Day 4: 14 April -- Siem Reap and floating village

Happy Khmer New Year!

We are just back from dinner at a riverside restaurant, and the drive through the downtown area was magic.  Street decorations all lit up; buildings alight with color; noise and music; partying all along the river bank; and traffic at a total crawl.  It was a nice bonus to be here at this festive time.

Another 8am start.  A very bumpy and slow trip some 17 km out to the edge of Lake Tonle Sap.  This is the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia, linking to Phnom Penh by river.  A bit like Lake George near Canberra, its size fluctuates wildly with the wet and dry seasons.  All along the left side of the road we travelled are shanty houses on stilts next to the Siem Reap creek.  They are illegal structures, inhabited by people who can't afford to buy land.  Surprisingly most seemed to have a TV antenna and power.

At the lake we took a very slow-moving flat bottomed tour boat that took half an hour to get out of the mooring area into the lake proper.  And there we immediately spotted the target of our journey, the floating village.  Vietnam refugees, unable to buy land or get jobs, have created a village of house boats or rafts.  And there are restaurants, a school, shops, tourist stops etc...  The Catholic Church has a floating church/school/mission there too, run by an Indonesian Jesuit.  They have stablished their own welfare committees, law and order etc..  The Cambodian Government provides them with clean drinking water:  that is all.  Many Cambodians want them repatriated forcibly to Vietnam: but the government seems happy to leave well enough alone.  Maybe Tony Abbot should create a floating village in the Swan River or somewhere to solve our problems!  I must say it was very impressive to see how they have made  a life for themselves out of nothing.  And the kids all chip in with running the boats and shops.

Back to the bus, and we faced another very rough ride 75km towards the Thai border.  Traffic was heavy and slow.  3 motorcycles to every car.  Frequently along the way locals set up stalls to sell fruit and vegies and other goods.  An umbrella and a stand, right on the edge of the bitumen.  If you stop to buy, all the other traffic has to dodge around you -- as happened when we stopped to get some sticky rice sweets.  In Australia this would set the scene for major road rage:  here they just take it in their stride.

We had a boxed lunch provided which we ate in a little sidewalk cafe near the entrance to the temple we had come to visit.  The owner was happy to let us use her tables if we bought a beer for $1 ... $3 in Siem Reap!  To be honest, I wouldn't care if I never see another temple ever.  But this Beng Mealea temple is quite unusual.  It is a Hindu temple originally, built in 12th century by the same king as built Angkor Wat.  This is of similar design, but was for ordinary local folk, so was of one level only. It too had a moat and was 1km square.  Like all the others it was absorbed by the jungle and forgotten.  It is now the only one that has not been restored, but left in its ruined state.  There is a boardwalk that allows you to wander through its main areas without in anyway disturbing the original.  Here more than ever one sees the extraordinary power of nature in being able to topple man's mighty constructions.

On the way back to Siem Reap we called in at the old markets:  a bit like Paddy's Markets in Sydney but with  a lot more quality goods of fine workmanship:  clothes, drapery and jewellery especially.

We leave the hotel here at 8.30am in the morning for our flight to Phnom Penh.  Tonight I have done some washing in the bath tub -- and experimented with Maureen's tip about rolling clothes 'dry' in a bath towel.  The morning will tell!

Today's pics can be seen here.