Out of the Heart of Darkness: a river voyage down the Mekong
John Clearwater
01 August 2006.
In the movie adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Martin Sheen takes a harrowing ride in a plastic boat up the Mekong River into Cambodia in search of the renegade Colonel Kurtz. He is attacked by tigers, tribesmen, and soldiers. He is shot at and tortured. It was a very bad cruise.
For our cruise out of the heart of darkness I chose to travel down river from Siem Reap/Angkor Wat, through Phnom Penh and on to Sai Gon. Travel with the current is far more comfortable and usually allows greater time for excursions. I also decided that instead of a plastic military gunboat, my wife and I would sail on the decidedly upmarket MV Mekong Pandaw.
Pandaw Cruises began operating in Cambodia and Viet Nam in 2003, and now have two similar boats on a seven night itinerary. We started our journey with a three day visit to Siem Reap, or Victory Over Siam, the home of the magnificent temples of Angkor.
Ten years ago this sleepy little provincial town had dirt roads, dust, and a tiny handful of tourists. Now the temples at Angkor are the second-most-visited ancient site in the world, and the town sports an amazing and ever-growing range of hotels. We stayed in a duplex spa suite in the new and totally luxurious five star Hotel de la Paix.
Angkor Wat, or more properly, the Angkor Archeological Complex, is hard to describe. It is the largest religious structure in the world, and one of the seven wonders. Angkor Wat itself is really just the main temple, but the name is applied to the entire collection of temples spread over 600 hectares. I personally believe that black & white photography was invented for Angkor.
Construction took place around 900 years ago and was largely meant to glorify King Jayavarman VII. Originally a Hindu site, the conversion of the people to Buddhism meant a complete reorientation of the meaning of the temples. Various statues and alters were removed or re-carved, and thousands of Buddhas were added.
Cambodia is one of the world's poorest countries, and much of the rural population live on a dollar a day. A little money goes a long way, so before departing we raised $1000 to buy five tonnes of rice for three different charities.
The Life and Hope Association at Siem Reap's Wat Damnak is run by the venerable monk Hoeurn Somnieng. This group provides food support to orphans and vulnerable children. The $220 we gave Somnieng fed 46 families; each receiving 17 kg of rice, two bottles of soy sauce and two cans of fish. In groups of five, their names called out from a computerized list (the monks are very modern), the children would line up to receive the rice bag which often seemed to weigh as much as the child. In order to qualify for food aid, the monks require that children attend school, and that parents not send them into the streets to beg. This was one of the best days of our lives, and the cruise had not yet begun!
DAY ONE
Today we begin the fantastic journey of eight days and seven nights from Siem Reap on Lake Tonle Sap, the Tonle Sap River, and the mighty Mekong. The group is gathering at the Angkor Century hotel for the half hour transfer to the port of Siem Reap where we will be taken in small boats out to the waiting Mekong Pandaw moored far out in Tonle Sap Lake. Now that we are aboard and moved into our stateroom, we are all put back in the small boats and sent back to the port area to look at the floating village we just passed on our way out to the boat.
The Mekong Pandaw carries up to 68 passengers, all in air-conditioned mahogany outside cabins with private bathrooms and bottled water.
In the middle of the night we raise anchor and begin the voyage to the south-eastern end of Lake Tonle Sap. By sunrise we are far from the distant shores. This is Cambodia's biggest lake, and it will grow over 300 percent in the rainy season. The lake is dotted with mobile floating fishing villages, many populated by ethnic Viets. The villages have schools and shops and churches and even gas stations, and everything moves with the ever-changing shoreline.
At the southern end of the great lake our entire group is taken off in small boats to see Kampong Chhanaan, a traditional Khmer town known for pottery. As this is a river town, most of the houses are built on stilts and transport is mainly by boat. Now we are headed downriver deep into Cambodia.
We enter Phnom Penh from the north in the evening well after dark, so the city is alive with lights and activity. We sail straight past the Royal Palace and enter the confluence of the four rivers: The Mekong, Tonle Sap, Greater Bassac, and Lesser Bassac. We turn almost 180 degrees counter-clockwise as we enter the Mekong and begin sailing north towards Kampong Cham.
Although only 105 km away, we will arrive after sunrise as we are now sailing against the current of the mighty Mekong flowing down from China.
The sun is rising as we sail through the very sleepy town of Kampong Cham, hosting a large population of the Muslim Cham minority. We continue upriver to Wat Hanchey which is as far north as can be safely navigated on a vessel this size. Wat Hanchey is a pre-Angkorian temple, and the very bright and colourful new structure, with a concrete-animal zoo, is set within the still-visible ruins of an ancient temple.
Any walk in Cambodia yields the curious, and we are met by five young girls who want to practice their English skills. They speak very well; a fact which seems surprising as we are out in the middle of nowhere far up the Mekong.
Passengers then visit the Pandaw-sponsored Kampong Cham Orphanage and School. The school raises money by selling the quality artworks of the children, all for as little as a dollar for cards, up to $20 for larger oil paintings. You are encouraged to help and can do so secure in the knowledge that your money is not lost to corruption.
Just before dinner we depart from the colourful Kampong Cham riverfront for the short journey back down the Mekong River to Phnom Penh, arriving just before midnight to anchor in the middle of the river for security reasons. Early in the morning to ship moves to the main passenger pier, which is really nothing more than a steel barge moored beside a customs shed.
Angkor Wat is a tough act to follow, and Phnom Penh offers little to international tourists. That said, a great day can be had if you are willing to mix luxury and misery and bartering all into one giant ball of unglazed tourism.
The city is named in honour of the hill named after Madame Penh, who in 1372 is said to have discovered four statues of the Buddha in a floating Koki tree in the Mekong. In celebration she had a small hill (phnom) built. Known as Phnom Penh, or the hill of Penh, it would soon give its name to the growing town. Phnom Penh's only elephant gives rides to tourists and locals at the base of the hill, and Sambo can be seen each morning and afternoon walking down the waterfront to and from work.
We left the boat early to see if we can catch Sambo on her way to work. No luck. It was probably the elephant's day off, as we do not see her at the hill.
After breakfast we all board a bus for the short ride to the Royal Palace and National Museum. The palace, though smaller and less elegant than the original in Bangkok, is well worth the time. Construction began under French control in 1866 and continued for decades, as will the current restoration. Watch for the royal blue flag at the back of the compound, if it is flying then the king is at home. King Sihamoni is away today and the royal flag is down. Ladies take note: His Majesty is 53 years young, single, a former ambassador to UNESCO and ballet company manager in Paris.
The sad fact is that just about every foreigner knows Cambodia because of the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields. Other than the palace, the only things to see in Phnom Penh are the torture prison and killing fields.
Without doubt the most depressing place I have ever visited is the old high school now known as Toul Sleng Prison. In just over three years 17 000 people were imprisoned and executed, with only seven surviving to be rescued by the liberating Vietnamese People’s Army in 1979. The school rooms had all been turned into cells or torture rooms, and many are now lined with the thousands of mug shots of the inmates. After confessing, each prisoner was driven or marched to the killing field.
Choeung Ek, originally an orchard, became the execution and burial site of about eighteen thousand members of the Khmer Rouge purged by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. It would be a very sombre visit were it not for the very loud and boisterous elementary school next door.
Now suitably suspicious of the nature of human beings, we set off to shop. Phnom Penh sports two markets for tourists: The Russian market near Tuol Sleng, and the 1937 French-built art deco central market known as Psar Thmei. The Russian market has more souvenirs, but the central market is truly the heart of modern Cambodia. It is no less than a temple to consumerism, and to test the waters I bought an $18 Rolex and $4 Ray Bans. My wife plumped for a $14 Longine watch and Ray Bans. A year later these watches are still working, and still looking good. Although I confess to having lost the glasses rather quickly.
Back on board, there is a special cultural performance on the top deck. A local troupe of classical Apsara dancers perform ancient Khmer dances. The women dance the very slow and methodical and intricate Apsara dances to the delight of all present as the instructor sings and two men play traditional instruments.
The ship remains at the dock for the night, and we are free to come and go as we please.
The Mekong Pandaw is a new steel-hulled ship which from a distance looks like a construction site, but from the inside looks like a colonial-era antique. The cabins and public rooms are all mahogany and brass, accented with antique French fans, teak deck chairs and potted palms. All new safety equipment is provided, and in an emergency the boat is simply run aground.
Another strange day in paradise begins with another picture-perfect red sunrise over the Mekong. After breakfast we cast off and move into the Mekong for the start of the journey to Viet Nam.
Three hours out of Phnom Penh we pass Neak Luong, made famous by the accidental bombing in the early 1970s, and by the film The Killing Fields. This is the point along the Mekong where the Cambodian National Highway between Phnom Penh and Sai Gon crosses the river. As there is still no bridge, this has long been a ferry site.
We arrive at the border between Cambodia and Viet Nam mid-afternoon, and are told border formalities will take three to five hours. We are to be there for a lot longer.
The good news is that we have been cleared to leave Cambodia and are now moored in the middle of the Mekong right on the border with Viet Nam. Several boatloads of big-hatted border officials come and go, and we watch with a faint hint of dread as our passports are taken away. Hours pass. Viet Nam will not accept the boat as two passengers have expired visas. So the bad news is that we have been cleared out of Cambodia and cannot return as all of our visas have been canceled. Now we sit in the middle of the Mekong in a sort of watery no-man's-land.
Pandaw is now holding a cocktail party with free drinks on the sun deck. It is a pleasant affair, and we can watch peasants freely walking across the border as the sun sets behind the two border control huts.
With the boat stranded the only people who could leave were the crew, so the assistant purser set off first in a high-speed motorboat and then on a motorcycle to Phnom Penh to get new Vietnamese visas. But of course the embassy was closed so she had to wait until the following morning, get the visas, then sprint back to the border and get us all across.
Drinking, and a good sleep on a silent boat made for happy passengers despite the strange delay.
We are now officially in Viet Nam, and the difference is already obvious. There are a lot more people and a lot more fishing and more rice mills than we can count. The Mekong delta is the most productive rice growing region in the world.
Today's excursion is to the border town of Chau Doc, reached via a giant canal connecting the Mekong to the Bassac river. Chau Doc looks to be all built on the water, but the French colonial town, destroyed by a Khmer Rouge invasion in 1977, is a bustling rice, fish, and market centre for the entire region. Inside the town we are all taken about in bicycle rickshaws. Locals stared as a long line of no fewer than fifty of these human machines pedaled down the roads each carrying an enormous looking foreigner.
The beauty of river cruising, as opposed to sea voyages, is that from the deck chair you can always see the people, the pigs, the motorbikes, the villages and the daily life. At this distance you can hear the radios and the yells from the children. The top deck has a plethora of deck chairs and an honour bar. The day can slip past just as easily as the scenery of greenery and tiny fishing boats.
DAY EIGHT
We have entered another world. The dust and squalor and backwardness of Cambodia are far behind, and the rush to modernity that is Viet Nam today is in our face. There is construction and activity and development and motor traffic and billboards and factories and a swarm of river traffic so thick it makes navigation rather tricky.
As the river boat gently moves alongside the pier, two highway buses arrive and all luggage is quickly moved ashore. In less than two hours we are whisked from the somewhat busy port of My Tho to the exceptionally busy, almost frantic, city officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, but increasingly referred to as Sai Gon.
This was no Apocalypse Now. In fact, it was probably the perfect adventure river cruise. Pandaw did warn us that as both countries are still mired in reams of red tape, problems and delays and changes are to be expected. In the end we lost no time and missed nothing, but gained an adventure. Mekong cruises are truly superb adventure travel.
Pandaw Cruises and the Mekong have now officially been discovered by upscale tourists, and prices are rising accordingly. The good news is that there are no hidden costs. Rates for the seven night cruise range from US$2124 to US$2682 per person. This includes transfers to or from the boat to Siem Reap or Saigon at either end, the cruise, food, all standard beverages, entertainment, guides, entrance fees, and excursions.
PANDAW RIVER CRUISES
www.pandaw.com
The boat: RV Mekong Pandaw
Class: Myanmar DMA Inland Water Class.
built: 2003, Creek Street Dockyard, Yangon Myanmar
decks: 3
cabins: 34. Upper Deck 18 twin staterooms; Main Deck 6 twin staterooms; Lower Deck 8 twin or double staterooms.
passengers: 68
Amenities on board: laundry, bakery, bar, computer, pool table, air conditioning.
length: 55m
beam: 11m
draft: 1.5m
Safety: Smoke detectors in all cabins and public places, emergency lighting and generator, fire pump, hydrants and hoses, fire extinguishers, life jackets for all on board and life rafts.
Navigation: GPS and radar
LIFE AND HOPE ASSOCIATION
Venerable Hoeurn Somnieng, Director
Wat Damnak Village, Siem Reap, Cambodia
email: somnieng2002@yahoo.com
tel: (855) 92-929-962.
THE AUTHOR: Dr. John M. Clearwater is a specialist in nuclear weapons and arms control, and has a deep interest in ocean liner travel. He was on the inaugural voyage of the Queen Mary 2 in tandem with the QE2, and has just returned from his first around the world voyage. Recently taught at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in Cambodia.