Imposing but closed

The imposing facade of the boutique hotel in Chhlong, La Relais

La Relais de Chhlong hotel in all its glory

The most imposing building in the sleepy Mekong River town of Chhlong is undoubtedly the Le Relais de Chhlong Hotel, which is closing this month for upwards of a year in order to renovate the existing four rooms and add another half dozen suites in a yet-to-be built annex. With its old-world French-colonial charm, swimming pool and gorgeous location on the river, the Relais has been the most expensive accommodation along the Mekong north of Phnom Penh for the last few years since it was renovated and opened as a boutique hotel. Built in 1917 for a wealthy Khmer-Chinese family, it had a series of owners but was allowed to fall into a serious state of disrepair before being brought back to life in its current incarnation. Inside the rooms and public areas, Chinese furniture, silks and ornaments proliferate and whilst the rooms are pleasant enough, the decoration is quite minimalist.

The swimming pool and Mekong River (in background) seen from the first floor

One of the bedrooms with the sparse furniture

A public rest area on the ground floor

Another of the hotel's 4 rooms

The view from the balcony of one of the upstairs rooms

More from Chhlong

A fine example of the fading but sturdy buildings to be found on colonial street in Chhlong

You can still see some attractive floral decoration on this colonial-style home

Blogger is playing up today so loading my images is taking forever. This is a follow-on post from the Sleepy Chhlong post below and contains more images from this town hugging the banks of the Mekong River.

A well kept traditional wooden Khmer home on stilts on colonial street

A family of wood-carvers hard at work on colonial street

The town's post office occupies this run-down building in Chhlong

Sleepy Chhlong

The laid-back, sleepy colonial street in Chhlong. On the left is the Mekong River.

There are a handful of locations that have eluded me on my travels around Cambodia over the years. For various reasons I've never managed to get to Svay Rieng, Pailin, Koh Kong and Chhlong. Well, a 30-minute visit en route to Kratie made sure that the sleepy town of Chhlong, hugging the east bank of the Mekong River, was deleted from that list. The driver announced we were taking the short-cut route to Kratie and rather than simply whizz past Chhlong (also known variously as Chlong and Chloung) I suggested a quick look around the place and my fam trip colleagues agreed. We didn't have time to do anything other than walk along the road fronting the river that contains a series of French colonial and Chinese style buildings, some in disrepair, others serving as family homes, but it was good to at last visit the town my pal Caroline had written about eight years ago here. Once the rest of the road to Kratie is paved then Chhlong will see a lot more traffic coming its way and I'm sure the crumbling colonial-era buildings, one of which proudly displayed the date, 1922, on its facade will undergo renovation, much like the classic 1917 family home that was transformed from a derelict mess into the gorgeous Relais de Chhlong hotel. On our return journey we popped into the hotel, which is just about to close for further expansion, but more on that in a later post. For now, colonial street in Chhlong remains a quiet and laid-back location, just around the corner from the town's market. I spotted a handful of very old Khmer houses as well, all of which ensures enough good reasons to return to Chhlong in the not too distant future. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get there in the first place.

The facade proudly shows 1922 as the date of construction of this colonial gem

A beautiful French colonial style building in need of some love and affection

It looks like Christmas has come early in Chhlong

Some of the French colonial and Chinese-style shop houses are in disrepair

A small step

A proud moment as I pose with my sapling on Koh Trong - we became very close in such a short time :-)

If you visit the island of Koh Trong, a few minutes by ferry from the Mekong River town of Kratie, you can make a small difference by joining a tree-planting scheme at one of the pagoda's on the island. It's an idea started about a decade ago by one of the island's inhabitants who wanted to reverse the trend of tree-felling that was happening all around him. It's got the full backing of the community, the locals play their part in the scheme, there's a caretaker for the area, which surrounds the pagoda at Wat Ty Param Kbal Koh Trong, and you can already see the fruits of earlier labours with large swathes of fledgling trees taking root. As part of the recent fam trip organised by the Mekong Discovery Trail team, each member of our group of 18 tour operators was given a small plot of soil, a sapling and a shovel. Fortunately the locals had done most of the spadework so our role was mostly symbolic though it was still hot and sweaty labour in the middle of the day, though enjoyable nonetheless. At the end of the exercise, each of us had planted a new tree - with a wooden stake bearing our name nearby - which will be monitored by the caretaker and where we can, if so inclined, return to check its progress in the future. A great idea to leave a small eco-friendly footprint from our visit.

A quick check of my sapling's roots to determine its survivability - I almost look as though I know what I'm doing

My sapling appears to be outgrowing its next-door neighbour already

Other group colleagues putting the effort into the tree-planting

The main vihear at Wat Ty Param Kbal Koh Trong, soon to be surrounded by fledgling trees

Before & after

Island dwelling children at Wat Ty Param Kbal Koh Trong

On our last day of the Mekong Discovery Trail fam trip, we took a ferry ride to the island of Koh Trong, which lies directly opposite the riverfront of Kratie. In fact I used to think it was the west bank of the Mekong River until I looked at the map properly and saw that it was a massive island instead. Silly me. It turned out to be a really enjoyable few hours and I'll fill you in on the details in another post. On a visit to one of the island's three pagoda's, Wat Ty Param Kbal Koh Trong, we all took part in a tree-planting exercise, again more on that later. We also met the group of happy children in the photos above and below, and once again, they were eager to see themselves on film.

...and wait for the giggling to begin. Pic courtesy of Sybille Rotzler of Exo.

Double take

The smiles say it all from the young troupe of classical dancers at Preah Rumkel

Just as I was posting the group shots below, Jasmine from Bayon Tours, one of my fellow Mekong Discovery Trail fam trip colleagues, sent me three of her photos that corresponded exactly to the scenes in my photos - what a remarkable coincidence. With her permission I have posted her pictures here too. I loved the look on the young girls faces as they saw themselves on my digital camera. They were such an adorable bunch.

These young boys burst into giggles immediately after this photo was taken

All aboard, as we get ready for our boat trip to the Lao border area. I'm in the center and Jasmine is directly behind me. All photos courtesy of Jasmine.

Group shots

These are the adorable young girls who gave the fam trip group a classical dance performance at the Preah Rumkel community office

What is it with me and group shots. Following closely on the heels of the Mekong Discovery Trail team photo, here are a few group pictures from other parts of the trip. It's been a bit non-stop since I got back from the fam trip, hence my posts have been a little tardy to-date.

These young boys gave me a noisy and giggly welcome when we reached the village of O'Svay, the gateway to the border area with Laos

Getting ready for the boat trip to Anlong Svay and the border area with Laos. Behind me is Jasmine and alongside us are Anna and Sybille.

Fam trip team photo

My fam trip colleagues at the homestay on Koh Trong island. I'm in dark blue and glasses.

Just so that you know some of the faces that joined me on the 4-day fam trip along the Mekong Discovery Trail, here's a team photo, taken at a homestay-cum-excellent lunchtime venue on Koh Trong island yesterday. Koh Trong sits in the middle of the Mekong River, directly opposite the Kratie riverfront. More later from the island visit itself, suffice to say that it was a very enjoyable trip, the villagers were ultra friendly, the food was excellent and the homestay had a western loo, shower and proper beds, which is a real result. I won't name the individual members of the trip shown on the team photo, as most of them are tour operator rivals to Hanuman (wink), though included in the picture is Bun Ban, the community leader, as well as the lady owner of the homestay (in red).

I'm being presented with my gift of a pomelo by the lovely Sovanna, daughter of the homestay owner

Puppetry excellence

Two of the shadow puppet characters that courted the most laughter from the watching children

The questionnaire that I completed at the end of my 4-day Mekong Discovery Trail fam trip asked me for the highlight of my tour. Without hesitation I scribbled down, shadow puppets at Wat Roka Kandal in Kratie. Not only is the venue pretty spectacular, a stone's throw from the Mekong River and on the steps of the renovated early 19th century vihear, but the quality of the performance was exceptional when you consider the artists had received only one and a half month's training before this inaugural show. With more practice and support from the professionals at Sovanna Phum, the talented girls, who provide most of the puppetry during the hour long performance, will be sensational. The musicians and the voice-overs all added to a great show and it was capped off by what seemed to be the whole village turning out for the floodlit event too, with the younger children laughing and screaming at the puppets' funny antics, as they inched ever closer to the stage. Whilst our group occupied two rows of seats near the front, hordes of villagers stood behind us enjoying it as much as we did. The shadow puppet story focused on the princess and the crocodile, which is the tale that is linked to the 100-pillar pagoda at Wat Sasar Muoy Roy, 35kms north along the Mekong at Sambor, so it was educational for everyone too. In the future, they want to offer a dinner and puppet show double-bill that will add a 'must-see' attraction in the Kratie area, which pretty much closes down for the night when the sun sets just after 6pm. It certainly gets the thumbs up from me. After the show ended, I met with the artists to thank them for the excellent entertainment they'd provided and they were simply adorable. They gave me two leather puppets to keep and then took turns to practice their faltering English with the usual array of questions that crop up on such occasions, ie. age, nationality, job, marital status, etc. In return, they rattled off their names and without exception they all looked about sixteen years old but I'm sure they were older. One girl said "I love you like my father" which made me feel very humble and pretty ancient at the same time! If you get the opportunity to see the shadow puppets at Wat Roka Kandal, make sure you grab it with both hands. More from my April visit to Wat Roka Kandal here.

Some of the children waiting expectantly for the show to begin

The musicians and singers open up the performance

A brother and sister watch the performance

The children inch ever closer to the main stage at Wat Roka Kandal

The light shines on the righteous; well on this occasion, two of the artists with yours truly, after their splendid performance

On the grapevine

Still no progress on loading photos with my blog postings.
Just received an invite for the soft opening this coming Saturday of the new Lotus Blanc Restaurant, about fifty metres from the Hanuman office on St 51 in Boeung Keng Kang 1. Lotus Blanc is the hotel and restaurant training facility that is housed at the PSE center in Stung Meanchey, which has been providing skills and employment opportunities for children from families making a living from the municipal rubbish dump for the last few years. This second restaurant will be open for breakfast and lunch only and will be used as another training facility for the youngsters. I've tasted the food at the original restaurant and if this is just as good, it'll be a nice option for lunchtimes.
I've just confirmed my place on the Mekong Discovery Trail (MDT) 'fam' trip on 21-24 August. Its a venture by the Ministry of Tourism/SNV to generate interest and awareness of the MDT by taking private sector tour operators to see what the MDT has to offer and to see how we can incorporate that into what we offer our clients. It's certainly an area that Hanuman is very interested in, so I'm keen to make the trip. The program includes visits to Kratie, Stung Treng, Preah Rumkel, the Sopheak Mitt waterfall near the border with Laos, the Anlung Cheuteal dolphin pool and the island of Koh Trong. Should be an enjoyable adventure. Obviously I'll fill you in on the details after the event. Hopefully with some photos, he said sarcastically!
Forgot to mention yesterday that the Cambodian U-23 national football team will be hosting a friendly match against the Singapore U-23s on Sunday 27th September as part of their preparation for the SEA Games in December. Coach Scott O'Donell has his 25-man squad in mind, though it's not yet been publicly announced, and is likely to be reduced to a 20-man squad to take to Laos for the tournament itself.
Finally, just had a whisper that the folks from the Khmer Arts Ensemble, out at Takhmau, will be performing as part of a festival run by the French Cultural Center, at the Chenla Theatre on Monday 7th September. The Khmer Arts dancers are a professional touring troupe so this will be classical Cambodian dance at its very best. More details to follow when I get them.