Category: Travel

Today we decided not to do temples, so instead we took a trip to the big lake around here named Tonle Sap.   It’s a big feature in Cambodian life, and scattered around the edges are a bunch of neat village communities.  We left in the morning and rode a couple miles down the road until we reached a river inlet, where we hopped aboard a nice boat and meandered through a floating village whose name escapes us.  It is known as a floating village because all of village life takes place on boats: people live on house boats, travel by little motorized canoes, visit the store boat, the school boat, the church boat, the temple boat, the restaurant boat, the laundry boat (very funny looking), etc. 

Then we shot out onto the lake.  We had no idea just how big Tonle Sap is–but even looking across it the short way there’s no way that you can see the other side. We skirted just a bit of the top edge of it, and it took us well over an hour to get where we were going, which was the "flooded forest" and village of Kompong Phhluk.  This was neat.  It was located alongside a river whose banks were permanently under water, so that all along the sides of you were trees that were halfway underwater and whose branches reached near to the water, forming little canopies.  We then arrived at the village, which was entirely on stilts.  Apparently, when the monsoon comes, Tonle Sap floods, inundating the entire town except for the houses on stilts.  It was quite the sight, although we were bothered incessantly by young children begging.  (The difference between a middle income country like Indonesia, where in the more urban areas most children are in school all day, and a poor country like Cambodia even in the urban areas most very young children are working, has become really striking.)  Then we got to go into a smaller boat and float through the canopied forest,. after which we headed back home.  Aside from our guide repeatedly trying to get us to pay him a tip, it was a very interesting day.  We even got to see some catfish, snakes, and crocodiles.  We’re going to try to get our pictures online soon, and I am sure that they will describe our trip better than I (TP) have.

Today we saw temples.  Angkor Wat, Bayon, Baphoun, Phimeanakas, Ta Prohm, Phnom Bakheng, etc etc etc.  Many many temples.  Our day started at 5:00 with a sunrise view of Angkor Wat, then breakfast back at the hotel, then a long morning of climbing all over giant temples, then lunch, then some more temples, back to Angkor Wat for a more detailed visit, then a climb to another hidden temple, and the back to the room by 3:30.  We were sweaty and exhausted by the end of our day, and we looked rather like drowned rats when we arrived back at the hotel.  And the three of us did it rather in comfort, in an air-conditioned car with a driver and a guide and all the cold water we could drink.

Our guide was quite a historian and was able to tell us lots of interesting things.  The temples are a mix between Hindu and Buddhist, with intricate artwork detailing the great Indian epics, Buddhist icons and symbols, and Khmer history.  Probably my (TP’s) favorite part was a great big relief at Bayon depicting a war between the Khmers and the Chams.  You could identify the Chams (Muslims, related to Malays) because they had helmets on and were losing.  You could identify the Khmers because they had long earlobes (long earlobes are thought to symbolize long life).  You could also identify the Chinese, fighting along with the Khmers as allies, because they had beards.  At any rate, we learned way too much.  Learn about the Angkor temple complex on wikipedia.

Our guide also gave us quite the rundown on recent Cambodian history.  What a terrible set of stories.  He was born in 1977, so his was the generation who were taken from their mothers at the age of one month because their mothers were needed in the fields.  Even after the Vietnamese drove the Khmer Rouge back into the jungles, the country didn’t enjoy any peace; there was still bitter fighting until 1998.  He described the days of hiding in Angkor Wat from the armies fighting in the area.  The tourism industry in Siem Reap has blossomed between 1998 and today, but civil war has left Cambodia a legacy of stunning poverty and lack of nearly any infrastructure aside from hotels and restaurants for tourists.

Our agenda for tomorrow is still unclear, but we are greatly enjoying our time here so far.