4000 islands, Thakhek and Konglor : Mother Nature in all its beauty

After a not so quiet border crossing (or at least, a corrupted border crossing) we arrived at 4000 islands. This place is, as you can guess, a group of islands on the Mekong River (sorry we didn’t count if they are 4000!!!). 

Here the River is not polluted (at least not enough to refrain us of swimming); so even if the temperature of the water was quite low, we did some tubing!!! It is really nice, slow and quiet. While lying in the tubing, you have time to discover the place from another angle. For example we saw boats transporting motorbikes, women fishing riverweeds or doing their laundry, kids playing in the water or taking a shower, ducks having fun…

By bicycle, we visited the Mekong waterfalls. They are huge and impressive!!! We were especially impressed by the courageous ones (and pro) who did some kayak in it!

On the island we stayed, people are also making their own charcoal: they stack pieces of wood together and cover it with clay and straw. They light a fire at the base of this “house” and as the smoke cannot go away, wood is consumed slowly and becomes charcoal. When everything has burnt, the “house” is destroyed and charcoal taken.

In Lao, the French influence is still strong and visible ! People play pétanque, how funny is that ?? As kids don’t have the right bowls to play they have invented another version: instead of the jack they use rubber bands, small wood pieces or just “something” and to replace the petanque bowls they use their flip flops. They throw their shoe in order to touch the “jack”! Some of them are really good at it!

This venue in Lao is really peaceful and beautiful… We enjoyed spending time in our hammocks in front of our bungalows and smiling at the very friendly population.

But after 3 days on “our” island we arrived in Thakhek. This limestone region is well known for its caves. We took a motorbike and drove through a mountainous landscape to discover caves. Some of them only contains beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, some of them contain a lot of Buddha…. Really nice… but not as nice as French caves J!!

With « very » local transport we moved to Konglor, another place known for its cave. 

This one is crossed by a river and measures 9,5kilometres. It connects 2 villages. The cave has beautiful limestone formations but is also the place where the biggest spiders are living (25 centimetres… with the legs of course). Unfortunately we couldn’t see any: we cross in a boat in the dark, with only our headlamps but it is not enough for this huge cavity. Anyway we really appreciated the boat ride!!!

  

Cambodia - The conclusion

Kampot, Koh Ta Kiev and Kratie : Peaceful time near the Mekong River and the Indian Ocean

For New Year’s Eve, we went to Kampot; a well-known place for its pepper. As pepper lovers, we visited a farm. Pepper grows on a climbing plant and even if we speak about different peppers (green, black, red and white), it is the same plant.

- Green pepper is “fresh” pepper. It is harvested all year round. This pepper has not reached the stage of maturity and once harvested, you can only keep it for few days. Cambodian people use it as a vegetable and cook it with see food.
-   Black pepper is made from green pepper, usually almost at the maturity point but not necessarily and is dried 10 days in the sun

- Red pepper, used with meat, is mature pepper which has been dried in the sun for 10 days.
- White pepper, very good with see food, is made from red pepper. The red pepper is harvested, then boiled in water for 20 minutes and disposed of its red skin.

Of course we went to Kep, the crab city, to eat a good crab with Kampot pepper!!!

We spent a quiet New year ‘s Eve in this city near the Mekong river: It is a lovely place but not the good choice for NYE…

Anyway, we went then to Koh Ta Kiev Island, an « almost deserted island » in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and it was a good decision. We camped in front of the see, on a remote beach, with the jungle behind us. 30 degrees in the air, 26 in the water… 5 camping days, without electricity and running water. Our program: swimming, BBQ, reading, walking in the jungle…

We went to a fishing village and one family, who couldn’t speak English at all, cooked fresh crabs for us. Soooo lovely!!!

We finished our stay in Cambodia in Kratie, a town well-known for its river dolphins. These Irrawady dolphins live in the Mekong River but are an endangered species. Nowadays only less than 100 dolphins still live here. Fishing nets are the biggest problem for this animal and even if they are now protected, many fishermen still use these nets. Mekong dolphins have a round head (not like the ocean dolphins who have a “nose”) but unfortunately we couldn’t see their face, because they didn’t jump high enough!

Our one month stay in Cambodia is now finished. It was a really relaxing place where we could benefit from the French influence to eat delicious French food!!! Now we are heading to Lao by bus.

Phnom Penh or the horrible Story of the Khmers Rouges

We arrived in Phnom Penh the day after Christmas but the magic of Christmas was still present: Chris, owner of the Arun Villa Hotel proposed us to host us for free during 4 nights!!! He liked our project. What a lovely gift: Beautiful and big room, clean with even a French Touch and a private terrace….and a pool outside! The staff was so helpful and friendly that we almost felt home!!!

But in Phnom Penh, not everything is so peaceful. We visited the S21 museum, also called “museum of the Genocide” and the “killing fields” of Choeng EK. In our last post about Battambang, I was telling you about the cruelties done by the Khmers Rouges; when you are in S21 or Choeng Ek these atrocities come unfortunately alive.

Let me try to explain you the terrible History of Cambodia.

Communist ideas in Cambodia appeared in the 40s, when France was still occupying Cambodia. After the Indochina War (1954), some believers of these ideas joined together and built a “militia” to fight against the Sihanouk Prince (who came to power).

Most leaders of this “unit” did their studies in France and were members of the PCF (French Communist Party). In 1970, the Prince of Sihanouk is “replaced” by Lon Nol after a Pro-American Coup d’Etat. But Lon Nol doesn’t achieve to calm tensions in the country and Pol Pot (the Khmers Rouges Leader) managed to federate youth from the countryside and soon they believe him and his ideas: the “Khmers Rouges” were born. (“Khmer” represents the biggest tribe in Cambodia and “Rouge” means red and represents the colour for the communism). On the 17 April 1975, the Khmers Rouges attack Phnom Penh. In a very short time they close schools, hospitals, temples, plants… and force the people to go back to the countryside and abandon cities. Their ideal is simple: eliminate all social classes to create the “new folks” who lives only for the community. Pol Pot wants to live in autarchy and forces people to produce more rice. In order to achieve this, he creates “collective farms” which are in fact slaves work. L’Angkar (Which means “Organisation”) is heavy handed and oppresses the population. All “intellectuals” and/or all who have a link with the western world (except members of the Angkar) are killed with their families because Pol Pot thought, he had to “eliminate the problems from the roots”.

In the country, a lot of prisons appear. The S21 prison was a high school before being “transformed” into a prison by the Khmers Rouges. More than a prison it was a torture centre because anyone entering these gates had to admit a crime (done or not). Electrocution, drowning, hanging… were very common. Almost 20000 people (men, women and children) entered this prison (and less than 200 went out alive). Once their “crime” admitted, prisoners were put in big trucks with tied hands and blindfolded and driven to Choeng Ek (the “killing fields”). They were asked to kneel and were killed in cold blood with a bamboo stick, a hammer, a pickaxe… everything but firearms because bullets were expensive and Pol Pot did not want to “use money for so useless things”.

When people did not died directly, they suffered many hours, especially when guards spray them with pesticides to hide the horrible smell of death.

The cruelty of the Khmers Rouges was endless: one tree was used to killed young children: Killers took the children by the feet and crushed their heads against the trunk…. And in front of their mothers who were raped before being killed as well!

In the Choeng Ek Killing fields, we found 129 common graves but only 89 were excavated. More than 18000 people died and today a commemorative stupa adorns this horror field. In the stupa, 8000 skulls of victims rest in peace and in the respect of the souvenir.

Finally, the government of Pol Pot was stopped on 7 January 1979. This genocidal period killed more than 2 million people (on a population of 8 million at this time). 300 000 died directly killed by a Khmer Rouge, the others died by disease, starvation, hopelessness, brutalities…

Cambodian People had to wait until 1997 to see Pol Pot condemned for crime against humanity and crime of war. Unfortunately he died before his process. Since then, other leaders were arrested, condemned and are in prison now… but the Khmers Rouges ideal isn’t completely “out of the game”…

It is really difficult to imagine how Men can be so cruel with other Men. History is made with great acts but also with horrible things, like this one! 1975 is not so far from today, we were almost born!!!! How such a thing could happen? How such a thing could have been avoided? Can such a thing happen again? Why did we learn from the past??? All of these questions are open but when we were in those terrific places we had a thought about it. It is our duty, not to forget, but also to learn from our mistakes.

As you understand, we were touched and disturbed but also revolted by these two sites. But we highly recommend these visits. We cannot forget what happened in the past!!! Nowadays, a lot of Cambodian families are still crying the loss of someone and have physical and mental sequelae from this time. How many years will be necessary to close the wound… Only time will let us know….

Battambang – A wonderful Christmas

We went to Battambang, the second largest city of Cambodia, by boat through Tonlé Sap Lake. This lake has a unique particularity: depending on the season, either it fills in or it empties. Actually during the dry season (from November to Mai), water flows from the Lake to the Mekong, so the lake gets “empty”. During the rainy season (from Mai to November), when the snow melts from the Himalaya, water flows from Mekong River to the Lake. The lake is considered as a “buffer zone” which protects from Mekong flooding and which also regulates its level. The “period” where the current changes direction is called the reversal of the river. The November Water Festival is “calculated” by the monks regarding the moon and is time for a big 3 days ceremony opening the fishing season. As a symbol, the King orders the water to reverse itself.

During the rainy season, the surface of the lake is multiplied by 6: the depth goes from 1 meter to 8 meter. Thus people needs to take this specificity into account: Houses are built on 8 meter high stilts and some are totally floating on the water and can move like boat to “follow fishes”. Of course the first activity for those people is fishing; the lake has very good water for fishes!

It is very impressive to go through these villages. Schools, churches, shops… float on the lake and move with the waves created by boats!

Our boat ride took 8 hours to Battambang. Usually, at this time of the year (beginning of the dry season), the lake should be almost full and the boat should take 5 hours to reach Battambang but the 2014 rainy season was bad and the lake quite empty…

In Battambang we rented a motorbike to visit the surroundings: Few temples from the Angkor period, 

One memorial for the victims of the Khmer Rouges (I will come back on this tragedy in our next post about Phnom Penh). On the wall of this memorial, you can see sculptures about the atrocities the Khmer Rouges did to the people. It is hard to look at and even more to believe that such a cruelty exists… But it is really important, not to forget it!!!

For the sunset we stopped at the bat cave. Just before the sun disappears behind the mountains, bats are coming out to hunt. Not one, not two, not hundred, not thousand, but tens of thousands. They fly in a row and make a huge shadow in the sky!!! Really impressive!!!

Another touristic attraction not to miss is the well known « Bamboo train ». This old transport was used by the local people; nowadays it is only used by the tourists. The “coaches” are made with bamboo, put on axle and set in motion by a petrol engine. As the railway has only one “line”, each time we meet someone coming from the opposite direction, one of the two has to “dismantle” the coach to let the other one go. The first time it happened, we were surprised. Less than 1 minute is needed to dismantle the coach and the same time is needed to “rebuild” it. The joy ride is pleasant. You don’t really see the landscape (because of the trees next to the railway) but being 40 cm above the floor at a 30km/h speed is a nice feeling!!! Just a pity that the ride is 5 USD each!!!

Of course, after all of these, it was time for us to celebrate our 8 months of traveling, 5 years of engagement, Romain 28 birthday and of course Christmas Eve… So for all of these reasons (even if we don’t really need specific reasons, just a pretext), we had a good time: dinner with a show and of course foie gras, duck filet and chocolate dessert and… an hotel with private Jacuzzi!! Christmas in “summer” is a bit weird, without our families is even weirder but we enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (with a Nutella breakfast…)