Cambodia

Forgive us if we start this blog on a serious note. However, if you continue to the end we will share one of the more fun things we’ve done this trip.

We were warned in our Cambodian guidebook and then first hand with signs of danger - not to walk off the paths because of unexploded landmines. The signs were especially disturbing when we saw them at temples which we were told were used by the Kmer Rouge for animals barns and prisons and torture chambers. Our tuk tuk driver, Pov, showed us, at a temple we were visiting, the building where his grandfather was tortured to death for asking for food after working 2 long days without anything to eat. He added that every Cambodian family was affected by loss in a similar way. In 1975, Pol Pot and his party, the Khmer Rouge, began a “brutal restructuring of Cambodia” into a “giant peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative.” EVERYONE, no matter their age or physical condition, were forced to work in the fields leaving the cities empty. “Intellectuals were systematically wiped out.” Wearing glasses would mark one for death.
The country has been recovering since 1979 when the Vietnamese liberated them. The median age now is just 22.  We can't imagine how difficult it must be for such a young population to recreate their culture.

At the Battambang Museum, we were continually distracted by the red stains everywhere on the tile floor. Rajiv thought they were blood stains and Marianne couldn‘t let herself believe that was true. Rajiv’s truth was verified by a person at the museum and Pov. He said this place was known for the torture and killing of the Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge.

Now, on a lighter note

We again found an English speaking knowledgeable tuk tuk driver, Pov, who planned a day of not only visiting 2 temples we wanted to see but included stops at 3 home industries. The first was where a young crippled woman and her elderly grandmother made a sticky rice snack cooked in a foot long section of bamboo opened on one end. The hard outer green skin of the bamboo was cut away leaving just enough to cover the delicious rice that had been mixed with a few coconut milk, black beans, sugar and salt. The green strips were then used as fuel for cooking the next rice. The bamboo stalks were sitting in a basket by the road for tourists (Cambodian primarily) to buy.

A family trio of women at the next stop at a prosperous looking home compound (rice farmer) were making and packaging fresh rice noodles. The rice had been cooked, pounded and made into a paste before we got there. Their smooth cooperation and efficient division of labor indicated they had worked together for a long time. We felt this was a peaceful setting. Even the 2 small children reflected this and were playing happily nearby.

The final stop in our delightful education about the home industries of the making of rice products was to see the making of “rice paper”. As we approached this substantial wooden home on stilts, we saw bamboo screens covered with 8 “ translucent circles drying in the sun. Again, this mother and her 2 children, 8 and 9 years old, had an experienced operation. The thin rice mixture was spread thinly on a piece of fabric stretched over boiling water, covered for a minute to cook, removed with a spatula and a puff of air and finally the “rice paper” circle was transferred to a length of bamboo. One of the children took the bamboo gently rolling the still wet “paper” onto the screen. When the screen was full, one of the children deftly carried it into the sun. There was a basket of at least 1,000 papers when we were there at 11:30. The wholesaler would be there early evening when there would be at least 2,000. They made about $20 a day. Pov knew this family and reassured us that the children went to school half a day like most children in Cambodia. The father worked elsewhere adding to this family’s income.

One evening we went to a unique school, Phare Ponleu Selpak, an NGO performing arts school started by the French. The organization aims “to improve the communities’ living standards through the practice of the arts. We concentrate on the local youth, offering them formal academic learning, informal education, vocational artistic training (circus, theatre, visual arts, illustration and graphic design, animation, music), leisure activities and social support.” We were impressed with the student’s art work in the visual art exhibition that preceded the circus performance, our main reason for coming. Walking to the big top we say 3 outdoor stages (for theatre?). The young musicians and the acrobats were present or graduated pupils from the school. (All the teachers are now ex-students. It felt good to have people from the neighborhood in the audience along with the foreigners. All of us were laughing at the clowns and applauding the acrobats for their amazing performances. Also, the musicians were expert at establishing the mood during the entire performance.

The Bamboo Train

We read and heard about a train, The Bamboo Train, with only a single track. What intrigued us was that when the cars met, the least loaded one of them had to be dismantled for the other to pass then reassembled on the track to proceed. It sounded far-fetched but everything we read proved to be true. What fun!!! We laughed as we seemed to fly with extreme bumps and jerks over the warped and mis-aligned tracks. The pillows given us to sit on with the comment “first class” definitely helped. The car, an ultra-light 4’ x 6’ bamboo frame on barbell-like wheels, was propelled by a 6 hp engine connected to the rear axel by a simple fan belt. The first time we encountered another car speeding toward us we breathlessly waited to see how this would work out. Just as we read, the two of us were told to get off so that the 4 cars meeting us could pass. The platform was taken off by our driver and the driver from an oncoming car and set beside the track. The wheels were next. The 4 cars then passed with the final one waiting for the driver to help reassemble our car. This fast and efficient dance was repeated over and over again during our round trip. Rajiv felt it was like a VERY long carnival ride.

May peace and joy fill the world.

Rajiv and Marianne