Open water - Floating village on the Tonle Sap lake, Cambodia

Sep 18 Floating Village

A half early start today to go see a Floating Village on the nearby Tonle Sap lake. The Tonle Sap is the largest lake in South East Asia and changes it's size dramatically from wet to dry season each year. Making a lot of villages actually move their positions around and boat piers move along. The recent floods make the floating villages even more interesting to visit. There's a few floating villages within a daytrips reach of Siem Reap. The closest one is supposedly horribly touristy, the third one is over two hours Tuk Tuk ride away so we opt for the middle choice. The Floating Village of Kompong Phluk, 45 minute Tuk Tuk ride from Siem Reap and a bit by boat. Fine enough for a half day trip and not on the route to any temples. Angkor enthusiasts may not believe this but you can be totally templed out after a day. Maybe with a day or two break I could continue with more of the billions of temples in the Siem Reap area but for now I am happy that we found another great thing to do. The drive to Kompong Phluk is scenic, especially once we leave the main road and drive along a – nicely maintained – dirtpath to the boatdock. There are houses everywhere with people eating, cooking, sleeping, building new houses. Kids are playing in the streets or swimming in the canals. Most of the small houses have been built on stilts to protect them from the water in the rainy season but the smaller wooden shacks are all on the ground. The area is very much alive. There are street vendors with fruits and small stacks and every few hundred meters there's a petrol pump. Meaning a guy is standing next to a table that has an assortment of Whiskey bottles on it that are filled with different types of petrol. You pay by the bottle and fill up your Tuk Tuk or motorcycle. Actually very efficient, I like their style.

The Tuk Tuk ride is $ 15 for the full day to Kompong Phluk and return, which is a good deal when you split it threeways. The boat ride to the floating village is another $ 15 and there is no bargaining with them at all. It's extremely quiet, there's no other tourists here at the moment and judging from the empty parking lot there's not many on the lake either. But still, full price for every one. The five of us – Markus decided to go hike to a waterfall with underwater inscriptions – get a private boat and head out on the huge lake. It takes about 20-30 minutes to get to the village although you can see first isolated houses before then. All houses are built on gigantic stilts and transport is by boat only. Already the small children navigate their way around very efficiently. There are floating fish ponds, vegetable gardens and lots of other floating devices to keep their firewood and everything else dry. We even see a floating chicken and pig stable. So it seems there's nothing that you cannot get floating either. The boat passes slowly through the village giving us a look at the life there. People seem truly happy going about their day on the water. I feel it's really scenic here and if you would like to get away from it all I even see one sign for a guesthouse.

Our boat stops by a makeshift bar where we transfer to a smaller boat which takes us through a flooded/sunken forest, for another $ 3 per person. The sunken forest is pretty cool and we can also watch how some locals jump around monkeylike to cut down some firewood and their efforts to keep it as dry as possible. Marcus and Vilma are driven around by two small kids that have little trouble navigating the narrow passages but enlighten the trip with singing along the way. The mummy is cruising with Joonas, Nina and me and knows her way around pretty well. Singing and cruising along we chill taking in the ghostly looking trees. I try to imagine how this looks like in dry season. Apparently even Tuk Tuk's can drive out here then. The trip ends at a small restaurant on stilts in the middle of nowhere and our boat-driver already waits for us there. Since we got treated to nice Cambodian singing we tip the lady and her kids and you can see their faces light up. I do not think that they get much of that $ 3 we paid, so a little goes a long way here.

We are offered to eat there but the prices are inflated and it doesn't look that trustworthy. After quickly telling us that they can lower the price by $ 1 each dish we decide to give it a go and order some food. The food is prepared a few wooden planks down by ladies sitting on the floor peeling shrimp and gutting fish. Looks fresh to me. All vegetables are freshly cut and a gas stove is used to heat it up. It does take some time for the food to arrive but damn, this is sooooo delicious. My small shrimp salad is so big and so full of shrimp we share it all. And it tastes absolutely fantastic. All the other dishes are really good too. Well, never judge a cook by the facilities, you have no idea which wonders can come out there. Too sad this place is a bit remote to say the least. I would totally return here for dinner, lunch, dinner and so on. I can still taste it a bit in my mouth. Or so I hope. Best shrimp salad to date and I am sure it will remain the one in the most original location.

Another original is the restaurants toilet. It's actually just a wooden plank, so leading right into the lake. Bonus points for hygiene. No smell and it's really clean. Much nicer than most squatters and many western toilets I've seen but points for originality. When it comes to the bill I do decide to actually pay them the original price on the menu and not the one dollar if they gave us. And man was that a good decision. After noticing it the girl actually runs back in the kitchen, shows the money around and jumps happily in the air. Now I would love even more to come back here. And maybe even bring a translator, I would love to hear some stories about living in floating villages. Unlike Siem Reap where every kid that can talk, knows a bit of english, here unfortunately you have to make due with the good old sign language.

The boat heads farther out and after another few minutes we finally reach Tonle Sap lake. All the ride before was actually just floods during rainy season and with only reached the actual lake now. It stretches out as far as the eye can see in all directions and reminds more of an ocean rather than a lake. We are offered the opportunity to jump in and some other Cambodian tourists are already splashing around in their life jackets or having their feet hang in the water. Being unprepared – no swimsuits, no towels – we just opt to take the scenery in instead and head back. Another wonderful sight of the peaceful village and we are somehow back in civilization hopping on the Tuk Tuk to Siem Reap.

Really thrilled we made the trip out here. There is no souvenir shopping, no floating markets but a great glimpse into village life which I truly enjoyed.

Back in Siem Reap a short drinks stop until we head for shopping. We wander through the Old Market and the Central Market and I end up buying a lot. Including an oversize handbag in which I can carry all the stuff back to Bangkok. Somewhere in the middle of shopping Marcus disappears, but it being Siem Reap we run into him hours later. Quick shower break after all the shopping and the reunited six of us set out to dinner. This time its adventurous. Grilled various meats including frog, snake and crocodile. Didn't taste bad at all. But their grilling sauce made everything taste very similar anyway.

After the dinner part goes shopping, part goes drinking and Joonas and I set out to get a blind massage. Apparently blind masseurs can do it way better. With them loosing their seeing sense they focus much more on feeling what's wrong with you. And of what I've experienced I can totally agree. My one hour traditional massage – for $ 5 was simply great. I felt very rejuvenated and relaxed. The blind masseurs really did a good job. Luckily we did see that small sign that leads you into a scary looking alley do their job.

The others also had some retail therapy and we meet again for cocktails in the Bar behind the Night Market. Since they close fairly early another trip to the Pub Street keeps the atmosphere going. The Pub Street also closes comparatively early (was it one or two am?), maybe so people can rise and shine early for the sunrise...

 

 

Are you templed out yet? Angkooooor

Sep 17 Templing it

When you get up really early you would like to be rewarded with something special, and today was such a day. Getting on a Tuk Tuk at 5 in the morning should reward us with a breathtaking sunrise over Angkor Wat. Well that was the plan anyway. We got a good spot in the crowd with a great view of the Temple and got breakfast served to us right there. Sweet start to the day. The sunrise itself was nothing like imagined. There was no red, yellow and orange lights as in all those beautiful pictures I've seen. Instead there were plenty of clouds. Essentially we missed the whole spectacle and instead of Angkor Wat being colored impressively it just went from dark to light, that was that. At least breakfast was good. And since all the crowds move away on their buses right after sunrise we had Angkor Wat once again almost to ourselves. That luxury doesn't get old.

What still annoys me though is the scaffolding in front of Angkor Wat. It's a horrible green and spoils pretty much every picture. Couldn't they not have done it in at least some decent color? Maybe gray or so, so it wouldn't be the one thing that is catching attention.

Behind the restaurants close to Angkor Wat there's a temple with a school for orphans and the kids are happily playing around. Lovely to watch. We explore Angkor Wat inside and out and lastly we would like to climb up to the inner sanctum (the one where we should have paid $ 20 for extra to climb after closing time yesterday). Bad luck once again it only opens at 7.45 in the morning. After we've practically decided to move to other temples and come back later time goes by fast anyway and we pass the next hour (yeah, we did get up early) with taking crazy pictures and photo ops around the temple, some results of which you can see here. Not all pictures should be taken in a temple, but hey who judges that anyway? Finally 7.45 exact we climb (literally climb, the steps are damn steep) the 4^th level of Angkor and it was worth the wait (it may even have been worth the $20 last night – for all of us – but too late for that now). It's also the only place in the whole Angkor area where they enforce the covered knees and shoulders rule, luckily I am prepared with a shawl to wrap around my offending knees. The view from the 4^th level great. You can see the whole Angkor area, the moats and lake in front and all the forest covers around it. Even the hot air balloons in the distance. I am enjoying this, even though there's a few isolates souls besides us now. It's still fairly empty. A lot of similar looking pictures later we search for our dozing Tuk Tuk driver and head to the 2^nd famous temple of Angkor the Bayou temple at Angkor Thom. On the way we pass through the famous South Gate with the bridge in front. All the guardians watching the temples. The faces on the bridge and on top of the gate are really impressive. Maybe even more so than Angkor, hard to decide. Behind the South Gate there's cheeky monkeys jumping up and down – parking cars – and trying to get food from the vendors along the way.

The Bayou temple is fantastic. The gigantic faces everywhere and by far not as renovated as Angkor Wat. More of an adventure to climb up and down and around. But by now the crowds have caught up with us and it's harder to get isolated pictures at the Bayou. And the heat.... phew. But if you ever make your way to Angkor, definitely see the Bayou. Stunning.

We further walk to some other temples and palaces in the Angkor Thom area. Some are closed -we are not too unhappy about it, the heat is sweltering, and have each finished one big bottle of water by now, at least. Some of the area is overgrown by gigantic trees, hundreds of years old and that gives Angkor the mystical feel I've heard about. There's another steep climb up the Royal Palace with another great view. But the area is so vast and so covered in lush greens you can't see the next temple although they are not that far from each other. After walking through the famous Elephant's Terrace and Terrace of the Leper King it's Tuk Tuk time again. It is actually truly enjoyable to enjoy the breeze and sit down for a minute. We've been templing for about 6 hours now and it is time for a break. We forego all suggestions from our driver to see another temple before and insist on lunch right away. And it was the right choice. Guess who we run into at the Lunch place... Vilma and Marcus, the rest of the temple party, who did not want to get up so early for sunrise (good decision considering what we didn't get to see). There are quite a few lunch places around Angkor but apparently all Tuk Tuk drivers stop at the same place, or at least ours did. I am having a Khmer Lok Lak, inspiring name so it needs to be tried and doesn't disappoint. Beef fried with veggies and egg and lots of onion and whatever else they throw in there. And a gigantic portion, very unusual for South East Asia. Nom, nom, and on with the Temple Tour. Next up is a photo stop at an unfinished temple Ta Keo. Guessing there is no great view that's one temple we don't climb up on and continue to Ta Prohm. the Temple that's become famous through Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. It's still fully overgrown with gigantic trees that are now part of the temple and make it look more authentic than the other ones that have been prepped and trimmed for tourists. Again there's barely anyone there besides us so which makes it more adventurous when you are climbing through the dark alleys of the temple no other soul in sight and not knowing where you'll get out again or seeing the tree trunks that are all over. If it wouldn't be for the scorching heat this would be even more enjoyable.

The moment we leave the Ta Prohm area there's a massive amount of kids running after us trying to sell us everything useless and barely useful. Almost everything is 'on dollaaa' and for my purchase of those kids my friends will make fun of me for weeks to come. Whatever it made the kids happy that someone but something off of them and got them to stop following us. That's the disadvantage of being the only tourists around. All the touts are on to you.

Next temple on the list is Banteay Kdei, old overgrown and no tourists and smaller than most of the other ones we've seen so far. Cows, ducks and chicken are casually grazing on the temple grounds, not many kids selling stuff, it would be a photographers dream. But after templing since sunrise we are pretty much templed out by now and can't enjoy Banteay Kdei as much as we could if we would have seen it earlier.

I convince the Tuk Tuk driver to drive us around the big circle without charging an obscene amount extra, we are already paying a reasonable amount and we enjoy the nice breeze we get while driving. Most of the temples around the big loop can't be seen from the road but we are too tired to walk around more temples know and just enjoy the scenery. Life even in the temple area is blossoming. There's rice growing, kids bathing, cows swimming, locals pedaling around. It's wonderful just to watch how relaxed everyone is and enjoy watching them live their live for the seconds we drive past them.

Back in Siem Reap a shower is everything I need right now, and possibly a small nap. We also run into Markus again who decided not to go to Angkor today and just stroll around Siem Reap again. He is chilled and relaxed. A nap is unfortunately barely possible since the heat is stifling and our room has a felt 45 degrees. Whatever, we are only here for a short time that should be enjoyed.

All 6 of us manage to meet up again and head out for dinner to a restaurant a friend that used to live here recommended. What's there to say, the Cambodian food is nice but the rest of the food is, ah well not that great. But what do you expect when you order a Tenderloin Steak for $ 3 in a hole in the wall restaurant in Cambodia?

We make it to the Night Market just to have time for a bit of shopping before they close. Another nice cocktail. It's gonna be a good night's sleep tonight.