If you drive about 80 miles northeast from Phnom Penh, you will pass through mainly rice fields and palm trees. Almost 2 ½ hours later you will reach Skoon, a town famous for its fried tarantulas. Then you know you’ve almost arrived at Kampong Cham City. City is a generous term since “downtown” consists of a market and 2 or 3 streets of small shops. Kampong Cham is one of those towns where you can’t do anything sketchy. Otherwise, everybody will know it. After a couple weeks of living here, pretty much everyone already knew Silas’ name. If the kids are not with us, people on motos will slow down and ask, “Where’s your son/daughter?” Sheesh, how is it that everyone knows who we are already?
I use to think there was nothing to do in the capital. Now that we live in this sleepy town, Phnom Penh feels like a metropolis. There is stuff to do here. You could take a boat on the Mekong River. You can watch the fishermen from their boat homes. I suppose you could fish yourself if you’re into it. You could also walk through the rubber plantations, which are actually quite beautiful. There is also hiking at the Brother-Sister Mountain. The hike is really just a short climb up a couple of cement stair cases on the twin hills to the temples located at their peak. Besides that, the most exciting thing our family has done so far is walk to the local gas station where they sell imported ice cream from Thailand. We did that for my birthday, 3 days after we moved here.
Nonetheless, Kampong Cham does have its charm and attracts tourists. Although I wonder what they do once they get here. I think some of them are on Mekong River tours stopping for a bite to eat or sleeping over to catch the early morning boat ride to Steng Treng. Others just want a taste of small town life in Cambodia. I see them at the two western restaurants in town. Mekong Crossing and Lazy Mekong Daze are run by two white guys married to Khmer women and have decided to settle down here. I never thought I would frequent these two places that much; but after 3 years of rice at every meal and Cambodian pop music, I’ve found that I enjoy listening to Van Morrison with a burger and fries.
Spiritually speaking, Kampong Cham is probably the most diverse places in Cambodia. It is named after the Cham people, one of the largest and only Muslim minority groups in Cambodia. Because of the high density of Cham people, Kampong Cham has the most number of Mosques in the country. Throughout the day I can hear them singing their melodic prayers during their call to worship. It’s a whole lot more pleasant then the Buddhist chanting. From our house we can hear Muslim prayers, Christian Hillsongish praise music from the church across the street, the Hindu temple just two doors down, the Wat (Buddhist temple) behind the house, the InnerCHANGE staff and clients downstairs singing traditional Khmer songs to Christian lyrics, the Khmer plinka-plinka funeral music, the off-key karaoke from the restaurants and neighbors, the pony bells jingling down the street and the wild monkeys.
There are days when I wonder, “How did I end up in such a bizarre, I mean enchanting, place?”
Pictures of Kampong Cham
28 Days - photo journal by Hayden Sewall (InnerCHANGE teammate)
Post a Comment