Chas’s Travel Blog

I’m still alive.

I’ve been sick for the past two weeks - think i’ve had a case of the flu. I’ve been very slow to recover (think that the brand of anti-malarial’s i’m taking aren’t helping) and haven’t been up to much at all. No pictures, no strange or exciting encounters and no exercise. Just resting up, here in Phnom Penh, and hoping that I feel better the next day. I do have one thing to report though:

I’m coming home!

Placing some insignificant, meaningless lil’ thing like the olympics ahead of granting me a visa has not only demonstrated how misjudged the priorites of the Chinese dictatorship Government are, it also messed up my travel arrangements.

Not that I’m too fussed about it - Cambodia has been extremely generous to me and I’m thankful for the extra time I decided to spend here. This place is currently tied with Mongolia for first place in my list of favourite countries. Despite enjoying my time here in Cambodia, my visa has to run out sometime. Its scheduled to run out on July the 25th. And then there’s the fact that it’s my dads birthday pretty soon.

So - on July the 21st I’ll be arriving in London to spend a week or so in England before heading home to N.Ireland. I’m already excited about getting some forward momentum with some things (training, learning to drive), being back in Norn Iron and most of all; catching up with you all!

Watch out blighty, you aren’t going to know what hit you !

If there is a Hell, this place would be it.

I came back to Phnom Penh with the intentions of finding an NGO/charity to volunteer for and getting into a gym and learn Cambodian Boxing for a month. I’m probably not going to be doing either (the only charity work I can find is English teaching — something that I could do but don’t particularly enjoy) and I’ve spent the last few days jumping through bureaucratic hoops (visa extension, re-organising flights).

Whilst researching places I could volunteer I came across some pretty disturbing material — and it was the families that live at Stung Meanchey, the largest dump in Cambodia situated on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, that shocked me the most.

Queuing dump-trucks attempting to gain access to the dump

These kids are watching the latest shipment of goods to arrive. They are holding bags into which they’ll place plastic bottles, glass bottles, wood, iron and whatever scrap they can sell on for a few thousand Cambodian riel (50 cents). Stop for a second and think about that. Those kids are clad in rags (if they have clothes at all), waiting for a stinking dump truck with eager eyes in order to make some money.

School? Security? Health? Not for the children of Stung Meanchey.

As soon as a truck dumps its garbage, scavangers swarm the pile looking for anything worth a few riel. Caution, of medical or toxic waste, is not an option here as it is first come first served. Hands, ungloved, sift quickly through the waste. Through my waste. I’m sure that some of the waste I’ve left in guest houses around Phnom Penh (although I’m very careful to make sure my water bottles get recycled) ends up here.

Despite being on the main path between the city and the areas main attraction, the killing fields, this place is hidden from sight of the many tuktuk, moto and tourbus passengers who make the journey. Yet the existence of families sifting through garbage, of children whose livelihoods depend upon, is hidden from all of us. This is not just an Asian, Eastern or ‘developing country’ problem. It’s a problem for all of us — especially us western people. Not only do we not wonder where the things we consume come from, we also don’t wonder where they end up.

An older Cambodian loads his moto with garbage

Walking through the dump I saw children walking through this garbage mulch barefoot, families living in shacks on the actual dump and my heart just sank. One thing that has made me enjoy Cambodia so much is the willingness of the Cambodians to approach me (during my morning jogs, some people cycle along beside me just to say hello) yet at Stung Meanchey there wasn’t much willingness to interact. This just exacerbated the feeling that this is a place without hope.

You might be thinking that this place should be shut or outraged that it hasn’t already been closed. Why aren’t the Cambodian government doing something about this? How can they (we?) allow this to happen?

Yet what would happen if they closed this dump? Kicked out all the families living on the dump, set up fences around the area. Posted guards around the perimeter.

Whole families would starve. There is no easy solution here.

I guess i’ve been overly pessimistic in this post. There are aid agencies doing work here (I just didn’t see any..). Some children do have a bit of English and will respond to a smile. There are neighbourhoods nearby where the situation is better. A few children were willing to let me take their pictures:

The smoke behind these boys is from some material, probably plastic, being burned. The air all around this area was just .. indescribable. I wore my, uh, mouth covering the whole time and smothered my nose with tiger balm but toxicity in the air was so pervasive. I couldn’t stay there too long.

These little un’s were just happy to get a sweet…

One of the things that studying sociology made me think about is what I mentioned earlier — where products come from and where they end up. Whilst I did not expect that these questions would result in me spending some time trudging through the mulch of Cambodia’s largest dump, I did intend to attempt to get into a sweat shop.

Surrounding the dump there were numerous sweat shops. Ladies, all young and all eyeing me pensively as if I was an enemy, streamed in and out of these horrific, light-starved giant buildings.

I went to a number of these factories but it was extremely hard to find anyone who could speak English. When I eventually did I found out that one particular factor was making goods to be sent to China. Trying to find out which companies they were producing for and whether I could get inside proved futile.

It sounds like something from a horror novel. From an economists nightmare (or dream). But the fact is — people living in this area have two choices infront of them. Sift through garbage all day for half a dollar (if they are lucky), avoiding needles and toxic shit or work in the sweatshop located right beside the fucking thing producing garmentss that will be sold abroad for the equivalent of their yearly wage.

It’s situations like this that make you lose faith in humanity. Or does it make you admire the ability of people to make a living out of … nothing?

Keep smiling, Cambodia

So I caught the boat from Siam Reap to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. I think that I didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that it was an 8 hour boat ride before hopping onboard. The ride itself was absolutely stunning but very uncomfortable (and I’m rarely fussy about such things) and draining. Still — passing through Vietnamese floating villages and actually seeing some UNICEF funded projects (they had provided a few floating schools) on the ‘water’ was interesting.

Our boat managed to run aground a couple of times. I had to get out, get in the water and try to get the thing floating again. Sheesh, with this being the wet season and all you’d think there’d be no problems with the water level.

A little bit of me misses Siam Reap. I was in a wonderful guest house (6$ per night w/ free bicycles –zing– and free baguettes all day long —zzzzing—-) and had a definitive plan for each day. But now I’m here in Battambang it’s back to business as usual. I’m still cycling everywhere (the moto drivers, motorbike and tuktuk are the main forms of transport for travellers here in Cambodia, hate me). The look on the Cambodian’s eyes when I tell them my intentions/accomplishments of cycling down 30k’s+ of the bumpiest, shittiest ‘roads’ in their countries are priceless. They think that I’m crazy.

Don’t let this picture fool you. This piece of ‘road’ was nothing like the pot-holed, muddy hellishness of the other 19k’s!

Yet it’s such a huge rush for me. I’m getting rid of excess energy (try going back from training 5 hours a day to … ‘nothing’), seeing parts of the country that no one else is seeing, having the freedom to go down that even-crappier-road-less-travelled if I want and gaining a real sense of accomplishment each day. And passing school’s is absolutely hilarious. Every kid stops whatever they are doing, stares at the krama-toting, bicycle riding, stupid foreigner and yells HELLO.

Anyway — 20km later I had arrived at Phnom (hill) Sampea. The khmer rouge used this spot to execute their opponents by dropping them down into caves. Truthfullly, the place was not nearly as harrowing as The killing fields or Toul Sleng (all the bones had been removed) but it proved an interesting day out none-the-less.

There were a few temples at the top of the Phnom complete with a few guardians (which I really love — I’d like to know more about the mythology surrounding these chaps).

The views provided by the hill were quite spectacular. Cambodia, I’ve came to realize, is actually quite flat. It reminds me of Mongolia in that respect — yet it is a very fertile place, tingling with life. Being bordered with Thailand, the largest rice producing nation in the world, ensures that the population doesn’t starve. Yet so much of the land is unused. The Vietnamese migrants (who reside in lake and riversides all across the country) think that the Cambodians are very lazy because they don’t make as much use of their land as they should.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was descending into a cave (and believe me, unlike the above picture, there were a lot of rough-n-ready pot-holing experiences to be had here) and coming across this area.

T’was another one of those Indiana Jones moments. I mean — just look at it. This country is a pandora’s box — there is so much hiding inside and sometimes it’s hideous (the khmer rouge left no area untouched in committing their atrocities) and sometimes its a testimony to what we are capable of (Angkor). This place still has a real sense of adventure about it, like there is a discovery to be made around every corner. If only I could look in all directions at the same time, I’d not have to miss anything!

Only thing that’s bugging me is that I have to get a visa extension soon. That means a trip back to Phnom Penh which in itself isn’t so bad — but it’s just a load of Bureaucratic Hassle. And a few wasted days.

tara!