Travel Diary by Dominique Darmon

Part 1 - Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields
Part 2 - Kratie and the Kampi Dolphin Pool
Part 3 - Koh Trong Island

The next day, we head out to Koh Trong Island. We cross the river in a small, fragile wooden boat.  On the island, tourists can either hire a horse cart, an ox cart, a bike or a motorcycle to get around. While the film crew opts for the horse cart, Dany and I jump onto the back of a motorcycle. We drive by houses on stilts surrounded by lush, fruit trees. People wave as we go by.

We stop at a souvenir shop where villagers weave baskets, handbags and slippers. Everything there is produced from natural resources. I admire the villagers’ creativity. Further away, a large wooden building houses a vocational school; as we approach, we can hear the children chanting in unison: “We have three goats. We have four cows…”  They are learning English so they can eventually find work in tourism.

A bit further down the path, we stop in front of a large house on stilts. It’s a home stay, or guest house. The owner - a woman with a large smile – invites us inside. The floor is freshly polished and two large beds, neatly made, are wrapped in red and orange-coloured mosquito nets. She invites us to sit on the floor and serves us juicy pomelos, freshly picked from the tree in front of her house. It costs USD 3 a night to sleep here. “So far, we have about five tourists a month,” the woman explains. “Many people don’t know about us.”

Dany explains that while they are still working on the planning and design phase of the Mekong Discovery Trail Project, they have just barely started the implementation phase. “We have to wait a while before we actually see results,” she says. But she is optimistic; it’s only a question of time before tourists start coming to the island in larger numbers.

I share my concerns with Dany about tourism bringing in more pollution and problems to the community. “We’re not trying to attract big crowds!” she replies. “We only want to target the responsible tourists, the eco-tourists. If more of these people come, the local communities will greatly benefit! Tourism is an excellent way to alleviate poverty.”

We continue to follow the dirt road around the island; my motorcycle driver suddenly stops and points to a large field, with fledgling trees. A gardener is pulling out weeds. He smiles and comes to greet us. “During the Khmer Rouge regime,” he says, “all the trees were torn down. They destroyed everything. But now, we have decided to repair this. So we’re planting more trees every year. We’re hoping to erase the traces of war, so we can look forward to the future…”