Sunday 27th March

Today we went to a huge Buddhist complex at Vipassana Dhura near Oudong the capital city between 1618 & 1865. Arriving at the site we walked to the pagoda constructed in 1995 for $17 million, apparently paid for by the locals.

d*** was otherwise engaged but heard some of it on his earpiece. Leaving the temple we walked to a large reclining Buddha & then to the monks' accommodation blocks to hear about their lives. They can start at 10 & can stay as long as they want to owning nothing but their robes & books. Each day some of them walk to the nearby villages to accept food from the householders, as they are forbidden from cooking their own, much like Dick, at home.

Monks eat only 2 meals a day, at 6.30 am & before midday with the latter eaten communally. The rest of their time is spent doing chores & meditating or sleeping. The monastery also has nuns who wear white robes & lead a similar lifestyle except that they do prepare food for the monks. As we walked a bell went to call them in to lunch & we saw the nuns preparing fruit etc presumably for the meal.

At the edge of the extensive complex were shabby & poorly built wooden shacks, which house the "Lay Brothers", men of over 60 who have chosen to retire from their families to contemplate & live there. They are visited by their families & are largely self sufficient in the provision of food etc but it looked a bit uninviting to us.

Sean, our guide, who had lost his parents in the Pol Pot era & had been brought up by his grandparents, was a monk for 2 years in a similar monastery. His description of the life was most illuminating.

Leaving the Monastic complex we drove to Kampong Tralach for an oxcart ride. Here we all went in procession, 2 in each cart on a very uncomfortable ride for 20 minutes through the ultra flat countryside. An experience rather than a pleasure!! On the return journey it was interesting to see several brand new factories along the roadside all with their signs in local & Chinese characters, presumably established to exploit the low labour costs here.

The vessel never looked more inviting when we returned.

At lunch we met an English lady who had worked as a volunteer in Rwanda at Kigeme, where we had visited Jenny. We were all surprised to find anybody who knew of it, let alone had worked there.

During the afternoon we moved on up the river & had a lengthy & somewhat academic lecture on Cambodia’s geography from one of the guides.

Dinner was as usual its normal noisy self, augmented by the thump of the engines being revved heavily. This was surprising as we had been told that, as the river is so low, we would anchor up river at about 10.30pm & move on tomorrow in daylight. After the meal, at about 8.30pm, we went to the sun deck & found that the ship was stuck in the middle of the river unable to go in any direction. Now at 9.15 all is quiet & the engines are silent so we will just have to wait & see.

Tomorrow is another day & we might even get a solution to the problem!!