Magical Mekong cruise offers rare window into village life

During the Cambodian leg of the Scenic cruise, which concludes in Ho Chi Minh City, there’s ample opportunity to visit communities and spend time talking to kids, monks, artisans and farmers, who are as curious about us as we are about them, and palpably happy to see us. There’s a strong emphasis on the small group tours on the work being done by NGOs and social enterprise in villages through the region.

The passengers are divided into three small groups and visits are staggered so that we’re not too intrusive on village life. The schedule is relaxed, so there’s plenty of time to linger and interact. The Freechoice program offers two or three choices of excursions each day, which might include village or market visits, a cooking school, or an aspect of Cambodian history, such as a visit to The Killing Fields and the S-21 museum in Phnom Penh, an essential, if emotionally tough, part of any first trip to Cambodia.

Talking about the terror of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) to outsiders is part of the healing process for many Cambodians. And its scars are still evident, despite the admirably forward-looking attitude of the people.

The orchestra of amputees, “landmine victims,” sitting under a banyan tree outside the temple of Ta Prohm is a reminder of the horror of Pol Pot’s regime and that landmines continue to kill Cambodians at the rate of about 15 a month. The Tanzanian NGO, Apopo, is working alongside the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, to release African Giant Pouched Rats to sniff out the mines.

Scenic works with several local and international NGOs, including the Haven training restaurant, a social enterprise that teaches quality life and work skills to young Cambodians who live, train and work there under the guidance of head Chef Pardet. Students are employed by Scenic on select lunches during the Cambodian part of the Mekong cruise.

Also employed by Scenic for lunch on select tours is SPOONS cafe restaurant, a locally run NGO with the mission of improving the lives of disadvantaged Cambodian youth through work and life skills education. Since 2009, almost 470 students have completed the Spoons Training and Internship programme with almost all alumni finding full-time employment in the hospitality industry.

On the first morning, after a sunrise visit to Angkor Wat with a few hundred other people intent on capturing the dawn on their phones, we’re treated to champagne breakfast beside an ancient reservoir, catered by the Bayon Bakery School, which also trains disadvantaged youth in the hospitality industry. It’s a French NGO, which is active in villages, providing free primary education, like the schooling Niza receives, and education for farmers in more sustainable agricultural practices. One initiative is providing second-hand bicycles so children can ride to school rather than walk kilometres, as they often do.

The village of Wat Hanchey is dominated by a temple complex which has parts dating back to the seventh century. After climbing the 303 steps to the temple, we meet a young monk, Dina, 12, who has been a novice for four months. While he is a similar age to Niza, his parents have chosen to have him join as monastery as a way of getting an education.

Our guide, Lovy, translates for us. Dina is shy but he’s also quite used to showing tourists how to fold and wear the traditional saffron robe. He tells us his parents will be in a better place in the next life because their son is a monk in this one. Surprisingly, he says he’d rather go to school at the monastery than to a public school because the monks make him work harder. It’s economical too – by living in the complex he has no transport or accommodation fees. He’s ambitious and wants to be a doctor or a teacher when he graduates at age 23.

His day is disciplined. He rises at 5am, takes a bath, then has breakfast, studies, lunch followed by a siesta, then afternoon school, study time and dinner, which is a soft drink only. He works as a cleaner every morning and late afternoon and sometimes helps with construction work. There is no entertainment and no sport. He rarely sees his parents, who are working in Thailand and come to visit him once a year.

Dina’s grandparents give him $US5 ($7.50) occasionally to buy books and pens. What’s left over he spends on Coca-Cola. He runs off with the tips members of our group give him and goes straight to the kiosk to buy a round of soft drinks for his friends.

Later that afternoon we take a tuk-tuk ride to the island of Koh Pen in the middle of the Mekong. It has dirt roads, high stilted houses, abundant tropical fruit trees, rice paddies, and contented-looking Brahmin cows lazing around. NGO Amica is also working here, supporting farmers to create a more sustainable life and diversify into ecotourism and handicrafts at fallow times.

As part of the ecotourism initiative, we visit a family in a concrete stilted house. They grow tropical fruit and peanuts, in a village community that works together to sell crops without a middleman. This house has a high staircase, so the family is relatively prosperous. There are only outdoor bathrooms in the village, and people use scarves for modesty. Despite the simplicity, or maybe because of it, village life looks bucolic, with houses arranged around central, grassy public spaces.

The next afternoon, the excursion is to Koh Dach, known as Silk Island, one of the few remaining places in Cambodia where mulberry silk is grown, dyed, and woven by hand. At the visitor centre, women weavers, working on traditional frame looms in airy stilt houses, produce sampot and chang kben garments, which are traditionally worn by both women and men during weddings and ceremonies.

Four metres of the naturally golden silk takes eight days to weave by hand. In an effort to revive silk production the villagers set up a commune to sell their silk directly. We’re encouraged to buy to support the community and it’s not difficult to splurge, with labour-intensive hand-made textiles selling for about $30 a metre.

Back on-board Scenic Spirit that night, another aspect of Scenic’s support for the local community is on display when young dancers from the Cambodian Students and Children’s Fund perform graceful traditional dances before dinner.

Children like Niza, Dani and these young dancers are Cambodia’s future. I hope our cruise has been able to contribute positively to their lives in some way, but in the end we’re the ones who come away with the greatest gift – their stories.

Lee Tulloch was a guest of Scenic Cruises.