It's always hot in late March and early April in Cambodia. These last two months have seemed worse than usual. Our mango trees have dropped their green bounty on the ground; the banana trees are drooping as if trying to suck water from the dry ground. When the wind shakes the dead brown leaved they resemble the shaky old people who walk along the edge of the road. It appears that the country side is in death throes that not even water will revive.

It is fitting. The countryside is dying. Land that hasn't been sold for a pittance to the rich is being dug up for clay to make bricks or blown up to make grave for roads and railroads. When I first moved here there were two brick companies between our village and Kampong Cham, now there are fifteen. The gravel company was located discretely down a country lane; now they have a second location behind a village wat and another outlet on the main highway. The sand along the highway does not come from our commune. It ihas come from the bowels of the Mekong and dumped along the road from the backs of overloaded trucks, completely covering the moto lane for several kilometers.

Land lies unattended since moms and dads who are committed to the rural life and have not sold out to the rich, powerful and corrupt have had to seek work elsewhere-notably Thailand. Their kids in rags are left in the care of grandparents who receive a part of the Thai wages of their sons and daughters. The plots that are sold off to the wealthy are walled in and gated; sometimes a few banana trees are planted, so that the land that they bought cheaply for speculation can be taxed at a cheaper "agricultural rate."

So, why visit rural Cambodia. Because soon it will be devoured by those who dream of green bounties of money and lost by those who clutch on the a bounty of dreams that are quickly becoming nightmares. This is a country with no future for those who cherish their traditional agricultural ways and customs. See it now or see it never. If anything is left, it will exist like a museum display.

Nice piece Taa.

I drove our large tuktuk out to Oudong today and you're right, it's hot, dry, and plants are dying. Now that you mention it, there's very little sign of actual agriculture happening in the provinces. Mango trees are particularly laden though.

Nice read. Albeit a bit overly dramatic, it does have some truth to it.

April is the hottest month of the year.

I think everyone should also go to visit Mondolkiri and Rathtanakiri provinces asap as in the near future there will be no forests for you guys to see or to go trekking in the jungle. There are so many illegal and legal logging going on over there. Sad.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:Nice read. Albeit a bit overly dramatic, it does have some truth to it.

I moved here because it wasn't like the city. Yes, it is emotional because I do not like to see the small people crushed by those who have power or the power of money. Maybe those of you who live in the city are inured to the wholesale destruction of a culture. In any case, what i wrote only has truth; nothing was written or magnified beyond the bounds of simple observation over time. Thanks for reading it tho.

Thanks for a good read Taabarang.

Samouth wrote:I think everyone should also go to visit Mondolkiri and Rathtanakiri provinces asap as in the near future there will be no forests for you guys to see or to go trekking in the jungle. There are so many illegal and legal logging going on over there. Sad.

This true also. A few years back I believed that the Cambodian govt, local authorities etc would get active to protect these forests when they realised that they were a tourist attraction and therefore, there was money to be made in protecting them. Sadly I have come to the conclusion that they don't give a shit about protecting Cambodia's natural heritage, and the mindset is to rake in the bucks short-term while it lasts without thought for consequences.

I also think that environmental tourism, which empowers the local people and is long-term and sustainable but not a big immediate earner, will give way to mass tourism - busloads of (mostly) Asian tourists who want flashy hotels and casinos (owned and run by those in power), and who don't care about natural beauty if they can have the artificial version - zoos rather than forests. This means that the local people will be cut out of the action, as well as losing their land and lifestyle. If this is the project for Cambodia's future tourist industry, then why worry about the environment ? Only flaw in this reasoning is to work out why tourists would travel so far to see nothing, but i'm sure they will come up with something.

I hope I'm just a cynical twisted pessimist.

Right on all counts AM. Neither cynical nor twisted and how to be an optimist? Every since the UN came here with 2.5 billion dollars, money has been the new Buddha.

Mouhot wrote of primary forest around Phnom Penh with abundant wildlife.

frank lee bent wrote:Mouhot wrote of primary forest around Phnom Penh with abundant wildlife.

I was expecting to hear this, Cortez the Killer :