[2017]
[Wednesday 15 February
2017]
Mekong Cruise, Cambodia
RV La Marguerite, Cambodia
The Daily Cruiser
The ship had left Prek K’dam yesterday evening and was moored at Koh Chen (not shown on the map), where we went ashore this morning. After we re-boarded, the ship went on to Phnom Penh, where we went ashore in the afternoon.
Transferred 19 further photos from yesterday from the camera to the
WD Elements HDD (06:38–06:39). Looked through them, but none needed to be
rotated.… Janet vacated the bathroom, … I shaved and showered.… We went for breakfast,
ca.7.45am; then, ca.8.15am, joined P and Y in the Saigon Lounge to wait for Green “family” to be called. Because the river was shallow, the ship wasn’t moored right up against the bank; so the gangplank ashore was fully extended and rather “springy”. At least there were concrete steps up the bank, not earthen ones.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:38:38
Going ashore from La Marguerite at Koh Chen
We assembled under a small shelter, and Adam told us what was the plan for this excursion. He said that our location, Koh Chen, meant “Chinese Island”.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:39:18
Environs of Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:41:22
Environs of Koh Chen
We walked along the dirt road into the village, and turned left into a fairly large building, a workshop where copper and silver vessels and ornaments were made. How to tell the difference between silver and silver-plated items was demonstrated.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:51:44
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:52:10
One of the residents at the copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:53:58
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:57:02
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:58:20
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:58:32
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 08:59:38
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:01:46
Copperware and silverware workshop at Koh Chen
From there, we passed on through the village. Under one of the houses, I saw more metalworking activity.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:13:48
Koh Chen village
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:16:24
Koh Chen village
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:16:24 (detail)
Koh Chen village
At the end of the road we came to a temple area with pagodas and tombs; and on the far side of the compound was a school, which we visited.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:19:32
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:20:18
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:21:20
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:23:00
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:23:18
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area: approaching the school
We entered a class of perhaps 30 or more children. Because they’d not all started school at the same age, there was a range of ages of children there. I can’t remember the age of the youngest (eight? ten?); the oldest was 14. They all looked very young for their stated age; but whether that was because they weren’t well-fed, or because Cambodians are small anyway, I don’t know. The teacher herself, aged 21 and already a university graduate, could have been mistaken for a pupil! Adam urged us not to be “wallflowers” and to engage with the children; many of the party, including
P and Y, did that, sitting with them and asking them questions; but Janet and I didn’t. Asked what they wanted to be after leaving school, most of them replied, “A teacher”; but one young lad said, “A
D.J.!” They sang for us in Khmer, and at the end we all sang “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:25:30
Koh Chen: schoolroom
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:27:26
Koh Chen: schoolroom
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 09:57:00
Koh Chen, Buddhist temple area: unlikely-seeming inhabitant
We got back to the ship ca.10.15am. After going to the cabin, we went up to the Saigon Lounge, as the ship set out towards Phnom Penh, passing large barges low in the
water,[i] and floating villages;
Janet had a coffee, and later a squeezed lime and soda water drink; and I had a couple of beers (today’s brand was shown as “4.7% a.b.v.” on the
can).[ii] …And there was an illustrated talk on
Cambodia,[iii] its culture and people, then Adam quite amusingly demonstrated the uses of a Cambodian scarf.
Janet and I went for lunch a little later than the scheduled 12.30pm, and sat with
P and Y, who had already started. The waiter offered me beer, which I’d had hitherto; but I chose white wine. Afterwards, we went back to the cabin.
- [i] I think they were full of sand dredged from the riverbed.
[ii] I wrote this, intending to contrast the strength of today’s beer with ones drunk on previous days. However, any comment of the strength of the beer in previous days’ diary entries (was it 5% or even 6%?) is lacking.
[iii] Janet wrote: “I wept when I saw the percentage of people over 50 left in the country. A tiny percentage. Terrible.”
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 13:42:54
Phnom Penh: view from the cabin
…Janet went up to use the exercise bike… Just after 2.30pm we went ashore for the optional tuk-tuk tour of Phnom Penh. There were four passengers to a tuk-tuk. We were accompanied by a couple from Brisbane, Adrian and
Esmay.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 14:38:18
Phnom Penh: going ashore
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 14:41:12
Phnom Penh: aboard a tuk-tuk
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 14:41:12 (detail)
Phnom Penh: aboard a tuk-tuk
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 14:43:44
Phnom Penh: aboard a tuk-tuk
We stopped at a long garden or park between two
boulevards,[iv] in the middle of which was a statue of Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012), known as “King Father”. He was king of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955, when he abdicated to become Prime Minister, and again from 1993 on the restoration of the monarchy till 2004. At the western end of the park was the Angkor
Wat-style lotus-shaped Independence Monument, built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodia’s independence from France. On the other side of the northern of the two boulevards from there were the mansion of Hun
Sen, prime minister since 1985, and next door the North Korean embassy.
- [iv] Samdech Chuon Nath Garden, according to Wikimapia. Samdech Sangha Raja Jhotañano Chuon Nath (1883–1969) was the Buddhist supreme patriarch of Cambodia.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:02:40
Phnom Penh: statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk in Samdech Chuon Nath Garden
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:12:38
Phnom Penh: Independence Monument seen from Samdech Chuon Nath Garden
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:14:28
Phnom Penh: view from Samdech Chuon Nath Garden
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:18:36
Phnom Penh: (left:) Prime Minister Hun Sen’s mansion; (right:) North Korean Embassy — seen from Samdech Chuon Nath Garden
We went from there, passing the Independence Monument, and were deposited at the so-called Russian Market for a (most unwelcome!) 45 minutes’ shopping.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:20:08
Phnom Penh: Independence Monument
We needed a toilet, and Adam led us to the opposite end of the market and across the street. He was helping a couple to use an ATM at a bank, so he asked in the bank whether we might use their toilets, and they allowed us to.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:50:04
Phnom Penh: How NOT to use the toilet
Then Janet and I went back through the market; and, needing a drink in that heat and seeing café-style umbrellas across the street, we took courage and braved the cars and swarming mopeds to cross over. But the umbrellas stood outside other kinds of shops, not bars or cafés.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 15:54:44
Phnom Penh: Russian Market
We waited at the rendezvous point outside the front of the market. Between that paved area and the street was a line of stalls, selling street-food and other things. They were very
unsalubrious-looking, and what’s more we didn’t see any drinks on sale. We didn’t notice the cabinet-fridges by them, which would have been stocked with cans of beer,
etc. We were joined one by one (in fact, mostly two by two) by the others from the tour. As we waited, I was aware of a man below me. I didn’t pay him much heed, but the reason he was below me must have been because he lacked his legs. He was begging, and as we waited, he kept touching the backs of my legs. It’s to my shame, as I think about it now, that I ignored him. When we were all gathered,
ca.4.30pm, Adam led us back to the tuk-tuks. As we made our way along shopping street after shopping street, I noticed that a number of adjacent shops, curiously, were selling the same things — unexpected things, to boot. There were ones selling motor parts, for example — not so unexpected, I guess; but when, a bit later on, we passed ones with stainless steel kitchen ranges on display such as one might find in restaurants and hotels, I began to think it was bizarre. We stopped at the wooded knoll of Wat Phnom (“hill temple”). According to legend, “Grandmother” Penh, a wealthy widow, found four bronze statues of the Buddha in a hollow tree floating in the Mekong River when it was in flood. She constructed a shrine for them on the hill, which became Wat Phnom. Penh gave her name to the city Phnom Penh (“hill of Penh”).
Janet was feeling too hot for climbing the long flight of steps up there, so stayed in the tuk-tuk with
Esmay. I joined those whom Adam led up, not directly by the aforementioned flight of steps, but around the side and up by a gentler route.
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:01:08
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:01:22
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom, main stupa
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:05:14
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom, pavilion with a statue of a smiling and somewhat plump
Penh[v]
- [v] I assumed initially that this was a representation of the Buddha, looking so like a ventriloquist’s dummy that I thought of captioning it “statue oth the Guddha”. I suppose now that it will have to be “statue oth the Lady Kenh”!
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:08:00
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:09:14
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:10:04
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:10:36
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:11:26
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:13:28
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom pagoda
Thursday 16 February 2017 — 17:16:08
Phnom Penh: Wat Phnom
After Adrian and I returned to the tuk-tuk, we went back to the ship,
ca.5.30pm. We were thirsty so immediately went to the Saigon Lounge, joining
P and Y who were already there. Ca.6.15pm, we went down to the cabin, to shower and change.
Ca.6.45pm, we joined P and Y again in the Saigon Lounge. There were cocktails each evening, and I developed a liking for the freeze-dried peas available on the bar, which were flavoured with some spice, instantly searing-hot but quickly subsiding. We went down for dinner at 7pm. “We’d all been in a giggly mood all day,”
Janet wrote, “and it continued.… Anyway, we had a good laugh, then left for our cabins around 9.15pm. We were in bed around 9.45pm.”
[Friday 17 February
2017]
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