Amazing Quest: Stories from Cambodia | Somewhere on Earth: Cambodia | Free Documentary

Yes, at the heart of Southeast Asia lies the Kingdom of Cambodia, with its fascinating and elusive charm. After years of turmoil and conflict, Cambodia is now on the path to reconstruction. There is a longing for peace evident in the resurgence of ancestral arts, but also in rediscovery. of Cambodia's natural treasures here are people committed to a better life and a new battle to save the environment a miracle of nature is the soul of Cambodia more than a simple lake is the elusive domain of water with its floods and droughts sets the pace of life for three million Cambodians orn sao is a child on the lake water has always been an integral part of his life in fact I have always lived on the lake I would not know what to do on land and I also know how to handle boats and gifts on land they use bicycles, scooters and cars and I don't know anything about all that, I don't know how to do the things they do on the mainland or they live on the western part of the lake in the town. from prechtoal which literally means end of the banks six months a year the river overflows and floods the forest a town like any other or almost here nothing is fixed everything floats life is suspended sliding along the surface of the water so we teach them how swim so that they are not afraid of water later we worry that they will drown, they start learning when they are three or four years old, so when we go

somewhere

we do not have to worry about an accident happening At home, like the children of Everyone, they love to swim, but not bath time, those are things.

Life on a lake means adapting to go anywhere. You have to take a boat, even if it's just to visit neighbors from a very young age. The inhabitants of the lake. You have to know how to handle a wide variety of boats, especially since there are no traffic rules in Tonne Sap. The village school is a very popular place because it is the only place where children can run. He is preparing to leave for ten days. He is a ranger at the prechtoal bird sanctuary. My big worry is if my family gets sick during the night.

There is no one to take them to the hospital. You are wearing dad's hat. They see a little kiss. A family. Today, dad is going to work in the forest. I'm going, don't worry, there are 42 rangers to guard the sanctuary. Patrols are always carried out together because the profession of ranger comes from the family. She has teamed up with his brother to patrol the flooded forest of Prechtoali. In 1997, UNESCO declared the Sapp Tunnel a World Biosphere Reserve. Good morning, sir, it is almost finished. I'm going up now to give it a hand and see that fantastic view from up there.

Rangers have built a dozen such platforms that they used to inspect. The area to count the animals also serves as a base camp. Building a platform like this takes two days with five or six people, but if there are only two or three of us, we have to calculate six and seven days. First we have to study the type of tree, then we have to Find the best angle for the platform, so now there has to be a clear view and the tree has to be the tallest around. The two brothers cut the engine and rowed towards the heart of the reserve to avoid scaring the animals and to detect possible poachers, we are stricter.

Hello guys, how is it going? What's today's report? Have you seen anyone bothering our animals? until the next shift change oh, it's so hot there are a lot of birds that I see white everywhere 23 24 25 females 11 12 13 13 nests the waters full of fish with tunley sap make it a paradise for migratory birds that They flock here in the mating season, but excessive poaching of chicks and eggs has altered the ecosystem of the 100 species listed, 11 are endangered before my father and I poached animals so that nothing was left, not a single single species of bird, then there were groups from the ministry of environment and NGOs that came to inform people about animals in danger of extinction to explain and educate us about the reproduction of species because there were some birds on the verge of extinction so my Father and I thought about it and decided to leave. get involved and work for the protection of nature and birds to preserve them for future generations the lake is a source of life for birds but also for people water hyacinth an invasive plant harmful to the environment is an abundant source of raw material For the women of the town they have formed a cooperative and export their artisan work to the whole world.

Fishing remains the primary activity on the lake and has enabled the lake's inhabitants to satisfy their needs since the beginning of time. Ten days later, Horn finished his work. shift and now I'm back in town hello my friend hello horn uh, put up your nets yes, can you sell me 20 or 30 kilos? I dont have a lot. I'll take what you have. I'm 12 and a half kilos, okay? Go ahead, it needs a lot of fish, it has a lot of mouths to feed, we have about 60 crocodiles in total. There are four categories here: one-year-olds, two-year-olds, three-year-olds and those over ten years old that these crocodiles help roam.

With the meager salary of Orn's rangers, they sell them for their meat and also their skin. Horn started his crocodile farm about 10 years ago, back then I caught a few in the wild, I can say that now because these laying females here are at least 10 years old and these are the crocodiles I catch with my father to raise them now I didn't take many , we catch two or three, well, four or five and save them to breathe, go on, pull the rope that way, it's time to do it twice. one year they make the big move they don't bother with trucks and packing boxes here they just move the house with the whole family inside there is high water season in low season now when the water level rises we return to the forest when the water goes down, the level It's low and that can destabilize the house, make it sway on the bottom, you see, so we head to deeper water so that the house doesn't become rooted, as the Khmer saying goes, you have to follow the canals to get in. estuary which means that we have to adapt to all kinds of situations the birds do the same in the high water season they leave the lake and when the water level drops they return to the same place this former poacher has radically changed the direction of his la Life, protecting nature is his way of refusing to give in to fate, about a hundred kilometers away, the young Ammon Nem also decided to challenge fate. 352 steps and a climb of 76 meters separate the temple gods from the tank of mere mortals.

I usually train from 8-11am. and from two to five in the afternoon from Monday to Friday I have been doing circus for 10 years at first your muscles hurt a lot sometimes your joints are hot the training is hard and takes a long time you really have to persevere the main thing is to keep going to your own future. He is 19 years old. He was born in the Batambang province of western Cambodia and now studies at the city's circus school. Before my family was in a bad situation, we were poor at all. My brother was training then, so he went to see him and I saw that the school gave out cookies, so whenever cookie day came, he would go home after every training session.

His brother Sopha is also a circus performer while he attended the distant school where he saw him. the national circus school in quebec i have been at this all day now he works with the world famous circa du soleil between tours he shares his experience with his younger brother here is the family photo I saw that my brother traveled to France so one day I asked He, how come he went to France and told me if you want to go to France you have to be in the circus. I tried it and I liked it. I feel like I have a lot of support because I have a brother in Canada, another one who is a professional in the rehabilitation circus cm and my older brother who is a good circus master, so I am surrounded by a family who can guide me in my decisions.

He would be very proud to be as good as them thanks to the success of his children. Aman's father's situation has improved and he now has a tuk-tuk. Today he is going to Amman to see his brother perform in Siem Reap, 170 kilometers from Batambang, when my children started going to school far away, I thought they were just going to learn to read and write, they would do a normal program, I didn't know that they would do circus arts and then I watched their training every day because I was afraid that they would get hurt my dream is to become an artist that performs all over the country all over the world and in all the countries I have never been to that is my dream i want to see hear experience how beautiful it is and how difficult it can be where my limits are that's all i want to experience everything every day of the year in the big top of siem reap the acrobats warm up before the show that quan is one of the nine founders of the school that trained all these artists then in 1996 we started a music department and then in 1998 we started the circus the idea was to help the street children the homeless the poor children and give them the opportunity to learn an artistic profession an man has gone backstage to see his brother you need help no no no you will ruin me when I see how talented my older brother is I'm not jealous but it's not in the spirit of competition this whole adventure came from a place

free

and open to all an unique school away from the cell which literally means light of the arts is open to underprivileged children and runs from kindergarten to high school an arts education here puts smiles back on children's faces brandy is amman la's older brother acrobat career is short he retired from acting at 33 and became a teacher and choreographer keep your balance yes, so when I was a child I was on the street selling cakes it was what you could call the life of poor people as soon as I started Studying here made me very happy, it changed my life and that of all the members of my family, my brothers, my sisters, it is all thanks to the generosity of the distant school that encouraged us to go on stage to study abroad so that they can come and train. like me before learning the profession it means sweat sacrifice and injuries on stage there are no harnesses or nets these athletes are entering a high risk profession The foreign circus in Cambodia dates back to the 6th century AD.

It was not simply a matter of street performers, it was classified among the noble arts and entered the spiritual world of pagodas and temples. The totalitarian Khmer Rouge regime tried to put an end to everything. that we called the divine and the kingdom, very few dancers capable of teaching the ancient gestures of the apsaras survived here in the distant school, they are reviving these arts that almost disappeared, the memory of the circus is also engraved in the most holy place in the temples of the ancient kingdom of encore debt spent his childhood in refugee camps the arts have allowed him to heal the wounds of war for 23 years now he has dedicated himself to the revival of the ancestral arts of his country this section here illustrates the circus in pre -anchor times were the same ones back then as now uh based on my money I think back then they didn't have as many techniques like that uh on this bar relief you can they were strong to be able to carry three men when it comes to general technique that's international it's universal but what differentiates us from the others is that here it is inscribed on this wall which shows that it dates back at least to that time look it is carved in the indelible stone uh to pass otherwise there is an accident uh and I was wondering how they managed to do it that the flame was lit to become a circus artist one has to strive for perfection to surpass oneself and then to surpass others I practice all the time even at home I take a normal flameless stick little by little I started feeling comfortable with that eventually the teacher noticed me and let me practice with fire I think it was because he saw that I was progressing well the circus is an art that dates back to ancient times and I am happy and proud to continue with this art today we work to improve so that it continues to evolve so that people here and abroad realize that it is a beautiful art.

Becoming a circus artist means rehearsing tirelessly to make the audience believe at least during the show. hard that magic is possible with their bodies as the only instrument they show us that dreams can come true the story of amman is also the story of many other children like him the story of poor but determined children who give everything for their dreams and eventually work Your path to the spotlight Today's Cambodia is resolutely oriented towards hope and the future to travel to the ends of the

earth

to pursue dreams wherever they take them The idyllic coasts of Cambodia are the unexpected setting for an extraordinary 13-hour adventure kilometers from the On the southern coast of Cambodia there are a series of islands as beautiful as they are fragile under the surface of the water.

Marine life suffers in silence the damage from the illegal fishing that abounds here. 12 years ago, Paul Ferber started a new life. He left England and landed on these tropical islands in the Gulf of Thailand. He has never returned. He decided to dedicate himself to this sea that gave him a new opportunity.life I would like to think that I am an defender of the sea um when you see something that is wrong, you have to try and do something, you have to try and do something to correct it, so the goal of being here is to protect the entire ocean to bring it back to what which was before, which you probably are.

Looking at a couple hundred years before that happens, it will never happen in my lifetime, but if I can really bring it back to a point where it is a healthy functioning ecosystem and it will, it will do the rest itself with government helpPaul settled on this previously uninhabited island in Croatia, he is the founder of MCC Marine Conservation Cambodia. His NGO regularly hosts a dozen Khmer and international volunteers and scientists to protect marine life. They designed a system of reinforced concrete towers to which everyone lends a hand. the work, even Paul's son, you know why we do this, yeah, we make the house for the fish to live in, maybe if we're really lucky, we can grow some oysters in them too, huh, the oysters will clean the water, yes, they see grass. around them yes, okay, pretty good at four years old and the first thing he says is if we can also have seagrasses because they clean the water.

The first initial idea was anti-trolling, it is such a horrible and destructive way of fishing that it is like cutting. knock down all the fruit trees, you know, just to get a crop, so the idea was to create something big, heavy and stable enough to stop trolling boats. They could almost be like little miniature natural aquaculture units, after two years they could be. a sustainable harvest so that at least one block supports a family with the collection of oysters and mussels, we can grow them there. You know, it's not just about making the ocean beautiful again, it's about making sure that every person has something again.

I see life coming back all the time the first changes were very slow you know six months seven months and we've seen maybe three or four more fish and the wood is still pretty dirty but now after three years it's starting to explode, it's incredible. Come in and every two days you see a species you haven't seen here before. It's really hopeful, I mean, it's still just our little area, but if the government agrees to expand the conservation areas over the next year, we can we can expand we can we can take that and start building more and more life on the island develops as we go. rhythm of nature and community activities paul now lives permanently on the island along with his wife and five children the scientists who pass take turns homeschooling the children came here from quebec two years ago she is in charge of mapping the project here is the island of kosei here is the dock and the reef and the protected area where we will place the blocks an area from 500 meters to 150 meters there will be a block placed every 50 meters these underwater towers will be like sentinels or around the island you will not be able to see them as you would see them on land but the fishing boats will notice it quickly if they try to navigate here it is like an invisible shield the island has an interesting past now it is on the front line fighting for the environment but it also bears the scars of yesterday's wars Because the island is located in a strategically important location near the Vietnamese border, bunkers began to be built here during World War II.

This continued under the Khmer Rouge who were at war with their neighbors. I come to drink beer often at night from here I can tell exactly where the boats are by the noise of the engine I can tell what kind of boats they are because we are trying to stop the illegal boats that are destroying the area when we started here you could literally feel the noise on the island, you would feel it through your feet, the island was shaking with the noise of the boats they were so close it is big and it was every night now it has decreased a lot if we heard an illegal boat now the first thing I would do is inform the fisheries administration then we would inform the police and depending on their answers or if they can do something, that depends on whether we would then go out and attack that boat.

Paul watches an area of ​​about 80 square kilometers, records every one of his interceptions and sometimes they have to get tough right in the middle.

cambodia

here he is here one over here

cambodia

's territorial waters have been devastated by illegal and destructive fishing methods such as trawling dynamite and electricity that night there were so many illegal boats that paul and his crew received armed assistance from the authorities is one way if the outlaws remain cornered at dawn the horizon is calm again it's time for the local crab fishermen to pack up their traps paul stays informed through regular contact with all the local fishermen they are doing quite well all the crabs here we are in a long tail, um, small scale fishing, uh, using what they call lock kadam, the lock is basically a collapsible crab trap, they have 2,000 of them that they put up last night and they're stopping now, oh, something cut the line, there are one or two damage traps, but every time they set their traps they don't know if when they go back to pick them up they will still be there when the trawler passes by most of the time they just don't care about the Small scale fishermen too They have a line of traps under the water when their net goes by, it catches those traps when they lift their net, they could be three or four kilometers away and they have dragged all that fishing gear up there, it got damaged. along the way and then once they pick it up they'll just have some ropes and some traps and they'll just cut up they don't want it, they don't care, they cut it up and throw it back to us.

I really really want to support these guys because this type of fishing gear is very, very sustainable. It's true, I myself have lost thousands of traps, especially there are small fish and crabs there, but when the trawlers arrive, they simply destroy everything, even the Coral Paul himself refuses to fish, so when he has the opportunity he buys seafood from the locals to support the type of fishing. He believes that I, in turn, Paul has had a thousand and one lives. He attended police school. He worked as a bricklayer. stone cutter florist tree doctor lifeguard when he became a diving instructor he saw how urgent it was to save the sea he was a pioneer in creating Cambodia's first marine sanctuary I loved the little things when I went diving it wasn't about the big things things you could see or the clear water was about finding all the really strange and strange camouflage creatures, a ghost pipefish, the bare branches, all the little sea life, a creature straight out of a page of mythology that has captivated attention from Paul When I arrived in Cambodia, I did a dive in Samlum where I saw 56 seahorses in one hour, four different species and from juveniles to large, beautiful, colorful adults, it blew me away.

I had never seen anything like it and started videotaping and photographing them. I should go out every day just spend that was all I did I just took every time I went out just go see the seahorses Paul is one of the rare seahorse specialists this unique species where the male gives birth to the young Some of them have been marked so it is necessary to clean them to identify them. Although it has survived for more than 40 million years, the seahorse is now besieged by many dangers. It is a highly sought after remedy in traditional medicine.

They attribute all kinds of powers because of their strange appearance and then for some reason the Synopville trawl fleets, including some Vietnamese boats that came specifically for seahorses, started fishing in all those areas, so I went to see a seahorse he had been filming for. a month or two months and there was nothing there was no home there was nothing that was the same I was naked um, uh, I'm seeing a little purple one on me, everything was crushed, it had just been crushed and, uh, yeah, they destroyed everything which I loved, so that's Pretty much how mcc started, they destroyed the areas.

Paul is a model of courage and determination. He has made radical decisions in life straight from his heart and his mind. How many are there, honey? Good enough, Jasmine, he's 40, he's not rich, but he's

free

, most importantly. He is protecting what his family loves most and the nature that surrounds him. Let's go see your mom. I still haven't seen two or three days and I can't eat well. What I feel for my children. I see that there are so many things that are wrong with the world. and the biggest one is that we destroy it, we destroy it every day and children are taught in schools and then simply through television and magazines to aspire to so many things that are really not that important, the latest fashions and who has the best coaches and you know fantasy

stories

about things that are completely unrealistic.

I want them to grow up with an appreciation for and connection to the land. A kind of connection with nature that allows them to be. change makers, you know, I hope to instill in them enough importance that unless some people stand up and start doing something to change, nothing will change and the world will become darker in their lifetimes than they ever had in mind. .