Today was simply magical! We woke up before dawn and disembarked from the ship as the sky was turning pink and orange with sunrise light. A whole line of ox carts drawn by white brahman cattle greeted us on a dusty dirt road. We crawled into the carts as the sun rose among the palm trees and we rolled out into the rice fields. Bumping along the small road we passed field after field of brilliant green rice dotted with picturesque trees and motorbikes. Periodically we heard the thrumming of pumps bringing water into the fields. We had a brief stop at a lotus field where we wandered among beautiful pink blossoms and learned about lotus cultivation and uses.
From the fields we headed to town, still bouncing along behind the cattle, and ended at a public school. Here the kids greeted us with songs and were eager to practice their English with us. Alongside the school was a library completed funded by donations from Lindblad/National Geographic guests. We had a chance to meet the English teachers also funded by our visits.
Once back aboard Jahan, we headed up the Tonle Sap River. The crew demonstrated some of the traditional clothing of Cambodia and several guests volunteered to be dressed in Cambodian attire. Following the clothing extravaganza our cultural specialist David Brotherson presented a fascinating slide show on Cambodian weddings—from an inside perspective as he is married to a Cambodian woman! Before lunch we enjoyed viewing the birds and children lining the river banks as we cruised into the town of Kampong Chhnang.
After lunch we boarded sampans (small shaded boats) and headed to shore, where we hopped into waiting vans and drove out into the countryside. We stopped at Andaung Russey, a village cooperative which makes pottery, palm sugar, and clay cooking ovens for communities all around Cambodia. Yards were filled with lines of pots as we approached, both large and small. We attended a pot making demonstration where a woman took a chunk of clay and turned it into a beautiful pot—not with a pottery wheel but by walking backwards around and around a stump with the clay perched atop. Next we tasted palm sugar and whiskey, learned how palm sugar is produced, and watched a man climb to the top of a group of palms to access the palm fruit.
Before returning to the ship our sampans puttered along the floating villages lining the shores to show us daily life of the people living on the water. Sunset was spectacular as we headed downstream, dinner was sumptuous, and the evening ended with a viewing of the Academy Award winning film “The Killing Fields,” a prelude to what is to come tomorrow.
