Tributes: The Last Post - Some Randomness

(by Susan)

As a last hurrah, instead of being driven by the story, this time we're taking you through a journey of images that you haven't seen yet. While travelling, there were things we saw (and managed to capture) that were not necessarily relevant to the particular stories we were telling.  So now, in this last post, come along with us in a retrospective of some of those parts of the trip.  Be aware too, that we've withheld most of the very many shots of toilets that we met along the way.  Occasionally, we can be kind!

Let's start in Bangkok, since that's where we started.

Razor Wire.

Razor Wire.  This was the first time on this trip that we'd seen it.  The wire was placed in front of a government building that we'd walked past on the way home from dinner one night.  It was reasonably close to the location of a disused protest site, so that'll be why it was there.  In the end, we found razor wire wasn't an uncommon site.

Detail on one of the Temples

We enjoyed the differences between the temples, the exploration of the art produced by different, unheralded, teams of artists.  The illustration above is from Wat Arun which was gloriously decorated with millions of pieces of ceramic - some of it pieces, some of it whole plates.  The colour, design, and overall impression had been clearly imagined before its construction.  The impression in nearly all the temples we went to was overwhelming.  How does a person handle the colour, the opulence, the splendour of the temple when you live in the everyday, the routine, the greyness that is the world of the dusty street and shopfront?

The Blues Bar

On our first night in Bangkok, we figured that the best way to handle jet lag was to make sure we stayed awake 'til the right time by finding a bar with music.  The thing is, we found the most fabulous blues bar.  The band was brilliant and supplemented with the bloke who brought his saxophone in.  It just made me wonder....  what kind of muso wanders the streets in the hope that he'll find a blues bar with a decent band? Lucky he had his sax tucked away somewhere....

Each morning these lumbering water dragons clambered up onto bamboo pontoons to bask in the sun.

Some flowers

We found that in Bangkok the boats on the river carried good-luck charms as they do everywhere else.  Here, they seem to find the form of garlands of flowers.  And from here we travel to Cambodia, and the business end of the trip.

Tributes

This is the only shot in this post from either the Killing Fields or Tuol Sleng.   There are untold numbers of tributes that have been left around the Killing Fields site - tributes to those who died in these places.  As it happens, the tributes themselves have become beautiful pieces of art, almost as installations.  This shot is from one of the gravesites - so colourful, so poignant.

From the Menu

At our lunch stop on the way to Tbeang Meanchey, we stopped at Kampong Thom.  The above extracts are from the menu that we were offered.  This is where we discovered in an enormous hall, where a couple of 40-seater buses had also arrived for lunch, that tourists weren't that common in these parts.  Lucky I'd arranged long pants.....

Now here's a thing.  It would seem that these hens had the best seat in the house, so to speak.

Try as I might, I still can't think of anything to say about this shot.  The picture says it all....

Ride-on mowers.  With bigger wheels.  And removed handlebar controls.  Amazing pieces of seriously useful equipment

A long shot of those strange, but clearly very useful, lawnmower-motor vehicles

The place is generally flat.  Very flat.  This loo stop allowed us a little concern about the prevalence of water courses.  And land mines.

It seems that razor wire is everywhere - even in quite small towns

Geology.  Luckily Paula had brought a multicoloured map

On the way to the village that we built in it was important to check the geology, just in case.  Of course!

Main drag.

This was taken where Paula and Dermot did their first gem transactions.  Horribly close to the Thai border, and exactly where the advisories advise against.  My overwhelming impression was of the Victorian and Californian gold-rushes in the 1850s.  Wooden verandahs.  Wooden footways.  Unsealed roads.  The satellite dish was probably a little out of the ordinary for that time, though.

Cattle cart

We spent quite a long time on the road, and saw all manner of methods of transport.  These two beasts were amongst the most reluctant...

Part of the forest out of Ban Lung

On our walk through the hills out of Ban Lung, Rory and I went through some gorgeous country.  This was in the hardwood forests.

Our launching spot to the swimming hole just outside of Bang Lung.

This lake was once the mouth of a volcano.  Such a gorgeous location.  And what a fabulous swimming hole.  The water was so warm, really deep, and there was no mud to battle on the way in - we just jumped straight in off the jetty.  Glorious!

Downtown Bang Lung. Solar is clearly part of the plan

The shops have a different sensibility of approach to their window displays to the ones we see in Australia.  It was interesting here, in addition to the generators, pipes, whipper-snippers, lightbulbs, that you could buy a range of sizes of solar panels.  It offered hope, I thought.  Without the infrastructure to connect towns and villages to any sort of national grid, renewables have to be the way to go.

It was so hard to find Guinness - and then we found it in a place where it just was't appropriate to drink it.   It was far too hot!

A stolen pic - not mine.  But it does illustrate the rubber plantations.

We tried to acquaint ourselves with what is going on but it was really quite difficult.  On the surface of it it seems that there is a huge amount of country that's being cultivated by rubber plantations.  Land is being compulsorily acquired to grow it, and who knows whose pockets are being filled.  Another series of displacements it seems.

More razor wire, this time in Kratie.  This guest house must be safe to stay in....

Bamboo scaffolding - it must work, it's in use all over the place

A girl and her friend

Stuff of nightmares

These two photos were taken at a roadside stop that was set up to sell insect snacks.  The girl in the top shot put her hand into her handbag and produced this tarantula.  She then carried it around with her.  She did offer to share the experience, but none of us really wanted to go there....  Paula, though, allowed one to walk on her hand, and her shirt.  She tasted one too.  Nope.  I really didn't wish to even contemplate that.  Yeeeeeuch!

Travelling salespeople were everywhere.  Want to buy it?  Some one will be selling it from a tuk tuk or a motorbike.

Various forms of transport waiting for their drivers.

Rory and his lovely little friend

We were in Siem Reap and on our way to dinner one evening.  We hailed a tuk tuk.  The driver woke his son up to let us in.  After clearly getting well away from me after one glance, he climbed up onto Rory's knee, snuggled in, and curled up on his lap.  And there he stayed for the whole trip.  None of us were taken more by surprise than Rory!  The gorgeous little man then jumped into his Dad's arms when we arrived at our destination, clearly all ready to continue his night's sleep.

Checking the tyre pressure.

Our tuk tuk driver, Mao, stopped to put air into his tyres.  This little guy apparently does the hard yards in the family's business since his father has been incapacitated.  Mao said that he always stops here - it helps to support the lad and his Dad.  There are very many families who just can't afford to send their kids to school as they have to help feed the family.  There's definitely a long way to go in Cambodia.

That's where we'll leave you all for this trip - a few random shots and memories, and a last reminder that there is much to be done.  This is a trip that will stay with us for a long time, and for very may reasons - one of which was that it was wonderful that we were able to share it with Rory.  Spending our time, contributing to the build, and spending some of our money in small businesses is but a tiny contribution.  And we haven't forgotten that many of you supported the work, being generous of spirit, buying materials for the houses, and there'll be some wells too.  We're very thankful for that, and we hope that we've taken you along for at least part of the journey.

Perhaps we'll catch you next time!

Pilgrimage: Mekong

Pilgrimage:  a long journey or search, especially one of exalted purpose or moral significance.  So perhaps the title is a bit ambitious....

The Mekong has long held us in its thrall.  I think the first time I was aware of the river’s name it was in the movie “Apocalypse Now”.  Thankfully we have never met any incarnation of the character of Kurtz or any of his friends – that we know of.

The Mekong rises in Tibet, and wanders its way through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, & Vietnam to the ocean.  It is the source of life and love and vitality for millions of people.  It feeds, transports, waters, hydrates them.  It is the constant in their lives as it rises and falls, fills with monsoonal rains and meltwaters, drains into the rice fields, moves crops from farms to markets, is one of the hardest working rivers you’ll see.

Commerce at the floating markets in Can Tho, Vietnam

Fishing nets

A couple of years ago Dermot & I went to the Mekong Delta, looking at, and being in, the expanse, and the wonder, and the abundance that is the delta.  Fabulous.  There was hardly a square inch that wasn’t growing food.  Zucchini and cucumber, bananas and jackfruit, rice paddies being rotated through with fish and ducks, chickens absolutely everywhere….  It made the heart of a horticulturalist’s child sing.  Ever since, we’ve watched with interest and expectation the cooking and the travel programs – marvelling at the colour and the life and the culture.

 

Dragon Fruit

Juvenile Bananas

Flooded Ricefields

Fishing & raising ducks on the Mekong Delta

On the way to Ban Lung from Tbeang Meanchy our excitement at seeing the river again built as we got closer.  We drew up to it in the van at Steung Treng, where several of the Mekong’s tributaries come together, to cross on the ferry.  The new bridge is apparently 6 months away.  As we waited for the ferry to come back across the river, we watched the cattle wading in the shallows, allowed ourselves to be teased by the kids who were ducking and weaving behind each other, trying to avoid, but wanting to be photographed, and watched while embarrassed haulage operators hand-emptied their truck of bricks which had obviously outsmarted its brakes and had become far-too-acquainted with the lapping shore of the river.

Relocating bricks

Who was teasing whom?!

Cattle Onshore

Everyone was helping to move those bricks

Mr Sin drove the van onto the ferry, and Rory, Paula, and Votha quickly made themselves comfortable on the top deck with the views and their beer.  The ladder to get up there was just too hairy for me… and it didn’t matter, we were on the Mekong again!  It’s hardly the upper reaches of the river, but here it was 2½ Km wide and clearly showed its might.  Soon, the bridge will be ready so that traffic will drive across, but I quite enjoyed the people and cattle-watching, and the timelessness of waiting for the ferry to return.  And being on the river.  We were off to Wild East to look for mines and gems and volcanic lakes, and where Rory & I would take a bushwalk.  We left the river behind for now.

 

Rory moving upstairs

The new bridge

Living in luxury

Just a few days later, though, we came to the river again.  There were tantalising glimpses as we passed through villages with their stilted housing, and a promising (but not large) amount of horticulture – watered by the river.  A bumpy, rough road where we mostly avoided potholes, and sometimes even on the correct side of the road.  A world of commerce, life, travelling, exchange, and herding passed us on the way.

An unfortunate blink, but I'm on the river!

Not far out of Kratie we stopped to see if we could spot, and possibly even photographically capture, one of the few pods of remaining freshwater dolphins.  For me, it’s always that please-let-me-do-this-confidently plunge as I move between shore and longboat that carries the anxiety.  That, and the bit where the others do the same, bringing one edge of the vessel perilously close to the surface of the water.  And then.  We’re back on the river.  Travelling to the spot, it hardly mattered whether we saw the dolphins or not.  It was such a gorgeous place.  And we were so close to the water.  If ever there was a place to breathe, and breathe deeply, this was it. Wonderful.

 

Islands in the river

Fishing

Disembarking on one of the river’s islands where people were clearly living and fishing, we stood onshore (mostly) and watched.  And looked.  And waited.  A delightful spot to be doing it, too.  And then they appeared.  Surfacing and curving.  Shimmering and shining.  And bloody awful to photograph.  But I tried.  Which was important.  But what a wonderful location!  Again, it hardly mattered if any of the forty or fifty motor-wind shots came out well – we were here!

The best shot I took (it's a dolphin, by the way)

Living in and on the river

Island living

Our boat on the beach

Feet and hands in the water, here it looked quite clear and clean.  In the delta, it would be wise to keep a cautious distance from the surface of the water that carries any amount of agricultural, household, and human waste to the ocean.  Sadly.

Cooling in the river

And in the morning – it was still there!  Breathing.  Again.  A Mekong Morning.  Nice.

Mekong Morning - I

Mekong Morning - II

On our way into Phnom Penh, then, finally, we crossed the river for the last time – this time around.  Nondescript.  Trucks and vehicles obscuring the view of the edges of the bridge as we crossed.  Crossing into industrial city-edge Phnom Penh.  But that was ok.  We got to see the river one more time. 

Last glimpses of the Mekong - for now

Next time, perhaps we’ll follow the river through Tibet, China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  The seed of a thought begins to form.  Perhaps we can follow the pulse, the promise, the wandering, that is the Mekong and its people.