Happy New Year to Everyone!

January 3rd was a very special day for the CBT members. The tour guides traveled to Sisophon to meet with the Provincial Governor to receive their official Ministry of Tourism (MoT) tour guide licenses. This is an important step for the guides and will help to ensure the CBT is recognized as a viable business and tourism entity in Banteay Chhmar.

The tour guide licensing process was facilitated by Heritage Watch. Other attendees at the meeting and ceremony included representatives from the Apsara Authority, the Heritage Police and the Thmor Puok District Chief.

Congratulations to the CBT tour guides! 🙂

Congratulations to the Banteay Chhmar CBT tour guides!

Banteay Chhmar CBT tour guide, Khouen Sreymom

Banteay Chhmar CBT tour guide, Sang Ponlok

Banteay Chhmar CBT tour guide meeting

Dong and his grandparents

And, we have more good news. Thanks to the care, concern and efforts of Simon and Sokha Pawson the CBT was able to provide health care for a young boy in the village. Dong has been suffering from a inguinal hernia for quite some time. Simon and Sokha raised some money from their family and friends in Australia. Dong was taken to the Angkor Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap at the end of December for an operation. He is back in Banteay Chhmar now and all indications are for a full recovery.

Dong is 8 years old and lives with his grandparents. Like many rural Cambodian stories, the parents left the village looking for work elsewhere. In Dong’s case the parents have gone to Thailand and have not been heard from in three years. There are many unfortunate cases like this in Banteay Chhmar and throughout Cambodia.

Simon Pawson (center) in Banteay Chhmar

Simon is a scholar and researcher specializing in community-based tourism at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. For the past two years, has been undertaking research at Banteay Chhmar, examining the relationship between our CBT project and the community itself. The research is part of his PhD thesis titled ‘Community development, responsible tourism and community-based tourism in emerging economies: A case study of discourses at Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia.’ His study examines responsible and community-based tourism in Cambodia and specifically uses our CBT project as a case study. Central to his research is documenting feedback from the stakeholders, especially the villagers, concerning community development and the CBT project. His research will conclude with an evaluation of the relative merits and shortcomings of the CBT project from the stakeholder’s perspectives. Simon can be reached at simon.pawson@anu.edu.au .

Sokha Pawson (right) donates books to the CBT library

In addition to helping Dong, Simon and Sokha also donated several boxes of books from the Mount Sinai Preschool in Sydney to the CBT library. Truly, wonderful people. A big THANK YOU to both of them and the students for their donations 🙂

Finally, the CBT has received numerous requests from visitors interested in making donations and helping the community. We are currently working on setting up an online donation page for our website. Please check back in the coming months. Thank you

The CBT boat racing team in action

November is always one of the most special months in the Cambodian year. This month is when the annual Water Festival is celebrated. This important festival celebrates the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the rice harvest season. The festival also commemorates the history of Khmer naval forces in battles through the centuries. In Banteay Chhmar, we celebrated the Water Festival with the usual two days of boat racing on the moat along with plenty of drinking and eating with friends.

Balloon time

Also, this month, we had another great visit from our friends at Travelers’ MAP of Korea. On this visit, the group entertained the children with balloons and games. And, with the schoolchildren, they helped to clean the garbage along the moat and road.

Most importantly, the group generously donated their labor and a large financial donation toward the construction of eight latrines for the primary school. This will make a major improvement in the health and hygiene of the children, especially the female students who will be more comfortable attending school. The latrines should be fully completed in a few months.

Travelers MAP of Korea help to build latrines at the new primary school

Ta Moan Temple

Temple enthusiasts might be interested to know that it is possible to visit two temples nestled right on the Cambodian-Thai border. Ta Moan and Ta Krabey are both small, but well-preserved temples that were built during the reign of King Jayavarmin VII (builder of Banteay Chhmar). The temples are hidden in the mountains and there is an abundance of bird life – easier to hear than see:)Ta Krabey definitely has an “Indiana Jones” feel to it.

Ta Krabey Temple

Sometimes, it is even possible to cross the Thai border and visit the local market near the Ta Moan Temple. You can visit both temples in a half-day trip. If you are interested in this tour, please ask a CBT tour guide. Travel can be arranged by taxi or moto, roads and weather permitting.

A little cultural bonding and exchange as some visitors from India make authentic curry and chapatis at the homestay.

July was an excellent month for us here in Banteay Chhmar. We had great visits from two of our favorite tour operators. First, our friends from Operation Groundswell (OG) visited us from July 11th to the 15th. We had a wonderful welcoming dinner with the group and the villagers, followed by some traditional dancing. The next day, the group went on a temple tour with tour guide, Sang Ponlok.

We think the highlight was the trip to Kit Sokoun’s fish farm. The group tried their hand at fishing. After catching lunch, we all went up to the Choueng Krus Baray for a picnic of grilled fish.

As you may know from their visit in May, Operation Groundswell raises funds for the projects they visit on their trips. This time, the group decided to continue supporting their previous projects in the village. OG raised funds to provide two houses with metal roofs, gutters and rainwater harvesting jars. Additional funding is going to be used to expand the ceramic water filter project started in May. This project is getting off to an excellent start. The families are happy with the quality of the water from the filters and requests for the filters is exceeding supply.

Please view a slideshow of the Operation Groundswell visit. Hope to see you again next year! 🙂

Korean and Khmer students enjoy a temple tour

Our second great visit this month was from our friends at Travelers MAP. This time, a group of Korean students visited us for a cultural and educational tour. The group made new friends with students from the Banteay Chhmar primary school. They played a lot of games together and visited the temple. We hope we can have more bonding trips like this in future years.

Election Time

CPP members rally inside Banteay Chhmar Temple

And, let us not forget about the national elections which were held on July 28th. In Banteay Chhmar, we had plenty of political rallies all month long. Everything here went smoothly and we look forward to continuing to see infrastructure improvements such as a paved road and 24/7 electricity service next year.

May was an excellent month for us here in Banteay Chhmar. The CBT was very pleased to welcome Operation Groundswell (OG) to our community. This youth-orientated tour company specializes in learning experiences and helping in the communities they visit. They genuinely aim to offer meaningful and unique travel and life experiences. Beforehand, participants are required do some  fundraising for each project they visit. We are certainly glad they visited us and contributed to helping our villagers in so many ways.

First, the OG group helped with rebuilding some of the poorest houses in Banteay Chhmar. While Banteay Chhmar certainly is not the poorest of communes in Cambodia, there are definitely some families living in less than desirable homes. Three houses were selected in different villages and their thatch roofs were replaced along with some walls.

Through Operation Groundswell’s inspiration, the CBT will be working on adding this type of project to its tour itinerary  The idea will be a “Helping Hand” tour where visitors can donate some funds and spend their time helping on a village project. It may be a house repair, preparing land for a garden or some other community project. We expect most projects to be less than $100. Stay in touch with us for more information in the coming months about this new tour and activity.

Villagers, Operation Groundswell and CBT members attend water filter training workshop.

Additionally, OG donated $1,000 to the purchase of 20 ceramic water filters for villagers. The villagers also attended a training session for the filters during the OG visit. These filters are an easy, cost-effective and very reliable means of producing 20 to 30 liters of clean water every day for a family. This is enough water to cover basic necessities such as cooking, drinking, cleaning food and brushing teeth. The CBT members will be responsible for following up with the families monthly and collecting some basic information on usage and water-related diseases. Each household will pay $1.50 per month for the filter. This fee will go towards monitoring the project, further hygiene training, and helping to pay the CBT’s operating expenses.

We believe that this pilot project will be successful and hope to expand the project through donations from our visitors. If anyone is interested in purchasing a large quantity of filters, tax-deductible donations can be made through Global Heritage Fund (clearly indicating what the donation is to be used for). Please contact Tath Sophal or Andrew Marino for more information. Thanks.

Finally, the best part of having Operation Groundswell visit us was there genuine interest in the community and learning about the livelihoods, the village and temple history. It is always great to have a group like this visit. Thanks again!

Please view a slideshow of the Operation Groundswell visit.

On Sunday, May 26th we had a visit from the Baray Reach Dak community-based tourism group. This site is located inside the Angkor Archaeological Park and offers walking and boat tours through the village and forest surrounding the baray. The project is supported by the APSARA National Authority and the Australian government.. The group came to learn  and share ideas about conducting community-type tours. We hope that you will have time to visit them on your trip to Siem Reap. You can contact them directly at (+855) 097 9501 423 for reservations.

Baray Reach Dak CBT visits Banteay Chhmar