Rohal Village

The Cambodian government has a plan to introduce tourism into villages that have traditionally lived off the land. Rohal Village is one of a handful of areas that hopes to attract tourists by providing crafts for sale and a chance for visitors to experience village life close-up.

Rohal Village is down a tiny, dirt road past some of the ruins at Angkor Wat, with signs in both khmer and english. We'd read that their specialties (in addition to growing rice and fruit) are making musical instruments and carved, wooden ox and carts. I imagined workshop spaces buzzing with activity and power tools, people eagerly creating items for sale.

Not exactly. For starters, there was hardly anyone there. And if we hadn't come with our own translator we'd have no way to communicate with anyone there. There was one ox and cart sculpture sitting on a table, but no one seemed very eager to create more than that. Further back we found where the musical instruments are made, but again, no one was working. A teenage boy brought out a couple double-stringed "fiddles" for us to try, which were quite painful to play.

Mary snapped lots of pictures of village life with women carrying water and babies in hammocks, and we watched some boys playing volleyball with a rather deflated ball in a big, open field while chickens, dogs and cows wandered around. The houses were a mixture of traditional thatched-roof and thatched-walled buildings, alongside newer concrete boxes painted bright colors. The only way in and out of the village is either by foot, bicycle or motorcycle; there are no real "roads", just jaggy dirt paths between the houses.









The idea has great potential, but I don't think the villages have quite caught up to the concept yet. I'm sure in another four years all of this will change drastically.