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Published: January 28th 2008
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Waterfront homes
We drive past miles and miles of homes perched seemingly precariously on long poles or branches. Wednesday and Thursday. January 09 and 10, 2008. Day 16 and 17. Last day of this incredible adventure and we’re on our way to visit a floating village. The river in the daytime is mud-brown and our tour guide explains that it is severely polluted; according to him even the good hotels spew their waste directly into the river. The immediate problem is, of course, that for many Cambodians the river is a lifeline. They drink it, bathe it in, wash their clothes in it.
There is an increasing dichotomy in Cambodia. Tourism is bringing in megabucks and two and three story homes and condos are springing up in and around Siem Reap. But we also
pass miles and miles of homes on rickety stilts, sporting a reed-mats for walls, poles for flooring, and a thatched roof. Not much more.
You’ve got to be kidding! We pile into a boat to motor past the floating village. No kidding. It’s built on rafts, propped up by large cans and buffered by tires. UNESCO has even built a floating library and school to support the village. I am surprised when the first small motorized boat zooms up and keeps pace with our boat.
Dichotomy on the river
Beautiful new two and three story homes are evident in Seam Reap as are these more modest digs. A small child, carrying a basket perhaps 12-inches across filled with soft drinks and fruit, jumps onto the railing and then down into the boat. The child makes his way through the boat hoping for sales. But sales or not, he doesn’t leave empty handed; we have brought soap and shampoos from the hotel to give to the people who live here. Then suddenly he disappears over the side. This scene is repeated for as long as we’re on the water. Both boys and girls participate, some as young as four or five. I wonder how many times the kids miss before they make it.
Back at the hotel my travel buddy Dale and I have time to stuff our suitcases and then hire a tuk tuk for a last visit downtown for lunch and a quick visit to the market. Just a couple more souvenirs and we’re ready to go.
Ordeal by flight. At the airport we say goodbye to our bus driver and tour guide with a smile and an envelope with their tips—a couple dollars a day from each tourist for the driver and five or six for the guide is suggested. This would constitute a pretty
good living in Thailand or Cambodia depending on how many tours you took out and how generous your clients were.
We fly from Siem Reap to Bangkok where we deplane and wait five hours for the next leg. This isn’t as bad as it sounds because those of us who have become friends sit and laugh and talk the whole time. Two in the group embark on a campaign to try to get a bottle of liquor into the U.S. They are told they can’t. This becomes a challenge. Next leg is to Seoul Korea where the group splits, some flying to the west coast and some to the east. Several hours in that airport and the remaining group members as well as the liquor make it through security and onto the plane to Tokyo, Japan. Although we don’t have to change planes in Tokyo we do have to deplane and go through security. It is here that the liquor doesn’t make it through security. But we do. Next stop LAX. Over 28 hours from the time we leave our hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia we touch down in Los Angeles. I am so glad to be home I am
almost giddy. But I suppress the urge to skip out of customs since many in our group still have to board planes for Canada, Texas, Colorado . . .
The next couple weeks. It takes a week before I stop waking up at two or three in the morning. I am so tired by late afternoon that one day when I have to work late at a second job, I set my alarm and take a nap in my car. I am still blogging two weeks after I got home. I haven’t begun to tackle my pictures and get them online, but when I do they’ll be available at: http://www.webshots.com/ search albums susanspix
For those of you who read this and are planning a trip to Cambodia, consider getting an e-Visa thru the country’s website at: http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/ Talk about easy and convenient. You’ll be out of the airport before others on your flight have even finished lining up.
And now to contemplate where to visit next.
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