Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Tralach, Cambodia
Kampong Chhnang is a provincial capital and market town located where the Boeung (Lake) Tonle Sap meets the river that joins it to the mighty Mekong some thirty or so miles downstream. As we approach the end of the dry season, the waters are very low; this is a productive time of year for artisans and cultivators of non-rice crops such as fruits and vegetables.
The morning excursion begins with a transfer to two large river craft that ferry us into the main riverside market area of town. From there, we transfer to minibuses that take us to an outlying village where we are given a demonstration of pottery making by a skilled local artisan—the terra cotta pots and other items on display are sold to local “middlemen” for the equivalent of a few cents each (small pots—25 cents; larger ones as much as one dollar). These women produce perhaps 20 items a day—this in addition to their normal daily chores that involve the raising of several children, cooking, cleaning, and probably cultivating a vegetable garden for her family. Her husband, meantime, will likely be seeking unskilled labour elsewhere, be it in construction or services. We infer that women do much of the productive work outside of the rice planting/harvesting season and that a fair number of the menfolk are “free,” e.g., for other activities such as drinking and gambling. The technique for making pots is quite traditional—for larger pots, the artisan, rather than using a potting wheel, walks around the pot instead; we understand that this does, indeed, provide a more careful and artistic aspect to the product and avoids spillage of clay.
At a second stop a few doors away, we encounter a gentleman who is truly “happy in his work”: he is a producer of palm sugar. At the age of sixty, almost the life expectancy of an adult Khmer male, he is still able to climb up a slender bamboo “ladder” to the top of a 50-year-old sugar palm tree to collect the palm syrup that has been collecting from either male or female palm fruit (the female, appropriately, is the more juicy and productive in its output of syrup). Our host then demonstrates how the syrup may be (a) diluted and used as a simple refreshing drink, or (b) fermented as a wine; or (c) most interesting, distilled into a potent aquavit-style liquor. We are more than happy to purchase some of the latter, and he is delighted to accept what is probably an inflated (but, for us, fair) price. After a tour of the riverside market in Kampong Chhnang (everything from tethered chickens to the most beautifully presented ripe fruits and vegetables), we reboard our river craft to return to the Jahan.
In the afternoon, we are given a serious and enlightening presentations on issues having to do with the potential damage to the Mekong ecosystem and the traditional economy of the Lower Mekong nations of the construction of hydroelectric and irrigation dams on the Upper Mekong, i.e., China.
The afternoon outing takes us to Kampong Tralach, a community south of Kampong Chhang on the Tonle Sap River: an opportunity to traverse a traditional Khmer community by oxcart. We find a relatively prosperous district where a second rice crop is being grown: a rarity in Cambodia, possible because this is a riverside area where there is abundant water. At the end of the road is a 200-year-old Buddhist temple, where we see again the syncretic nature of the religion being practiced there. The temple naturally celebrates the birth of Buddha and his teachings, but also pays homage to Hindu deities featured in the Ramayana.
On our return to the Jahan (some still riding oxcarts; some, prudently, perhaps, walking) we are greeted by scores of pre-teen students, eager to practice their English with us. Some of them—as young as 10 or 11—are able to carry on a pretty fluent conversation. This all seems a good harbinger for the future of this area and for Cambodia as a whole.
