Cambodia & Thailand Day 5
Cambodia & Thailand
DAY 5 - November 30, 2003 - Siem Reap and Bangkok
Our alarm went off at 7 AM so we had a lot of time for breakfast. By 8:30 we were out of town driving along the river through a residential area and markets busy with Monday morning shoppers.
In the yard of each house are small spirit houses which are altars where the people burn incense and make offerings for the Buddhist religion. We drove past an alligator farm growing alligators for meat and the skins which are exported for shoes and handbags.
In the days of the Khmer Rouge, they used to throw their political enemies for alligator food. People use a lot of fish in this area and we saw them being sold dried, fresh, and baked or put in soups for their main staple food.
We stopped to visit a school and the children were so anxious to talk and take their pictures. They wear navy blue skirts or slacks and white shirts. Many do not have shoes and are barefoot.
We visited a second grade class where the teacher has 56 pupils teaching them all subjects. The children sang us a song about the king and queen of Cambodia. As suggested in the OAT brochure, we brought along some gifts for the children, two packs of colorful pencils and special tablets for the teacher.
We left the school and walked along the dirt road past more bamboo and open hut homes and small markets along the brown river.
We saw many people and they were all anxious to say hello and allow us to take pictures of them and their babies. At the end of the road we met the bus and then drove along the paved road through the rice paddies and submerged lands.
We saw many water buffaloes working in these fields as they are stronger than cattle and can be used to work in the mud. We stopped for Nang to get the vouchers for the boat trip.
We began to see houses and huts that are on long bamboo poles in the water. These homes can float with the rising waters during the monsoon rainy season.
We boarded our long tailed boat for our boat ride to Tonle Sap Lake. On our journey through the canal we had a chance to glimpse a bit of the life of Cambodia’s river people.
Floating fishing villages sprawled across the lakefront and everything is gliding by on the water — thatched-roof houses on hollow bamboo poles, small markets, jewelry shops, even a beauty parlor floats by.
We saw several floating schools and even a Catholic Church. Commerce goes on all across the water — women selling fruits and vegetables from a sampan, a skiff full of firewood, and fishermen selling their catch.
Many of the sampans are powered by diesel engines that have strong fumes mixing with the cooking of onions and garlic in addition to the smells of the fisherman unloading their night catch and of animals that are decomposing on the canal’s edge.
The people who live on the water have tied their lives to the lake’s cycles, and are constantly on the move as the water level rises or recedes throughout the year.
Tonle Sap means Great Lake, and indeed this is one of the world’s geographical wonders as well as the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. When the rains begin here in June and July, the Mekong River begins to rise, but instead of flooding its own banks it begins to push the waters of the Tonle Sap at Phnom Penh northward, reversing the river’s flow.
The waters of the Tonle Sap River then flood the lake, increasing its size tenfold and flooding the surrounding forests and fields, leaving behind fertile silt for rice cultivation. In October, after the monsoon season has passed, the lake drains and the river returns to its southern flow.
We returned to the Angkor Hotel to get our luggage and check out. While there we took a group picture and then got on the bus to go to lunch at the Borey Sovann Restaurant.
The food was good but not as tasty as our first experience with food in Cambodia. After lunch we left and drove to the Killing Fields Memorial Temple. It is almost inconceivable to confront the nature of true evil here in this gentle land.
But the Killing Fields Memorial Temple, in the outskirts of Siem Reap commemorates the 1.7 million victims of the 1975-79 Pol Pot genocide. This execution site is one of many throughout Cambodia.
Our next stop was at an artisan’s school sponsored by the French to encourage the development of local artistic crafts. We saw stone cutters, wood carvers, and students who reproduced the ancient religious statues and busts.
We went a short way to the center of town where we visited one of the two local markets (psah) — Psah Chas (Old Market), which offers numerous sovereign shops and craft stands along the riverside, and Psah Leu (Upper Market), which sells fruits and vegetables. Most wanted some souvenirs so that was the one we visited.
One of the highlights of our day was a trip back to Angkor Watt at 4:30 when we took a balloon ride and we were able to see the whole countryside from a height of 600 feet. In the late afternoon, we said goodbye to Nang and Mr. Moon and transferred at 5 PM to the Siem Reap airport to fly back to Bangkok.
We cleared immigration and customs and waited for Anya at about 9 PM. We transferred to our big bus and drove for another 40 minutes to the hotel where we will stay for the next three nights.
Accommodations: Imperial Impala Hotel
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