0:00:02 > 0:00:05Argh! I'm not very good at steering! OK. Oh, OK.
0:00:05 > 0:00:06SUE LAUGHS
0:00:06 > 0:00:07It's hard work!
0:00:07 > 0:00:11'This is the Mekong. The Mother of Water.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'The greatest river in south-east Asia.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:15These are the best noodles ever!
0:00:15 > 0:00:20'It brings life to millions. From the paddy fields of Vietnam,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23'to the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau.'
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Look at it! Look at your office!
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Of course you believe in God!
0:00:27 > 0:00:30'I'm travelling nearly 3,000 miles upstream.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34'Exploring landscapes and lives on the point of profound change.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38'The hill tribes deep in the forest...'
0:00:38 > 0:00:39- Two.- Two.
0:00:39 > 0:00:40- Three.- Three.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42LAUGHTER
0:00:42 > 0:00:47'..and some of the most beautiful and endangered wildlife on earth.'
0:00:47 > 0:00:49You could lose the entirety of your arm.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51Up! Oh, yeah!
0:00:51 > 0:00:52Hoo-hoo-hoo!
0:00:52 > 0:00:54SHOUTING
0:00:57 > 0:01:00'This is the last chance to see the Mekong of old.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03'Massive dams are being built to harness its power,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05'changing traditional ways of life
0:01:05 > 0:01:09'that rely on the ebb and flow of this magnificent river.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:10I'm a great fan of green energy,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14but if it's at the expense of nearly 50 million people,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18you've got to wonder where the balance is.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20'God knows why they asked me.
0:01:20 > 0:01:21'I guess Michael Palin was busy.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26'But they did, so here goes.'
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I have absolutely no idea what's going on,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31but it is completely magical.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33I think we might be engaged to be married now.
0:01:50 > 0:01:51So I'm now on the Mekong, which is a river
0:01:51 > 0:01:54I've had great romantic views about in the past
0:01:54 > 0:01:57and those have all now been totally shattered.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58I thought we'd be on a narrow street,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00puttering through some rice paddies.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04And instead, you can see how many people are interfacing with it.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06It's not something remote and pastoral.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08It's dirty, it's brown.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10They are washing clothes in it,
0:02:10 > 0:02:12they are using it to transport things from A to B.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14They're living off it, it's irrigating their fields,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16it's feeding their cattle.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19It's an incredibly vibrant place.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22It's south-east Asia's version of the M25, essentially, I'm on now.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29I sort of feel like the classic sort of idiot English woman abroad.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32I've got the hat, I've got the sort of sweaty, puffy face
0:02:32 > 0:02:34and the terrifying day-glo white skin.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37I'm looking around, going, I don't understand anything,
0:02:37 > 0:02:38I don't speak the language.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40I'm just going to throw myself into it
0:02:40 > 0:02:42and not worry that I don't have my creature comforts.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46And I quite like that. I'm looking forward to more chaos.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50'This bubbling brown waterway will take me
0:02:50 > 0:02:52'nearly 5,000 kilometres north,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56'through the rich and ever-changing landscapes of Vietnam, Cambodia,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00'Laos and China, up to its source high in the Himalayan glacier.
0:03:04 > 0:03:05'But the story begins here,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09'in the south of Vietnam on the vast Mekong Delta.'
0:03:14 > 0:03:17I'm just heading out to Can Tho, which is the largest city on the Mekong Delta.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19Home to about 1.5 million people
0:03:19 > 0:03:21and also the largest floating market.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24At the centre of the floating market is a woman called Si Hei,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26who is Queen of the Noodle.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Seeing as I've met Queen of the Cake,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30I might as well carry on meeting other queens of other foodstuffs.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32So she's going to teach me how to make noodles
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and then I'm going to sell the hell out of them.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39I love what she is wearing. She looks excellent.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44I've got to remember this now.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46SUE SPEAKS VIETNAMESE
0:03:46 > 0:03:48I think I messed that up.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51I think I just said something awful, probably.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Nice to see you. Mwah! Nice to see you.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Your mother? Amazing! Nice to see you. Hello.
0:03:59 > 0:04:0290?! 90 years old?
0:04:02 > 0:04:04You're doing something right. Is that noodles?
0:04:04 > 0:04:05I think so. I think it's noodles.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Yeah. I don't look that good now, let alone when I get to 90. Amazing!
0:04:12 > 0:04:16'Si Hei lives in this wooden shack perched on stilts above the water
0:04:16 > 0:04:21'with her mother, husband and assorted members of her family.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24'Eight grown-up children and countless grandchildren.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30'It's the most precarious piece of real estate I've ever seen.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32'At the height of the wet season, basically, now,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35'the waters of the Mekong literally flow through their house.'
0:04:38 > 0:04:42So, is this the highest the water has ever been this year?
0:04:47 > 0:04:48So, in ten years, your bed will be here?
0:04:48 > 0:04:51And then here. And then here.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54LAUGHTER
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Yeah. You'll be on the roof eventually.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59You'll be sleeping on the pitch of the roof.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03'Ever since her husband was injured in an accident,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05'Si Hei supports her family by selling noodles.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10'The market opens for business at first light,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14'so I'm bracing myself for a horribly early start.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19'Si Hei tells me to come back before dawn and she'll show me the ropes.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22'Dawn? What's that?'
0:05:28 > 0:05:30So it's 4:30 in the morning
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and that's a sentence I have never said before.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34At least, not consciously.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36This it the time that foxes should be awake, not humans.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39But it's incredibly beautiful and noodles wait for no man,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41so I'm basically trying to get across the water
0:05:41 > 0:05:44because Si Hei has already started making broth.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46If I'm not there, there'll be trouble. A lot of trouble.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Whoo! Hey-hey-hey!
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Good man. Look at this!
0:05:51 > 0:05:56'Si Hei's been up for hours already preparing her dishes.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58'Noodles, broth, some grey meat,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01'orange meat, more grey meat
0:06:01 > 0:06:04'and a bewildering array of condiments and garnishes.'
0:06:08 > 0:06:10This is very much the sous-chef position.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12I'm just learning. In training.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13Yeah?
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Oh, yeah, get a little bit of that one. Yeah, I got you.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26'She gives me a blisteringly quick crash course
0:06:26 > 0:06:30'in the art of aquatic noodle soup production.'
0:06:30 > 0:06:32OK.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35'Still none the wiser. And we hit the market.'
0:06:35 > 0:06:37THEY SHOUT
0:06:46 > 0:06:47It sounds like a cry for help,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49which it might be, if I get cooking, to be honest.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55'Cai Rang is the Mekong Delta's biggest floating wholesale market
0:06:55 > 0:06:58'and has been the centre of commerce here for centuries.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04'The Delta is one of the most intensively-farmed regions in Asia
0:07:04 > 0:07:08'and produces an astonishing variety of exotic fruit and vegetables.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13'Thousands of boats have travelled here
0:07:13 > 0:07:15'from the far-flung corners of the Delta
0:07:15 > 0:07:20'laden down with mangoes, pineapples and dragon fruit.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23'Now tourist boats weave in and out of the chaos.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25'Fair game for a predatory noodle seller
0:07:25 > 0:07:28'and her frankly undertrained assistant.'
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Noodles! These are the best noodles ever!
0:07:33 > 0:07:35We're in business!
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Best noodles you've ever had!
0:07:39 > 0:07:41- How much? - 25,000 for you, my darling.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43Cheap at half the price.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Oh! Oh!
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Something terrible has happened. I'm in trouble now.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50I won't get wages for a week.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54We're going to crash now.
0:07:55 > 0:07:56Argh! Ha-ha-ha-ha!
0:07:59 > 0:08:01This is the way she gets people to buy her noodles.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03She basically ram-raids them so they're so terrified.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05She's like a sort of noodle pirate.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11It's an insane atmosphere. It's a brilliant atmosphere.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15It's really fun to be on the water. It's like a gastronomic flotilla.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Everywhere you look, there's people shouting, trading,
0:08:19 > 0:08:20bartering, selling.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22SHOUTING
0:08:27 > 0:08:30'The noise of all the engines is deafening, so the traders
0:08:30 > 0:08:33'have devised an ingenious way to advertise their produce.'
0:08:34 > 0:08:36So that basically says, greengrocer.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38You've got your pumpkins and your cabbages,
0:08:38 > 0:08:40a bit of beetroot and stuff.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I don't want to see the butcher's mast.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44I dread to think. Really, I dread to think.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51'The market is still busy with farmers and traders,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53'but its heyday is behind it.'
0:09:36 > 0:09:38'Vietnam is changing.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42'Emerging from a communist past into a shiny new capitalist future.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49'In the mid '80s, the government began a series of reforms
0:09:49 > 0:09:52'called Doi Moi, or Renovation.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55'They embraced the free market, reintroduced private ownership
0:09:55 > 0:09:58'and encouraged their people to go into business.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05'It has one of the fastest-growing economies in south-east Asia
0:10:05 > 0:10:07'and a new urban middle class
0:10:07 > 0:10:10'with money to spend on the latest consumer goods.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16'Vietnam now exports everything from food to electronic goods and oil.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21'Its biggest trading partner is, you guessed it, the United States.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:24Ooo! My buttocks!
0:10:24 > 0:10:26- LAUGHTER - Oh!
0:10:28 > 0:10:31I want to thank you for letting me into your house
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and showing me how to make the noodles and being so lovely.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36I really appreciate it. You are the queen!
0:10:40 > 0:10:43- She said you are number one. - Hey! No, you are the number one.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45You are the queen, you are the queen.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47- You are the queen. Definitely.- Thank you.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Thank you, darling. Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52Tam biet!
0:10:52 > 0:10:53Tam biet!
0:10:55 > 0:10:57She's such a brilliant person.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59I was really sad to say goodbye to her.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Supports her entire family after her husband's accident.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Eight kids, I think 19 grandchildren.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Up at the crack of dawn, works all day and has a smile on her face.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10What a lesson, actually.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12What a lesson and what a slice of perspective.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14I loved her! Loved her!
0:11:19 > 0:11:21'The majority of Vietnam's 90 million people
0:11:21 > 0:11:23'live out in the countryside,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26'farming and fishing in the waters of the Mekong.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29'And I wonder to what extent the capitalist revolution
0:11:29 > 0:11:31'is changing their lives.'
0:11:34 > 0:11:37We've moved away now from the city, as you can tell,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and we are in the agriculture heartlands of the Delta.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43This is one of the most intensely-farmed areas in the whole of Asia.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46It's essentially the rice bowl for the whole of the region.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49It's an area that's shaped, over millennia,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52not just by human activity, but also military activity.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55This area was dumped with tons of Agent Orange during the war.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Basically, as is classic in Asia, they have triumphed over adversity.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01And now rice is grown here in abundance,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03which is known as white gold.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06There is loads of mythology that's sprung up around it.
0:12:06 > 0:12:07Including, if you pray hard enough,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10an enormous bowl of rice will descend from the heavens,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13which is how I'm actually hoping to get my tea this evening.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15'I'm going to visit a farming family
0:12:15 > 0:12:18'who've lived and worked here for generations
0:12:18 > 0:12:20'and are adapting to life in this fluid world.'
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Xin chao!
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Xin chao! Hello!
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Hi.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32'This is Thuc and Huong.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35'They live here with their two young sons, Dam and Dang,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37'and Thuc's elderly parents.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40'They've agreed to let me stay for a few days and to show me
0:12:40 > 0:12:42'a little of life down in the paddies.'
0:12:42 > 0:12:45I eat rice five times a week,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48but I do not know what a rice plant looks like.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08I will really try and be a good rice farmer.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10I will really try.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11'Oh, God, this is absolutely awful.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14'It sounds like I might be about to do
0:13:14 > 0:13:16'the first honest day's work of my entire life.'
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Oh, that is great! Thank you.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40If I'm honest, I've wanted this since I arrived, but, you know...
0:13:40 > 0:13:41I'm delighted.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45OK.
0:13:46 > 0:13:47Grab and cut.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Apparently, the trick is, you grab a big bunch
0:13:51 > 0:13:54and just where the greenery starts to give way to brown,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56you just use your sickle, and there you go.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03People pay thousands for that. It's like a spa treatment.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06How do you cope with this mud?
0:14:12 > 0:14:13OK, I'll have to do a proper job.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20All right, well, let's do a proper job, then.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23'Rice is taken very seriously here.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26'It's a staple foodstuff and a mainstay of the economy.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30'Vietnam is the world's second-largest exporter of rice
0:14:30 > 0:14:35'and 80% of the Delta's 17 million people grow it for a living.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39'It provides a small but steady income for farmers like Huong.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43'The government buys the harvest at an agreed price.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45'The scale of it is staggering.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49'And it's all done, all of it, by hand.'
0:14:50 > 0:14:54It is...back-breaking, this work.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59And the idea of doing nothing but this for six hours...
0:15:02 > 0:15:08Just 8,000 miles away, people pay £150 a month to go to a gym
0:15:08 > 0:15:10because their work involves them
0:15:10 > 0:15:13sitting on their backsides for eight hours a day.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18I can barely breathe in the heat, but still, she is going.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21So if you have an office job,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24or, you know, you like to grumble about your life, whatever it is,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26come here. Really, just come here.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Because for me, I'll never complain again.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Huong, do you want your children to be rice farmers?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48But if the better jobs are in other areas,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50then your sons will have to leave.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Would that make you sad, that they will leave the area?
0:16:11 > 0:16:14'An ancient threshing machine separates the rice from the storks
0:16:14 > 0:16:17'in what is the only mechanised part of the process.'
0:16:22 > 0:16:24And we're done.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28All those people working flat out for hours this morning.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Here's the rice. I have never seen a process more labour-intensive
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and we've all managed to produce a bag-and-a-half.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36It's jaw dropping.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38Do you think I'm built to be a rice farmer?
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Oh, the pity! The pity in the eyes is extraordinary.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44I've never seen pity like that close hand.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49She's saying I'm weak. I'm weak.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51- Did the word weak come up?- Yes.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53LAUGHTER
0:16:58 > 0:17:00'I'm staying at Thuc and Huong's place.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02'Dinner is fish, rice and crab,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06'all steeped in the unmistakable tang of Mekong gravy.'
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Ooo, hello! Ho-ho-ho-ho!
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Cheers, as we say in England. Very good health.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44This is just... I love you! I love you!
0:17:44 > 0:17:46LAUGHTER
0:17:49 > 0:17:51So, Thuc, what would your dream be?
0:17:51 > 0:17:54If you could have anything in the world, what would you have?
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Ah, I see. And what is your dream?
0:18:11 > 0:18:14If you could have anything in the world, what would you like?
0:18:20 > 0:18:22- She'd like my job?- Yeah!
0:18:37 > 0:18:40If Thuc could have anything in the world, he'd have a tractor,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43which is basically the ultimate symbol of a farmer.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46So you can imagine the sort of communist ideal.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And his wife wants to travel the world and be on television,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52which is, I suppose, the ultimate capitalist dream.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55And yet the two of them bob along nicely and...
0:18:55 > 0:18:58It's that sort of interplay I find fascinating.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Those two worlds, the communist
0:19:00 > 0:19:04and capitalist worlds sort of jogging along fairly harmoniously.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07The idea that you can make some money,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12but also enrich the lives of your community and those around you.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14I suppose what the socialist government here ultimately is
0:19:14 > 0:19:17aiming for is some kind of benign capitalism, if that's possible.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28'This may look like a timeless landscape,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32'but there are massive changes taking place beneath the surface.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34'The land here is low-lying
0:19:34 > 0:19:37'and incredibly vulnerable to climate change.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41'The sea level is rising, slowly flooding the Delta with saltwater.'
0:19:44 > 0:19:46This way, or this way? OK.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50'Rice can't naturally grow in saltwater,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53'so smart farmers like Thuc and Huong
0:19:53 > 0:19:55'are embracing a new cash crop.'
0:19:55 > 0:19:57How many do you normally catch in a day?
0:19:57 > 0:20:0150 kilos? That's an awful lot of shrimp.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15'Thuc and Huong can make an extra 7,000 a year from prawns.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19'But this is capitalism with all its risks and rewards.'
0:20:19 > 0:20:20Oh, that's good, that's good!
0:20:20 > 0:20:23'They've had to borrow money to buy the prawn larvae.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25'The ponds are intensively stocked,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29'so need an expensive cocktail of chemicals to keep them healthy.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33'Even so, epidemics can sweep through the paddies,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35'wiping out whole populations.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38'Farmers can lose everything.'
0:21:05 > 0:21:08It's weird here because you feel like you're between two economies.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12You've got the centuries-old planned economy of rice,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15where the agricultural worker farms it, sells it back to the government
0:21:15 > 0:21:16and it feeds the people.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18And here, where you've got the push of capitalism,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21the pressure from the West to get cheap protein.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23Whereas the state will always buy their rice
0:21:23 > 0:21:26and there's a guaranteed price, the price for shrimp fluctuates
0:21:26 > 0:21:29and farmers have to take out loans to get the feed that they need.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33If their business goes bust, they have to pay those loans back immediately,
0:21:33 > 0:21:34which means selling their land.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37So it's an extremely risky business for them.
0:21:39 > 0:21:40Let's see what we got.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49OK, not bad.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51'Prawn farming, with its big cash profits,
0:21:51 > 0:21:52'could free Thuc and Huong
0:21:52 > 0:21:56'from the hardship and toil of the endless rice harvest.'
0:21:56 > 0:22:01That is the most tenacious crab in the history of... Come on!
0:22:01 > 0:22:03'Demand for prawns has never been higher.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07'Exports are up 30% in the last five years.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10'And Thuc is dreaming of his massive tractor.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13'And Huong is dreaming of holidays abroad and a new life for her boys.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18'And I leave them with chronic back pain,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20'but wishing them the very best of luck.'
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Thank you, thank you.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Thank you. Thank you.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27I'll see you again, I hope! Bye-bye.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37'I'm back on the river again, heading north, out of Vietnam.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41'And my preconceptions have been severely shaken.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43'The Vietnamese seem to have put the war behind them
0:22:43 > 0:22:46'and are forging ahead into a new future
0:22:46 > 0:22:50'with a single-minded intensity that is frankly exhausting to behold.'
0:22:52 > 0:22:54Huong, particularly, was just,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59when I asked her, in retrospect, in what was a very patronising manner,
0:22:59 > 0:23:00"What would you like?"
0:23:00 > 0:23:03she just goes, "I'd like to have what you've got, thanks."
0:23:04 > 0:23:08And you think, yeah, of course, why wouldn't you? I'm really lucky.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11I can travel, I've got such freedom. She doesn't have any of that.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14I really didn't know what to say to that. It was like, "Of course".
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Because all my patronising Western conceits about,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20"Oh, how lovely to be in the sunshine all day.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22"What an honest day's work!"
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Rubbish. Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26I have a better life and she wants it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29And I so sincerely hope that she gets it
0:23:29 > 0:23:31and that her kids get it and they get everything they want.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34She is so generous and so wonderful.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39'The Mekong is a frenetic, dirty highway.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47'An artery for trade and travel unlike anything I've ever seen.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49'Next stop, Cambodia.'
0:23:51 > 0:23:52I'm thousands of miles from home
0:23:52 > 0:23:55and I'm still thinking of excuses for my passport photo.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58I'm so used to saying, "I know, it doesn't look like me."
0:24:07 > 0:24:10See, it just doesn't look like me. It never looks like me.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12- OK.- Thank you.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Oh, it's lovely and cool in here!
0:24:19 > 0:24:21I'm jealous of your uniform.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Do you do your job mainly for your uniform?
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Uniform. It's good!
0:24:28 > 0:24:30You know it's good.
0:24:30 > 0:24:31SUE LAUGHS
0:24:31 > 0:24:32- It's good?- Yes.- Thank you.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Just the power shower and the delousing now and then we're done.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47'As we motor upstream, the landscape begins to change.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49'After the densely-populated paddy fields of the lower Delta,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53'the country here seems quieter. Slower.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57'You feel like you're travelling back in time.'
0:24:59 > 0:25:01You think about many places you travel.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03You think about India, you think about the Taj Mahal.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06When you think about France, you think about the Champs-Elysees.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09When you think about Cambodia, you think about Pol Pot,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13you think about Year Zero, you think about grinding poverty.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I'm looking forward to not only finding out about that,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18but hopefully, a counterpoint to that.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And to see how a nation, where a quarter of the population
0:25:22 > 0:25:26was wiped out in recent memory, has recovered,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28if indeed, it has recovered.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32'Phnom Penh, Cambodia's chaotic capital,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35'lies at the confluence of two great rivers.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37'The Mekong and the Tonle Sap.
0:25:39 > 0:25:40'It's a place of contradictions,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43'where the very rich share endless traffic jams
0:25:43 > 0:25:45'with the very, very poor.'
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Everywhere you look, there are people on scooters,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53tuk-tuks, buses, lorries. It is jammed.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56It's almost impossible to think that just 40 years ago,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59this capital city was totally deserted.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05'The streets lay empty because of this man, Pol Pot.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09'He came to power in 1975, just as the war was ending in Vietnam,
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'and instigated one of the darkest periods of 20th-century history.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20'The Khmer Rouge sought to return Cambodia
0:26:20 > 0:26:25'to a rural peasant economy. What they called Year Zero.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31'The family unit was dismantled and children raised communally.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33'Educated people were tortured and executed,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35'towns and cities evacuated
0:26:35 > 0:26:39'and the urban middle classes forced into the fields to work.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44'Up to three million people died in the genocide.'
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Before he came to power, Pol Pot was a school teacher.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51So it seems grimly ironic that he chose a school
0:26:51 > 0:26:54to be his main detention centre.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57It was here, S-21, that thousands upon thousands of people
0:26:57 > 0:26:59were brutally tortured and murdered.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09'The S-21 detention centre is a museum now.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13'Only 12 people survived incarceration here.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15'And of those, only two are alive today.'
0:27:17 > 0:27:18Hello, Mr Chum Mey.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Good to see you. My name is Sue. Thank you for meeting with me.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25'Chum Mey was working as a mechanic
0:27:25 > 0:27:28'when the Khmer Rough came and brought him to this dreadful place.'
0:29:01 > 0:29:04'Eventually, to make the torture stop,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07'Chum Mey agreed that he did work for the CIA.'
0:29:28 > 0:29:30'He believes he was kept alive
0:29:30 > 0:29:33because his skills as a mechanic were useful to his captors.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41'In January 1979, Vietnamese troops liberated Phnom Penh
0:29:41 > 0:29:44'and the prison guards and torturers all fled.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48'Chum Mey was forced to go with them.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51'By extraordinary chance, as they left the city,
0:29:51 > 0:29:53'he was reunited with his wife and baby son.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58'Then the Khmer Rouge decided to kill their last prisoners.'
0:30:44 > 0:30:46'His baby was also shot dead.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03'In 2009, Chum Mey gave evidence to a war crimes tribunal
0:31:03 > 0:31:06'and finally saw some of his torturers brought to justice.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11'Now he spends each and every day at the prison,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13'telling his story to anyone who will listen.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19'It's hard to believe, but Chum Mey was one of the lucky ones.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25'Once their false confessions had been extracted,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27'most people were brought here,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30'to an old Chinese cemetery outside the city.'
0:31:40 > 0:31:42'I would like to thank you, first of all,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44'for coming to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46'known to many as the Killing Fields.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51'I know this is not an easy place to visit, but we are grateful
0:31:51 > 0:31:55'that you have come here today to see this place of memory and of healing.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02'Under Pol Pot, as many as three million Cambodians died,
0:32:02 > 0:32:04'out of eight million.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06'Wherever you come from,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09'imagine if more than one out of every four people
0:32:09 > 0:32:13'in your country was killed, and by your own people.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15'That is what happened in Cambodia.'
0:32:17 > 0:32:21If you didn't know what this place was, you'd think it was beautiful.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24It's got a sort of peace to it and then...
0:32:25 > 0:32:27..of course, you apply the context,
0:32:27 > 0:32:29and it becomes a place of total horror.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36'The Khmer Rouge didn't shoot people here. Bullets were expensive.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42'Victims knelt in front of pits that would soon be their graves.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45'Then they were beaten and hacked to death
0:32:45 > 0:32:47'with whatever was cheap and available.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52'Soldiers grabbed babies by their legs,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56'smashed their heads against it then tossed them into the pit.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00'A generator provided power for the lights
0:33:00 > 0:33:03'that illuminated the executions and for a loud speaker system
0:33:03 > 0:33:07'that blared revolutionary songs in the day time.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10MUSIC PLAYING
0:33:10 > 0:33:12'But at night, the music was played
0:33:12 > 0:33:16'to cover up the screams of prisoners being killed.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21'The music blended with the noise of a diesel generator
0:33:21 > 0:33:24'to create a true nightmare of sound.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27MUSIC, ENGINE WHIRRING
0:33:31 > 0:33:35'These were the last sounds the victims ever heard.'
0:33:44 > 0:33:47The senseless, random brutality.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49It's a sort of panorama of suffering really.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51That starts off with intellectuals,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53and moves to anybody with soft hands,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56and anyone who wears glasses, and anyone who disobeys anyone
0:33:56 > 0:33:57or looks at anyone.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59It boils down to, if you look at me in strange way,
0:33:59 > 0:34:01I'll kill you.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05And the arbitrary, terrifying nature of it.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12There's no ideology on the planet that can justify any of this.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15There's...
0:34:15 > 0:34:17No post-rationalisation can cover it.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22It's pure horror and that has been made very clear today.
0:34:22 > 0:34:23It's...
0:34:25 > 0:34:29Yeah, I have no desire to ever come here again,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31but I will never forget coming here, that's for sure.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57So this is Tonle Sap Lake, which is the largest fresh water lake
0:34:57 > 0:35:01in south-east Asia and the biggest inland fishery in the whole world.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04To give you an idea of how full of water it is,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07this sort of stretch that we're sailing down now is usually a road
0:35:07 > 0:35:11outside the rainy season that connects one village to another.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13Because you can see the tops of trees there.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17The vegetation is sort of masking how vast this body of water is,
0:35:17 > 0:35:18as far as the eye can see.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28At this time of year, the end of the wet season,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30something bizarre happens.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34The volume of water flowing down the Mekong
0:35:34 > 0:35:39is so enormous that the whole of the delta turns into a vast flood plain.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42The Tonle Sap river can no longer drain away.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47So, for a short period, the river reverses its flow
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and its waters flood back into this great freshwater lake.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56Tonle Sap, usually about the size of Gloucestershire,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58expands to four times its normal size.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04The surrounding land becomes inundated and these flooded forests
0:36:04 > 0:36:07are transformed into one massive fish nursery.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11The billions of fish that spawn here provide the people of Cambodia
0:36:11 > 0:36:14with three quarters of their annual protein.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17Tonle Sap is a very important lake.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24This is the village of Kompong Phluk on Tonle Sap.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26It's just the most beautiful village.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28You can see houses on stilts
0:36:28 > 0:36:30to accommodate the massive rise and fall of water
0:36:30 > 0:36:33depending on whether it's the rainy season or not.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36And just everyone's out and busy and on their boats.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39It's easy to forget how much time people spend on boats here.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Whereas we'd go to the office, they just get onto the boat.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46They fish from the boat, they eat on the boat, they chinwag on the boat.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49It's just a spectacular day.
0:36:54 > 0:36:55SHE GREETS HIM
0:37:00 > 0:37:03'This is Mr Lee, the head honcho of the village.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06'He's going to show me what life is like in this extraordinary place.'
0:37:06 > 0:37:09- Bonjour. Bonjour, ca va?- Oui, oui.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11'It's not immediately clear who is who,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15'because quite frankly, my French is on a par with my Cambodian,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19'but what I can work out is that Mr Lee lives in this stilted house
0:37:19 > 0:37:21'with a large extended family
0:37:21 > 0:37:24'and the most beautiful grandchildren I've ever seen.'
0:37:27 > 0:37:28Very nice!
0:37:31 > 0:37:35You get big bed, eh? Grand lit. Gros lit.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37- Trampoline? - SHE LAUGHS
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Would it be OK if I stayed here for a few days with you
0:37:43 > 0:37:44and went fishing with you?
0:37:52 > 0:37:53Thank you. Merci, monsieur.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59The village of Kompong Phluk is home to about 3,000 people.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02The monastery and temple are built on a small island,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05but everything else is on stilts or floating.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Think south-east Asian Venice, without the overpriced ice cream,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11honeymooning couples and dive-bombing pigeons.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14And it smells even worse. I know.
0:38:14 > 0:38:15Imagine!
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Instead of roads and mopeds, there are canals and boats to get about.
0:38:20 > 0:38:21Or, if you'd rather,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24you can just swim round to see your mates after school.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30This is just a really great village and just the idea that
0:38:30 > 0:38:32he's going to take me around and meet everybody.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34You just don't get that, you know.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36When you come to my part of London,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40people don't say, "I must take you round to the neighbours."
0:38:40 > 0:38:41We live in such an insulated way.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43It's such a relief to come to somewhere
0:38:43 > 0:38:46where the doors are open and the hospitality is so awesome.
0:38:47 > 0:38:48This one is trouble.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Mr Lee has rustled up a few dozen of the family
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and offered to take me out to see the lake proper.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04It's extraordinary to think
0:39:04 > 0:39:07that when this lake starts to reverse, then all of this,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11roads and dust tracks, and normal village life will resume.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18There is a real serenity to Lee that's almost erotic, I have to say.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23Totally Zen, totally focused on the job in hand.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27I, on the other hand, giddy with excitement, prattling,
0:39:27 > 0:39:29moving around so the boat keeps going like this.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Here we go.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39So you come out of this boulevard of half-submerged trees,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43you can see, opening out to Tonle Sap proper.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46Absolutely vast waterway.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48To give you the recognised standard measurement...
0:39:49 > 0:39:51..this is four-fifths the size of Wales!
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Mr Lee started fishing at 11, when his father fell ill.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00There was no-one else in his family to provide food.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03He has seen this lake change dramatically in the last 50 years.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Fishing is big business on Tonle Sap now.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33The government has sold fishing concessions to wealthy businessmen
0:40:33 > 0:40:35in order to exploit the lake's resources.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Large industrial boats crewed by itinerant Vietnamese fisherman
0:40:39 > 0:40:42use huge nets to drag tons of fish from the lake.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46The local fishermen, in their little boats, say they cannot compete.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52What would you do?
0:40:52 > 0:40:55And what would your family do if there were no fish in Tonle Sap?
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Do you know about the dams that are planned further up the Mekong?
0:41:56 > 0:41:58There are 11 hydroelectric dams
0:41:58 > 0:42:01planned for the lower Mekong in the next decade.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05While they will bring much-needed clean energy to the region,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07no-one quite knows what effect they will have here.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11Some scientists predict the near total collapse of wild fish stocks
0:42:11 > 0:42:13as the dams block their migration routes.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25We think we have heavy annual rainfall in Britain,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27but the polite pissings we have in the UK
0:42:27 > 0:42:30are nothing compared with this.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32The heavens have exploded, they haven't just opened.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34It's absolutely torrential!
0:42:34 > 0:42:37It's happened just as soon as I've got back from speaking to Lee
0:42:37 > 0:42:40and it's really put into context everything that he's said
0:42:40 > 0:42:42about the vulnerability of the environment.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45You can almost visibly see the lake swelling
0:42:45 > 0:42:47with the volume of water that's being dumped on it.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50I mean, it's impressive as a visitor,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52but it could be catastrophic as a local, to be honest.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Tonight, I'm on it. I'm going for a night on the tiles.
0:43:11 > 0:43:12I'm off to the centre of town.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Forget glow sticks and all-night partying, though,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18this is a Cambodian Muppet Show that I'm basically going to see.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20They've got some puppets going on there.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Um, so...
0:43:23 > 0:43:25That's the way you do it, apparently.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27I think this could be rather magical.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35The puppeteers have travelled down from Siem Reap, 40 miles away,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38to perform in the grounds of the village temple.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40If this is shadow puppets, I'm going to be so annoyed.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43If it's just some dude doing the rabbit thing.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45Furious! I shall ask for my money back.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48I travelled 8,000 miles just to see this show.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50Grrr!
0:43:50 > 0:43:54These are proper dudes. Rarr!
0:43:54 > 0:43:56- What is your name? - Sue, what's your name?
0:43:56 > 0:43:59- Sue?- Sue.- My name is Malai.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01- Malai?- Yes. - What is your name?
0:44:01 > 0:44:02- My name is Enor.- OK.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09Do you know dogs? Like...woof, woof!
0:44:09 > 0:44:12CHILDREN TALKING
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Do you? What kind of music?
0:44:18 > 0:44:20Yes. What kind of music?
0:44:20 > 0:44:21- Cambodian music?- Yes!
0:44:21 > 0:44:23Or Gangnam Style?
0:44:23 > 0:44:25ALL: Gangnam Style!
0:44:28 > 0:44:30And what do you want to do when you are older?
0:44:34 > 0:44:35Brilliant.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39This traditional art form is thought to predate even
0:44:39 > 0:44:43the ancient temples of Angkor Wat and is central to Cambodian culture.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46The intricate puppets are carved from stiff cow hide
0:44:46 > 0:44:50and brought to life with a roaring fire and graceful dancing.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53Quite complicated, this. There's a lot going on.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57In England, it's just sausages, crocodiles and wife beating.
0:45:03 > 0:45:04I'm totally absorbed by it.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07I might not understand it, but I'm totally fascinated,
0:45:07 > 0:45:08I'm totally gripped.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11Apparently, it tells a Cambodian version
0:45:11 > 0:45:14of the classic Sanskrit poem, Ramayana,
0:45:14 > 0:45:19an epic - and I mean EPIC - tale of love, loyalty and revenge
0:45:19 > 0:45:25with a hero, a princess, some angry gods and an awful lot of fighting.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Like almost everything else of cultural value in Cambodia,
0:45:28 > 0:45:30these beautiful puppet shows were all-but eradicated
0:45:30 > 0:45:32under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge,
0:45:32 > 0:45:36but are now beginning to emerge once more from the shadows.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38Such a great atmosphere.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42It's just so nice to be out in the open.
0:45:42 > 0:45:47Beautiful midnight-blue sky, fire, fabulous dances.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Hello, I think there's a denouement approaching.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03I've had the most fantastic time.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05To come here and to receive that kind of welcome.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09And the kids are so spirited and friendly and open.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11They lack prejudice or cynicism.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14There's no trace of the horrors of 40 years ago.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17They're just freshly minted and looking forward to tomorrow.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21I'm certainly looking forward to that finishing as well.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23Because, I mean, I love a puppet show,
0:46:23 > 0:46:25but after three-and-a-half hours,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27even I am desperate to get on a boat.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29Goodbye.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42It's 6:25 in the morning.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44If this were London, in about an hour's time, I'd get up,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47have a cup of tea, mooch around, read the papers.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49In Cambodia, I've been up since four,
0:46:49 > 0:46:50I've washed my essentials in the river
0:46:50 > 0:46:53and now I'm going to go and kill some snakes.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55With the competition for fish so intense,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58many of Tonle Sap's residents have started to hunt snakes
0:46:58 > 0:47:01as a way of bringing in some extra cash.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06I'm quite frightened of snakes actually.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08The watery ones, I'm terrified of.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11They sit somewhere for me between my fear of drowning
0:47:11 > 0:47:12and my fear of John McCririck.
0:47:14 > 0:47:15With John McCririck being the upper end.
0:47:17 > 0:47:18Do these snakes bite?
0:47:24 > 0:47:26While some of the snakes are eaten,
0:47:26 > 0:47:31most are sold as feed to the area's thriving crocodile farming industry.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33Crocodiles are bred for their skins
0:47:33 > 0:47:35to make handbags and shoes.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Now the snake population is crashing too,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and concerns are growing that the fragile ecological balance
0:47:43 > 0:47:47of this beautiful lake is being tipped permanently out of kilter.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53It's been a beautiful morning, but a rather sad one.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Because the fish stock is so depleted,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59the locals are having to get into other avenues of employment,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01so they are now farming crocodiles and what do crocodiles eat?
0:48:01 > 0:48:02Snakes!
0:48:02 > 0:48:05So now this lake is the site of the biggest snake harvest in the world
0:48:05 > 0:48:07and now the snakes are running out.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Somebody's getting very wealthy wearing very nice crocodile shoes.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16I don't know. I really do hope that somebody learns something
0:48:16 > 0:48:19fairly sharpish cos in 20 years' time this lake is going to be empty
0:48:19 > 0:48:21with loads of tourists just pottering around on it.
0:48:30 > 0:48:31Back in the village,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34the local women are busy releasing the catch from their nets
0:48:34 > 0:48:39by bashing them with rackets, in a ritual I've nicknamed fish tennis.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41They asked me along for a game.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44- I don't actually... - THEY LAUGH
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Hello, sailor...off you go.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49- I think I've also got one slightly down my... - THEY LAUGH
0:48:52 > 0:48:54Bingo.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Do you feel that your life is very hard, the three of you?
0:49:15 > 0:49:19They are, after all, fishwives, so I am hoping to get some local gossip.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22When you do this normally, do you sit around and do you gossip?
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Do you...chat about all the men in the village?
0:49:26 > 0:49:29- THEY LAUGH - Yes, you do!
0:49:39 > 0:49:42So where does the most handsome man in the village live?
0:49:50 > 0:49:52We're here at a very auspicious time of year.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56The whole of Cambodia comes together to celebrate the water festival
0:49:56 > 0:49:59of Bon Om Touk, which marks the end of the rains.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03You're not warming up?
0:50:03 > 0:50:05I'm the only one really taking this seriously.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07I've done a lot of training. A lot of training.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11I've never taken part in a sporting event
0:50:11 > 0:50:12without weeing myself.
0:50:12 > 0:50:13Genuinely.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16I become so hysterical that I'm actually doing it,
0:50:16 > 0:50:17I actually lose control of my bladder.
0:50:19 > 0:50:20As part of the festivities,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23traditional dragon boat races are held in the village.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26And I've been given a place on one of the boats.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29The time for laughter may be over.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33And the time for wheezing and heart palpitations might have begun.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35YELLING
0:50:41 > 0:50:43'Yes, that's me. Black shirt, very unfit.
0:50:43 > 0:50:44'Just shouting a lot to compensate.'
0:50:44 > 0:50:47SUE YELLING
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Keeps bashing me on the head with a massive pole!
0:50:58 > 0:51:00I'm mad with concussion.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06'Well, it starts well enough.'
0:51:06 > 0:51:08You've got a massive pole!
0:51:16 > 0:51:18'It very quickly starts to go about as well
0:51:18 > 0:51:20'as all my other sporting endeavours'
0:51:52 > 0:51:53Did we win?!
0:51:55 > 0:51:56Did we win?
0:51:57 > 0:52:00Well, I can tell you the Mekong smells horrible,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04tastes horrible, made all of my skin go really weird.
0:52:06 > 0:52:07What's that I can smell?
0:52:10 > 0:52:11'I think it was me.'
0:52:19 > 0:52:23So I can go home to England and say I've truly tasted the Mekong.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25THEY LAUGH
0:52:28 > 0:52:30No, not frightened. Not frightened.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38Oh, you thought I was drowning.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43Bon Om Touk is like a giant harvest festival,
0:52:43 > 0:52:44without the tinned peaches,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48where the people make weird and wonderful offerings and give thanks
0:52:48 > 0:52:51to the gods for the bounty of their rivers and the fish that they bring.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07'Did she just say defecate?
0:53:07 > 0:53:08'I went IN that river!'
0:53:13 > 0:53:15You have made me feel so welcome.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18And it's such a pleasure to see you. So thank you.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Now I think we should go and say hello to the water god.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30'And I'm going to pray that I don't get cholera.
0:53:30 > 0:53:31'Did she really say defecate?'
0:53:39 > 0:53:40Plub...
0:53:42 > 0:53:44Plean. Plean, plub.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46- Plub.- Plub.- Plub.- Plub.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52So we're just heading to the monastery to get a quick blessing
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and then we are on our way out into open water
0:53:56 > 0:53:59where we will give our offerings.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Lay them in the water and say a prayer
0:54:02 > 0:54:05that all these brilliant people get loads of fish.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12Each family has a boat and all the family have offerings in the boat.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15There's loads of them. They're just materialising out of the night.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26I think shoes off, probably, would be the respectful thing.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41- ALL:- Yay!
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Let's see how many nuns and monks we can get into a boat.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52And rock before it then sinks.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57This boat is full of people being respectful,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59but also there's a real laugh.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02I think there might be a disco later.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09SINGING
0:55:09 > 0:55:12The monastery barge, full of chanting monks and nuns,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14is towed through the village
0:55:14 > 0:55:18collecting a flotilla of little boats like a Khmer Pied Piper.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21Together, we all head for the open water of the lake.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29I have absolutely no idea what's going on
0:55:29 > 0:55:30but it is completely magical.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35I'm so used to a man in a cassock telling me I'm evil.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38To come somewhere where people are chewing gum and laughing
0:55:38 > 0:55:40and prodding you in the back for responses
0:55:40 > 0:55:43is A - fabulous.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46B - genuinely so much more of a religious experience
0:55:46 > 0:55:48than anything I've ever done before.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59I've been given my own special offering,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02which is some instant coffee,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04some snack biscuits
0:56:04 > 0:56:07and about six cigarettes.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09I didn't know the water god was a smoker.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13So each family are putting their offerings in.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16That family's put candles in, praying as they do so,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18to make sure they get a really good harvest,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21to make sure that their family are well and healthy for the next year.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24The more offerings they give, the more luck they'll have.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28I pray that all your families are happy and healthy,
0:56:28 > 0:56:30that you are well looked after by the gods you believe in
0:56:30 > 0:56:35and that next year you may see a hell of a lot fish.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48SHE REPEATS THE WORD
0:56:54 > 0:56:57It's impossible to overstate the importance of this lake
0:56:57 > 0:57:02and the river system to the people of the Mekong Basin.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04Tonle Sap is the freshwater heartbeat
0:57:04 > 0:57:08at the centre of Cambodia, its annual flood pulse providing protein
0:57:08 > 0:57:11for millions of people across the lower Mekong.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15The arteries and capillaries of the Mekong
0:57:15 > 0:57:17reach into every corner of the land,
0:57:17 > 0:57:21connecting it, feeding and watering it, bringing life into it.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30If this fragile habitat is lost, the consequences for Cambodia
0:57:30 > 0:57:34and Vietnam could be truly catastrophic.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40Tonight's ceremony just bangs home how vital this river is
0:57:40 > 0:57:42to everybody who lives along it. It's their home,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44it's their recreation, it's their playground,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47it's their food, it's their livelihood
0:57:47 > 0:57:49and it turns out, it's also their religion.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52You can't help but wish that every prayer they've put out to the lake
0:57:52 > 0:57:54gets returned tenfold next year.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58I just gave a water god cigarettes!
0:57:59 > 0:58:01SHE LAUGHS
0:58:03 > 0:58:04Next time...
0:58:04 > 0:58:07She's saying someone's farted and they have.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09TROMBONE NOISES
0:58:09 > 0:58:12First, I've got to drink this jar and then I drink this jar?
0:58:12 > 0:58:14- Yeah, yeah.- Magic.
0:58:14 > 0:58:15No, no, no. Ooh, not the groin.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18That really was my bear necessities it was going for.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19It's your mum.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21She says, "Where have you been for the last 30 years?"
0:58:21 > 0:58:25You might as well just stick a massive sign saying, "For Sale."
0:58:25 > 0:58:28These people are so poor. I just feel really torn.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31- FAINT WHIRRING - You can hear chainsaws.