Through the waterways of Ol' Mekong

ON Monday, May 31, at 6 o'clock in the morning I was picked up by a van to be taken to the canal that links Siem Riep to the huge lake Tonle Sap.

The boat was waiting there that would take us (about ten foreigners, plus a few Cambodians we picked up on the way) across the lake and then through the river Stung Sangker as far as the town of Battambang. During the rainy season when the water level is higher it takes approximately four hours to reach Battambang, about the same time as the bus, but now the water level is still quite low, and we had to sail for about eight hours before we reached Battambang.

A long and tiring trip on a small boat like ours, but definitely worth it — the lake is beautiful and the various floating villages and tall stilted houses we encountered along the river were really interesting, with the local people moving around on boats and children waving goodbye from the small verandas of their poor wooden houses.

Battambang hasn't really got anything special to see, but it is a laid back little town with many French colonial buildings and few tourists. During the two days I spent there I didn't do much more than walking around the centre and along the riverfront, and enjoying the wonderful fruit milkshakes and delicious meals available at the White Rose Restaurant, just in the middle of the old town. So different from Siem Riep — no hassle from tuk tuk drivers or street vendors.

On the second day I was taken by motorbike to see the green countryside around, the villages along the river and two of the few tourist sights in the region — Wat Banan, 25km south of Battambang, and Phnom Sampeau, 18km southwest. The first is a small temple predating Angkor located on the top of a hill, 359 stone stairs above the entrance at its foot; the second is a limestone outcrop from the top of which one can enjoy a beautiful view of the countryside around.

However, there is also a "dark" side to Phnom Sampeau — close to the top there is a temple where the Khmer Rouge used to keep the people they were going to kill by throwing them down into a cave nearby. To remember this there is now a small sanctuary where some of the thousands of skulls found are displayed.

On Thursday the 3rd of May I took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, a five-hour-drive to reach the city centre from where a tuk tuk took me to my guesthouse situated in the Psar O Russei area.

After Siem Riep, I expected a much more hectic and poorer city; in fact, even though Phnom Penh is definitely a busy place, it doesn't look much poorer than Bangkok, for instance, and it is actually much airier than the latter thanks to its many wide streets lined with trees.

French influence can be also observed in some of the buildings that can be seen around town and the cafe serving coffees and baguettes. What is striking, however, is the way people drive in Phnom Penh — basically no rules whatsoever apply — cars, bicycles, tuk tuks and particularly motorbikes coming from all directions trying to dodge each other!

I've spent a total of four days here, part of which with Liza, a French friend met in Chiang Mai I had agreed to meet here. We went to visit the Buddhist temples Wat Phnom and Wat Ounalom and the impressive Royal Palace with its Silver Pagoda housing a glowing emerald Buddha and a gold Buddha; in addition, courtesy of Amata, a Cambodian student who used to study at UBD and who now lives in the capital of Cambodia, we also went for a pleasant cruise on the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers (yes, the Mekong again!) flowing along Phnom Penh.

However, what left the strongest impression on me were two of the most horrible testimonies of the Pol Pot regime (1975-1979) — the Killing Fields of Cheung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Museum. The first, located 14km southwest of central Phnom Penh, is the site where approximately 17,000 men, women and children were barbarously killed (in most cases hit the with bats, hoes, etc.) by the Khmer Rouge and then interred in 129 mass graves; in their memory a big stupa has been erected displaying over 8000 skulls found in some of the graves.

Tuol Sleng Museum, on the other hand, is the school in Phnom Penh that was turned into what was known as Security Prison 21 (S-21) where people were interrogated and tortured before being sent (if they survived the tortures, that is) to the "Killing Fields".

The tiny cells, the bed frames were people were tortured and the instruments of torture are chilling, but what I really found disturbing were the photos of the thousands of Cambodians of all ages that went through there, some manacled but still alive in the photos, some dead after the tortures. It was something I will never forget.

Tomorrow morning at 8am I have my bus to Ho Chi Minh City, perhaps better known as Saigon. As it is not possible to get a visa at the border, I have already obtained mine at the Vietnamese Embassy here in Phnom Penh the day after my arrival. Vietnam will be the seventh country I have visited during my trip!

The Brunei Times