What is travel without a bit of adventure?

  Dear Friends and Family, Good Morning from Phnom Penh!

    What is travel without a bit of adventure? Typically, my adventures are totally unplanned and are more like mishaps or "uh oh" situations.  I have a long-time friend, CeAnn, who is following my time over here and I can already hear her snorting and wiping the tears from her eyes, and I haven't yet written anything.  That is because she has often had a front row seat to 24 years’ worth of my adventures.  So, CeAnn, this entry is dedicated to you, my friend. 

    When I come to Phnom Penh, I like signing up for a sunset cruise. It is a nice way to pass a couple of hours and see the beauty of the city and life on the water without all the noise and congestion. They are very affordable, typically $12-20 and include a meal/ beverages.  For several years, Lee and I or just I would be the only one(s) on a small cruiser. However, that was pre-COVID and most of the small operators went out of business during the pandemic due to the absence of tourists, leaving only the larger charter operators. Last summer, Lee and I signed up for a sunset cruise and we were the only ones on the boat, despite a capacity easily for 60-75 people.  The captain was gracious and took us anyway, honoring the fee we paid, and it was a great way to celebrate my promotion at the college. I've shared a picture from that evening in July 2023.

    This time I scheduled a Sunset Cruise with BBQ on the Mekong Magic Cruise. 
The vast majority (as in all) of the cruise boats dock near the Sisowath Riverside Park (see picture below from the water in 2023).

  Do you sense something coming? Yep. BIG Mistake- I did not verify the location of the boat beyond that it was out of Phnom Penh. So, when I went about planning what time to leave my apartment, I pulled up the location on my phone and was rather distressed to see it located waaaaayyyy down on the south side of Phnom Penh.  There is actually a ferry a few blocks away from my apartment on this peninsula that I am located that drops off "near" that location, but I've never taken the ferry before, and I wasn't sure just how "near" it was to the Mekong Magic Cruise.  So, I went by car giving myself 75 minutes.  Good thing too.  

    In the typical way of things here, my driver suddenly looked frustrated when we and everyone else came to a screeching halt, faced with a blockade on Preah Sisowath Quay, a main thoroughfare across the city that runs parallel to the river.  Why? Who knows?  Not an uncommon incidence.  It could be an official enjoying dinner or drinks on the riverside, or it could have been a horrible accident. Anyway, we and 18,000 other cars- motos- bicycles- tuk tuks- and hand pulled carts all jammed into the teeny-tiny side roads that web their way across the city.  Left- right- right- left- left and so on.  Oh- and there are very few traffic lights in Phnom Penh.  So, it is every man for himself ploughing one’s car through intersections with lots of honking.  FINALLY, we made it back onto Preah Sisowath Quay,and made our way towards the boat.

The tourist area quickly fell away, and the neighborhoods began to be more industrial with local housing, small Cambodian businesses designed to serve local residents as well as large commercial buildings which were closing for the night.

          Uh-oh, I’m thinking.  I had planned on using the Grab app (Cambodian Uber) to get a car or tuk-tuk back to my apartment.  1- It will be full dark when I get off the boat. 2- I do not speak Khmer. 3- I had a strong hunch (past experience) that it was quite unlikely any of these businesses would show up on my Grab app as a pickup location.  Oh gesh. Well, I wasn’t going to turn around now. Deep breath Karen, Let out slowly. Enjoy the evening.

          But then… sure enough, my driver stopped, looked at his GPS, looked around, looked again at his GPS and then just turned around and looked at me.  In front of us was a strip mall of stores with names all in Khmer, except a Smart store (telecommunications), and a small amusement park set up in the parking lot. No evidence of Mekong Magic Cruise office. I could see that behind the strip mall was a restaurant and beyond that there was railing, indicating the river.  Well, the boat had to be on the river, right? But where?  The driver, bless him, did not look comfortable dropping me off and using hand gestures, I thanked him and said I would be okay. The price for this trip was to be $5, and a normal tip is typically .50-.75 cents, but I gave him $7. It was a comfortable car and it shielded me from most of the cacophony of car honking and screeching of brakes, long past their prime throughout the ride across town.

What should have been a 30-40 minute drive had taken the entire 75 minutes. At this point, the last thing I wanted was to miss the cruise. So, I waved good-bye to my driver who hesitantly drove away (Bless him Lord!) and I walked past the strip mall and could see a free standing open air bar/ restaurant.  There was a Western European man sitting there enjoying a beer. Side bar: I’ve become rather proficient in being able to generally identify if someone is German, British, Australian, or American. There are just nuances in body posture and movements that give me an idea of who I am approaching before we even speak. Kind of a game with myself.  Did I get it right?  I pegged this fellow as German and I approached him in the vain hope that he too was waiting for the same cruise, I asked… “Mekong Magic Cruise”? He looked confused, shook his head, and said “No”. Great. Not really, but I was right.  Definitely, a German accent.

The boardwalk and railing were ahead of me and sure enough.  Way… way….way down there.  All by it’s lonesome….across a dirt track…. was the boat. Laughing (and thinking of you CeAnn), I approached the boat and was welcomed. 

       

As is the norm of things in recent years on these trips, I was the oldest person on the boat.  I wound up taking the cruise with 6 other passengers, all of whom were British or Aussie students backpacking around SE Asia before starting/ returning to university.  All but one were young men. 

One of the main attractions for these dinner cruises is that includes all the beer you can drink. For my fellow passengers, they concentrated on the liquid portion of dinner rather than the small but very tasty buffet the boat staff had laid out.  I was looking forward to a cold beer myself, but the “free” beer was a brand name Krud. 

Not the most delightful of names for a beverage.  That is where my age (and my tax bracket) comes to my rescue.  Rather than accepting one of the free beers, I purchased a very nice Indian beer for $3.

   I love looking at life on the water. These are hard working people who eat, sleep, raise their families, and work on small boats called sampans. These boats dot the wide Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers and compete for space for their fishing nets with the huge tankers that churn the water and threaten to swell over the low riding fishing boats.

Some people work on even smaller boats and have homes on the banks of the river, but the housing is fragile at best. Pieces of corrugated metal, tied together to make walls. People do not own the land and when the land is sold, they are forced to relocate. It is moments such as these that I appreciate the opportunities that I have had in my life and the gifts of

opportunity that I’ve been able to give to my daughters. Truly I thank you Lord and seek out opportunities to demonstrate my appreciation.

          The air grew dark and a bit cooler and slowly we returned to our original spot along the Tonle Sap. As I walked across the metal gangplank, I felt a big...fat…drop of rain splat on my face. But as I continued up the steps, the intermittent splats of raindrops did not hinder the families eating dinner on the boardwalk along the river.  Children raced about, mothers trying to encourage them to eat, men talking with other men about the things of the day. Brightly lit food carts lined up looking like small carnivals themselves.

          But then, what I had feared earlier became reality.  The others from the cruise were quickly picked up by pre-arranged tuk tuks because they were staying in hotels/ hostels.  However, my apartment was on the other side of the river and thus not eligible for this service.  The angry splats of rain grew closer together as I walked in front of one business and then another in hopes it would show up on my Grab app.  Then, I got a break.  A heavily tatted man was getting out of a tuk tuk and he was clearly bi-lingual, speaking to the tuk tuk driver in Khmer.  They both looked rather surprised when I appeared and I showed them the business card with the address of my apartment. Another side bar: when traveling, I always have at least 2 business cards of the hotel/ apartment where I am staying on my person, even in the US. It has helped me get back to my location more than once.

It wound up that the man was Aussie, and bi-lingual English/ Khmer.  While there were other tuk tuks present, I knew that I had to make this one work given the lack of a Grab. Anyway, this lovely, lovely young man graciously took the tuk tuk driver’s phone (as the driver was horribly confused as to the purpose of the business card) and using the Khmer alphabet (SERIOUSLY impressed now!), typed out my address.  It popped up and the driver nodded.  Waving away my thanks, the young man walked off into the night.  As I got into the tuk tuk, I made the motion, How much? He finally made clear it would be $7. Just as I nodded, he jumped out and he motioned to me to help him lash down the plastic drop doors on either side of the tuk tuk as the rain began in earnest.

          As you move forward with the next bit of reading, you may wish to pull up some background music on You Tube.  We are now in the rainy season of Cambodia.  The rain comes down in turbulent sheets and the air crackles with the sharp retorts of thunder and lightning and the air smells of ozone. Ride of the Valkyries' is the perfect choice for the ride that came next:  https://youtu.be/hQM97_iNXhk?si=ebBsUGZsUc5g9brw 

Because that is exactly what the trip back to my apartment felt like.  The tattered plastic doors did little to stop the flow of rain and my poor tuk tuk driver was soon soaked as he had driven off without putting on one of the ever present rain ponchos these drivers carry and he was on the moto portion of the tuk tuk, completely exposed to the elements.  The traffic was beyond miserable.  It made my earlier trip look like a walk in the park.  I guess there is a shortage of brake pads over here as I lost count of the number of near misses as we slid across streets with ear splitting screeches (well, maybe that was me) to prevent from hitting another vehicle. Again, with the left- right- right- left and so on. The roadside businesses were a competing blur of smeared colors through the tattered plastic sheeting turning the trip into a crazy carnival ride that you are more than ready to get off. 

Then… we were at the base of Japanese Friendship Bridge.  My “golden gate” across the river and just 5 minutes from my apartment.  Never have I ever been so happy (Well, there was that one trip to Stung Treng- shudder.) to be back at my place of residence. 

The tuk tuk driver obviously had not had a passenger over here before as he looked rather amazed at my building and in gratitude for his efforts in slaying the dragon, I mean traffic, I gave him a $10 bill.  A huge tip but given the once-again-one hour trip, I felt it justfied. Maybe he bought some new brake pads with it!

While I drug myself up the apartment, more than ready for a shower, I gave myself a mental shake.  I get to go get a shower and some dry clothes.  What about those families who are poorly sheltered on the river’s edge or those souls out in the elements trying to pull in enough fish to sell at the morning market? It doesn’t take much to find gratitude here… or an adventure.

Hugs, Karen