Thursday: Floating Villages and back to Phnom Penh

Susanne:

I know, I know...slackers we are. I don`t expect much sympathy from our little reader group, but this vacation is pretty ``exhausting`` and it seems hard to find time to keep up the blog. The days have been packed full, evenings are filled with late dinners and drinks and often it is hard to find some relaxing time. Having said this: we talk often about about how we are so lucky to experience all the things we learn every day, so now we certainly want to share. But thanks for your patience....:)

Today was our last day in Siem Reap.

First I had a happy little morning adventure with Carol. She had wanted to ride an elephant very, very badly, so that the two of us got up early and went via Tuk Tuk back to Angkor Wat to an area where you could ride elephants twice a day: once early in the morning and then for another two hours slot in the afternoon.  So Carol got to ride her elephant and I have rarely seen someone so overjoyed when she first saw them and also when she went for her 20 minute elephant ride with the biggest smile on her face and big waving arms toward me when I took pictures. It was a very special moment I will likely never forget :)

We went back to the hotel and our guide accompanied the whole group to the floating villages which are basically along the Tonle Sap Lake, apparently the second largest freshwater lake on earth, near Siem Reap. The lake grows significantly during rainy season, has a ton of fish to feed many mouths and support the indurty. The waterline creeps up the lake banks between spring and fall. We had to climb down a steep walkway to our boat and got on board a pretty noisy and old boat which we took slowly up a canal to get to the open lake. On the canal, we could see the first homes, gas stations, churches etc which were still attached to land via a plank. Once we got to the open water, we could see a village of homes on the water, a few hundred likely. What a sight. We were attacked by ``pirates`` along the way (our tour guide`s term): small boats with kids wanting to sell us soft drinks. They literally pull up along side your boat while moving and the kids jump from one boat to the other to pull their little bucket across the boat trying to make some money. Ours was a cute, little girl with a dirty face who was pretty comfy with jumping from one to another.

We had a tourist kind of stop where we could buy gifts, hold a python, see huge cat fish, crocodiles. We also saw a floating school, church, basketball courts and a great number of homes. The lake is the home to about 10,000 people who live on the water in these floating villages. One would wonder why people live there....it is just the way it has always been, we were told. Families who live on the water are more comfortable there and get antsy when being on land for too long. The kids often swim to school, families do laundry in the lake, use it as bathroom drainage...everything happens in the lake. So you can imagine that the lake gets much cleaner when the water level is higher in the rainy season which we have just started. My guess is that the level where it was and where it was supposed to rise to was maybe 10-15 metres higher. Many homes in the area are also built on stilts which allows for flooding as well as the usual other advantages: less critters in the homes, extra space to use below the home which is cool, perfect for hammocks etc. Place for motos.

It was a great half day. We went back for lunch, had a couple of hours at our roof top pool, and started our journey back to Phnom Penh (6 hours) On the way, we stopped at our usual stop where they sell the tarantulas and Nick tried to have a hundred placed on his shirt.he o9nly got to about 40, but putting them on his shirt definitely got a few of us to run for our cameras.
Back at the hotel, we got ready to stay overnight before heading to the coast the next morning. We found a great restaurant near the hotel which was French and had some nice wine, excellent pasta, some folks had cognac and they even served real ice cream. Yum. After a lot of traditional Khmer food and many stomach ailments which seem to have plagued our team, everyone is quite excited to order some things that are a bit more western.

We loved Siem Reap. Very clean, touristy, lots to see and do. Very nice, a definite must see!