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Mekong
Off the Beaten Path; My Cambodia Travel Log
Dekila is the WWF US leader for the Greater Mekong Program. The Greater Mekong Program consists of three Global 200 ecoregions; the Mekong river, the Lower Mekong Dry Forests and the Greater Annamites and covers six countries; China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This ecoregion complex is one of WWF US's priorities due to the incredible endemic biodiversity found there; whether it is the Mekong Giant Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in the world, or the Douc Langur, possibly the most charismatic primate in the world.
Dekila is from Sikkim, a tiny northeastern state in India the size of Rhode Island which is squished between Nepal and Bhutan. Like every other person from the Himalayas, she is convinced that her homeland is the original Shangrila. Her family is Bhutia, of Tibetan origin and she speaks Sikkimese, the local language, as well as Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali fluently. She worked in the WWF Eastern Himalayas Program for five years prior to working on the Greater Mekong. Her areas of expertise include strategic conservation planning, community based conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Among her most prized skills is the ability to eat anything remotely edible.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
Day One: Flying inCambodia, more than any other place settles into peoples' minds as one of those distant countries that is too authentically third world. Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields. These make up Cambodia's history, at least on CNN and in the movies. Anything recent is disheartening; impoverishment, corruption, trafficking, illegal trade, unresolved conflict, and of course, the stymied UN crimes tribunal.
Except, I love Cambodia. Cambodia is captivating. For me, it is an intoxicating combination of history and modernity, chaos and serenity, starvation and generosity, and destitution and rich heritage. It is also the heart of some of WWF's best conservation efforts in the Greater Mekong region.
For this trip, I will zigzag through the country for two weeks; Phnom Penh in the south and then north east up the Mekong River to the WWF Mekong dolphin project in Kratie. After that I veer east to the Srepok Wilderness Area in Mondulkiri before I return to visit the Angkor Wat temples and spend a day on the Tonle Sap, one of the world's greatest freshwater lakes and a natural wonder in its own right.When I arrived at the Phnom Penh airport, eight high ranking military officers are sitting in a row waiting for my paperwork. I hand my passport to the first officer, my application to the second, my photos to the third, and shuffle along watching my passport change hands until finally, I have my stamped passport in hand. But, wait. The immigration officer stops me and asks if I'm Cham. I say no. He tilts his head and repeats, "half Cham?" questioningly. I reply, "no, half Indian." He looks down at the passport. "Ah, Indian." He is smiling so this must be a good thing. I smile back, relieved and walk out into the humid evening.
Teak, the head of WWF Cambodia, has come to meet me. He has an affable smile and a sudden rapid fire laugh. He went to Yale for his graduate degree but returned to Cambodia five years ago to work on natural resource conservation. On the way to town, I mention my experience with the Customs officer and he tells me that the Khmers like Indians. We have a shared history that goes back over 2000 years when Cambodia was called Funnan and was part of the India-China trade route. Also, I apparently look part Cham, the Muslim minority in Cambodia and a fusion of Indian, Chinese, and Arabic cultures.For now, I'm just happy because I'm closer to home in more ways than I thought.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
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