Tag: Phnom Penh

 Floating Potential – ‘The Boat’ Project

Written by Annie Sheen – @AnnieMusicEd

  

We make our way through the maze of empty rooms and long hallways, poking our heads behind solid teak doors and ascending grand colonial style staircases, clouds of dust created with every step. This place is wonderfully eerie and we feel we could be in some sort of adventure video game.

  

At first you might ask why Paddy and I are visiting a collection of rubble filled rooms connected by dark corridors and step ladders instead of strolling around Phnom Penh’s Russian Market or relaxing in the shade of The Royal Palace. But this isn’t any old building on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, it is in fact the chosen space for Cambodia’s first major arts centre. And its no building, it’s an abandonned boat.

Lower deck with garden space beyond

With its total of six floors and earthy facade which, from afar looks like rust but is in fact red paint, the structure certainly commands your attention.

    

Originally built to be a luxury floating hotel, but left half complete, the boat now sits on the west bank of the Tonle Sap River, north of the city. There is no doubt it’s an amazing space, brewing with unlocked potential – even the harshest cynic couldn’t help getting a little excited.

Naturally, the project sparked both our interests, me having worked in the arts for 8 years and Paddy being a chartered Marine Engineer. In fact, I don’t think we’ll ever find another project which marries our two interests quite like this one – indeed, if the project takes off, as far as I know, it will be the first floating arts centre in the world (at least on this scale).

Three international ex-pats, who together bring representation and expertise from the hospitality, business and artistic sectors, are the brains behind the project. I came across their plans while doing some research about Cambodia in Vietnam and instantly made contact with Dana who has lived and worked in the Cambodian arts scene for 17 years and leading on the creative side. We were lucky that her schedule allowed us time to visit the space. 

  

While Paddy donned his headtorch and climbed down inside the hull to examine the engines, watertanks and quality of the welding, Dana and I headed skywards (via a rickety ladder) her explaining the overall vision for each floor as we go.

  

As we move up she takes me through where the education and library/archive spaces would be housed, where she’d ideally like to knock down walls to create group workshop spaces and where there would be office space for a number of in-resident arts organisations. A whole floor would be dedicated to offering a range of artists affordable studios and the deep bow has the potential to be turned into a tiered garden.

Small studio

As we continue to move up, the spaces become more and more ‘finished’ and you begin to really see the potential for where impromptu performances and installations could take place. The upper floors would be dedicated to what we call in the arts ‘commercial activity’ – an essential lifeline for any arts space, and an important ingredient when mixing leisure with cultural activity. Most people are unlikely to visit any building unless there are some great places to socialise and be merry with friends, and I’ve visited some arts centres where the designers have forgotten that food and drink can also be counted as important cultural capital.

Cafe balcony looking down to foyer performance space

The top floor which houses some of the three largest spaces, would be used as an open performance space/cinema, dance studio and huge gallery. There is also an open top pool already installed which would offer a paradise like retreat for sun worshippers, offering spectacular views across the city.

  

The project has a huge number of hurdles to jump before it can really start to take shape however. Currently, these mainly consist of construction questions – Paddy is trying to help with this. Surveys to determine any issues require a certain amount of seed funding, and as one might expect, sponsorship and/or central funding are hard to drum up for an arts project which is still in it’s infancy… ‘harbour trials’ is hardly a sexy phrase when talking to philanthopists…

After the little I’ve learnt about Cambodia’s arts sector during my short stay in Phnom Penh, I’m genuinely excited about this project. The artistic community has been desperately recovering from the effects of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s when 90% of all Cambodian artist and arts academics were rounded up and executed. Entire art forms were very nearly wiped out (many of them ancient traditions) and the past 40 years have naturally focussed on rediscovery and consolidation, with an emphasis on passing these art forms on to the next generation. From the looks of things, organisations such as Cambodian Living Arts have played their part well in ensuring the survival of this cultural heritage.

However, Cambodia (particularly Phnom Penh) now feels it’s on the crest of a new phase of cultural development; one which focusses on innovation, creativity and artistic exploration. Led by a new generation of artists who can drive Cambodia’s cultural sector forwards and who will mirror the Cambodia of today.  But these young artists need a dedicated space, somewhere which will act as an incubator for ideas, skill development and artistic dialogue. A space which will support a diverse melting pot of current creative thinkers, audiences and businesses and which will help to support both the old and the new. A space which will support the social and environmental sustainability of Cambodia’s capital and which can attract swathes of foreign visitors as well as bring the local community together.

Apologies, perhaps getting a bit too ‘arty’ and utopian in that last paragraph, but I can’t help myself!! 🙂

I’m so pleased I was able to see this space and if you are interested to know more or wish, (perhaps?) to contribute to the crowd funding campaign to help get this project off the ground please click the link below. Please help to share with anyone who might also be interested.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-floating-art-centre-for-phnom-penh#

That’s it for Phnom Penh for now, time to get back on our tandem and head north towards Angkor Wat, Thailand and beyond!

  

Exploring the Arts and Cultural Scene in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh really is a fantastic city buts lot of travellers will stop here for a few nights, only having time to hit the main tourist attractions such as The Silver Pegoda, The Palace and S-21 Museum before moving on.

As well as needing a stop to re-charge our batteries and stock up on a few essentials, I was particularly interested in exploring Phnom Penh as it is known to have an industrious and developing arts and cultural scene (my line of work). Cambodian arts have a particularly sad history as they were virtually eradicated by the Khmer Rouge. The city has a vey high percentage of people under 30.

I had already read about this project (The Boat) before arriving, which has big plans to turn a 6 storey floating boat into Cambodia’s first multi-disciplinary arts centre. We were lucky enough to meet one of the founders and have a tour of the space. Separate blog soon to follow!

We ended up having nearly a week in the city (waiting for Paddy’s Thai Visa) and we are so glad we did as those few extra days enabled us to escape the main tourist areas and explore the local ex-pat arts scene.

Phnom Penh has a large and very active ex-pat community (especially French). Many of them are here running or working for various NGO’s. Others have come to set up their own hotels and bars while others are artists, writers etc.

The best way to tap into this more local scene is to locate the monthly listings. You can pick up a copy of Asia Life or a Pocket Guide:

  or alternatively visit the these websites:

http://www.cambodianlivingarts.org

http://www.lengpleng.com

http://www.kumnooh.com

http://www.amritaperformingarts.org

http://www.culturalcenter-cambodia.com

http://www.epicarts.org.uk

Alternatively here are a few places we visited during our time in the city:

Java Arts Cafe, near Independance monument

A great cafe/exhibition space – often filled with expats who go to catch up on email. Make sure you explore upstairs too. They have events running in the evenings.

META House, Sothearos Blvd.

Exhibition space downstairs with a covered but open cinema space, restaurant and bar upstairs. Food is good. They have DJs playing regularly (although it was pretty quiet when we were there) and screen some great independent films and documentaries earlier in the evening.

Cloud

We went to a live music night on a Friday night at cloud which is a converted house South of the city. Large bar downstairs with a small performance and balcony space on the second floor. We saw 3 local bands who were all at a pretty good amateur level. Got very busy with a mixed international ex-pat crowd from around 10.30pm

FCC

Directly on the river front and has a special mention in the Rough Guide so naturally attracts a strong tourist crowd but it has spectacular views from both balconies over the river. Exhibition spaces and an info desk. They often host live music, a good singer songwriter was playing when we went.

Traditional Dance Show at the Museum

Again, naturally a complete tourist trap, but this dance show is fully supported by Cambodian Living Arts and it’s a good thing to go and support. The show is an hour in length and showcases a mix of traditional court and folk Cambodian dances. It’s tastefully done and didn’t feel too chliched or pander too much to the tourist crowd. 

 

Thai Visas in Phnom Penh

Because Paddy has an Irish passport and we would be crossing the Thai/Cambodia border by bike we knew we would need to apply for a 30 day visa for him at the embassy in Phnom Penh. (My British passport allows me a 30 day exemption visa, see our section on Visas under ‘Before We Go’ for more info).

A warning to other cyclists/border crossing travellers, do not listen to agents who say you need proof of either certain bank funds or flights into Thailand to get a visa. They are trying to swindle you. Guys hang outside/in the embassy and will try to convince you too. You can do it all yourself.

Simply go to the embassy with a passport photo and complete the form (before 4.00). Our visa cost $40 and because we are travelling by bike we needed to write a brief letter detailing our general travel plans – e.g what border crossing, wherel we plan to exit etc.

We found the Embassy very friendly and efficient. Visa pick up is currently (Jan 2016) between 3-4.30pm week days.

Good luck!

Bike Shops and Repairs in Phnom Penh

During the ride into Phnom Penh we ran over a particularly large bump and the cross bar of the right side of our front rack broke cleanly off.

We were able to do a good temporary fixing job with 2 large cable ties (well worth taping a stash of these to your frame along with your spare spokes) and some gaffa tape. 

We had had concerns about the front frame for a while; the make is Avenir and its made of aluminium meaning its a lot harder to weld back together. Our back frame is solid steel.

To add insult to injury, just before heading off to seek out a bike shop we managed to shear the bolt inside the frame – now we had two things to fix…

Phnom Penh has a few bike shops near where we are staying (close to the Royal Palace).

The Giant Bike store near the Olympic stadium is the best store we found. The multi-storey store has an excellent range of new bikes, spare parts, helmets, tools, electronics, tyres, Degreaser etc. The clothes are very expensive though and they don’t stock much for women and we couldn’t find a front rack.

  

Flying Bikes (mainly a workshop) and its counterpart store down the road, Flying Bikes 2, have a range of mountain bikes as well as a fairly good collection of accessories – if you’re in need of a new helmet, clips, gloves etc. Again, they don’t stock women’s clothes so if your female don’t get your hopes up. They didn’t have any front racks either.

There is also Vicious Cycles on street 144 who run cycle tours – the guys there have a small workshop, speak good English and could probably help cyclists with minor problems such as broken cables and spokes but they were unable to help us with the bolt and told us that it was unlikely that we would find a new front rack in Phnom Penh, apparently you can’t get them here. 

It became clear that what we needed was a good garage and mechanic followed by a welder who could work with aluminium. 

After stopping at about ten different motorcycle garages someone suggested we head to the back of the new market and try there. 
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Alumiun welder in action.

SUCCESS! After enlisting the help of a very helpful tuk tuk driver to translate, one of the guys at the main garage extracted the bolt (by simply tapping a groove into the bolt end to screwdriver it out) from the frame in about two minutes and Paddy was pulled onto the back of a motorbike and taken up the road to a guy who could weld the aluminium. The whole thing cost

$5. 

If this happens to you, wherever you are, be sure to have your rack on the other side reinforced at the same time (even if it doesn’t seem to need it). If one side has broken, the other side is sure to follow – this is what happened to us on the road to Seam Reap and we had to go through the same process all over again in a different town!

  

Takeo to Phnom Penh with some great stops inbetween

It’s possible to cycle from Takeo to Phnom Penh in a day (81km) but there were a number of reasons why we chose to spread the distance over three days ride:

The N2 road which offers the most direct route isn’t the best road for cycle tourers. There’s no hard shoulder, its incredibly dusty in the dry season and the road is busy with trucks and and other heavy traffic. (At the time of writing – Jan 2016 – there are also major road construction works between Tonle Bati and the capital which adds to the dust and general unpleasantness)

Most importantly though there are four major sites of interest on the way – Phnom Chisaur, Phnom Tamau Zoological Park and Rescue Centre, Tonle Bati, and finally the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. We wanted to hit them all and decided that Phnom Chisaur and Tonle Bati would be the best bets for camping. (Don’t be tempted to camp near the zoo, you will be no match for the semi-tame monkeys).

Taking all this into consideration we stocked up at the big market in Takeo, let some air out the tyres and headed directly north out of town along the windy roads through the lakes and canal network which run parallel with the N2. It was a great ride – a flat, quiet dirt track lined with spectacular lily covered lakes, friendly villages and plenty of shelter from the headwind.
   
 We stopped at this amazing setting for lunch along the way which gave us the opportunity to try out our Life Straw filter.

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We reached Phnom Chisaur at 3.30 and headed straight for the 400+ steps which lead up to the temple at the top which boasts a sacred linga ($2 entry fee).

At the bottom of the steps there is a school surrounding a playing field and lake. We parked ourselves on the edge of the playing field and made some tea. Nobody took much notice so we agreed it would be ok to camp. 

After more than a few days, Paddy’s back is still covered in red spots and I’ve had an erruption on my back and upper thighs now too. We have been super careful to cover up while stopped and have come to the conclusion that the problem isn’t ant or mozzie bites at all but rather an extreme case of heat rash. I’m contemplating throwing away my cycling top and stocking up on white baggy t-shirts instead but the padded lycra shorts pose more of a problem.

The next day we continued to head north towards the wildlife zoo. Some great more scenic tracks – this ‘road’ was barely more than a walking path between cropped rice fields.

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The landscape continues to be dominated by canals and irrigation systems. It’s hard to imagine what it must look like at the end of the rainy season, the grazing cattle gone, it covered with lush green.

We get to the zoo at around 11am and climb the steady incline to the entrance (you pass quite a big wat on the way). It’s very quiet and we continue to cycle another km through beautiful countryside before we reach the start of the enclosures. It feels incredibly remote but as we park we instantly get bombarded by sellers offering bananas and potatoes to feed to the animals. Very different from London Zoo!

We instantly felt uneasy about leaving all our stuff – we just got a feeling it could be a bit dodge. In the end we agreed to leave it parked and tipped one of the boys to look after the stuff – although it is possible and maybe advised to cycle around what is quite a long tour of the enclosures.

Despite its slightly run down feeling we were generally impressed by the size and scale of the enclosures. Most of the animals, many of whom have been rescued from much worse fates, have a good amount of space even if they’re not particularly entertained. You are very much left to your own devises as you make your way around.
  
Tame monkeys rule over the whole site and follow you round expectantly. We enjoyed the crocs and had an exhilarating meeting with an agitated male tiger. Paddy also enjoyed the otters and spotted a very pregnant leopard.
   
   
We cooked up lunch on the lake near the entrance – a group of cheeky monkeys approached and managed to steal out bananas. They ended up getting farely agessive and we had to use the helinox chairs as shields to scare them away long enough to eat our noodles! There’s no end to how useful those chairs have been.
  
Back on the road we head to Tonle Bati arriving for 4pm – we instantly head to one of the stilted picnic huts on the lake. Its here we discovered we had lost (or had stolen) both our foldable knife and our leatherman set. Both items we use every day. 

At dusk we cycled into the modern temple complex opposite the Ta Prohm ruins and ask one of the monks if they would allow us to camp. 

We pitched with the sun going down on these.
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Our food bag got completely attacked AGAIN by black ants in the night. They bit through the black bin liner and proceeded to tear holes in the top of the Altura bag (we wonder if they’d get through our ortlieb bags?).
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Ants have been our biggest problem so far so if anyone has any good solutions to tackle this ongoing problem please get in touch!

A quick stop at the Angkorian Ta Prohm ruins were well worth it – the carvings are amazing!
   
 On to the mass grave site of Choeung Ek which is situated on the edge of the city. The site (1 of many) marks where thousands of Cambodians were systematically murdered and buried during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. There are no words to describe it; you must visit but be prepared.

The last 10km into the city were easy – we followed the same tuk tuk right into the centre.

Welcome to Phnom Penh!