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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 Two: Phnom PenhPhnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. It sits at the crossing point of the rivers Mekong, Tonle Bassac and Tonle Sap. The city is a culmination of breathtaking architecture with curling roofs that soar above evenly distributed squalor. The streets are vibrantly alive and the markets are a riot of color, food, smells and sights. The main street that lies along the Bassac is a string of French colonial buildings in pastel colors, most of which are restaurants or hotels. Child vendors make their rounds peddling the latest knock-off Lonely Planets and tuktuk drivers yell out for new fares as they pass by.
I wake up early, partly due to jetlag and partly because I want to visit the markets, which open around 5 am. The first place on my list is the Russian Market, a leftover phenomenon of the 1980s.
In the Russian market, there is no room for personal space. It is a maze of covered stalls that sell everything from deep fried cockroaches, gold jewelry, Chanel bags with small defects, to bootlegged DVDs, an Asian market staple.The last time I was here, I also saw stalls with unidentifiable bush meat hanging on hooks, dried frogs, lizards, and various bones - all with "miraculous" healing powers. After what feels like a fight with a horde of shopkeepers putting up their stalls and early morning shoppers, I penetrate far enough to hit the jackpot. There are live freshwater turtles and pythons in small tubs of tepid water lying around, and what looks like muntjac (small type of deer) skins.
Wildlife trade is alive and kicking in Southeast Asia. Big cats dominate the highly coveted luxury goods end of the market. Tigers in particular, are in high demand. They are used for a wide range of purposes, as an aphrodisiac, to ensure longevity and even cure cancer. Just one bowl of soup made of tiger parts can sell for over $500. For the most part, the biggest threat to Cambodia's wildlife is the market demand from China and Vietnam. Not surprisingly, it is rarer and rarer to find wildlife in the wild. Often, conservationists are forced to do their fieldwork in markets and restaurants as a quicker way of seeing what species still live in the wild.Thankfully, Cambodia still retains one third of its forest cover. These forests provide critically needed habitat to tigers, elephants, clouded leopards, banteng, gaurs and their wetlands shelter birds such as the Sarus Crane and the rare masked finfoot. WWF has been working here since 1993, focusing on the Lower Mekong Dry Forests Ecoregion, the largest continuous area of dry forest in all of Southeast Asia and a critical Mekong river habitat.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
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