“You know Tom, I’m usually a very independent and somewhat adventurous traveler, but there is no way I could have done the things we did today on my own, never mind coming back to the comfort of the ship.” Little did Bob know that less than an hour later he would be swimming in the Mekong River and dancing on the sand dunes as part of the Jahan’s sunset sandbank party, concluding a truly unforgettable day in the Cambodian countryside.
A welcome cloud cover eased us into the dawn, as we hiked up the riverbank to Kampong Tralach, or “the Embankment of the Winter Melon” with the rising sun. We were all a little skeptical about this morning’s adventure, where the village families had organized their oxcarts to meet us and take us two-by-two through the rice paddies and lotus fields. What an adventure it was! We rolled through the rice fields in a long, peaceful caravan, surprised at the silence and tranquility. In “the middle of nowhere” we stopped and dismounted, to see an expanse of beautiful lotus flowers rising from the muddy ponds in front of us. It was easy to see why these were the holy flowers of Buddhism, rising up from the mud in their delicate elegance. Photographers hurried to the lotus ponds, trying to get macro shots without getting sucked into the mud. Children gathered at the fringes to demonstrate the many ways to fold the petals, and we continued our oxcart journey with gorgeous bouquets of lotus flowers and pods in hand.
We ended up at the local school, and even though it was the Cambodian New Year’s holiday, a couple hundred children showed up to greet us and show off their English that they had been learning through the support program of our previous voyages. It made an impact on all of us. They sang to us, we sang to them, we asked questions and they asked questions back. We went out in the courtyard for the raising of the flag, and then the photo sessions started. We presented more English materials to meet the popular demand for the English classes, plus whiteboards, speakers, and world maps. It was an amazing experience to be with these darling kids in their classrooms.
During the day the Jahan cruised back down the Tonle Sap River and up the Mekong River to the next adventure of the day. The village of Angkor Ban is one of the only villages that was not burned down or destroyed during the Khmer Rouge tragedies, and here we saw stilted houses up to 100 years old. Our guides Rithy and Wanty took us under the houses, past the cattle, pigs, oxen and chickens, past the huge concrete water urns and the piles of rice husk and banana stalk, talking to the villagers all along the way. There wasn’t a touristic thing in the village, and we returned to the ship at the same time they took the oxen down to the river to bathe.
And finally, the sunset surprise, an impromptu stop on the opposite riverbank, where we went ashore at a sandbar for a sunset party. As soon as it got dark, the crew lit torched lanterns that sailed aloft to carry our souls into the heavens, finishing a truly unforgettable day.
