Tuesday 3 July
This is our last day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, before moving on to Siem Reap. We've booked to go to Oudong, on Basit mountain, which is a couple of hours away by tuk tuk. Oudong is actually built on 3 hills, and is an abandoned royal city. It was the capital of Cambodia from the early 17th century until 1866, when the capital was officially moved to Phnom Penh. There are various pagodas dotted around, in particular we are told that there is a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside from the main pagoda on top of one of the hills. Various kings are buried in "stupas" (pagoda like mausoleums) in these hills.
The guidebook tells us that this area the Khmer Rouge put up prolonged resistance to the encroaching Vietnamese army in 1979.
Although it is interesting walking around the main pagoda and various other small buildings when we arrive at Oudong, and the view of the surrounding countryside is panmoramic from the top of the big pagoda, the journey to and from Oudong is the most enjoyable part of the trip for me.
Some of the things we notice are:
As we leave the centre of Phnom Penh, which is dotted with several cafes and restaurants designed to attract tourists, the tuk tuk takes us through the Muslim area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where the women are all wearing the traditional headwear, though their faces are not covered. It seems quite a poor area, and clouds of dust form in the road in front of us as the odd lorry overtakes us, as do motorbikes and a few cars.
The monks we see from time to time in their orange robes, have shaved heads; but those we chatted to the oher day in the Royal Palace gardens didn't have shaved heads - we wonder why;
On the outskirts of Phnom Penh, I notice a building of modern construction, with the sign, "Ministry of Women's Affairs" on the outside wall, in big, bold letters. In England, I'm sure we don't have this Ministry. New Zealand and many other countries do. What a good idea ...
Every hundred yards or so in Phnom Penh, and at intervals in the countryside, is a sign, on both sides of the main road, for the Cambodian People's Party; this is the ruling Government party. We also notice, deep in the countryside, political signs we haven't seen in Phnom Penh, advertising the "Human Rights Party", and the "Funcinpec Party". So, there are other political factions in Cambodia, but I read in Wikipedia that they arein the minority.
I've mentioned before that Buddhism is the main religion here. We see many shops selling the gold-painted "Buddhist birdtables" that many people in town and country display outside their property, where incense sticks can be lit to pray for the souls of the dead.
As we leave Phnom Penh, our tuk tuk driver points out that we've crossed a disused railway line. They have had some railways in the past in Cambodia. We've heard that the railways will begin to be redeveloped in this country in 2013.
We notice horses tethered to trees at various intervals in the countryside; horses are still used here sometimes to pull carts, though it's much more common for a cartload of timber, or cardboard, or water barrels, to be pulled either by a tractor with a flywheel connected to a motor using a beltdrive, or by a motorbike.
About 4 motorbikes pass us, at different times, with a barrel-shaped cage, about 5 feet wide and 2 feet in diameter , resting on the pillion seat of the bike itself (not in a trailer). Each cage contains a large number of piglets, presumably off to market.
Many of the shack-type houses, sometimes in groups of 4 or 5 at the side of the road, sometimes stretching back beyond the road into villages, are on stilts; this, we are told, is not only because the area is likely to be flooded frequently during the rainy season, which is now, but also to prevent a myriad of insects being washed into peoples's homes with the floodwater. In addition, the area underneath the house on stilts provides valuable shade from the relentless heat of the day.
These houses on stilts are often constructed using dried banana tree leaves. We saw a woman interweaving some. We are told the method is banana leaves, a layer of sticky rice, then another layer of banana leaves.
We see extra-long tuk tuks which are "buses" or people carriers. The motorcyclist pulls a long ridged wooden platform, where passengers sit; sometimes there's an open-sided roof, like a normal tuk tuk, sometimes no roof. The Cambodian people are used to sitting cross-legged on a flat surface, often on a table outside their house.; even older people sit in this way - they are much more supple than most of us Europeans.
We see very small children, carrying bundles of sticks; either they are walking, or if a bit older and luckier, the sticks or water barrels or fruit or whatever is being carried might be attached to a bicycle in some way. We notice adults carrying enormous, unusual loads on bicycles, or on motorcycles.
This is life in the raw; these are people who are mainly very poor indeed, and they work extremely hard to make a living. Elderly women chopping wood, people doing the backbreaking work of planting rice by hand; heavy physical work which must take its toll in later life - or perhaps which keeps them fit.
In contrast to this are the "nouveau riche" - the huge number of shiny black 4 x4 's (SUV's) parading the streets of Phnom Penh, and parked up by the roadsides; the modern apartments, in a secure building where someone opens and closes the security gate to the apartment car park for you. And in the countryside, the occasional beautifully built house on stilts, again with security gates.
In Cambodia, as in Vietnam and most SE Asian countries, there is the big divide, with a strata of society, perhaps working in a thriving mobile phone shop or in the hotel trade, who make a modest living without having to do the hard physical labour of life in the country. In the countryside, people asleep or relaxing in hammocks are a frequent site; perhaps it's a life of hardship but also of living in harmony with our body's rhythms as nature intended.
This is our last day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, before moving on to Siem Reap. We've booked to go to Oudong, on Basit mountain, which is a couple of hours away by tuk tuk. Oudong is actually built on 3 hills, and is an abandoned royal city. It was the capital of Cambodia from the early 17th century until 1866, when the capital was officially moved to Phnom Penh. There are various pagodas dotted around, in particular we are told that there is a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside from the main pagoda on top of one of the hills. Various kings are buried in "stupas" (pagoda like mausoleums) in these hills.
The guidebook tells us that this area the Khmer Rouge put up prolonged resistance to the encroaching Vietnamese army in 1979.
Although it is interesting walking around the main pagoda and various other small buildings when we arrive at Oudong, and the view of the surrounding countryside is panmoramic from the top of the big pagoda, the journey to and from Oudong is the most enjoyable part of the trip for me.
Some of the things we notice are:
As we leave the centre of Phnom Penh, which is dotted with several cafes and restaurants designed to attract tourists, the tuk tuk takes us through the Muslim area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where the women are all wearing the traditional headwear, though their faces are not covered. It seems quite a poor area, and clouds of dust form in the road in front of us as the odd lorry overtakes us, as do motorbikes and a few cars.
The monks we see from time to time in their orange robes, have shaved heads; but those we chatted to the oher day in the Royal Palace gardens didn't have shaved heads - we wonder why;
On the outskirts of Phnom Penh, I notice a building of modern construction, with the sign, "Ministry of Women's Affairs" on the outside wall, in big, bold letters. In England, I'm sure we don't have this Ministry. New Zealand and many other countries do. What a good idea ...
Every hundred yards or so in Phnom Penh, and at intervals in the countryside, is a sign, on both sides of the main road, for the Cambodian People's Party; this is the ruling Government party. We also notice, deep in the countryside, political signs we haven't seen in Phnom Penh, advertising the "Human Rights Party", and the "Funcinpec Party". So, there are other political factions in Cambodia, but I read in Wikipedia that they arein the minority.
I've mentioned before that Buddhism is the main religion here. We see many shops selling the gold-painted "Buddhist birdtables" that many people in town and country display outside their property, where incense sticks can be lit to pray for the souls of the dead.
As we leave Phnom Penh, our tuk tuk driver points out that we've crossed a disused railway line. They have had some railways in the past in Cambodia. We've heard that the railways will begin to be redeveloped in this country in 2013.
We notice horses tethered to trees at various intervals in the countryside; horses are still used here sometimes to pull carts, though it's much more common for a cartload of timber, or cardboard, or water barrels, to be pulled either by a tractor with a flywheel connected to a motor using a beltdrive, or by a motorbike.
About 4 motorbikes pass us, at different times, with a barrel-shaped cage, about 5 feet wide and 2 feet in diameter , resting on the pillion seat of the bike itself (not in a trailer). Each cage contains a large number of piglets, presumably off to market.
Many of the shack-type houses, sometimes in groups of 4 or 5 at the side of the road, sometimes stretching back beyond the road into villages, are on stilts; this, we are told, is not only because the area is likely to be flooded frequently during the rainy season, which is now, but also to prevent a myriad of insects being washed into peoples's homes with the floodwater. In addition, the area underneath the house on stilts provides valuable shade from the relentless heat of the day.
These houses on stilts are often constructed using dried banana tree leaves. We saw a woman interweaving some. We are told the method is banana leaves, a layer of sticky rice, then another layer of banana leaves.
We see extra-long tuk tuks which are "buses" or people carriers. The motorcyclist pulls a long ridged wooden platform, where passengers sit; sometimes there's an open-sided roof, like a normal tuk tuk, sometimes no roof. The Cambodian people are used to sitting cross-legged on a flat surface, often on a table outside their house.; even older people sit in this way - they are much more supple than most of us Europeans.
We see very small children, carrying bundles of sticks; either they are walking, or if a bit older and luckier, the sticks or water barrels or fruit or whatever is being carried might be attached to a bicycle in some way. We notice adults carrying enormous, unusual loads on bicycles, or on motorcycles.
This is life in the raw; these are people who are mainly very poor indeed, and they work extremely hard to make a living. Elderly women chopping wood, people doing the backbreaking work of planting rice by hand; heavy physical work which must take its toll in later life - or perhaps which keeps them fit.
In contrast to this are the "nouveau riche" - the huge number of shiny black 4 x4 's (SUV's) parading the streets of Phnom Penh, and parked up by the roadsides; the modern apartments, in a secure building where someone opens and closes the security gate to the apartment car park for you. And in the countryside, the occasional beautifully built house on stilts, again with security gates.
In Cambodia, as in Vietnam and most SE Asian countries, there is the big divide, with a strata of society, perhaps working in a thriving mobile phone shop or in the hotel trade, who make a modest living without having to do the hard physical labour of life in the country. In the countryside, people asleep or relaxing in hammocks are a frequent site; perhaps it's a life of hardship but also of living in harmony with our body's rhythms as nature intended.
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