Cambodia Part II: Current Civilisation

Cambodia is a country rebuilding itself after years of civil war, genocide, communism and there is a concerted effort to regenerate and sustain part of their culture, in the form of skills in sculpture, silkmaking etc. I visited a number of training centres whech bring people from different villages to be trained in the different art forms for them to then continue these crafts in their respective villages. I loved the visit to the silk centre which showed the the process from farming the worms to weaving and the finished product. Fortunately budget and luggage constraints curbed my spending otherwise I would've decked my flat in cushions quilts and wall hangings.

The most memorable experience was a day trip to Prek Toal - a floating village, bird sanctuary and craft making establishment - supported by a French NGO - Osmose. It involved a drive to the Tonle Sap lake, 1-2 hr boat trip past floating villages (on the right were Vietnamese villagers and on the left Cambodian - no love lost between them) and fishing allotments (concessions are now given to big companies due to extortionate cost and then rented to villages) before arriving at Prek Toal - fascinating to see how the villagers live - houses are built on floating bamboo platforms and daily tasks revolve around the water and boats - from children rowing themselves to school, to floating petrol stations, stationary and mobile floating shops/food kiosks. The water level between wet and dry season changes by 12m and we were visiting during the dry season so managed to take a walk past temples (permanent structures), crocodile breeding farms (too scary to mention) and "back gardens". They have introduced floating gardens with herbs, guava/papaya/banana trees and other veggies such as tomoatoes - fascinating and have been sustained over the last few years, so successful too! The waterways get clogged up by water hyacinths during the day creating havoc for locals to manouvre. One of the crafts that has been re-introduced is the weaving of mats/baskets/hats/hammocks etc from the hyacinth - a very successful project involving many villagers. A lot of the sights were very positive, there is also the negative around disease and lack of medical resource, basic sanitation and waste disposal (this is a common theme across Cambodia in both rural and urban places).

We also visited the bird sanctuary (despite an almighty thunderstorm that lasted about 2 hours with torrential rain as we bobbed about in the wide open lake - and this is dry season!). Previously locals used bird eggs as a food source creating endangered species (pelicans, herons, etc) and they have stopped this activity and replaced it with tourism, training rangers and school children on the environment and beauty of the sanctuary and birds. We managed to see many different birds, despite the rain and enjoyed a delicious local meal back in the village at a floating restaurant (soup, rice, fish, cabbage!!) followed by a dessert purchased from a floating vendor (choice of sweet rice and black beans or sweet corn served with coconut milk).

On our return visit to Siem Reap, I appreciated our trip immensely as we saw 100's of boats taking tourists out to the basic villages at the entrance to the lake - a bit dull really! And then we stopped at a lotus flower farm....exquisite!