Episode 2 The Mekong River with Sue Perkins

Ahh, I'm not very good at steering!

OK, OK. It's hard work!

'This is the Mekong. The Mother of Water.

'The greatest river in South-East Asia.'

These are the best noodles ever.

'It brings life to millions,

'from the paddy fields of Vietnam

'to the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau.'

I think I might be engaged to be married now.

'I'm travelling nearly 3,000 miles upstream to its source,

'exploring the lives of its people.'

-Two.

-Two.

-Three.

-Three.

THEY LAUGH

'The Mekong is about to change forever.

'Massive dams are being built to harness its power,

'changing traditional ways of life

'that rely on the ebb and flow of this great river.

'In Cambodia, I saw the horrors of the Killing Fields,

'and how the country is struggling to recover from the legacy

'of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

'Now it's facing a new, environmental battle.'

If I were to stick a massive sign, saying "For sale."

'Rampant deforestation and a booming trade in illegal wildlife

'is stripping this place of its last precious habitats.'

Come on, little ones, you're free, you're free!

'I'm passionate about animal welfare,

'so this could be a very emotional trip for me.

'But I want to understand what's driving this destruction...'

These people are so poor. I just feel really torn!

'..and what can be done to save the Mekong's last truly wild places.'

I know you won't be able to understand a word of this,

but I have not felt this profoundly peaceful for such a long time.

I'm back in Cambodia at the edge of the Mekong river basin,

home to some of the world's most biodiverse areas,

and the odd osteopath, I'm hoping!

Now I'm leaving the main river

and heading to the home land of the indigenous Bunong people,

one of Cambodia's 12 remaining hill tribes.

Sorry, love, I'm slowing you down.

As the Mekong tumbles down through the mountains gathering strength,

it nourishes a breathtaking eco-system of rivers and rainforests.

It's the second most bio-diverse place on Earth after the Amazon

and is alive with extraordinary wildlife and isolated people.

The Bunong live in the highland forests of Mondulkiri

on the far eastern edge of the vast Mekong basin.

In the last 40 years, Cambodia has seen almost 40%

of its forests cut down for timber and agriculture.

But here, for some reason,

there are still rolling hills covered in deep jungle.

And I want to find out why.

'The Bunong have brought me into one of their most sacred sites,

'the spirit forest.'

Bit of limbo!

'They are animists and have a profound connection

'with the natural world.'

The Bunong believe that the ancestral spirits are here

and they live in the forest?

So if you cut down a tree it causes sickness?

-Just general bad luck.

-Yeah, yeah, bad luck.

These cool forests, protected by the Bunong's ancient beliefs,

provide a sanctuary for some of Cambodia's most iconic animals.

The Bunong are renowned for their skill in catching

and training wild elephants to work in the jungle.

There's a unique refuge here for retired working elephants,

where I can get up close to these beautiful creatures.

It's run by Englishman Jack Highwood.

This is Onion.

What she likes to do is open up her mouth

cos she thinks there's bananas involved.

So she is smelling you right now for bananas.

Look at this beautiful Onion.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

Can't actually believe that happened!

That's a great sign though, if they're trumpeting, is it not?

Yeah, yeah. Put your hand on it for a moment.

What's that low vibrational noise that she was making?

That's how they talk.

They've got several hundred different types of rumbles.

She's doing it again!

Yeah, they can push air and vibrate their sinus up there.

I think I can vibrate my sinus at the moment.

We've got a lot in common.

The sanctuary uses the money from tourism to fund a protection team

to look after the last wild elephants here.

They need all the help they can get.

There were 10,000 of them here 40 years ago,

but many were killed for food during the desperate years

of the Khmer Rouge, when millions of Cambodians starved.

Today, there are just 450 left, in the whole of Cambodia.

Up, right up, right up.

That's it.

That is actually the first time I've popped a tiny banana

into the enormous open mouth of an elephant.

It's like feeding a toddler with an added frisson that you could lose

the entirety of your arm.

Love this one because she is pining.

Late 30s, she has lost her boyfriend

and now she just wanders this part of the forest looking for him.

I'm going to try and tell her that life gets better after 40,

life begins.

The elephants draw tourists from all over the world.

But the arrival of outsiders in this sacred place

presents the Bunong with a bit of a problem.

The powerful forest spirits aren't too keen on tourists

and need a bit of persuading.

It's a big day because it's a festival today

where they go to try and appease the spirits of the forest,

to guarantee good luck for the whole community.

It's like a picnic essentially, but with a sacrifice at the end of it.

I'm going to keep my mouth shut in case it's me.

Ooh-oh!

The Mekong again is trying to claim me!

Next time I come back, I'm going to build a bridge for you.

Look at that!

I'm a sucker for a waterfall, I really am.

There's a little pig down there that's tied up ready for sacrifice.

This is an important part of their culture

and it's important for them that they commemorate the forest

and venerate the forest in the way that they see fit, so my...

My personal feelings have nothing to do with this

and I shall keep them at bay.

'Tom Yam, the village elder, leads the ceremony.'

I'm blonde. I always wanted to be blonde.

Looks better on you, I think.

Oh, that is good.

The Bunong believe that if the spirits are angry

it is they that will pay the price.

It seems a little unfair, not least on the poor pig, but there you go.

That's gods for you.

The stripped bamboo is daubed with blood

and taken to the ceremonial altar in the spirit house.

So the pig's spirit, all the spirits are convening in that one place,

from what I can understand.

And they're hoping that with this sacrifice now,

that the forest will be appeased

and the elephants will continue to live here.

So I think that's the ritual part over

and I think now there's a massive great piss-up, I think.

I think there's rice wine coming.

I've drunk a lot of things out of canisters like this,

but mainly when I was about 15.

Couple of straws, umbrella and cherry on the top, apparently.

That's how you do it. Yeah?

Good health!

It looks a tad swampy, but it's good!

Really pokey.

Cheers!

I was wondering why it wasn't going down.

He's such a cheat. He's got some guy to top him up the whole time,

so it looks like he hasn't drunk anything.

So first I'll drink this jar and then I drink this jar.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Magic!

HE LAUGHS

HE SPEAKS IN KHMER

SHE LAUGHS

You, my friend, are what drunk looks like.

'At sundown, the Bunong give their elephants their evening meal

'in an upland meadow.'

Ooh, you beauty!

'And it's here that the lessons of the day finally sink in.

'For many Cambodians, the only source of income is the forest.

'First it's sold for timber, then the land is stripped

'and sold for agriculture.

'But here things are different.

'Crucially, the elephants have provided a way to make the forest

'worth more left intact.'

As much as I'm a conservationist at heart,

I've never got behind a single species conservation before,

and today I really understand it because if you save the elephant

then you save the forest.

If you save the forest, you save the deer and the pigs

and the snakes and the rats and everything.

I not only feel I've had one of the most memorable days of life

here, but I've also had a proper education

that I will ruminate now and take back home with me.

I'm leaving the tranquillity of the forest

and heading back towards the complexity of modern-day Cambodia.

It doesn't take much to see that the root of Cambodia's problems

reach back into its bloody past.

40 years ago, Pol Pot wiped out a generation of educated people

and left the country crippled by poverty and riven with corruption.

Susaday.

Susaday!

It's no wonder conservation is so low down

on people's list of priorities.

They are more concerned with putting food on the table.

The forests are being plundered for bush meat,

wildlife for exotic pets and body parts for Chinese medicine.

Any animals rescued from the traders

are brought to Cambodia's only wildlife rescue centre.

Basically, they've taken on animals that have been illegally trafficked

and this really is the last chance saloon for them.

It's also the last chance for people like me to see bears in Cambodia

because they have been all but eradicated

from their natural habitat.

I've never seen a moon bear before or a sun bear,

so I'm hoping to see at least one.

Or three if I'm lucky, so I can have the full Goldilocks experience.

The Phnom Tamao sanctuary is run jointly by the government

and a couple of foreign conservation charities.

-Hi, welcome!

-Hello, I'm Sue. Good to see you.

'Peesay and Jon are the baby bear handlers - the lucky blighters!'

These are our youngest cubs here.

They are moon bears?

Sun bears. They have a U-shape on their chest marking.

These cubs get exercise every day.

The keepers will take them out of their enclosures

to teach them to climb the forest.

Come on sausage, this way.

'These beautiful little cubs were rescued from poachers.

'Their mothers had been killed

'and they were destined to be sold as pets.'

How old were they when you got them?

One month old. They arrived when they were very tiny.

-He is Jesus.

-This is Jesus?

Because he almost died three times.

And he survived.

Oh, so it's a resurrection thing?

Come on!

It's like herding cats, basically.

There's forest this way, you're going to a car park!

They've got this lovely forest here

and they're mainly interested in bin liners and a car park!

We're trying to save you from all that.

Come on, boys and girls.

So beautiful.

Come on!

-Oh, Jesus, come on.

-Good boy!

Good boy, Jesus, Jesus is good.

Oh, yeah, look, some climbing's going on.

'These little ones are gorgeous.

'They'll soon grow into powerful adults that will need

'to be kept in cages.

'It's very difficult for me to understand

'why you'd want to keep animals locked up, but many people here

'have a very different relationship with wildlife..

'However, attitudes can change.'

At first, I was really scared.

And I don't like to have marks on my hand and a bear touching me,

because I just think they are dirty animals and bite you and things.

But after two months, I learned that the bears will not harm you,

if you don't harm them.

So I changed my mind completely and I love all the animals.

I tried to tell my family and my friends.

-They didn't understand still.

-Still?

Still. Like, they say, "I understand that you love animals,

"you like to work with wildlife and stuff,

"we respect you, but we will never do whatever you do."

No...

Oh, not the groin! Not the groin!

Six inches higher than that, that could have been...

Yeah, that really was my bare necessities it was going for.

The sanctuary provides a safe house for animals that are too scarce

and too valuable to live in the wild.

A single tiger, stripped down to its constituent parts

and sold to the Chinese medicine trade,

could fetch a poacher 50,000.

It seems a pathetic amount for one of the most precious creatures

on Earth, but here it's a king's ransom.

Little wonder there are only 30 wild tigers left in Cambodia.

I get very sentimental about animals.

I get very angry... Animal cruelty makes me cry, it makes me rage,

all those things. But actually, when you're in the middle of all

those frenzied emotions, you're not doing anything. And actually

coming here, you're DOING. Removing all that emotional element

and actually DOING practical things is the most important thing.

TRILLING

That's a cool trick if you can do it.

This one's really good at the parallel bars.

Honestly, he'd make Louis Smith weep with his skills.

I'm heading west now to meet a man called Dean

from the Wildlife Rapid Response Rescue team,

which remains Cambodia's most alliterative wildlife rescue team.

And there's a team that's about to make a bust on a local restaurant.

I'm joining them at a top secret location

and I'm trilling with excitement

at the thought of my very first mission.

It's all very clandestine.

I don't even know if his name is Dean.

I'm just being very open minded and just going with the flow.

OK, we've been driving for about two hours,

finally reached the rendezvous point,

which is this rather anonymous lay-by.

It's not the most august place for a couple of spies meeting,

but I've been practising catchphrases.

Does the swan fly south this summer?

The pangolin has landed. We'll see what he goes for.

I'm looking for somebody shifty and beefy with the look

of sort of "animal saviour" in their eyes.

Oh, hello! There is a look of the official about this.

-Susaday.

-Susaday.

-Hi, are you Dean?

-Hello, yes.

Dean, it's good to see you. I'm Sue.

-Really nice to meet you, nice to see you.

-Nice to meet you, Sue.

I'll pop round the other side. Are you keeping out of the thick of it?

-Yeah, yeah, keeping a low profile.

-How secret is this mission?

I'm trying to make sure that nobody knows where we are going.

The reason we keep everything fairly quiet is that we'll do raids

and inspections on places that we know sell wildlife or wildlife meat.

OK.

'Heading up this operation is Saro from the forestry department.

'The military police provides the muscle.

'And then there's Dean from the Wildlife Alliance,

'an ex-Aussie cop who was working on human trafficking

'until he joined the wildlife team.'

Do you get fairly heavy?

Do you become nasty Dean in those situations?

No, no. I leave that to these guys.

Your uniform looks great!

He doesn't look like he's strict. He looks very cute and benign.

-He's got a cheeky smile.

-At the moment.

Oh, right, OK!

He'll turn if he sees somebody trying to trade a macaque or something.

We're in a convoy, closing in our target -

a line of restaurants, all consistent offenders.

They're confident we'll find something -

if not live animals, then bush meat.

OK, we're nearly there.

What's going to happen is that Saro, who's the head dude, basically,

he's currently wearing a denim shirt to conceal his uniform from everyone.

He will decloak, like a Klingon,

because in order to make the seizure he needs to be visibly in authority.

Saro's taken his shirt off,

so everyone is now in full military uniform.

Shirt off.

So this is the restaurant.

Everything in the cool boxes is legit.

But there's a definite Marie Celeste feeling about the place.

Just a few little babies and kids to look after them.

It's all quiet, Dean. What does this mean?

It means they've done a runner.

They've done a runner.

Saro has sent the team out

to look to see if any of the meat has been thrown into the jungle.

Who tipped them off?

It could be anyone that sees us come through. They all know the cars.

Can you change your cars around?

We'd like to.

Money.

'There are only three of these teams to cover the entire country.'

What would you be looking for? Just sort of bin bags?

They'll often have a cooler buried in the ground.

'The restaurant owners hide anything illegal off their property,

'so it's impossible for the authorities to pin down

'who exactly is responsible.'

So, Saro, what is this one?

-Roe deer.

-Roe deer, yeah.

What's this?

This is the...mouse deer.

What will happen to this meat now?

-Will you confiscate it and destroy it?

-Yeah, sure.

The problem is we could not find the owner of this bush meat.

You go into this sort of situation thinking Dean's a good guy,

they're the bad guys, but it's not as simple as that.

Because you go into the restaurant, these people have no money.

Of course, they're going to want to trade in something

that brings cash in for their kids.

It's very difficult because animal welfare and conservation

are on the top of my passion list, and yet

these people are so poor. It's just a couple of hind legs of deer.

I just feel really torn!

It's such small quantities as well.

You know, when there are people, you know,

at a dining table requesting tiger penis from 2,000 miles away

so that they can feel like a big man, you know,

those are the people you really want to send Saro after.

Not a kind of...

subsistence guy, who's running a small restaurant,

trying to make ends meet.

In total, they find five cases full of bush meat.

Some of the animals, like the mouse deer, are very endangered.

To stop anyone from profiting from their death,

the animals are coated in kerosene and set alight.

There's so many questions in my mind.

I look at this charred carcass of a mouse deer,

which is one of the most beautiful timid creatures you could possibly

find in the forest, and its death has served no purpose.

It hasn't fed anybody, it hasn't enlightened anybody

or enriched anybody or made anybody any money.

Its death hasn't served as a sort of education tool,

or a warning or a deterrent.

It's just dead.

At certain points today, I felt very despairing but I've tried

to lift myself by thinking, well,

ten years ago these guys didn't exist, that project didn't exist,

that education drive didn't exist, and now people,

when they kill animals in the forest,

or keep them away from their property,

they are starting to realise it's wrong.

That image of that bonfire will stay in my mind

for a really long time for all sorts of reasons.

The team's work, thank God, also has its perks.

I'm joining them for what's got to be a better day -

the chance to release live animals rescued in previous raids.

In a top secret location, far from the prying eyes

of potential poachers, we have a boat full of slow loris -

my favourite animal -

snakes and macaques, all ready to taste freedom once again.

-There's two in there.

-Two macaques?

Yeah. We'll just open the gate and away they'll run.

Do you want to do that?

-Really?

-Yeah.

I'd really like to!

One, two, three.

Freedom little ones, you're free!

Woo-hoo!

There was just a moment where they went, "Really?"

And then poof! Off.

It's a brilliant feeling.

'These pythons were caught for their skins,

'and I've been given the dubious privilege of releasing them.

'I'm actually terrified of snakes, but I don't want to let on!'

OK. That's how you deal with a phobia. OK.

Be free, little thing.

There you go.

SUE LAUGHS

Just wait till I've picked up the end!

The weight of it! It's so powerful.

Brilliant.

'Yeah, I think I got away with it.

'We head further upstream, to as remote a spot

'as we could possibly find for our final release.'

In there is a little loris.

I'm not sure if it's a boy or a girl.

It's hiding it's eyes.

Must be starting to wake up.

It needs to go in at dusk,

so we are pretty good to go, aren't we, Dean? It's almost time.

Yeah, yeah. It's about right.

I don't think I have been as excited about the contents of a box

since Christmas Day, 1979.

'This beautiful little thing was destined to be killed

'for traditional medicine, dried, crucified

'and used to ward off evil spirits, but now...freedom beckons.'

It's OK, out you come.

(Beauty).

Slow, slow loris, slow loris.

Unbelievable.

Come on, come on.

Up you go, up you go.

That's it, you've got it, you've got it.

I hope that animal never has to see anything on two legs ever again.

That's my wish for it.

Hey.

(You need to come here.)

It's a medium-to-fast loris.

It's the Usain Bolt of lorises.

Amazing. Well done.

Yeah, that was quite a scamper for a loris,

he's right up in the canopy now.

Such a good feeling to see all those cages and crates empty.

Job done.

It's a small victory in a difficult and complicated war.

But it sure felt good to me.

So having sort of travelled through some of the tributaries,

I'm now back on the main course of the Mekong

and I've been felled with Mekong lurgy almost as soon

as I set foot back on this river.

It sort of feels like very familiar topography now.

It's joyous but also slightly painful of throat.

I'm motoring upstream to a place called Kratjie.

It's one of the last places on the whole of the Mekong

where you can still see its most endangered

and iconic species - the Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin.

Its domed head - think aquatic Patrick Stewart -

is a symbol of a new generation learning to value their wildlife

in a new way.

Whoa, here we go.

Now I'm famous for falling over at these points.

'I'm heading out on the river with a bunch of fishermen

'who have changed their way of life to help save the river dolphin.'

Chum reap suor.

THEY LAUGH

Already, the laughter has begun, which is something

that's followed me. It's almost the soundtrack of my travels.

Traditionally, Mekong fishermen use gill nets - long fine nets

that float in the water and capture all the fish that pass.

But the dolphins were also getting caught and drowning.

Now the fisherman are being encouraged to use different gear.

HE SPEAKS IN KHMER

Keep it safe, yeah?

There's some ancient Cambodian rope bondage going on here.

You imagine it's going to feel like gossamer - very, very light.

It's so heavy, it's unbelievable.

One, two, three, yeah!

Oh, now look at that!

OK, ready, here I go.

SUE BLOWS A RASPBERRY

I seem to have caught quite a lot of mud.

'These are cast nets -

'small, circular nets with heavy weights at the ends.'

Biceps like you wouldn't believe if you did this for a few hours a day.

Hello, hot stuff. Right, what am I doing?

'These are hard work and less efficient than gill nets,

'but you'd struggle to catch any passing dolphins with them.'

Show off!

The idea of practice is that you get better slowly

and incrementally. I've managed to get worse each time I've done it.

This whole project was the dream of one man -

conservationist Touch Seang Tana,

who saw the dolphin was approaching the point of no return

and decided to persuade the fishermen to change their ways.

Like most of Cambodia's problems,

the decline of the river dolphin can be traced back to Year Zero.

Overfishing and gill netting only made things worse.

By 2007, there were only 100 dolphins left in the Mekong.

Tana invested his own money and time

in training the fisherman to use cast nets.

He set up river patrols to catch fishermen using illegal gear.

But most importantly, he introduced new ways of making a living

to replace lost revenue from fishing.

Now 20,000 visitors come here each year to get a glimpse

of this extraordinary creature,

bringing much needed tourist dollars to local people.

For now, the dolphins are worth more alive than dead.

There are 60 Irrawaddy Mekong dolphin in the whole world

and this is my opportunity to see them.

I naively assumed they'd be delighted to see me

or as delighted as I was to see them,

-but of course you only really get...

-SPLASH

I love that noise.

Just get a glimpse of a fin but nothing more than that,

and why would you, because we've hunted them almost to extinction.

The story of the Mekong dolphins,

the story of what one person did, involving the community,

finding a combination of education programmes and, you know,

river enforcement and economic boom

that would change the hearts and minds of this population,

that would incentivise them to take this path over this path.

What's happening here is nothing short of a small Cambodian miracle

and I really hope if I come back here in 20 or 30 years' time,

I'll be able to buy a stone carving of an animal

that still exists in these waters.

The future of the river dolphin is far from certain.

There's a massive dam planned just upstream from here

that will affect their migration routes.

And the population is now so small

that it may no longer even be viable.

But the fact that local people are at least trying

to do something about it gives me hope for the future.

As I move upstream, the landscape changes.

The thick forest that would once have lined the river banks

has all been cut down.

But up ahead, a small patch of jungle has survived,

apparently, protected by a monastery...and a hermit!

I'm off to see Mr Song, who is a hermit.

I've never met a hermit before.

I'm slightly confused that I'm meeting one now,

because I thought the whole point of hermits was that they shooed people,

and that someone coming visiting would be a hermit's worst nightmare!

But apparently he quite likes hanging out with people

and anyone's welcome to drop round for tea.

Well, this is the most interesting gangplank I may have walked yet.

It just adds to my sense of creeping inadequacy

that there is a family of seasoned fishermen watching me.

It sort of feels like I'm taking part in an episode

of Total Wipeout.

Cambodian style.

Oh, yeah, it's like Woman on Wire now.

I think I hear the sound of mocking laughter.

Imagine this is like the first test

to see if you actually want to become a hermit.

In Buddhist teachings, animals carry the souls of our ancestors

and harming nature will bring bad karma.

This place feels like a sanctuary.

I think that's the hermit's three o'clock appointment leaving.

I climb up through surprisingly rich jungle.

It is an oasis of calm - cool, thick forest cover,

and at the top of the hill, there really is a hermit.

Chum reap suor.

You're a good one.

I know you are a good man.

Oh...

That was a little harder than I expected.

That was sort of like a friendly head butt.

There is nothing in there.

'I have no idea what's going on...

'but I kind of like it.'

I think we might be engaged to be married now.

Beautiful, look at this.

NOKIA TUNE PLAYS

Is that your phone going?

Is this you?

Look at you!

That is marvellous. So, basically, I've come here,

I've been shown a picture...

Yeah, we are married now, when this mega-dude had this hair,

this great Jimi Hendrix hair, he's now got it as a hairpiece.

I want to try the hairpiece on.

He likes a bit of that. There you go, what about that?

What made you want to be apart from the world and be a hermit?

And so do you look after this forest?

I see. So you have half and the Buddhists have half.

Together you protect it.

-NOKIA TUNE PLAYS

-That's your mobile.

You see, hermits have got to stay connected.

Who is phoning the hermit?

Want me to have a look?

It's your mum, she says,

"Where have you been for the last 30 years?"

She's furious. She's absolutely furious with you.

Really is furious. You need to know that.

Do you worry that this forest is in danger

from people cutting down the trees?

I hear that you tell fortunes. Is this true?

Would you tell my fortune?

So I will have love.

Little charmer you are, you are a charmer.

We do hugs in my country.

Patting's good.

Take care.

Aw khun.

Extraordinary thing to meet a total stranger

and to just have him bang his head against yours

and almost suck the thoughts out of your head.

He really touches your flesh and squeezes it.

You know, for it to be such an innocent and pure connection,

non-verbal connection. I sort of understood everything

he said without having it really be translated.

It was very profound. Sometimes silence is the best medicine.

This is the lesson for my sore throat, I should just...

These remnants of wilderness are good for the soul.

Just what I need to prepare myself for the journey ahead.

I'm now heading into north-eastern edge of the river basin,

to the Ratanakiri region near the borders with Vietnam and Laos,

and the most intensively logged area in Cambodia.

This is the front line in this war with nature.

Cambodia has the highest rate of deforestation of all the countries

in the Mekong region, and one of the worst in the world.

The only way to see the scale of the destruction is from the air.

You can just see these massive scars running through the land.

The worrying thing is those scars are roads,

and once we've got infrastructure,

they can just start buying up more and more parcels of land

and planting rubber and destroying primary forest.

They might as well just stick a massive sign.

"For sale. Highest bidder, will take all offers."

Because that essentially is what it amounts to.

'Just ten years ago, this would have been beautiful rainforest

'as far as the eye could see.'

There's something vaguely despondent about seeing a landscape on fire,

about seeing trees destroyed, sort of bare earth just exposed.

I'm glad I've seen the scale of it,

but it's been totally disheartening.

Totally disheartening.

'The government has leased 45% of

the country's land to private investors.

'In many areas, the valuable tropical hard woods are ripped down

'and replaced with cash crops like rubber and cashew nuts.

'In the last decade, 300,000 hectares -

'an area the size of Kent -

'has been covered with rubber trees.

'These vast monoculture plantations replace small farms

'and forests full of life.

'And this land is often sold to investors

'without the locals' consent in what is basically a legalised land grab.

'We tried to film in these heavily logged zones

'but were refused access. We were told it was simply too dangerous.'

The Krung people live in the remote highlands of Ratanakiri

and are one of the tribes most affected by the changes.

I've come to experience their unique way of life, before it's too late.

I'm joining the women of Kan Chun

and I've been practising the local lingo.

"Gangala," I'm hoping, means hello.

Gangala!

-Gangala!

-Gangala.

Oh, gangala!

Oh, yeah.

I think that meant, "She just sat in pig dung!"

Yes, yes, now I know.

It's just poo that I've sat in.

Better, better.

Never sit on the brown, that's what I've learned.

Pig!

SHE SNORTS LIKE A PIG

What's that, darling?

-Sue.

-Sue.

-Sue.

-Sue.

-Sue.

-Sue.

What's your name?

Sabach.

Would you be able to teach me one to ten in Krump?

THEY COUNT IN KRUMP

In English, one...

-One.

-Two.

-Two.

-Three.

-Three.

She is saying someone has farted and they have.

I was too polite to say it, but she just went like that.

It was like, yeah, someone just did a terrible fart.

I know who it was.

There was a lot of chitchat back there.

It was awful wasn't it? Terrible!

Yeah, off you pop!

Really terrible.

And pop it in there.

Thank you!

Here we go! I've got pack mule written all over me.

I always like to meet a tribe first,

by just sitting in a little bit of pig turd.

I found it a real icebreaker, sort of dried on me now.

What's incredible for me is I met these people ten minutes ago,

they have now welcomed me into their home, taken my hand in theirs

leading me off for a day's work, no questions asked.

No suspicion, no mistrust. Open!

What's theirs is mine.

It's really wonderful, it is a bit teary.

I live in such a closed off way.

Come to somewhere like this and it just blows you wide open.

Now this is, that is.. Now I'm native.

This is good.

I like this, it's nice.

Both sides!

Aw khun.

I'm loving that pipe.

She's rocking that bit of tobacco ware.

'On our way to their fields, our language lesson continues.'

Neck.

-Dang.

-Dang, neck.

And what is this?

Ears!

'And the ladies quickly cut to the chase.'

Oh, this?!

LAUGHTER

Fanny.

Fanny.

Fanny, yeah.

Fanny or...

There's lots of words.

Um...

Fud! Fud.

Charlat.

Charlotte?

LAUGHTER

Who's Charlotte?!

'The village grows most of its food on a hectare of hillside.

'The red volcanic soil is very fertile -

'one reason the big agricultural companies

'have targeted this part of the country.

'It's very different to the neat lines of veg

'we grow in our gardens at home.

'It's a wild collection of exotic plants, and well,

'I don't know what any of it is to be honest.'

This is like a herb, I think...

Does that look like that?

What's this?

If I was foraging, I'd last about five minutes.

I'd just cry and want a Kit Kat.

'Ten of these fields provide enough food for a village of 200 people.

'In the dry season when there's less to eat,

'they turn to their forests for food.

'Right now, after the rains, there's plenty,

'if you know what to look for.'

I know you will not be able to understand a word of this,

but I have not felt this profoundly peaceful for such a long time.

It's such a privilege to be here.

SPEAKS IN KHMER

Oh, God, here we go, that was long!

The collection forest is an important part of this wild larder -

an area where they hunt and gather food.

Today, we're collecting branches for making dyes.

Oh, take that!

Basically, if you strip back this bark and you boil it,

it turns into a beautiful red colour which can dye

a load of their woven products.

And I just heard a chain saw.

Never too far away from a logger.

The threat of losing their land

and their way of life is not new to the Krung.

50 years ago, this region was bombed by US warplanes

heading for Vietnam and then became a focus for Khmer Rouge brutality.

The hill tribes were forced out of their villages

to work on communal farms.

Despite all this, they have maintained their unique identity.

Most of the villagers only speak their tribal language,

and few leave to work or get an education outside the village.

The community feels very separate from modern day Cambodia.

Yesterday's foraging has given us plenty of work to do.

Clothes don't just go dyeing themselves, you know.

SUE HUMS "THE BRITISH GRENADIERS SONG"

Right, is this good? Ah, now we're stripping it.

I get you.

Now, I can see the red, though, the red dye.

OK, time to dye.

'Water from the village well is on the boil

'and the bark is cooked up for an hour

'before it's ready for the silk.'

Don't worry, you're not for the pot.

It looks like an evaporated Anne Robinson at the moment.

This is so complicated.

It's like learning to play the harp in zero gravity.

So many little intricate bits, and different yarns...

You are a very clever sausage.

-Thanks.

-You're welcome.

How do you feel about the forest being threatened?

So how do you try and protect the forest from people

who want to chop down the trees?

Do you love your life?

Yeah, I thought so. I thought so.

Sabach was very confident about the future of this village

and very confident that they could save the forest,

and the sort of child innocent part of me wants to believe that,

the part that believes that good triumphs over evil.

But what she hasn't seen and what I have seen

is the view of her homeland from the air,

and the fact that the forest is being decimated at a rate that she

will never be able to understand until it's at her front door.

So all you have to do is hope.

You can hear chain saws.

When you hear them, I don't think hope

is enough of a hook to hang the survival of this community on.

It's so important not to romanticise this way of life.

It's hard work,

and by our materialistic western standards, they have very little.

But I can't help but feel they have retained something

that we have lost. A distinct culture,

a relationship with the natural world that so many of us crave.

Like many forest peoples, they live sustainably,

and see value in the living trees.

But with big business closing in, I fear this could all be swept away.

I'm genuinely sad I'm going. I don't want to go!

SUE SPEAKS KHMER

Until next time.

Goodbye, goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye, as we do it.

These women made me feel so welcome

and have a warmth and a happiness that was just infectious.

It's been a once in a lifetime, total privilege to be here.

To meet people who live so far away,

but with whom I feel such an instant connection.

In many ways though, I've found this

the most difficult journey of my life.

Cambodia's caught in a real battle,

between the urge to modernise and rise out of poverty

and the desire to retain what's unique, precious and irreplaceable.

The hardwood from the tropical forests that we in the West buy

is a huge source of foreign revenue,

but when they're gone, there will be nothing left.

It's very hard to put into words my time in this country,

because the emotions still feel very raw and very unprocessed,

so I'll round somebody else's words up, I think.

I don't think anyone's put it better than the former US ambassador,

a guy called Joseph Mussomeli,

and he said, "Cambodia is the most dangerous place you'll ever visit.

"You'll fall in love with it and then it will break your heart."

It's perfect.

Next time I'm in Laos...

Oh, that's cold!

'Sleepy, beautiful, and forgotten.

'It feels like Buddhism

'and communism have helped hold back time.'

I've had to travel this many miles upriver

to finally get to the Mekong of my imagination.

'But it's here the biggest changes of all are coming to the Mekong.'

Whether you think that it will bring renewable energy

or whether you think it's an ecological disaster,

the dam is coming and it will change this entire land forever.