Living Life to its Fullest: 10/27/10 – Day 32

Today was very different than any of our previous ports. There were not a lot of tourist sights to see here in Cambodia. Instead, we were able to get a taste of everyday life for the Khumer (which is what they call themselves and their language, instead of Cambodian) people. This is a very poor country, probably much more so than its neighboring country, Vietnam, where we visited a few days ago. We docked at a cargo port, just outside of the city. There were no high-rises here and no public transportation. Most of the people traveled by motor scooter or on foot.

Shortly after arriving, we met our guide, Adam, and boarded a tour bus to take a morning city highlights adventure. Our first stop was a Pagoda (a Buddhist temple complex). Here children wanting to sell us handmade bracelets or just straight begging for money instantly bombarded us. We listened to our guide explain about this pagoda complex and then had a bit a free time, when I, of course, gave into a few of the children and bought bracelets for $1 each that I didn’t really need.

Next, we traveled to a nearby beach, which is what this area of Cambodia is known for. The beaches were, indeed, beautiful. At the beach, some of the same kids showed back up with their bracelets. They had followed us with 3 or 4 piled on a scooter with an adult driver. Also, at the beach there were people selling other items and a plethora of ladies wanting to give foot and/or neck massages, as well as pedicures or manicures. The most interesting service provided was eyebrow plucking, which was done with a piece of thread twisted around the fingers. I steered clear of this service, as well as the others, and enjoyed the scenery. I also took the time to dip go in the water, only up to my knees, though, as I hadn’t dressed for swimming.

After the beach, we headed for the main market, and would you believe some of those same kids once again showed up there with their bracelets? This actually was craziness when we got off the bus. This particular parking lot was the drop-off point for at the shuttle buses coming from the ship. So all morning long, affluent tourists had been dropped here by the bus load, and I’m pretty sure the whole town knew about it. The minute we stepped off the bus, taxi/tuk tuk drivers, people selling things, and kids begging loudly attacked the group. Our guide had forewarned us that this would happen and had instructed us to stick together and take care of our belongings. This was not as much a shopping stop for us, as an opportunity to see the daily life of the Khumer people. He first showed us the open air stalls when men could get their hair cut for $1 U.S. Then, we went into the market. Luckily, I don’t think the vendors that mobbed us were allowed to sell things inside the market. So, they relaxed a bit, anxiously awaiting our return. The market was interesting. This was not a tourist market, it was a market for the locals, selling everything from clothes to beauty care products to kitchen ware to fresh meat and vegetables. Our guide walked us through the market. He bought some layered “cake” that he allowed us to try, which was a sweet treat made from sticky rice. We spent about 30 minutes walking through the market with a nice narrative by our guide, Adam. I purchased a bunch of little bananas for $1 to hand out to the kids once we got back outside. They went quick and got them to lay off the pressure of wanting me to buy something.

Our last stop was a neighboring fishing village. This was very interesting to visit. The kids didn’t follow us here. In fact, nothing here catered to tourists, which was a nice change. This village was very poor but had a set livelihood, which was good. The men fished and the women stayed home to take care of the kids and/or the shop. We were able to see men making and mending their nets and the fresh catch that was just brought in. Our guide interviewed (and then translated for) a local lady, a fisherman, and a group of children, which very personal and informative. The men go out fishing for weeks at a time and bring back lots of fish that have to be processed quickly, as very few homes have refrigeration. Mostly they smoke and dry the fish for use as flavoring in stews or rice. After our stop at the fishing village, our tour ended and we headed back to the ship for some lunch.

We still had one more adventure to be had before our time in the port was over. We took the shuttle bus into the market, not exactly sure what we were going to have time to do. Our basic options were to go to a waterfall, which was about 12 miles out of town or possibly get massages for $5/hr from blind and visually handicapped people who work at the Seeing Hands Spa, which I had heard and read about. Although the massage sounded nice, if we had time to go to the waterfall, that’s was our first preference (at least mine). So, when we stepped out of the shuttle bus, we were once again bombarded with vendors and tuk-tuk drivers. I had made eye contact through the window with one, who I showed a postcard of the waterfall that I wanted to go to, and he nodded his head that he could take us there. We followed “Mr. Run” to his tuk-tuk (a motorcycle with a trailer affixed to the back to comfortably carry up to 4 people), got in, and drove around the corner to stop and discuss our destination, price, and time available. He assured us that we had time to go out to the waterfall and back for a price of $40. It was 2:15 and our ship’s all-aboard time was 4:30. My mother was reluctant to go out of town with only two hours of time and a putting tuk-tuk, but we plunged ahead for the adventure anyway. The waterfall was 17 km out of town: 9 km on a paved highway and 8 km on a wide but bumpy dirt road. We stopped at a gas station and our driver fueled up the tuk-tuk. Then, we were off. It took us about 40 minutes to get out there. About halfway out, it started to rain quite heavily and our driver stopped to put our plastic side panels down. He also asked me to hold onto his wallet and cell phone, as there was no way for him to stay dry when he was driving. Well, the waterfall was beautiful. It was still drizzling for the first couple of minutes after we arrived, but it soon stopped. We only had about 15 minutes to spend at the falls and the rocks were too slick to go down and do too much exploring. I wish we had had more time to spend there, but am thankful that we got to see it for what was available. We headed back and our driver dropped us off at the boat about 4:10, with twenty minutes to spare. Well, not exactly because it took us 5 to 10 minutes to walk back to the ship through the cargo containers from where he had to drop us off. However, we still were back in plenty of time and really enjoyed our day in Cambodia.