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Yesterday, I took a little ride up the main road to Siem Reap to see what I could see. We have had a couple of major rainstorms, which should have started to soften the soil enough for farmers to start plowing the fields which they will be planting to rain-fed rice. About 17km or so north of town, there is a large lake which spans both sides of the road. There is not a lot right around the lake, along the road there is a little place to buy snacks and lounge in a hammock lakeside.

However, I was interested in the farm across the road from the snack dealers.

They have a diverse little homegarden set up: coconuts, toddy palms, bananas, bamboo, cassava, and a bunch of other trees which I did not recognize. However, they also had a small irrigated plot of mung beans which you can see over on the far right of the image (it is tough to see, but look for the tree branches used for trellises).

Also grazing freely in this area along the lakeshore, near the farm, was a small herd of cows. I do not know who the owners were. I often see cows wandering freely, though herds grazing far from home will be tended by young boys. In this case, I think that they might have benefited from allocating someone to watch the cows. Clearly the forage around the lake is not in very good condition. However, mung beans are rich in nitrogen and likey pretty tasty (with forages, there is an inverse relationship between carbon and nitrogen content, which is mirrored in palatability– woody stuff does not taste as good, and has less protein). The cows are onto this.

There is a light fence protecting the bean plot, though I think that it was just constructed of bamboo and debris, and am certain that it was not particularly robust.

Breach it and they will come…

From another angle, you can see the end result. I did not stick around to see if the others joined their fellows in the bean plot. Note also the irrigation pump.

The farmers were no where to be seen. But I feel for them. Having hurled both stones and curses at cows and lazy herdboys in my maize/pigeon pea intercropping demonstration plots back in Tanzania, I can sympathize (believe me, more civil attempts at negotiation were totally ineffective). I am a strong advocate of live fencing, nice, dense thorny stuff. I have seen people use Pandanus to that effect here, but I do not yet know how well it would do when the floods are up. However, I think that there is a common farmstead rattan which would work on flooding areas. Though I have seen that managed more as clumps or thick hedgerows. I expect that I will have a better grip on the fencing situation, once I am out talking to farmers more often.

Fences and hedgerows are not just for keeping things in or out. They are pretty important ecologically too, potentially representing a substantial fraction of a landscape’s agrodiversity and contributing significantly to landscape heterogeneity. They are places to grow or manage useful plants (be they for medicines, food, fodder, mulch, firewood and more). Moreover, they can be crucial habitat for anything from beneficial predatory insects (as in, the kind that eats agricultural pests) to birds, herps and more.

Mind you, these are just my musings on fencing. I am not here to tell anyone what to do. My goal is a better understanding of what they are doing, how it is changing and why.

So, I finally got out of Phnom Penh and up to Kampong Thom, the capital of the province of the same name. I am eyeballing villages west of town out on the floodplain as sites for the research project. So, I spent a few days poking around on the motorbike, rolling through villages and nearly getting lost out on the floodplain itself.

Those palms pictured above are sugar or toddy palms (ដើមត្នោត, Borassus flabellifer L.)– sources of sap which is cooked down into sugar or consumed fresh or fermented. And their fruits are tasty too. Notice how some of the crowns around not all round and fluffy? The leaves are also collected and used for construction materials and fuel.

It was a lot of fun riding, out on really sand roads amongst the deepwater rice fields. The going was a little tricky sometimes.

There were a variety of other habitats, in addition to the deepwater rice fields themselves — shrubs, tall grass, short grass and seasonal ponds. Many areas had been burnt, like the dried-up seasonal pond above, in preparation for planting. I did not get close enough to the Tonle Sap to run into any forest, as I only got about 8km from the nearest village before I decided that I ought to turn back since I was not exactly sure where the road was heading. Plus, I had an afternoon appointment. And, most importantly, it was lunchtime.

Many areas showed evidence of more advanced soil preparations, including plowing. Pictured here, field boundaries are marked in advance of other operations. Out here, fields are very large so generally farmers depend upon large, rented tractors to get their land ready in time. We have already had a little rain, so the soil is starting to soften up. This marks the begining of the soil preparation phase of deepwater rice production.  Planting usually starts after the Khmer New Year in mid-April.

The floodplain is also very important for livestock. There were a number of herds of cattle and water buffalo, varying in size from a handful of animals to one hundred or more.  I really saw only a couple of people out there the whole time– just the herd boys out with the livestock.  I am looking forward to getting out there again soon, and actually talking to some farmers about what they are up to.

This is not a particularly gripping anecdote, but I feel obligated to provide closure to the previous posts about my experiences learning to drive my new moto… 

So the day before yesterday, I had plans to meet a friend of mine in order to replace the battery in my moto.  He never showed.  I phoned.  He suggested (to my dismay) that I just drive up to his house, and we would then go deal with the battery problem.  This was to be my first moto-powered mission– the first time that I had ridden the moto with an actual task in mind beyond just tooling around the neighborhood.  I was pretty nervous about it, as it was farther than I had ever ridden before.  Plus, the route involved a couple of very busy roads and a traffic circle.  Long story short– I made it, and we replaced the battery so now the electric starter works.  I took a wrong turn and added a second traffic circle to the route, but I still made it.  In fact sometime during that trip, some kind of confidence sprung up which prompted me to ask myself what the big deal had been all about.  So, now I am mobile.  Unimproved gravel roads will be the next project.  Hopefully, coming this weekend.

Pictured above is a mechanic who is set up across the road from the Moil Village Restaurant, outside of Phnom Penh somewhere past Steung Meanchey.  

The phonetic pronounciation works, even if the spelling is a little off.

So, I have been continuing with my daily moto driving practice, and have been focusing on specific skills.  Today I covered busy streets, controlled slowing-down and stopping (as for a red light) and slowly navigating crowded places.  I try to schedule my training rides for peak siesta time, like between 12:30 and 1:30 in the afternoon.  And, my trips seem to be self-limiting.  I aim for around 30 minutes of tooling around the neighborhood, and I plan to go home if I get bored or something scary happens.  As it happens, I do not yet find the activity boring.   The interesting thing is that the 30 Minute Point and the Scary Point seem to hit at about the same time.  After 20 minutes of practicing the mundane, like shifting at the right time, not pressing the brake pedal and twisting the accelerator at the same time, and not panicking when there is oncoming traffic in my lane (a common occurance), I start to think about pushing my boundaries.  So today after exploring  the neighborhood for a while, I decided to try some busy streets.  So I went up Monivong Boulevard, and over onto Sihanouk Boulevard.  Neither were that busy, but they were busier and faster than other roads I had driven on.  I was feeling pretty comfortable, though Sihanouk provided ample opportunities to practice my new-found controlled stopping skill.

The problem came when I hit the traffic circle (or round-about for some of you) at the Independence Monument.  Thankfully, traffic was light.  However, it was not light enough to keep me from missing two intended turn-offs (Plans A and B, respectively), being squeezed into the center of the circle by speeding cars,  and engulfed in a swarm of other motos which complicating any changes in course (Plans E and F, respectively).  As I approached the completion of my first revolution, I was sincerely concerned about being caught in the circle and never being able to get out.  Luckily, I found someone who was headed in the direction of the same road which I had planned to use for my escape (Plan B, again).  So, I stuck by him and stopped when he stopped and went when he went (pairs and groups are larger, easier to see and more likely to have oncoming traffic yield to them).  This strategy got me out of the circle without going more that 1 1/2 revolutions.  A close call.  I am going to wait until I get a little better at riding before I head back up there. 

Tomorrow is left turns, potentially including the turns into oncoming traffic via slowly merging into the other lane and against the flow of said oncoming traffic, then making your turn, thereby avoiding stopping in the middle of the street.  That might be the skill which sends me home at the 30 minute mark, though. 

Pictured bove is the Independence Monument, and the Traffic Circle of Doom which nearly entrapped me.  I took this image back in December of last year.  Not today.  Too busy not crashing for picture-taking.

So, I just bought myself a sweet, new ride.  I had been putting it off for months.  However, necessity has driven me to stop depending upon the public transportation system and get my own moto.  Once I actually get set up in the countryside, I will need to be able to hop around between villages and research sites easily.  This will make it much easier.

It is a Daelim Citi Plus, 100cc four-stroke, four-speed kind of thing.  I have not idea how old it is, and the odometer is frozen on “37.”  It is in decent shape (although, I am currently harboring concerns about the alternator), and came from a friend of mine.  So, he knew its history, and how dependable it was.  Dependability is important, so I went with his recomendation.  I like it because it is a pretty standard rig.  Not the cheapest moto out there, but far from the most stylish.  Not what the kids these days are looking for.  It is also a very practical choice.  They are cheap bikes, and so they are ubiquitous.  All repairmen can fix them, and parts are easy to find.  They have nice practical touches too, like tie-down pegs for securing cargo on the underside of the passenger seat.  I am very happy with it so far (though it has only been 2 days).

Though I have occasionally been bitten by the motorcycle bug, I have never actually driven one (my wife’s motorcycle crash in the early 90’s helped set the current family policy on such technology).  So for the last couple of days, I have been trying to figure out how to actually ride this thing.  You use all four appendages– 2 hands and 2 feet, all in synchrony (well actually, there is no clutch so the left hand sits idle until you have to signal a turn or beep the horn).  And, it is a little bit like trying to pat you head and rub your belly at the same time!  My largest current problem (aside from pressing the brake pedal with my right foot when I am trying to actually speed up– a carry over from driving a car), is downshifting.  The shifter is a little toggle: forward shifts up, backward shifts down.  Just ease off the gas and shift.  I have yet to find a place where I can leave my foot and be able to both shift up and down by pivoting on the fulcrum.  This slows down my downshifting a little.  Maybe that does not matter much.  At least I have stopped leaning over to look every time I had to shift!

Practice has become a priority.  Yesterday, I went up and down a quiet street a couple of times.  This morning, I made some loops around a parking lot.  After lunch, I ventured out to get gas and tool around the neighborhood.  I did not hit anyone, and no one hit me.  I finally got the mirrors adjusted correctly.  So far so good.  The other trick with this thing, is that if you give it a little too much gas when you just start moving, it really takes off.  Of course, this is surprising so you hang onto the grips really tight, so you don’t fly off the back of the bike.  As you might expect, a tight grip seasoned with a little panic keeps you from easing up on the gas like you are supposed to and actually regaining control of the bike.  Feedback loop.  Tricky.  That only happened a couple of times.  My friend suggested that I start off in second gear, rather than first, to prevent such things.  That was a useful suggestion.  

On my way up to find some lunch today, I passed this shop. Lady Kla specializes in stylish clothing for ladies. However, it was not the shop itself that caught my eye. It was the sign. In fact, there are two things which I found interesting about the sign.

The first is the name. It reads “lady kla” in both English and Khmer. In the Khmer version of the store name, they transliterate the English word “lady” into Khmer script, and pair it with the Khmer word for tiger, “khla.” In the English version of the store name, the English word “lady” is kept and the Khmer word is transliterated into Roman script as “kla.” I think that it interesting. Maybe it is common, I had just never noticed that pattern before.

The second is the lady herself…

Her little outfit, sunglasses, pointy boots and gloves are all sort of standard for stylish ladies. However, what really caught my eye was the fancy two-way radio set which is sitting in front of her. A radio? That’s my kind of fashion!

I really enjoy breakfast in Cambodia. In fact, it might even be my favorite meal of the day. As you may already know, breakfast here is not like the breakfast which I grew up with back in the US. I am sure that more seasoned hands could better parse up the situation, but I see breakfast foods falling into two families, wet and dry: as in soups (generally with noodles or rice), and the meat/rice dishes. I go through phases– sometimes I am all about the pork and noodle soup. Sometimes not. A while ago, I discovered my current favorite: chicken and rice (and no, I am not going to attempt an English transliteration of the Khmer name– they never really work well).

First, an orientation to the table. The guest of honor is, of course, at the center of it all. However, with the meat and rice dishes (pork is the other common variant), you also get a little bowl of clear broth, some tasty, spicy and garlicky sauce and a little portion of pickled vegetables (one of my favorite accompaniments to any meal, actually). These are added to the usual cast of characters which include a magazine of condiments (chili, pickled garlic, black pepper), sugar, soy sauce and little fried dough lovlies. I put these guys to use in my soups, depending upon my mood. With the chicken and rice, I work with the kit presented to me as it is pretty well rounded, and serves my purposes well. You might also note the iced coffee and the pink cup. The coffee is, of course, the critical morning headache prevention remedy. And the pink cup contains the really hot water, in which are soaking your fork and spoon so that they will be clean and ready to go as soon as you are.

I have been frequenting the same place around the corner from where I am staying (Kiri Restaurant on Street 294, near Street 21 and the Philippine Embassy, for you local folks). The plate has been pretty uniform: pile of chickeny-flavor yellow rice, chicken meat assemblage (which includes meat bits with minimal bones, 1/2 a liver, 1/2 a wing and a slab of gizzard), sliced green tomatoes and sliced cucumber. What I have noticed about this arrangement is that they are sort of modular– there is a meat unit, a rice unit and a vegetable unit (which includes the pickles). The beauty of it is that these three modules taste great in combination. So I find myself doing a lot of strategizing about how I am going to have the right balance of meat, rice and veggies in each bite. And it works! Every bite tasty and delicious, and with a little control (as in, resisting the urge to eat all the pickles at once!), everything goes according to plan, so I am seldom left with orphaned rice on the plate. Though even that is welcome, especially with the spicy and garlicky sauce! I am not sure what all this says about me, but the food is delightful!

Some years back, when I was in high school, I worked as a bus boy at a bustling seafood restaurant in a little tourist town on the coast. One of the managers, (an interesting lady: just shy of 5 feet tall, competitive body builder, got way too much sun and had done so for years, plus smoked like 2 packs of cigarettes a day) had a really peculiar way of eating her chowder. Instead of dumping all of the crackers in all at once (my then, as now, preferred technique for chowder-cracker integration– which I considered the norm at the time), she would add exactly one oyster cracker to each individual spoonful of chowder as she delivered it to her mouth. In my youthful hubris, I scoffed at her methods. She patiently explained to me (because she was really nice) that the reason she used this method was to ensure the proper ratio of cracker to chowder in every bite. Her explanation, while thoughtful, taught me little and I still just thought that she was a weirdo. Now maybe 10 years later, I find myself doing essentially the same thing. And it is not that bad a strategy, as long as your friends don’t mind waiting for your slow-eating ass once they’ve all finished, and it is time to get going!

If you are interested in reading more about food here in Cambodia, I encourage you to check out Phnomenon. He has done some brilliant work with maps and street-food (two of my favorite things in the world). And maybe I’ll write some more myself, if I come up with something useful.

Updated (17 March 2007): Over at Phnomenon, a more seasoned hand has indeed parsed up the Cambodian breakfast situation, and written up a much more foodie (and much less psycho-personal) article on pork and rice– another Khmer breakfast delight. Check it out.