Cambodge!!!

Our recent break from Mongolia’s cold was filled with many great sightings, foods and laughs. In researching where to visit this winter, many friends had told us they found Cambodia to be charming and the people to be very friendly. Despite knowing about Cambodia’s challenges to recover from a troubled history, the lure of friendly and smiling people was enough to draw us there. Of course for me, good birdwatching prospects are always attractive. We were happy with our pick.

We spent our first night in Phenom Penh, only to jump a bus to Siem Reap the next morning. We really enjoyed and are thankful we chose this comfortable 6-hour method of seeing the countryside. It was a nice introduction to the landscape. Siem Reap is an emerging tourist town that’s busting at the seams with growth. Tourist towns are certainly not our style, but Siem Reap made sense for us because of the nearby temple complexes and because it was our departure point for a 5-day excursion into the wilds.

We hired a guide to take us to wetlands areas and into a section of dry dipterocarp forest in northern Cambodia; some fascinating habitats. Unless you plan to stay awhile, this was a great way to get into the countryside, efficiently. A friend of ours here in Mongolia who works for Wildlife Conservation Society told us about a WCS project down in Tmatbuoy. An eco-tourism partnership was formed between WCS and the village. WCS built a small, low-impact facility to accommodate a few dozen paying tourists (often hardcore bird finders), annually. In exchange for providing paying customers and operational support to the village, area villagers agree to avoid encroachment on these important, disappearing habitats. We had a wonderful stay and are happy to have helped the cause.

We met many sweet people, our guide was fantastic and I got to see some magnificent (and critically endangered) species. A cool, non-bird highlight was having a strange animal literally cross our path – a species some call a “Bearcat.” Curiously, it is neither bear nor cat. When we first saw it, we thought a black bear cub was approaching. Instead, we encountered a binturong, a round squat animal that’s closely-related to civet cats. Later, we were told they are very rare to see because they’re nocturnal. They can also be vicious when threatened so we’re quite happy that it posed for us, then scurried off.

We planned a few days in Siem Reap for temple visits and a day trip on the huge Tonle Sap lake. Julie was happy she chose not to join me on the water because high winds that day produced big swells. We almost dumped the boat a few times. The trip was hairy until the waves calmed in the afternoon. We eventually reached our destination, a nature reserve and floating fishing village across the lake, which were interesting, but barely worth the anxiety.

Our Siem Reap time was great fun. Some of our very best Peace Corps friends met us there and we had a ball visiting the famous Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm temple sites with them. Like us, they know how to play hard and we laughed so much. Our favorite temple was Banteay Srei because there were far fewer tourists and the stone carvings were the most intricate and impressive. Our favorite new friend was a working elephant we fed and adored. Our favorite khmer foods were the fruit and the simple fried noodles and vegetables. We’re big bok choy and oyster sauce fans. We didn’t try the fried crickets, but the roasted tarantula I sampled was kind of tough and bitter tasting.

It seems we always say that the people are the best part of any of our travel experiences. Well, that was unquestionably true for us this time, too. The khmer people are extremely friendly and we encountered huge smiles wherever we went. We really felt welcome and enjoyed being with some of these gentle souls. Cambodia has a wealth of charms and we hope the khmer people continue on a path to enduring peace and profound happiness.