How to Ride an Elephant

Join the Adventure!

I have never had much desire to ride an elephant, or a camel, or a even a horse. But siting on my patio one evening, I conducted a more thorough mental examination of the issue. If I don't ride an elephant now, I may not have the opportunity to do it again. I should be able to say I've ridden an elephant, because that seems really cool, which seems like a good enough reason. This was, I confess, my shameful motivation.

Yet how does one ride an elephant? They are such very large animals, presumably wise yet consistently obsessed with their primal need to consume 300 kgs of food daily.

First, one goes to Mondlekiri Province. This is one of the few places where one can ride elephants in Cambodia. In this region, there are many options for those seeking the elephant riding experience. We [myself and our three "interns" who journeyed out for the long weekend over King Sihamoni's birthday] arranged the adventure through our guesthouse who packed us out with six other Western tourists to a small minority village. A total group of 10 went out, on five elephants, with perhaps 10 Khmer guides and random observers.

Secondly, one must climb up a ladder into a small basket. This might be the most terrifying part of the entire process. Once you reach the top of the ladder, you have to climb further into a small basket. You are climbing over a live animal and somehow he stands still as a puny human asserts her dominance and props herself in this small basket. At last you find yourself seated with your feet under your chin, crushed against a fellow passenger, and a small child sitting behind the elephant's ears with a stick to "drive" it. You are easily 10 foot on the ground, and you realize a kid is managing this large animal, and then you consider if perhaps there was something more sane you might have considered instead of elephant trekking.

Third, one must hold on and brace oneself. Elephants are heavy-footed animals and utterly incapably of anything other then violent jerking as they plod forward. You have to somehow anticipate their movement and sway with them, all the while unable to readjust in your basket. On the other-hand, they are very surefooted, and low and behold, can ford streams and rapids!

Finally, enjoy! It's a little challenging to enjoy swaying in a basket on top of the world's largest mammals. However, once you get the hang of the rhythmic jerking and overcome the five minutes of fear, it's a priceless experience. You ride through forests, through streams, past a field of marijuana, and think to yourself, I'm glad I'm actually giving this a shot. 

How to Celebrate Khmer New Year: 2nd Edition

For my second Khmer New Year (and my third New Year within 2012), a new adventure was required. This year is notably for me because it's "my year," the Year of the Dragon" on the Chinese calendar and they only come around once every 12 years.

This year I went to Koh Thmei. It's a very tiny unknown island in Kampong Som Province, 30 kilometers from Kampong Som town (otherwise known as Sihanoukville). While the island has been here for ages, we stayed at a nice new resort owned by a German couple. There was a sense of tension when seven loud an energetic girls showed up. But we calmed ourselves down considerably and allowed for plenty of island peace for the few other guests.

Gettings to Koh Thmei is a small adventure. It requires driving the five hours down towards Sihanoukville, but turning 30 kilometers north of the town and heading on a rural dirt road. Eventually, you arrive a tiny congested fishing village. From there, you hop on a small boat and ride out towards the island for yet another hour. It's an adventure for the faint-hearted and the brave...but still an adventure.

While it seems mandatory to write about my Khmer New Year: Dragon/12, the summation is actually underwhelming! I read two books, laid on the beach, ate lots of food, went for short walks and enjoyed the breeze, the bright sunshine, and both the sun and the rain.

My only complaint is regarding sand flees, which are nasty creatures leaving you itchy well over a week after the encounter. I've no doubt the year can only improve from here.

How to Commemorate Labor Day

In the US, we've lost all sight of Labor Day. It's that three-day weekend in September, the end of summer, the beginning of the academic season, and a nice weekend to travel. Does "labor day" assist us in appreciating how good we have it? Strangely, yet also unsurprisingly, it does not.

Yet for the rest of the world, Labor Day is 1 May and it really is about a celebration of the international labor movement. For Cambodian civil society members, human rights activists, and those employed in sectors most prone to abuses of labor laws, it's a day to restate global commitment to ensure that everyone has the right to a safe and decently compensated place of employment.

For this Labor Day, I joined with some colleagues and several thousand Cambodians (predominately women), in a march along the Phnom Penh riverside. Most of those in the march were young Cambodian women from the garment industry.

Cambodia has been both blessed and challenged in recent years as it's joined the up-and-coming nations involved in textile manufacturing. Nike, Gap, American Eagle, Adidas, Levi, A&F, among many others outsource garment production to Cambodia. The result has been an overwhelming number of young women from rural areas flooding into the Phnom Penh suburbs for employment, a new booming economy. However, these women, poor and uneducated, are often at risk of exploitation. They are paid $61 per month with no overtime and certainly no benefits. Even in Cambodia, $61 is far below a "living wage." For years, human rights activists have been pushing for the minimum wage to be increased and for factories conditions to be improved. Mass faintings are common in factories where there is no airflow and a high concentration of dust and chemicals.

Also represented in this year's Labor Day march were tuk tuk drivers and moto taxis, a sector completely unrepresented and unprotected in the Cambodian labor laws. As far as the government is concerned, these sectors don't exist.

For the march, we walked to the National Assembly and requested for a representative to come and take the petition jointly signed by members of the garment and transport sectors. Not surprisingly, no one came out.

Still, it was a remarkable event, the joining together of several thousand members of unrepresented sectors, surrendering their day off to signal support for justice and a fair wage. Large gatherings are largely discouraged in Cambodia, but on Labor Day, for once, a crowd marched through Phnom Penh. And just for today, remarkably, it was peaceful.