A river runs through it

We’d briefly considered travelling down from Phnom Penh to Kampot by boat, but quickly discovered it largely involved going down through the centre of a huge lake, so nothing much to see, so we opt for the bus. The countryside on the way down is very flat, with huge expanses of paddy fields. The houses change style slightly – they’re all still on stilts, but at the start of the journey the walls are more often made of woven bamboo, but they gradually transition to horizontal wooden planking predominating as we drive south.

We’re dropped off in town and have our now familiar haggle with a tuk-tuk driver before being taken out to Ganesha Lodge, where we’re staying. There are a number of lodges north of the town, on the river – the Eden Ecolodge had looked delightful, but Trip Advisor comments were all about the beautiful peace and tranquility there – I wasn’t sure they’d appreciate our 3 tearing around, so opted for Ganesha on the basis that it seemed a little more child friendly! We can’t believe the way there – we turn off the highway onto a dirt road road, past houses on stilts with chickens and children running around and large mats everywhere, covered with drying rice. We turn of this road onto a much smaller dirt road, through paddy fields tended by women in conical hats and past the local mosque (this is a Muslim area). It gets narrower and narrower, with the trees and bushes closing in and brushing against both sides of the tuk-tuk. It’s hard to believe we can squeeze through, but of course we do and eventually arrive at Ganesha. It’s a lovely tranquil place – we have a beautifully decorated yurt in the garden. It does back onto the river, but unfortunately a small, very slow moving backwater loop, rather than the main river itself, so not suitable for swimming. We’re warmly welcomed by Stephanie who’s French – she gives us a very detailed introduction to the lodge and the surroundings. We later meet her partner Emanuel – an extremely tall and lean Frenchman with plenty of tattoos and a sharp and cynical wit – he’s a real character and not someone to have an argument with unless you’re really sure of your facts! There are a couple of young girls working behind the bar – Billy and Mimi (both of whom have several large tattoos – what is it with young people thee days?) – Millie falls for Billy almost immediately; she seems to have entered a phase in which she wants her best friends to be aged between 16 and 20! She refuses to leave poor Billy alone, chatting to her incessantly from a tall bar stool – thankfully Billy is extremely patient with her, which is just as well because Jemima and Gabriel have discovered the pool table and don’t want their little sister around, messing up the balls!

We decide to do a rock-climbing trip with Jemima & Gabriel – I volunteer to stay back with Millie as she’s obviously too young, but that turns out not to be necessary. We have a word with Stephanie and she agrees to the idea of Billy looking after MIllie for the morning while the rest of us go climbing. Thankfully Billy agrees too! For beginners like us, the trip is great – the company is run by a Belgian who has agreed with the local government that he can use a local hill for his rock climbing business. We climb up about 35m, traverse across a via ferrata that he’s installed, then abseil down a chimney into a cave below – cool! Then it’s clambering through some of the caves, some with underground via ferrata before emerging and walking back around the hill where the guides have set up some ropes for us to climb some more. Perhaps the most extraordinary part of this is seeing the roots of trees as thick as my thigh, 35m below the surface, then disappearing off into the caves below. Goodness knows how long these roots are in total? When we’re down in the caves, our local Cambodian guide starts to explain how the Bhuddist temple down there was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. This area was a Khmer Rouge stronghold and he starts to speak very emotionally and personally about the atrocities. With our children there, we have to ask him to refrain from going into the gory details about how the children were killed. Anyway, we all have a wonderful time – Jemima in particular seems to have really taken to rock climbing and is good at it. We return to find that Millie has also had a great morning with her knew big girlfriend, so everyone is a winner!

There’s another lodge – Champa Lodge – about 10 minutes walk away that’s in a fabulous location, with its own private beach on the outside of a sweeping bend in the Preaek Tuek Chhu river. The owners are a Dutch guy and his Cambodian wife – they have a 6 year old girl who becomes an immediate new playmate for our children. They also sell a range of Belgian beer – things are getting even better – and we spend about 3 afternoons hanging out down there, playing, swimming, renting Kayaks, boat trip, etc. The only thing that let them down is the food, which was very mediocre – with a new chef, this place would be truly wonderful.

Kampot itself is less touristy than the other towns we’ve visited on this SE Asia leg. We visit the main market which sells absolutely everything – on the way in we pick up a hammock for $1, for camping when we get home. There’s a lot of meat and fish being sold and unfortunately I’m the only one that can cope with the strong smell, so democracy reigns and we stay well clear of those areas! There are stalls selling various gardening tools – this rudely interrupts my thoughts and takes me immediately back to the Killing Fields and the injuries they inflicted on innocent skulls – I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to view a hoe in the same way again. Both Fi and I separately  go for a massage given by the blind – the local method is a dry massage, through thin cotton pyjamas. It’s strong and effective; it’s a really interesting experience being massaged by someone who relies entirely on touch and feel. He speaks no English whatsoever and occasionally starts muttering to himself, presumably because he’s found a knot of tight muscle to work on!

We pop into the Eden Lodge for lunch. This takes tranquility to another level, with small huts that open directly onto the river – each has a step ladder from the bedroom directly into the water! It is super- chilled, no wifi and lunch is simple but absolutely delicious. It’s run by a ginger haired, heavily tattooed (of course) Canadian lady who’s very friendly. She started off in Cambodia by setting up a centre to help train and empower women – she’s set up the lodge to get an income so she can continue that work. We get into a discussion about what it’s like to work over here – she tells us that there’s still enormous emotional trauma hanging over from the genocide which makes it really hard to recruit and retain good people – staff are unreliable and for example, may just not turn up for work one day and not come back. As she explains: “if you’re a mother who’s had, say, 6 of your children murdered, what sort of mother are you going to be to the others? Of course that generation are still traumatised.”

It will be obvious from these last couple of blogs, that as beautiful as Cambodia is, with its stilted houses, paddy fields and immense, slow moving rivers, I’ve found it impossible to view it in the absence of the Khmer Rouge genocide. In that sense, it’s unlike any other country I’ve visited. It’s so recent and so shocking – it reminds me, not for the first time on this trip, how extraordinarily lucky we are. Not only to be born in a wealthy democracy in peacetime, where equality and freedom of speech are valued, but also to be born into stable, loving families without violence and to benefit from a good education. Oh, and to have the opportunity to take our family on an amazing trip around the world 😀