Drifting down the Mekong and partying at the Pagoda

During my second week in Cambodia, we took a trip to visit the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) in Steung Treng Province. Our coach departed at 7am and we began a 9 hour journey up to the northeast towards the Laos border. Along the way we were entertained by Khmer music videos and snippets of Chinese and Western films as we all drifted in and out of sleep. When we were 15 minutes away from our stop in a town called Kratie, the coach broke down and we were removed from the comforts of the air-conditioned vehicle onto the side of road in the boiling midday sun. We all tried to find shade as best as possible while the engine was being cooled down with buckets of water and some of the boys passed time playing a baseball-type game with sticks and rocks. After about 45 minutes the engine was cooled and we eventually arrived in Steung Treng around 5.30pm and checked into our guesthouse. $3 for a room with a fan and $6 for the added luxury of air conditioning. Before dinner I went with a couple of volunteers to have a look around the town and found tables and chairs by the river where there was street food and fruit available. We treated ourselves to a coconut each and sat by the Mekong River to catch the last of the day's sun.

View of the Mekong from Steung Treng

That evening it was one of the volunteer's birthday so we celebrated at the restaurant with a sponge cake decorated with bright pink sugar flowers which I was delegated to cut into 24 pieces to feed the whole group. After dinner we bought some beers at a shop which consisted of only canned drinks (the options were Cheers (the name of the beer), Cheers Blue, Sprite or Coca Cola) and proceeded to the rooftop of our guesthouse to continue the evening. Sopheap, the Volunteer Coordinator at CWF, showed us some pictures of her wedding and the spectacular Khmer bridal clothes that she wore which gave us an idea to get all of the girls in the group to go and have a Khmer bride dress-ups day at some point during our stay.

Photo opportunity on the jetty

We got up early the next morning to have noodles for breakfast and head down to the jetty. A big boat was moored and after having group photos taken we assumed we would be taking that to get to Koh Preah, the island where we would be spending our second night in the Steung Treng Province. None of us believed, when Sopheap started climbing into a very fragile looking canoe, that that was what was going to take the whole lot of us 3 hours down the Mekong but it turned out that 2 of them were going to be our homes for a little while!

Benj making himself comfortable

Our boat: (from front to back) Josie, Me, Benj, Bec, Rekha, Holly,  Bianca and our boatmen

Along the way we took a detour to one of the CRDT projects where we had a brief tour of the island and some of the developments that were underway. One of the projects was a dam which would eventually be able to generate electricity into the homes of the villagers.

Sopheap by the dam

We arrived at Koh Preah at lunchtime and ate upstairs in one of the host family's house. They served us rice, fresh fish, morning glory, bananas, jackfruit and tea for lunch which was delicious and exactly what we all needed after a long day travelling. Once we had all had our fill we got ready to go and visit the village school. As we were approaching the school a wave of children drew near us with timid yet excited looks on their faces. We set down our gifts on a table and proceeded to blow up balloons for them. The first balloon that was sent their way broke the ice and the children started laughing and jumping to try and grab/hit it. The playtime was in full flow as volunteers were playing volleyball with the children, hitting balloons up in the air, pushing swings, see-sawing and sliding. Some of the children stood up on the table to sing Khmer songs for all of us which was incredibly sweet and they were rewarded with first choice of notepads and a pen after which the rest of the school were also presented their own pens and pads. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9SHg3zvmMY 

(Singing with the children)

Helen in the playground

After running around with the children for a couple of hours we were ready for a dip in the Mekong to cool off. We got back onboard our boats and headed for shallow rapids to bathe in. It was extremely refreshing to sit and chat in the water and watch the sunset. I even felt cold for the first time in Cambodia on the way back to the island! 

Having a dip in the Mekong

We returned to Koh Preah at sundown, had dinner and prepared for dancing at the pagoda. The pagoda was lit up with flood lights and music was blasting out of big speakers on a truck. They played a mixture of Khmer and Western music and we were all shown how to dance in traditional Khmer style which involved a lot of swirling hand gestures and simple steps. As we started to dance with the children, I saw that the whole village had come out to watch the display. The children lined up opposite us and copied every move we made- the pressure was on to keep being imaginative and entertain the whole village! The evening was spectacular and by 10 o'clock our group were rather exhausted so we headed back to our host families for the night.