Tag Archives: cambodia

Lolei

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Lolei is one of the temples in the Roluos group of temples in near Siem Reap, Cambodia. These temples were part of the city of Hariharalaya, the seat of the Khmer Empire prior to the move to the nearby Angkor area. The temples built during that era were different than those at Angkor as they used bricks as material. Currently only the ruins of Lolei’s four towers remain, though there is an active monastery still operating nearby.

We visited Lolei after our snakehead fish lunch. When we arrived at the temple, it was pretty quiet and the only other visitors we saw were a couple who happened to eat lunch at the same restaurant where we ate and sat next to our table, and a gentleman who came alone on a chartered tuk-tuk. The couple was met by several young Cambodian girls who tried to sell souvenirs to the lady. Her husband took photos of her and the girls as she peruse the goods that they offered her. The lone gentleman came by himself and went straight into the temple to observe the ruins. We went there around the same time. As we passed him, our tour guide Vanna said hi to him and asked him where he came from. He said he was from Spain, and after a short conversation, he moved on to observe the details of the temples alone.

I took the photo below from a distance. It was the Spanish gentleman looking at his guidebook and observing the ruins, and there were a couple of young Cambodian boys sitting on the remains of a naga sculpture and observing the tourist checking out the ancient ruins. I thought it’s interesting to have a tourist coming from far away to check out the ruins of an ancient civilization, and here were two boys who lived around these ruins and not caring much about the significance of the ruins, but more interested in seeing foreigners coming in.

Lolei

Snakehead Fish

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I first heard of the snakehead fish about ten years ago, when it made news in Washington, DC, area where I lived. The snakehead fish, which is native of Africa and Asia, was found spawning in a pond in Maryland not far from the Potomac River. The snakehead fish is a priced delicacy in Asian countries, so someone tried to grow them in the US and then released them to the wild. The snakehead fish is known to be a ‘top-level predator’ meaning it doesn’t have natural enemies outside its natural habitat. They also have the capability of surviving out of the water for up to four days, and by wriggling their bodies and fins they can ‘walk’ on the land up to 1/4 miles. So there was fear that the fish would cause havoc to the ecosystem at the nearby Potomac River if it had made it there. The National Geographic Channel had a short video about the snakehead fish as the ‘fishzilla.’

After visiting the floating village of Chong Kneas, we went to a restaurant to have lunch before continuing our sightseeing in the afternoon. When we looked at the menu, we found out that this particular restaurant served steamed snakehead fish (which is quite common as delicacy in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia). Neither Kristi nor I had ever had this fish before, so we decided to give it a try.

The photo below was our steamed snakehead fish dish when it was served on a fish-shaped metal dish. The fish was indeed very tasty; no wonder this was such a priced delicacy.

Steamed snakehead fish

Floating Village

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After an interesting boat ride passing some poor fishing villages on the riverside, we reached the floating village of Chong Kneas. The village consisted of tens of house boat that are tied together to each other to prevent them from drifting. Aside from the fact that they were floating homes, they actually looked like people’s homes; some you could see from outside having amenities you would expect in a normal home like separate rooms, kitchen, seating area, and even TVs and stereo / home entertainment system.

Our tour guide Vanna mentioned several interesting facts about the floating village. He said that the village location actually moves several times during the year, depending on the depth of the water around. During our visit, the water was actually pretty shallow; we saw someone standing on the bottom of the river with the water up to his chest. It must be quite interesting to observe the village moves to a new place; it must be a group effort to do so and requires some planning.

Vanna also mentioned that many of the village residents were illegal immigrants coming from neighboring Vietnam through the Mekong River. They came to the area because of its a great area for fisheries. They didn’t speak Khmer, so there was a floating school opened up to educate the young children of the village, and the language of teaching was Vietnamese rather than Khmer. It’s interesting that the way Vanna talked about these illegal Vietnamese immigrants was a bit condescending and he seemed bothered by their presence there; it reminded me to some rethoric that I heard in the United States when some people talked about illegal immigrants in the United States.

Another interesting observation was that during the day when we visited, there were mostly women and children seen in the homes in the village. It seemed that the men were out on their boat fishing at the lake.

When we reached closer to the mouth of the river that opened up to the Tonle Sap Lake, a small boat with several children approached our boat. Vanna told us to just ignore them because they were there to beg for money. When we looked at these children closely, we saw one of them had a big snake wrapping around his neck — somewhat of a freak, shocking show I guess for the tourists…

We also stopped by a ‘visitor center’ boat where there was a little educational display showing how the fishing farms were done there, and the kinds of fish that were popular at the Tonle Sap Lake. There was also a small crocodile farm where they caught the crocodiles at the nearby swamp and raised them to harvest the meat and skin (to use as materials for bags, clothing, etc.). They also had a little souvenir shop and a restaurant there, though we didn’t really get anything before heading back to the land.

Interesting sights to see and experience. I do wonder how it would be like from the villagers’ point of view, when they had tourists coming to their village every day looking at what they feel like normal life being perceived as novelties or something unique…

The photo below was taken from our boat as we went through the floating village. You can see a small boat with the village resident and the house boats on the side.

Floating village

Another Encounter with Poverty

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One interesting thought for tourists about visiting a developing country like Cambodia is whether to choose touristy activities that show the best that the country has to offer (and may ‘shield’ the visitors for the dark reality of being in a poor, developing country), or to expose oneself to the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parts of the country. I can understand that for some, going on ‘vacation’ means going on a ‘trip of a lifetime’ perhaps focusing on the places like Angkor Wat or going to white sandy beaches in Thailand, and during that time, not thinking about the troubles and realities of the world. However, I think it’s important to not purposefully turn a blind eye on these realities or be shocked when you see such things during your travels.

When we went on the trip to visit the floating village of Chong Kneas, our boat ride towards the floating village passed some very poor villages along the river. From far away, these places look like slums with shacks, unpaved roads, and even some naked little children running around on outside the homes. It was definitely unexpected sights to see during a ‘tourist boat ride.’ Our tour guide Vanna said that these are the realities in many parts of Cambodia; a lot of tourists who stay in isolated tourist destinations like downtown Siem Reap would never see these scenes. And when you compare the GDP per capita in the last four years in Cambodia (around USD $900) to the United States (around USD $47,000), it puts things in perspective how rich and fortunate we are in the United States.

That brings interesting questions as I thought about that experience. The government of Cambodia tried to promote the visit to the floating village in Chong Kneas as a unique cultural experience that foreigners can take. The question is, should they try to ‘sanitize’ and clean up the surroundings to give a brighter, happier look at the people of Cambodia, or leave things as is and show the reality, even if it may mean ‘shocking’ some visitors?
Then, as a visitor, what should your reaction be if you do encounter such scenes? I found an interesting account from a visitor who came to visit Chong Kneas as tourist when I did search on Google.

The photo below was taken from our boat as we passed one of the villages. You can see some of the homes where people lived, and there was a little naked boy in the distance standing near one of the homes.

Poor village

Chong Kneas Ferry Port

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Chong Kneas is a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake that has become a popular tourist destination for those who want to observe life on a floating village that is dependent on the most important lake in Cambodia. To visit the village, one must drive or take public transit to get to the port from Siem Reap (about an hour drive), then take a small boat from there to visit the village.

When we arrived at the port, one thing that was quite noticeable was how new the port building was, and it looked a bit out of place in comparison to the surroundings. Our tour guide Vanna explained that the port was pretty new — it was built a few years ago by a South Korean investment company that saw tourism there as a business opportunity. It used to be that one would get to the river bank and would have to find and haggle the price of a ride to visit the floating village with the boat driver. Now it all seemed to be organized at the port where there is a ticket booth where passengers would purchase tickets and then getting assigned to a particular boat.

While the new development sounded good on the surface to the visitors who want to avoid the hassle and the risk of getting ripped off, there was a controversy as some saw the coming of the foreign management company as bringing in the regulated system without consulting the people who rely on the boat tourism for their livelihood. Where it used to be competition among the boaters, now it’s regulated by the management company, and the boats are rotated. The equality means it’s good for some, but not for others. Tour operators also had mixed reactions to the development. Some welcomed the change that would help protect the visitors from getting ripped off, but others had already had business arrangements with local boaters to obtain fair pricing for their tour guests that now would have to renegotiated with the management company in the middle as part of the equation.

For us, since our visit was part of a tour package, we didn’t have to worry about getting the tickets. When we arrived at the port, Vanna asked us to wait at the entrance of the port while he went to the ticket booth and got the tickets for us. We didn’t ask how much we were charged for it; all we knew was that we had a chartered boat just for us: Kristi, myself, Vanna, and the accompanying boater. It might be interesting to find out out how much it ended up costing us per head, and out of that price, how much actually end up at the hands of the boater himself.

The photo below was taken from the boat overlooking the port, as we waited for our boat to leave the dock. You could see the port looked like being added on to the landscape, and you can probably imagine what it was like before the port was there with just the dirt river bank and the boats docked there.

Chong Kneas port