A day out on Tonle Sap Lake

Our final trip was to the Tonle Sap Lake. This lake is huge and is at the centre of Cambodia, stretching all the way from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It is a huge part of the countries infrastructure, economy and food source. There are also several floating villages on the lake where people live and work, and of course it is a great tourist attraction. 

"Many drops make a bucket, many buckets make a pond, many ponds make a lake, and many lakes make an ocean." - Percy Ross

[Many, many drops make up the Tonle Sap]

We hired a driver from a good guide friend of mine, who gave us instructions on prices and saw that the driver made sure we didn't get ripped off. The cost for a boat should be around $18, but sometimes guides and the operators make deals and individuals can be charged anything up to around $30 each. We got a good price and got on our little boat.

"Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not." - James Taylor

On our way...


This is the kind of boat we were on...




As we set off onto the lake our guide pointed out a new hospital that was being built for the residents of the floating villages.

Some of the people who live on the lake going about their daily life.

A graveyard, our guide joked in rainy season all the bodies would float away and you would see them on the lake - he was so deadpan we actually believed him for a moment!

"Don't die old, die empty. That's the goal of life. Go to the cemetery and disappoint the graveyard." - Myles Munroe

Most of the houses and shops on the lake are painted in this blue colour, I think this was the police station.

The local church.

A shop selling everything you could possibly want!

Local homes...

Looks like these people were involved in fishing.

This is the local school. As you can see there is some Vietnamese writing here also, as many of the lakes inhabitants are of Vietnamese origin.

The far end of the school and the basketball court.

To be honest, we found the trip and the interaction with the school rather disturbing, About a third of the journey out the guide is supposed to take you to the school to visit the children, give them sweets and rice for the kitchen and gifts for the kids and take photographs with the kids. I asked if every boat leaving that harbour did the same - and the answer was yes. I also asked how the kids ever learned anything with constant disruption to their learning, there was no answer to that. It essentially felt that these kids were being exploited in order to bring money, food and gifts into the community via the school and no learning was taking place. My work and many other schools and NGOs have strict policies about not allowing tourists to interact with children, taking photos of minors, what constitutes exploitation and not disrupting learning. The guide was pretty shocked when we refused a visit to the school in preference of leaving the children alone to learn.

Think about it, if these were your kids, would you be happy with boat loads of tourists tramping through your kids schools four times an hour and your kids learning nothing...? So, its not ok to do it as tourists either!

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom." - George Washington Carv

Here are some more of the community buildings / centers, shops and restaurants - all floating...

The lake really is so vast you feel like you are out at sea - here is one of the ferrys / pleasure cruises.

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." - Rabindranath Tagore

We were offered a trip in the small dug out boats in the mangroves, but at a cost of $20 each (later found out it should have been $5 each) we knew we were being ripped off, there was no deal to be struck and much as I don't mind paying a little extra here and there and tipping a guide for a good job, I don't like being ripped off to my face, so we skipped this section too.

The lake is lovely and the floating villages interesting, our guide was interesting and informative, but the whole set up really exists to milk the tourist and exploit the people there, which made us pretty sad.

Some of the homes really are lovely...

...and others you really can see people are struggling to make ends meet.

There are the houses on the edge of the lake, that aren't floating, but are built on stilts to keep them out of the water.

This was a look out tower across the lake.

The 'Water traffic police Technique and solving' hut ?

Even on the lake, temples and pagodas are important.

This boat was going super fast and was powered by what looked like the sort of reverse hoover you blow your leaves with in the garden.

A leaf blower.

There were these huge traffic signs all over the lake as well on massive poles giving Captains instructions, never seen anything similar before.

Off the lake and back on dry land this is what the houses looked like from the road - ready to float and on stilts, but currently above the water...

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Sooner than you would know it was time for sundowners and mum to fly home after an awesome trip!

Thanks for an awesome time mum!

"The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege." - Charles Kuralt

Khmer BBQ, Mini Angkor Wat and a local pagoda

On one of the nights mum was over we tried the Khmer BBQ. 

A round metal dish on a personal gas stove arrives at your table. You use pork fat to grease and give flavour to the center piece and here is where you cook your meat, we had beef, chicken, fish, squid, crocodile and pork). In the dip on the edge of the metal dish you boil stock / soup with veggies and noodles. Very different from British BBQs, South American Parillas and Namibian Braai's but delicious in their own right.

"My first outdoor cooking memories are full of erratic British summers, Dad swearing at a barbecue that he couldn't put together, and eventually eating charred sausages, feeling brilliant." - Jamie Oliver

"I love barbecue, it's my favourite thing to eat." - David Nail

We also took a trip down my street to mini Angkor Wat, based on an artists backyard and costing $1.50 a visit this cast in concrete model of the main temples is rather fascinating...

"One man is equivalent to all Creation. One man is a World in miniature." - Albert Pike

"You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually." - Cate Blanchett

The guy really is a great artist!

Such an unusual thing to have down the street!

We also popped into one of the local pagodas in town and captured some beautiful sights...

 

Our next and final trip was to Tonle Sap Lake...

Girls road trip up Phnom Kulen

A group of about ten of us headed out to the local Mexican restaurant to wave a temporary goodbye to some of our Andorran friends who were heading home for Christmas and a break. There were a few old friend and that night we made a few new ones. 

"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun." - Charles R. Swindoll

Two of the ladies were heading on a day trip to the Phnom Kulen mountain and waterfall the next day with all the girls they work with and kindly invited us along as there was space in the bus.

The next day we met up at their work place and headed off to Kulen, it took about an hour to get to the foot of the mountain and foreign visitors must pay $20 each to use the road up the mountain. The road is steep, windy and extremely bumpy - certainly not worth $20 per head! The road left us all feeling pretty sick too!

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

We stopped off to buy some red bananas on the way - they look different and taste a little different too. 

"Something will pop up in my head. It could be like the weirdest thing. Like all'a sudden like I have like a jumping banana in my head." - Ryan Lochte

First we visited the temple... 

Steps leading to the temple

The gates of the temple are 'guarded' by many animals and mythical creatures.

The view from the top of the temple...

 Small Buddhas placed by the big Buddha.

Big gold reclining Buddha carved into the top of the rock at the top of the temple. 

“True love is born from understanding.” ― Gautama Buddha

 

 The Buddha is housed in here and carved into the rock the 'hut' is built on.

 A monk offers blessings at the bottom of the temple.

"A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen." - John O'Donohue

Medicinal roots for sale, some of these were massive.

 Lotus flowers for the temples.

Everyone had a paddle in the top part of the waterfall...

...before seeing what was at the bottom of this torrent...

"I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall." - Mike May

I love a good waterfall!  

  

In we all went and swam over to the main falls to get a shoulder massage!

"This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can't see how deep it is." - Dennis Rodman

In the meantime mum turned her attention to photographing a rather muscular young monk (there were quite a few photos!)...

  

After a lovely lunch we headed off back to Siem Reap, on the way we had a rather sobering visit to the Landmine Museum and a center where people affected by landmine incidents could live and get support. The visit was interesting, but I think the Khmer girls found it a little hard as so many people in current society have been affected by landmine incidents.

"Landmines are among the most barbaric weapons of war, because they continue to kill and maim innocent people long after the war itself has ended. Also, fear of them keeps people off the land, and thus prevents them from growing food."- Kofi Annan

Next we had a trip to the butterfly garden...

...saw pupae growing...

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." - R. Buckminster Fuller

...and managed to photograph some of the butterflies...

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

....before we headed back to Siem Reap after an awesome, yet shattering day making new friends and hanging out in nature!

"I'm tired, but I'm happy" - Rene Preval