On the 28th May the Soksabike Team headed for the Tonle Sap Lake to conduct some research for a new tour. Despite a total of one person on the trip actually knowing how to ride one, the team had hired real motorbikes for the scouting trip citing possibly bad roads. The group of six took off full of confidence that a clutch was something you learned by doing.
The research team on street 1.5 ready to depart
They were farewelled by the cafe staff here at Soksabike HQ with cheery “good luck’s” and one understated
“I do not have a comfortable feeling when I see them ride like that.”
Why Tonle Sap Lake?
As a bit of background, the team had come up with the Tonle Sap as our next tour destination for a few reasons:
- No one else takes guests there from Battambang, yet it’s a fascinating area, culturally and ecologically including unique local livelihoods and floating schools and villages
- The area hosts an abundance of innovative ecological and conservation focused community projects
- The fertile land, periodically flooded, offers some stunningly beautiful landscape
Uh Oh…
The road we took followed the Sangker River away from Battambang Town and turned to dirt after 15km after which the road got progressively worse. We continued in search of Bak Preah, our first village stop en route to the Tonle Sap, slogging it out through pot holes and mud trenches for three hours until we arrived at an impassable water mass. Locals confirmed our fears – that although we were on the right (narrow, muddy) track, already too much rain had fallen this year to reach Bak Preah by road.
The roads just kept getting muddier...
At this point one of the guides offered,
“my feeling is about the petrol and whether we will have enough.”
A good point considering it was rice, corn and watermelon fields as far as the eye could see – and the normally ubiquitous roadside fuel stops had been utterly absent. In our first cautious decision of the day we decided to change plans and instead pay a visit to a conservation fishing community in the area that Chettra had worked with previously through his Ecotourism minor at university called Rohowsuong Village.
Saved by Rohowsuong
This was easier to find, and upon arrival we met with the community leaders to learn about their conservation project and request permission to visit the conservation project with tourists in the future. They advised us that with a commitment to abide by the community rules and some advance notice, visitors were most welcome.
From there we headed down to the man-made dam that had been constructed to conserve fish during the dry season to ensure food sustainability all year round. Surrounded by rice fields and mangroves to retain water, the dam is also protected by the community from any fishing activity and serves as an intensive untouched breeding ground during the dry season. When the rain comes and the dam rises the water and fish spill out into the surrounding channels and rice fields where people can fish up to 5kg per day.
Taking notes at the fishing conservation dam in Rohowsuong
While the project was instigated by a collection of NGOs, the Rohowsuong community has made it its own over the last 5 years and reaped great benefits from it. The team spoke with many of the community members and came away really excited about the project and the prospect of bringing guests to see and learn about food sustainability in rural Cambodia.
What’s next?
We arrived back at the office at 3:30pm and capped off the day with a lightning whiteboard reflection session. The main question was about whether or not the Tonle Sap was still a feasible destination given the road conditions during the rainy season. To this, Sothea and the guides gave a unanimous “yes” and immediately started brainstorming solutions to the rain.
While the day did not go to plan at all, we had an amazing experience exploring as a team and we’re excited about bringing Rohowsuoung and stops like it to guests. We are committed to expanding our efforts to let people see these amazing Cambodian communities in a responsible and community conscious way.
While these destinations will be accessible by bike by the time the dry season rolls around, the plan for now is to take another research trip, this time by boat. The team are already looking forward to it, despite, I’m sure, no one knowing how to drive one of them either.
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