October 6, 2014
Koh Rong Island, Cambodia
The ride from Siem Reap to Kratie was a bit rough. We had booked with Siem Reap World Trip Travel in the Old Market near Pub Street, a company we found while roaming around town and the woman told us she would give us a special deal on the large, comfortable, A/C bus - $13 (It was normally $17). In hindsight, we should’ve known it was too good to be true, but we figured the mark-down was due to it being low season. We were told we would be picked up at 5A and were dutifully ready a few min early, so we waited. And waited. Finally as 5:30 rolled around, we roused the hotel staff to use their phone to call the driver (whose number they fortunately gave us). When I called, the man answered and said he would be there in 10 min, but had the name of our hotel wrong, so I tried to correct him. It was unclear whether he understood me and then he hung up. So we waited another 15 min and I called back again. He said he would be there in 5 min and I asked him which hotel he was coming to. This time he got it right, so I hung up feeling a bit better. Our bus was supposed to leave the bus station at 6A and the driver who was to take us to the bus station finally arrived at 5:56. He stayed in the driver’s seat and waved us toward the van door, but I couldn’t get it open. So Randy tried and he couldn’t either. The driver finally left his seat and came around to open the door. It probably took him the better part of a minute to force it open and we finally climbed in. We arrived at our bus and got on and it was immediately apparent that it wasn’t the bus we thought we had booked. The seats were broken down and the A/C was questionable. We tried to protest, but no one (apparently anyway) spoke English, so we resigned ourselves to deal with it for the 7-8 hr trip.
We sat on the bus for a while, finally leaving around 6:30. We quickly realized we were on a local bus, the type that makes frequent stops to pick up and drop off passengers along the way and, although there were only a few passengers when we left Siem Reap, it quickly filled to the point where passengers were sitting on makeshift plastic stools in the aisle. Somewhere around 10 or 11, we stopped so the drivers could eat. At this point a woman from the bus station/eatery we were stopped at came on and asked us if we were heading to Kratie. We confirmed and she directed us off the bus, saying that we were changing buses. It was at this point where the first “casualty” of the trip occurred. I had stuffed my inflatable neck pillow into the bottom of my shoulder strap on my small pack, but as I shifted it to my front so that I could don my large pack on my back, I must have dropped the pillow. I didn’t realize this until we had set our bags down 10m away. As soon as I realized it, I walked back to where I must have dropped it and it was nowhere to be found. Both Randy and I searched the entire area, including the bus we had just gotten off. Nothing. It was gone. And in what seemed like an instant. And on a day when it was apparent that a neck pillow could be a huge asset. We were starting to think it couldn’t get much worse (not so much because of the loss of a material item, but from the sense of violation and loss of security that comes with being cheated and having something stolen right under your nose). But then our next “bus” arrived. It turned out to be an old beat up minivan and we were shoved into the third row, our knees (and especially Randy’s) jammed into the seats in front of us, and still with 4-5 hours to go. It was frustrating to say the least, but it turned out not to be so bad. A couple got on with two chickens in a basket and sat in the row behind us and three of the women in front of us were travelling with infants, one of which had a set of lungs that even Boticelli would envy. At one point, I found myself more than slightly amused as the cacophony of chickens behind me combined with the screaming infant in front of me and Randy was busying himself with ridding the van of a buzzing mosquito. In the end, we made it safely (though with sore knees and bottoms) to Kratie, one of the two bases for my research. We had tried to plan ahead, having learned from our experience with tuk-tuks/accommodation in Siem Reap, and had decided that we would not take a tuk-tuk and would instead wander away from the bus station and orient ourselves before making any decisions. However, one of the tuk-tuk drivers was particularly persuasive, saying he would take us to a hotel where they had rooms from $10, which included the use of a pool, gym, steam room, free Wi-Fi, and free tuk-tuk rides to and from town. He also said there was no obligation and if we didn’t like it he would take us back to the bus station. And he was wearing a shirt with the hotel name, as well as carrying a two-way radio. When we arrived at the hotel, we were impressed. Though a bit far out of town (later we learned it was about a 25 min walk), it was nice. They showed us a room with a balcony overlooking the pool and the Mekong, A/C, and a hot shower, telling us it would be $20/night. Randy and I really liked it and eventually negotiated it down to $14/night, resolving to stay one night and look for somewhere cheaper in the morning. Having settled into our hotel by about 3:30P, we set to making plans for Kratie. We needed to find accommodation for 1-2 months for when we return in March (when I’ll begin the interviews), find a translator, purchase a cell phone, contact the local World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – who run the Irrawaddy dolphin conservation program (they’re often referred to as Mekong dolphins here, but are a subpopulation of the same species found all over SE Asia) – and, of course, explore the area and see the dolphins.
Progress in Kratie was a bit slow at first. Soknay, my contact for the translators, was not responding to my e-mails, nor answering my phone calls (using Skype). So it became apparent that I would need a cell phone in Cambodia for people to reach me on. We attempted to avoid the cost of purchasing a new phone (and annoyance of carrying extra gear) by replacing the SIM card in Randy’s phone. Unfortunately, his phone wasn’t unlocked, so SIM cards from companies other than Verizon couldn’t be used. We spent the better part of a day trying to figure out how to unlock the phone and Randy made several Skype calls to the U.S. In the end, it seemed the only way to get an unlock code was to pay. So we decided we’d just buy a $20 phone. One of the women at the hotel reception – Sokrey - speaks exceptional English and, even though she was off work, she met us in town and helped us negotiate the price for a phone and purchase it. We were to find that she would be amazingly helpful for the duration of our stay.
Randy had also struck up a conversation with one of the owners of the hotel (it’s co-owned by a Cambodian man and an American man) and mentioned that we were looking for a place to stay in March. The owner said he would look around and would also come up with a rate to stay in the hotel. A day or two later, we found ourselves looking at a beautiful, stone and tile-floored, newly built one- bedroom apartment in town. It wasn’t furnished, so we were concerned that it might not be worth it just for a 1-2 month stay. The owner said she would furnish it, but it was unclear what we would be getting. She also didn’t speak any English (the hotel owner translated for us). The cost with/without A/C was $200/$150, but didn’t include utilities ($30-$70/month) or Wi-Fi. Later, the hotel owner showed us several rooms that were much larger than ours (and normally go for $55/night). We chose our favorite and then sat down with the owner to discuss a price. After a bit of negotiating, we got it down to $310/month and agreed to each buy a bicycle from him for $40 a piece and sell them back to him at the end of our stay for $20. $310/month is relatively expensive to stay in Cambodia, but with Wi-Fi, cheap photocopies, use of a pool, gym, steam room (though, honestly, who needs a steam room in Cambodia??), and free tuk-tuk rides to/from town whenever we wanted, $310 for two people is a great deal. In the end though, we were concerned that if we opted for the apartment in town (1) we wouldn’t end up with the furniture and cookware we needed; (2) we would have a tough time communicating with the owners; and (3) we would be isolated. So we chose the hotel and put down a deposit.
We also visited the WWF and met with one of the Project Managers, who was very inviting and happy to see us. He made time for us, even though he was very busy and we hadn’t made an appointment. We sat and chatted with him for a while and he told us about the conservation project (which I was mostly familiar with, other than a few updates) and I told him about my project. Randy also offered to volunteer in the field for them if they needed the extra help. Later we e-mailed him Randy’s CV and he e-mailed back with more info.
Soknay also finally got back to me. The translator he had originally connected me with fell through, but he had found a teacher near Phnom Penh who was interested. In the meantime, I had also discussed my need for a translator with Sokrey, and she offered her services as well. She seemed very excited, as she grew up in a nearby village and was excited at the prospect of doing something that might help the people and environment of her home. She had also been so helpful and seemed so driven and knowledgeable that I really wanted it to work out to have her as my translator. But Soknay (my Cambodian contact) had gone through a lot of trouble to help me find a translator when he didn’t even know me (I randomly contacted a conservation/volunteer program), and I knew the translator he had set up was also very excited and needed the money. So I have tentatively hired Ratha, the teacher, but may find some way to include Sokrey as well. The Project Manager at WWF also has access to several independent translators, so it seems I am set there.
Having completed all this, we finally set out to see the dolphins! Despite the stifling heat, I insisted that we ride bikes to the boat dock 17km out of town. I was also excited at the prospect of getting some exercise and riding a bike through the jungle (albeit on a road). Randy, being less tolerant of the heat, was not quite as enthusiastic. But I eventually convinced him to give it a try (it helped that renting bikes would cost $4 compared to $10-$15 for a tuk-tuk). So we set out for the 1-hr + (one-way) journey. We were just getting to the point where our bums were going numb when we finally arrived in Kampi, launching site for the dolphin tour boats. We parked our bikes in the make-shift covered tuk-tuk and bicycle parking lot, grabbed boat tickets (a very spendy $9/person), and hopped onto a boat. I noticed immediately that our boat driver (many of whom are ex-fisherman – forced into other jobs after a ban on fisheries in the area to protect the dolphins who often get unintentionally trapped in the nets) was less than enthused and barely made eye contact with us and didn’t speak a word to us – not even in response to my friendly “Hello!” I found this interesting and also indicative of great potential for uncovering voices of dissent within the communities most affected by Irrawaddy dolphin conservation policies. We had been on the boat for over 40 min and were beginning to worry that we wouldn’t come across any (although we were still more than happy to be out on a boat in the Mekong), when we finally pulled up to a mini-island of a couple of boulders and trees next to another dolphin-viewing boat. And then we saw them – about 5-6 adults and 2 calves. At only 1.8m (5-6 ft), they appeared much larger than I expected them to. They’re roughly the same size as dusky dolphins – the subjects of my MS in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, so I was expecting them to seem as small as duskies. I also found their method of breathing funny. Unlike duskies (and most whales and dolphins), who roll at the surface while taking a breath, Irawaddies sort of awkwardly pop their heads out of the water, take a breath, and then roll – perhaps because they are fighting a swift current, even in the side pools of the great Mekong. Anyway, we really enjoyed seeing them (although my camera was far too slow to get any good pictures as they surfaced sporadically and unpredictably).
After returning to shore, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant adjacent to the boat dock with a table overlooking the river. While sitting and chatting with three other travelers, Randy spotted a dolphin leaping out of the water. We all thought it might be a large fish at first, but – sure enough – it was a dolphin. So all we had to do was eat lunch on the river, instead of paying an inflated $9/person (only a very small portion of this makes it into the pockets of the boat drivers). The ride back to the hotel was slightly torturous – our bums fully sore by this point. I found that I could only sit in one position that didn’t make me wince. Needless to say, we were glad to get back to the hotel and give our bodies a rest.
Visiting my first research site and securing resources for our return in March was incredibly exciting and I find myself impatient for our return. Even in the short time we were there (4 nights), it was obvious that this project will be loaded with complexities – an organization staffed with well-intentioned, good, and decent people; a government that fails miserably at pretending that conservation is a priority over profit; and a people, disenfranchised and forcefully removed from their legacy and livelihoods (to make it even more complex, I’m sure at least some of these people are glad to have escaped their fate, while others couldn’t be more contemptuous). Selfishly, I’m very excited at the prospect of uncovering these complexities, peeling back the layers, and trying to make some sense of them in a way that may contribute to rethinking how we do conservation and how we ignore the fact that conservation – and environmental problems – are political and, therefore, tied into political economy and the ravenous, insatiable, growing beast that we call capitalism.
