Monopoly = Wealth

Day Thirteen: 2/24 – RV Tonle Pandaw Day #2
Title: Monopoly = Wealth

Greetings from the Tonle Wild! I made it through our first night on the ship! One down, seven to go ;~> I slept pretty well for the first four hours last night, then the captain started tooting our horn. There is a fair amount of river traffic. Every time we approach another vessel we honk at them to move. Clearly we are the top dog. Either that or our boat isn’t agile enough to maneuver around the tiny little guys in front of us. I think that in reality it is a combination of the two. It is kind of funny to watch little fishermen that wait until the very last second to move their boat. Our captain honks at them unmercifully and the horn is really loud. I may sleep with my headphones on tonight to prevent awakening every 10 minutes or so from 5:00 am on.

Our first “excursion” of the trip was to a small little fishing village named Kampong Chhnang. We departed our boat (again it is called the Pandaw) in little local boats that took us around their village. Much of the village is “floating”. It is pretty strange. The homes and shops are built on floating pylons that rise and fall with the water levels. In a lot of ways building a home in this manner makes sense because the river level is extremely variable in this part of the world. Clearly they have no cars but instead travel by boat. There is a part of the city built on land. Our guide told us most of the people that live on the water are Vietnamese and most of the people that live on the land are Cambodian. I’m not sure if that is an economic, social, or cultural divide.

The little local boat also took us to see a big (that is a relative term) fishing operation. Evidently portions of the lake (I believe we were on a lake at this point) are owned by individual families. They have sweet bamboo gates that block the end of the channels that lead to their property. I gate keeper sits atop the gate and only opens it for those who have permission to enter. Our guide said that basically just the family who owns that water way and farmers that live on the other side are allowed to enter.

The effect of monopolizing a stretch of water for business (fishing) purposes is exactly as one would expect. The house of the people who own the fishing business is by far the nicest one we saw this morning.

Our final activity on the morning excursion was wandering around the local market. Paulie showed us how to eat a baby duck egg. It looked kind of nasty. We also saw pottery, endless produce, a “gas station” (you’ll like the pictures of this Ryan), great looking bread, a “traditional” pharmacy and a barber shop. The similarities between an American and Cambodian barber are striking. I can’t wait to share that picture with you guys! ;~>

After returning back to the Pandaw we relaxed on the sundeck with John P. and Sigrid. I played with pictures and watched the scenery go by. It really was quite beautiful. We then ate lunch and I took a two-hour nap. After waking up I tried to snag an Internet signal, which I wrote about in real-time below.

You all would enjoy and appreciate this. I am currently sitting on the deck outside dad and my room. We are passing through Phnom Penh City. We are not stopping there today but I was hoping that I might be able to snag an Internet connection as we floated by. Many wireless signals appeared but unfortunately they were all password protected. The one positive from this is that I am fairly certain I will actually be able to get a signal when we stop in Phnom Penh in a few days. I have to go get ready for our afternoon excursion to the Chong Koh Village. I will write about it when we come back to the boat.

One of dad’s main reasons for liking riverboats is their ability to go to places unreachable by car. Today’s stop at Chong Koh Village was our first such experience. There were a few motorbikes but I didn’t see a single car. There were, however, still numerous people pushing their wares.

I was sitting outside our cabin when our boat pulled ashore. A cute little girl on the shore began smiling and waving to me. I smiled and waved back. When we disembarked the ship this little girl came up to me. She asked me my name and I asked her hers. Dané was quite the little sales girl. She walked with me throughout the course of our entire hour tour around the village. I enjoyed learning about her life and teaching her English words. She is 13 years old and has only been studying English for five months. I was shocked by this because her English in incredibly good. What impressed me most about Dané was her quickness of thought. She seemed to be advanced in that regard for a 13 year old anywhere in the world. Her dream in life is to be a doctor. If she can’t afford medical school, then she would like to be a teacher. I think she would be great in either profession.

My braces (on my teeth) seemed to be a big hit in Chong Koh. I do not believe that any of the kids had ever seen them before. I think the only foreigners that ever visit the village come off of the Pandaw every ten days. As you know this crowd skews toward death, so not many of them are wearing braces. In fact, I may be the first visitor in the history of the Pandaw to have them ;~> I was asked by a group of about five girls why I had stuff on my teeth. The word “straight” was not in any of their vocabularies, so I resorted to drawing pictures with my fingers in the dirt. The light bulb finally went on in one of the girls minds (I am not a good artist ;~) and she rapidly spoke in Cambodian to the other girls explaining their purpose. In the end they all smiled and one told me my teeth “were very pretty”. I think they really liked that I took the time to explain something to them and that I was willing to get my hands dirty.

The women in Chong Koh are weavers. One of the stops on our walking tour was with an 86-year-old woman. She didn’t have any teeth but her smile could light up a room. She no longer weaves but she has taught the trade to both her daughter and granddaughter who now support their family. I have a cute picture with both the old woman and Dané that I will be happy to share when I get home.

Dinner this evening was very pleasant. At breakfast this morning Sigrid brought over the other young American girl on the boat that I referenced earlier and introduced me to her. Her name is Nicole. She is on the cruise with her parents and a few family friends. She currently resides in D.C. but has lived all over the place. Her dad is a retired executive from Elli Lily. Nicole wanted a break from her parental units, so she joined John P., Sigrid, dad and me for dinner. We talked about travel, politics, and pop-culture. It really was a nice time.

Dinner concluded around 9:30 pm. I wasn’t very tired so I grabbed my laptop and headed up to the sundeck. That is where I am currently writing. I just finished watching two episodes of LOST. I think LOST must be in the top five best-written shows of all time. It is extra fun to watch LOST on this adventure because much of the scenery on the show looks very similar to our current location. It is truly amazing that I can be floating down the Mekong River, drinking Diet Coke, passively observing a lightning storm in the distance and watching a one week old episode of LOST on my laptop.

The first day on the Pandaw is rapidly coming to a close. I must admit that I had a very nice day. I believe today was better than any single day I had on the Yang-Tze. A combination of things likely contributed to this: the Pandaw is very clean; unlike the boat in China it has no smell; the food is pretty darn good; and the people, with the exception of OP and WOP, are quite enjoyable. It is my sincerest hope that on the ninth day I feel as good about the river cruise as I do at this moment. Thanks for all of your prayers for a good trip, I think that they are working ;~> I’ll leave you with the Dr. P. fun fact of the day.

When dad was a boy he used to go to Eagles games! I never knew that he liked football prior to Jason and my interest in the game. He attended the games with his Uncle Walter who had season tickets. During this time the Eagles played at U of Penn. Dad claims this was in the 57’ to 59’ range. I didn’t know “The Eagles” had been around that long but he assures me they have.

Nighty, night…

Katy