. The train goes from Sihanoukville at the coast all the way up to Battambang and Sisophon. From Phnom Penh to Battambang alone (300 km) it takes this train 2 days I heard. In the center of the picture the roof of a pagoda sticks out behind the trees.

I do not know what those children were trying to catch because they did not catch anything. I felt sorry for them.

There are two huge buffalos in the background.

We went back and took the shortcut through some people’s property. On the way we passed this shanty. The translator said something to these youngsters and ensured me they would not mind me taking a picture. Maybe I should mention that he does not consider it very important to ask for permissions in the first place. I think these kids did not realize what happened until I actually took this picture and they had not much opportunity to move.

This picture is worth studying. This truly is a representation of Khmer gender roles at their best. All persons in the picture are female, except the guy in the hammock.

It is very uncommon (rather: indecent) for teenager to have a girl (boy) friend and if this happens (and is shown in public) this means a serious commitment, particularly by the guy.

So it was not very surprising that this Khmer guy did not like the situation too much. His accompaniment was eager to take more pictures while he displayed strong displeasure with the idea of being in the same pictures with them.

The girl to the right lives in the house to the left in the background while the other girl’s family lives in the house to the right.

Finally the car was ready again and we had to pay just 20 bucks. Given that this was Sunday and that the spare part was about 12 US$ this really appears to be a modest price.

Since we were behind schedule we had to speed even more afterwards. So I did not get the chance to take any more pictures. We arrived in Phnom Penh when it was about to get dark.