Our first full day aboard Jahan began cruising through the cool morning air and our debut Tai Chi class on the upper deck. The sky was alive with birds feasting on insects, and the sound of distant loudspeakers echoing across the river. Our morning excursion took us to Angkor Ban, a typical Cambodian village virtually untouched by tourism with some houses almost 100 years old. With just one sealed road through the town, Angkor Ban features meandering laneways and dirt paths squeezed between an array of stilt houses, barnyards and livestock. Brahmin cattle are the breed of choice in Cambodia, and are used primarily as beasts of burden around the nearby farms. We also see a family organizing for a wedding as they prepare food and a pavillon tent for the upcoming ceremonies. Afterwards we pass the local market, with fresh fish and produce for sale, and we head back to the ship. Later, certified instructor Eric Kruszewski gives us an introduction to photography.
Following on from lunch, cultural specialist David Brotherson talks about Cambodian religions, past and present. The afternoon outing saw Jahan docked at Koh Oaknha Tey, a small island in the middle of the Mekong which hosts a farming community. Whilst a very rural setting, Koh Oaknha Tey is only a thirty minute drive from Phnom Penh, and we can see the high-rise towers in the distance. We climb aboard our tuk-tuks and visit the local pagoda where the head monk tells us about life in the monastery. Next we head out into the fields where many different crops are in various stages of the agricultural cycle before arriving at the local silk farm. Though not a traditional Khmer craft, conditions in Cambodia are suitable for silk production, and now it thrives as a cottage industry in certain parts of the country. We finish off the day with an afternoon cruise downstream past the Cambodian capital. With a strategic location at the junction of the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers, Phnom Penh was founded here in part to oversee trade along these busy waterways. At the river junction Jahan turns up the Tonle Sap River, taking us upstream towards tomorrow’s destination, Kampong Chhnang province.
