Or was the song about Route 66? In Cambodia, it’s National Route 6 – the main highway connecting Siem Reap with Phnom Penh. It’s a travel day, so we’ll be getting our kicks on National Route 6 for most of the day. Care to come along? Let’s go!
We don’t want to say good-bye to Siem Reap, but it’s time to move on. The plan is to go as far as Kampong Chhnang, then board a boat waiting for us on the Tonle Sap River.
(Side note: If you ever find yourself writing about Kampong Chhnang, I’d recommend turning off Autocorrect. Autocorrect hates Kampong Chhnang).
We’ve made this trip once before, (as described here). It was the dry season. Rice fields lining the highway were brown and dry. During the dry season, there’s little work to be had, so many people living here go to Thailand to find work. Men, and sometimes whole families relocate until the rains come. In May or June, monsoon rains arrive.
Monsoon rains flood everything in this area. Houses along Route 6 are built on 10-foot-high stilts, so life can go on. When the rains die down and the fields are flooded, it’s rice planting time.
Maritime Silk Road
Kampong Chhnang is a busy port on the Tonle Sap River, not far from the Mekong. It used to be even busier. It was a stop on the Maritime Silk Road – the trade route connecting Ancient Rome, India, and China.
Goods – especially those made of gold – left Rome by ship, crossing the Mediterranean to arrive at Alexandria, Egypt. From there, camel caravans took them across the desert to ports on the Red Sea.
Ships carried goods down the length of the Red Sea, then across the Arabian Sea to India. Indian traders shipped them across the Bay of Bengal to Kampong Chhnang and other trading centers on the Gulf of Thailand.
In ports like Kampong Chhnang , they traded for silk shipped from China, spices, and luxury goods, all destined for Rome via the same route in reverse.
Rubber Barons
Kampong Chhnang is still a busy place. As the French learned in the 19th century, the area around Kampong Chhnang is ideal for growing rubber trees. The invention of the automobile was just around the corner. Those Citroens and Peugeots would need a lot of rubber for tires, eh? Mais oui.
Nineteenth-century America had its robber barons. Nineteenth-century France had its rubber barons. Michelin’s massive rubber plantations were located farther northeast, across the border in Vietnam, but French rubber tree plantations thrived in this area, too. Rubber is still one of Cambodia’s major exports.
As we neared Kampong Chhnang, our driver got behind a guy on a motorbike transporting a load of live chickens. He towed the chickens in a rickety-looking wooden cage mounted on a 2-wheeled trailer.
The cage was the size and shape of a washing machine, and it was FULL of chickens. “Full” the way a cookie jar is full of cookies.
Our guide on the bus told us that most likely, they were being taken to a special event, maybe a wedding reception. No, these chickens would’t be the guests of honor, but they’d certainly be there for the big feast. Fresh is best, eh? Wow.
To be continued…
