Part 2: When We Met with Mekong River Residents and Found Ourselves Neck-Deep
"Dear stream! dear bank, where often I
have sate, and pleas'd my pensive eye,"
--- The Water-Fall Henry Vaughan
After we had freshened up a couple of hours since our arrival to Chhlong, D. showed us around his tiny town. He is so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place -- there's just an amazing number of different butterflies species flying freely over our heads; there's also an abundance of towering trees, which offered lots of shade in the noontime heat, each labeled by its scientific name on a thin metal plate attached to the trunks; the smell of the air was fresh and clean, and the place in its entirety is so peaceful and so quiet that it reminded me of similar scenery in the Philippines which I truly miss. There was a guesthouse along the road which looked similar to the structure of D.'s house, and then there was a large, white French-colonial house owned by a Frenchman, which turned out to be a hotel! Now who would've thought there would be one (a posh hotel) within such a quiet town?
Right Beside the Mekong River
But my biggest surprise of all was that we were situated right beside the Mekong River! It was just awesome! The Mekong River is a great river that runs from the Tibetan Plateau right through China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. That afternoon after our arrival, we visited two families of fisher folks whose livelihood heavily depended on what the Mekong River has to offer. Their houses were of immense interest to me. It's just this 3-walled and 2-cornered floating shack, the front of which is facing the Mekong River wide-open! The house has no windows, no doors, and it is not exactly floating but is situated right over the edge of the river, which gives the illusion that the house floats. The interior appears to me to be used mainly for sleeping because there weren't any furniture except cabinets for keeping their clothes, some valuables, or for putting the TV or the radio on. A long, wide wooden plank is installed right along the front of the house and this is where the women do most of their chores - laundry, cooking, dish-washing, fish-drying, etc. As to where their bathroom is to relieve themselves, I dared not to think too much of it.
Boating, Sandbars and Swimming
The reason for our visit there was to hire the family's boat to take us to the Sandbars! The Sandbars are basically islets of sand in the middle of the Mekong River. Every Khmer New Year, the townspeople literally crowd this place and I thought that for a place that lacked malls, and theaters, cool hang-outs, and other sources of entertainment, having a Sandbar to go to is real blessing for the locals here. But since it was the Eve before the Khmer New Year itself, there were just a handful of people at the Sandbars, and it was so wonderful to have one islet all to ourselves. It was an amazing experience to tread the sometimes shallow and sometimes deep waters of the Mekong River. Upon finding a good spot, we then swam neck-deep in the clean and clear river water; basked in the tranquility and idyllic aura of the place till the sky changed color and the boat came back to fetch us.
Tourists Alone
Being the only 'tourists' there at that particular time, my friend and I felt truly honored to find ourselves somewhere where no other tourists tread and no sordid commercialism had yet dominated. Now I know what Magellan felt when he 'discovered' the Philippines.
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