Cambodia Day 6 : Tonle Sap Lake 

This was the first time we got to sleep-in a little and woke up at 6:00 am (haha...later...) as compared to the last four days. Of all people, I think our driver must have been the most thankful one having to wake up at a more decent hour, after having to cope with us wackos since we invaded his country on the 12th. Our communication with him was limited to very basic English words and lots of hand movements but we were quite sure he thought we came from a land where sunrise and sunset never existed. He must be thinking...What a bunch of nuts! 

We had a yummy breakfast which we ordered last night, a variety of omelettes, bread and the pancakes which Cat and Irene ordered were really good - banana and pineapple. 

We left for Tonle Sap Lake at 7:15 am. Today was a different experience altogether, different from the last few days of the Angkor empire. Here we saw the daily lives of the Cambodian people as we passed through village after village on the way to Tonle Sap Lake, as poor as can be - simple, worn-down wooden huts, no electricity or piped water, hot and dust everywhere. It reminded us of how privileged we are to have brick houses, lots of clean water to waste, plenty of electricity to supply the many appliances at home.

We made a stop at Kompong Phluk, located just before the jetty. It was a fishing village where boats were coming in at that time, bringing in their catch. Villagers were busy sorting out fish, weighing and transporting their catch to where I could only guess, the local markets.

Children running around, mothers carrying their babies, little pink piggies in cages, children and adults gambling with make-shift dice - we managed to capture the daily activities of this fishing village and its villagers but the smell was rather unbearable for some of us. Irene, don't complain, it's not as bad as the dump site!

We reached the jetty eventually and got on to our boat, which cost us US$50 per hour. Immediately, our cameras went to work. Homes on this floating village ranged from barges to rafts to covered fishing boats. The villagers use small rowboats to get about and the younger ones to school. There was a school (Chong Khneas Elementary School), some shops, restaurants and a Catholic church, all built on barges. Hmmm... I wonder if the floating school changes its location occasionally.

As our boat drew nearer to a floating restaurant, we were "attacked" by little "pirates". These are young boys rowing around in plastic or metal basins with a piece of wood as an oar. They grabbed on to our boat as they did with any other boats that passed by (with tourists) and asked for money - 1 dollar. 

At the floating restaurant, one could get refreshments and souvenirs. We tried some boiled small prawns sold in plates, and had a cold drink each. At 11:00 am we returned to Siem Reap's local market for an early lunch. There we did our last-minute souvenir shopping. Yes, Bernard, I remembered to mention your girlfriend, Ah Ling. We bought many things from her shop - bags, Cambodian shirts, wood carvings, shawls.

We returned to our guest house to shower, pack-up and check out. At 2:00 pm, we loaded our van and left for Phnom Penh. Back to the road where we came from, the view was again filled with never-ending paddy fields, horse carts and bullock carts, skinny buffalos working, skinny cows grazing whatever grass that was left due to the dry season, motor-carts carrying slaughtered pigs or chickens, road signs with name of places written on it but struck across with a red line (didn't understand what that's about).

Understanding our obsession for sunsets, our good driver stopped us at a nice location by the side of the road to witness another magnificent sunset. He took peeks at our pictures and joined us in taking some sunset shots with the mobile phone camera. PSPJ, you have a potential Cambodian member!

Our driver drove us to a local restaurant to have dinner. He gave us a thumb's-up sign, indicating good food. We were on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, about another hour's drive away and it was already getting dark. We continued our journey with our bellies filled and finally reached Spring Guest House, the place where we stayed when we first arrived. 

After checking-in, we wanted to do a little tour (too early to sleep) and look for a place to hang out. Unfortunately, our tired driver had already happily gone home. We decided to be a little adventurous and did some walking. We didn't know the directions and the map board was confusing, but we continued walking. Uncle Lee was worried about his camera bag left at the reception, so he headed back to the guest house with KK and Bernard. Oops, not a good idea continuing our journey with five girls and just one guy. We hardly saw anyone walking on the streets, and some guys were hanging around and looked like they were up to no good. Ok, everyone, balik! We found a coffee-shop that was still open and had drinks there until they closed.