Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia
Just after dawn, the Jahan departed Phnom Penh and headed up the Tonle Sap. The Sap River, as the Khmers call it, is the entire system, including the great central lake, the largest in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, in the dry season, we can only go as far as the riverine town of Kampong Chhnang. We passed under the “Japanese” Chruoy Changvar Bridge at the north end of Phnom Penh, soon to be superseded by a larger Chinese structure. In this dry season, the area between here and our eventual destination of Kampong Chhnang is fertile and green. Because of restrictions toward the end of the dry monsoon, there is little fishing compared to earlier in the season. Some industrial activity was noticeable closer to Phnom Penh, but the view was much more pastoral as we headed upstream. From time to time we spotted mosques, indicating the presence of a significant Cham minority community.
Early in the day, Dr. John Freedman gave a lively, expertly illustrated presentation on the “Mighty Mother Mekong,” reminding us that it was the main reason for our presence here in Vietnam and Cambodia. He noted that even Saigon and Siem Reap, seemingly far from the mainstream of the river, were very dependent on its “hydrologic hegemony.” With his characteristic combination of depth, erudition and wit, informed by assiduous research, John took his audience on an illuminating journey, portraying life along the Mekong. The biodiversity of the river, second only in the world to the Amazon, makes it a source of life and livelihood to some 100 million people in six countries (or seven, if one includes Tibet). Finally, John spoke of the challenge being posed to the fertile and productive downstream river by the construction of immense hydroelectric dams in the Upper Mekong, mainly in China, but now also in Laos and potentially Cambodia as well. It will be important to find equilibrium between economic growth and sustainable development as these major projects proliferate.
Mid-morning, guests were taken by Win Min, the Jahan’s knowledgeable general manager, on a “behind-the-scenes” tour of this very modern and efficient river vessel.
As we disembarked to our river taxis and approached Kampong Chhnang, we encountered floating houses along the shoreline, primarily home to expatriate Vietnamese who migrated here largely in the 1980s. Some may be descendants of earlier generations of Vietnamese who fled or were expelled from the country during the periods of the Khmer Republic and “Democratic Kampuchea” (the “Khmer Rouge”), but most have no land title.
In the afternoon, we visited the village of Andaung Russey, where we were introduced to the product for which Kampong Chhnang province is best known: terra cotta pottery. Women of the village craft pots and other products out of the local clay, which are sold to middlemen for distribution throughout Cambodia. Along the highway, we saw trucks, heavily laden with larger examples of this unique craft, all produced using age-old technology that largely eschews the use of pottery wheels. In the same area, millions of clay cook stoves are mass produced for sale to the surrounding communities.
In the same village we were able to observe a local farmer scale a sugar palm tree and collect raw sap at the top—this agile 61-year-old is still capable of servicing at least 20 trees in a day, more when his son, now working in the city, is at home. The products of all this include palm sugar, rice beer and rice whisky, which is palatable but very strong.
The day concluded, appropriately, with a showing of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields, about the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. At its center is the story of Dith Pran, the courageous Cambodian photojournalist for the New York Times who survived capture and managed to eventually escape to Thailand.
