Cambodia highlights – the Mekong River

After leaving Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, we cruised up-river on the RV Mekong Pandaw.
The Mekong floods every year in the monsoon season between July and November, but this year the effects of Typhoon Nesat made the flooding more widespread and longer lasting, and about 200 people were drowned.
The villagers who live along the banks of the river are mostly subsistence farmers and fishermen; evidence of fishing was everywhere but many of the fields were still under water and this was expected to lead to food shortages.
Kampong Cham is the third largest city in Cambodia with a population of about 60,000.
We saw a boatload of men practising for boat races at the annual water festival. The water festival celebrates the reversing flow between the Tonle Sap and the Mekong River. It takes place at full moon usually in November. However the 2011 festival was cancelled because of the floods - many of the people who would have been crewing the boats were from flood-hit provinces where they were needed to help amid the disaster.

Two cruise ships visit Rarotonga

Two cruise ships visited Rarotonga yesterday, the Seabourn Odyssey (the white ship in the video) with 422 passengers and 346 crew and the (Holland America Line) Rotterdam with 1335 passengers and 585 crew.
We get six to ten cruise liner visits a year but it’s three or four years since we last had two here at the same time.
They were lucky with the weather; it was generally fine with just a shower or two in some places, great for trips around the island, shuttle buses to Muri lagoon or just wandering around town and checking out the souvenir vendors who set up stalls in the western marina where the ships’ tenders unloaded visitors. (It rained heavily last night and today it’s overcast but still warm, about 28C.)
Both ships anchored quite a long way from the shore. Maybe they were being extra cautious after the Costa Concordia disaster in Italy. The ocean floor drops away quickly beyond the reef, no rocks out there to hit, so perhaps it was just because of the swell. There are times when the sea is too rough for the tenders to make it to shore but the on-going harbour extensions and a proposed new landing area in Arorangi might resolve this problem.
Let’s hope so, because cruise ships and their passengers are welcome visitors here.

Flashback to Te Maeva Nui trade days

Te Maeva Nui celebration DVDs for the following years are on sale from the Cook Islands Ministry of Culture.
2005: E maeva, ka akararangi I te kapauaanga o toku basileia (Rejoice and celebrate the founding of my nation).
4-disk package $50
2006: E ariki kua tutara, ariki atu ei I tona koutu (An invested chief, reigning over his people).
4-disk package $50
2007: Totou’anga taeanga evangelia ki toou matakeinanga (Prphecy of the arrival of Christianity to your island or tribe).
4-disk package $50
2008: E vaine toa e tangata kama’atu (A woman of courage, a person of wisdom).
4-disk package $50
2009: Akonoanga manuiri (Traditional hosting).
4-disk package $50
2010: Te au tuatua pakari o toku matakeinanga (The wise sayings of my village and community).
4-disk package $50
2011: Te au akairo o toku matakeinanga (The signs of my community).
4-disk package $50
Post and packing will be extra - contact the ministry for details. If I find out how much p&p will cost I'll post it online.
Also available: Katikati’a and At’I Ve’e legends musical productions and Te Mira Tama, Te Mira A’tu and Dancer of the Year productions.
Cook Islands Ministry of Cultural Development. Phone 20725 ext 214. Email karioi@culture.gov.ck