[2017]
[Tuesday 14 February 2017]
Mekong Cruise, Cambodia
RV La Marguerite, Cambodia
The Daily Cruiser
Our morning excursion was to Kampong Chhnang town and the river nearby; in the afternoon we went ashore at Kampong Tralach and went on by road to Oudong, before returning to the ship at Prek
K’dam.
Janet got up ca.6.30am… She reported that she’d heard a buzzing in the night, but she didn’t think it was a mosquito because it wasn’t high-pitched enough. She’d not felt comfortable, wanting the French door open; but we’d had to keep it shut, to avoid mosquitoes. I switched on the
computer… till Janet vacated the bathroom; then I shaved and showered. Then we went for breakfast. Back in the cabin, I transferred seven photos from yesterday from the camera to the
WD Elements HDD (07:54–07:55), before we went up to the Saigon Lounge
ca.8.15am. Boarding cards with cabin numbers on them, and “excursion group cards” with the three colours, were laid out on a tray; so we picked up the two former ones with our cabin number on them, and chose two “Green” cards from the latter. (On previous cruises, people leaving the ship have been counted out by scanning a boarding card kept in their possession all the time; and people re-boarding the ship have been counted back in the same way. Here, taking a cabin-numbered boarding card before going ashore, and handing it back afterwards, provided a neat and easy way to tell who was where. If a boarding card remained in the tray, that person must still be aboard. If the card was missing from the tray, that person must have gone ashore.)
The Daily Cruiser yesterday had stated, “When leaving the ship, always pick up your Excursion Group Card. On each excursion, you have the freedom to choose the group colour. This will make your experience with the tour more enjoyable and informative as you will have different guides in each group.” This was confirmed by the words of the Cruise Director, speaking in his “metallic Stephen Hawking” (“MSH”) voice:
“Grrd morrnrring, lrrdrrs rrnd grrntlemrrin!….” We chose “Green” so we could stay with Adam, because he was very likeable. We joined
P and Y at a table, to await our disembarkation. This morning, “MSH” announced “Green” as the first group or “family” to depart. The two-beats-per-second contemporary pop music that was suddenly struck up to march us out seemed very much at odds with the older age range of most of the passengers! We boarded the long, roofed tender-boat, furnished with individual metal chairs and provided with life-jackets. We took with us the little radios that usually stood on the dressing table slotted into a battery-charger. I used my
Sennheiser ear-canal phones with mine so that Adam’s voice would be perceived as balanced in the centre of my head.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:44:00
Aboard the boat: Adam counts the people in the party.
The Tonlé Sap River at this point is divided into multiple channels; and we went from the one in which the ship was moored, through a relatively narrow canal, into a wide channel looking very similar to the first one. There were the odd hills visible on both sides of the river, in contrast to the almost uniformly flat terrain through which we had passed by quite a roundabout route yesterday.
Image from Google Maps
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:49:52
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:52:34
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:52:34 (detail)
Aboard the boat: views en route
By now I was used to seeing dwellings and other buildings on stilts, but none as tall and rickety-looking as the ones we passed now. Equally rickety appeared a long wooden bridge across a creek.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:53:18
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:53:18 (detail 1)
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:53:18 (detail 2)
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:57:00
Aboard the boat: views en route
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:57:52
Aboard the boat: views en route: wooden bridge across a creek
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:57:52 (detail 1)
Aboard the boat: views en route: wooden bridge across a creek
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 08:57:52 (detail 2)
Aboard the boat: views en route: wooden bridge across a creek
We went ashore at a landing stage, and made our way up steps to the level of the street, where Adam led us along, parallel to the river, past market stalls.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:01:18
Going ashore at Kampong Chhnang town
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:02:08
Going ashore at Kampong Chhnang town
It was perhaps yesterday, when Adam was describing the Cambodian diet, enthusing about their propensity for snacking on bugs and other creepy crawlies, that he mentioned
kralan: sticky rice with red beans, coconut, etc., fire-roasted inside sections of hollow bamboo. And when we passed a vendor, he bought one. That wasn’t the last time when escorting us that he got his wallet out. One gets to the
kralan by peeling off the bamboo in strips. I tried some; it wasn’t bad.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:04:46
Kampong Chhnang town: kralan (sticky rice and other ingredients roasted in bamboo tubes)
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 19:05:06
Kampong Chhnang town: kralan (sticky rice and other ingredients roasted in bamboo tubes)
We did, in fact, pass a barrow where fried insects were being sold.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:07:30
Kampong Chhnang town: selling fried insects, etc., from a barrow
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:09:08
Kampong Chhnang town: view down to the riverside
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:09:08 (detail 1)
Kampong Chhnang town: view down to the riverside
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:09:08 (detail 2)
Kampong Chhnang town: view down to the riverside
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:10:04
Kampong Chhnang town
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:10:18
Kampong Chhnang town
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:10:30
Kampong Chhnang town
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:10:56
Kampong Chhnang town: market
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:12:34
Kampong Chhnang town: market
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:13:38
Kampong Chhnang town: market
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:14:28
Kampong Chhnang town: ladling noodle soup
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:21:58
Kampong Chhnang town
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:26:14
Kampong Chhnang town: smithy
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:26:14 (detail 1)
Kampong Chhnang town: smithy
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:26:14 (detail 2)
Kampong Chhnang town: smithy
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:28:22
Kampong Chhnang town: market
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:29:34
Kampong Chhnang town
On the side of the street under a veranda were a trio of orange-robed monks, each carrying a round alms-bowl on a stand with a cover and carrying-strap, into which passers-by put food. (This is perceived as giving people the opportunity to make good karma.)
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:31:16
Kampong Chhnang town: giving alms to monks[i]
- [i] When Janet saw this photo she remembered that when she saw the old couple giving alms to the monks, they were the only old people that she had seen hitherto in Cambodia. Adam himself told us the previous day that only 4% of the people are age 65 and over.
We boarded the boat at a different location from that at which we’d left it.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:39:40
Back aboard the boat: a young lad without shoes sees us off.
When I reboarded the boat I hit my head on one of the roof-beams and instantly dropped to the floor. I was aware of arms dragging me to my feet straight away.
Janet was upset by it; but I was uninjured, apart from a small sore spot on the head. We went farther upstream to see the “floating villages” that are on both sides of the river. Adam told us that because of environmental issues relating to aquatic life and pollution the authorities were going to move the inhabitants out from them into permanent land-based accommodation.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:41:22
Aboard the boat: views to shore
Abundant, spreading aquatic plants, mostly along the shore, sometimes free-floating, with short stalks holding bunches of pale lavender-coloured flowers, were identified by Adam as “water hyacinth”.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:45:24
Aboard the boat: views to shore
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:49:54
Aboard the boat: views to shore: mosque
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:53:02
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:53:02 (detail 1)
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:53:02 (detail 2)
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:53:34
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:55:48
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:57:42
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:57:52
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 09:59:50
Floating villages on Tonlé Sap River
There’d been an accident with the “Orange” “family”, and their guide had had to accompany the injured person; so during our return to
La Marguerite, Adam left us, jumping aboard the “Orange” boat to complete their trip for them.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 10:22:28
Aboard the boat: returning to the ship
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 10:23:06
Two ships moored near shore: Prestige II; and beyond it, La Marguerite
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 10:24:06
RV La Marguerite
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 10:26:30
Approaching La Marguerite
On re-boarding the ship, we were given a cold, fruity drink and lemon-scented moist towel. We went to the cabin, then to the Saigon Lounge. I took the computer with me when we went up to the Saigon Lounge. I had a coffee then a couple of beers.
Janet went to the bar and ordered her now-favourite squeezed limes and soda water. The internet connection on the Wi-Fi service was intermittent when I logged on (10:51), but eventually the
Gmail inbox came up (10:56). Transferred 38 photos from this morning from the camera to the
WD Elements HDD (11:08–11:09); looked through them and rotated two that needed it, using
Windows Photo Viewer (11:12). What had Adam called that floating vegetation? Something-“hyacinth”? So I did a
Google search for “floating plants hyacinth” (11:32), and found a
Wikipedia article: “Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as
(common) water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and is often a highly problematic invasive species outside its native range.” The afternoon
tomorrow in Phnom Penh had no included tours, but there were optional ones; so we ticked the “Tuk-Tuk Tour of Phnom Penh” on the form which had been issued to us, and handed it to “MSH”.
The Daily Cruiser said, “10.30am–12.00pm Submit and pay for your ‘Phnom Penh Select Experience’ to your Cruise Director in the Saigon Lounge”; but we opted to pay by card, so the “…and pay for…” part didn’t apply to us. The ship had cast off, and we were heading back downstream.
I can’t remember where I was when I took the following two photos, whether I was looking out of the window of the Saigon Lounge, or whether I was back in the cabin. If my guess at the identity of the pagoda from looking at
Google Maps is correct, that would be consistent with being in the cabin, for the cabin was on the port side of the ship and Wat Peamochhkaok is on the east side of the river. I have the impression of sitting on the starboard side in the Saigon Lounge.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 11:56:10
Passing a riverside pagoda, perhaps Wat Peamochhkaok
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 11:56:42
Passing a riverside pagoda, perhaps Wat Peamochhkaok
At 12.30pm we went for lunch, joining P and Y. We returned to the cabin
ca.1.30pm, though Janet went off to get some exercise on the exercise bike and treadmill that we’d seen earlier.… At 3pm we assembled in the Saigon Lounge in preparation for the afternoon excursion. We chose “Green” again, as we also did for every other excursion. This time, the “Green” “family” was the second to be announced and marched out to the two-beats-per-second pop music. It was the 2001 Kylie Minogue “signature”-song
Can’t Get You Out of My Head, which I guess was more tolerable than this morning’s cacophony. We went ashore by means of a gangplank, and came to some 40 two-wheeled oxen-carts on a dirt-road at the top of the rise from the river. On the way up I tried to decline the lotus flowers that a little girl was handing out, because it seemed to me that this wasn’t a purely altruistic, “happy to see you” gesture on her part. Anyway, I ended up carrying one, even though I didn’t part with any cash. We were shown how to get aboard the cart, bum first. The bridle for each ox was just a rope passing through both nostrils. It was a long ride, “through the countryside, a small village, and rice fields” (as
Janet wrote). Sometimes the oxen almost broke into a trot, and sometimes we proceeded at a snail’s pace. Projecting from the front of each cart was a long, upward-curved pole to which the yoke was attached; so it was disconcerting when the cart behind caught up and came close! Because it wasn’t the most comfortable means of transportation I was grateful when we turned off the road through the gate of a pagoda compound and stopped. There was some delay because the yoke of one of the carts had come adrift from the cart; there were no injuries, though.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 15:40:32
Ox-cart ride at Kampong Tralach
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 15:40:56
Ox-cart ride at Kampong Tralach
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 15:40:56 (detail)
Ox-cart ride at Kampong Tralach
From there we boarded a coach, with plush curtains and pelmets, but with seats not as roomy as yesterday’s, to be taken
ca.20 miles to the environs of Oudong Mountain, where we were to visit the Buddhist Centre to receive a blessing. On the way we passed lorries going the other way carrying factory workers in the back of them. We passed more than one gated compound, with a big blue sign: “Cambodian People’s Party”. We were already familiar with the
sampeah (the practice, that is; not the word itself), i.e. the mode of greeting by placing palms together in a prayer-like fashion while bowing slightly (indeed, we’d done it ourselves when encountering guides and ship’s crew); but Adam told us that the higher the hands and the lower the bow, the more respect was shown. When greeting equals, palms were placed together at chest level; older or higher-ranking people, at chin level; parents,
etc., at nose level; king or monk, at eyebrow level; statue of the Buddha, at hair-line level. We were seated quite near the front, and my attempt to find my hair-line (which is at the back of my head) with my palms made Adam chuckle. The mention of bowing to a statue, though, made me feel sick at heart. I wasn’t too proud (in a “my faith is right; yours is wrong!” sense) to receive a blessing from a monk; but there was no way that I would bow to a statue. I know that Catholics and Anglo-Catholics genuflect before sacred statues; but I’m from a nonconformist Protestant background that eschews such practice. I won’t bow before a statue of a once-dead man who, behold, is alive for evermore, let alone one of a dead fat man who remains dead (actually, not that fat, unlike Chinese Buddhas). I decided that, when the others went in, I’d just lose myself for a while; I didn’t make an issue of it. That “suited me,”
Janet wrote, “as I’d already decided I wouldn’t get involved in the Buddhist blessing ceremony. So [John] went off to take photos and I went off to find a loo. I did eventually, and it’s a good job I’ve stopped being ‘precious’ about toilets because it was up there on my list of the most horrible toilets I’d ever used!”
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:01:58
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:04:20
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:08:04
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:09:38
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:10:04
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
The nearest I got to the Buddhist blessing ceremony was to the door, through which I looked towards the others within, sitting and standing before two monks.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:13:04
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:13:04 (detail)
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
As regards toilets, I seem to think we were pointed to the left and around the main building; but I walked all the way round without finding it. On a second circuit, I noticed them off at some distance from the far left corner. Since I’m “one that pisseth against the wall” it did not occur to me to place them on a “list of the most horrible toilets” as no contact of skin with surfaces was involved.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:27:42
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:27:54
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong: Mucalinda the nāga-king protecting Gautama Buddha from the elements
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:28:30
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:28:52
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:31:28
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:31:52
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:32:58
Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre and environs, Oudong
Janet and I met up again, boarded the coach, and waited for the others to return.
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:41:46
Sign, seen from the coach: “Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre of Kingdom of Cambodia”
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:41:46 (edited)
Sign, seen from the coach: “Vipassana Dhurak Buddhist Centre of Kingdom of Cambodia”
Wednesday 15 February 2017 — 17:53:38
Lotus flowers, received at Kampong Tralach
It was only a short journey of ca.6 miles to Prek K’dam, where we’d boarded the ship yesterday and to which the ship had sailed this afternoon from its earlier location, so we were back aboard
ca.6.15pm, after negotiating the earthen steps down the riverbank. After returning briefly to the cabin we went up to the Saigon Lounge for “cocktail hour”, joining
P and Y. Ca.7.15pm we went for dinner, where the wine again flowed freely.
Ca.8.45pm, Janet returned to the cabin, but I went back up to the Saigon Lounge for “Movie Time”:
Pol Pot — The Secret Killer, a very propagandistic documentary about the Khmer Rouge régime. I saw some of it — then I was watching the end-credits! For yes, the cocktails and wine and perhaps other beverages took their toll and I fell asleep. Pol Pot’s being quoted as calling the institution of monarchy “a malodorous running sore” was about the only thing I remembered; and that was because I jotted it down! I got back to the cabin perhaps a little before 10pm.
Janet was about to get into bed, so I did the same after brushing teeth, etc.
[Thursday 16 February 2017]
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