Driving a white 1986-model Citroen 2CV more than 28,000 km through 14 countries over nearly a year wasn’t easy for Fabien Bastide and Coralie Vongsouthi, who pulled their beat-up 2-cylinder sedan into Phnom Penh on Tuesday.
“We broke the chassis three times and had to weld it. Then the gear box broke twice…Some days we had two tires go flat, sometimes none,” said Bastide, 27, who along with Vongsouthi, 26, is making a documentary during their journey to Laos on the relationship between cultures and water.
The pair began their journey Nov 10 in Montpellier, France, which is facing a water shortage, and they have trundled through Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Thailand.
During their stops, they studied the potential impact of hydropower on the Euphrates River and how some Indians have returned to using more traditional extraction techniques to save water, Bastide said.
The two plan to visit Vietnam next and afterward document the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake, before visiting areas in Laos where large hydropower dams are under construction, he said.
