Another
Face of Cambodia
We sailed north through the Gulf of Thailand to
Sihanoukville, Cambodia, the largest port in that country. Upon arriving, we disembarked and boarded
trains for a visit to the colonial city of Kampot. Along the journey from the port, we
experienced a totally different aspect of the country than the one we had seen
in Siem Reap. Gone were the glitzy 5
star hotels catering to the tourists visiting the ancient temples there. Now, we were looking at poverty, shanties and
trash strewn streets and countryside on the order of an extremely poor country.
No more Lexus sedans and SUVs, but tuk-tuks ruled the day. (A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle with a passenger
cart attached used mainly as a taxi.) However, it is obvious that no one appears to
be hungry here. Tropical fruits and
vegetables are plentiful and most people have a few chickens and ducks. They also seem relatively happy, maybe it’s a
matter that they don’t know what they don’t have.
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| Tuk-Tuk Parade |
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| Street Food |
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| Happy Children |
The Kampot region was famous in the past for growing pepper,
known as some of the best in the world.
During the time of terror when Pol Pot ruled the country (1975-79), he mostly
had the pepper plantations destroyed.
They are now, however, making a comeback. During our excursions in this region of
Cambodia, much more emphasis was given to history concerning Pol Pot than when we
visited Siem Reap. There were many
personal accounts of families torn apart, relatives starved, tortured or killed
and finally, attempts to reunite families after he was deposed.
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| Different Types of Pepper |
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| Deep-fried Grasshoppers with Chilis |
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| Jack Fruit |
Cambodia is now supposed to be a democracy, but I had read a couple of
days before returning to the country that the prime minister is a strong man
who has taken over the media and is continually cracking down on his opposition. After an afternoon on the beach at Koh Rong
Island, we were scheduled to attend a classical dance performance known as
“Apsara” on another nearby beach at dusk.
We personally decided not to attend due to the abundance of mosquitos
that would be coming out of the jungle behind the beach at the same time as the
performance. But, we weren’t expecting
to see the passengers who did go to the venue return before any performance
could take place. It turned out that an
armed military group showed up wanting to see clearance and permission papers,
even though everything had previously been approved. Our expedition leader then brought everyone
back to the ship out of an abundance of caution. Antics like these will never bode well for
tourism in a place that could really use the revenues that visitors bring. Maybe it’s a good thing to have had this
experience in order to get a more balanced view of Cambodia than just going to
Siem Reap brought us.
