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Published: February 8th 2011
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“Take us to see some countryside” I asked the moto driver; a look of confusion. It wasn’t the response I was hoping for. Our original plan for the day was to see Tonle Sap, the largest Lake in Aisa, when we found out it would be 20 dollars to even see the lake we scrapped that idea immediately. In the moto drivers mind we wanted to see Tonle Sap and now whatever we asked him he replied “Tonle Sap”.... “No, no Tonle Sap…countryside,” but It was futile. Ste dashed into the hostel for some advice. There was another lake called West Baray that we could visit for free! It would be no Tonle Sap but it would certainly save the pennies. “West Baray” we asked “ahhh there is nothing here” he shook his head “Tonle Sap?” We managed to convince him we were happy to see nothing and we were on our way. He really couldn’t understand why we didn’t want to see one of the major tourist attractions and when finally thought we had got through to him he pulled over “I think we go Tonle Sap?” “NO” we all shouted in hysterics.
We said goodbye
Sun Shelters
West Baray Lake to the city as the buildings turned to fields. It wasn’t long before we were heading down the country roads, watching the locals plucking chickens at the riverside where water buffalos wallowed to escape the heat. It wasn’t far to West Baray, but our driver continued to insist there was nothing there “We don’t want to see anything” we joked. We pulled up and there was far more going on than I thought. There were market stalls selling various skewered meats, stalls selling fruit and even stalls selling bugs! Ew. Mr tuk tuk driver led us up to the lake “See nothing here” he said pointing at the lake. “Only a HUGE lake!” I laughed “why is that nothing?” he continued to look confused. Well it was either a look of confusion or a look of ‘you are mental.’ Either way I headed down to the shore. This was obviously a place where the locals come to escape the city at the weekends. The grotty sand was mostly covered by lines of wooden shelters with hammocks suspended from the corners. I didn’t really fancy a dip in the murky green water, this was no Fraser Island. We decided to have
Tubes
the best way of getting as little rank water on you as possible a stroll instead and we passed a man that greeted us in a German accent with “This is paradise, what bullshit, never again.” We laughed as we passed a dirty nappy or two that had washed ashore. He was right, it certainly wasn’t paradise, but it was certainly different and I was quite enjoying the bizarreness. Our walk came to an abrupt end due to tarantula nests and we were forced to turn back. We considered jumping in a tiny wooden boat that was rotting on the shore to spice things up a little, but we didn’t want to risk capsizing in the sewagey water!
Back at the shelters a little old woman tried to tempt us with some of her creepy crawly delights, aka water cockroaches!! She even demonstrated how to pluck off their legs and wing casing and suck out their insides, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom instantly flashed to mind. “I’ll just have the pineapple” I smiled and then made a break for it.
Over the walk way were another set of shelters, but we got side tracked by a little boy peering from behind the curtains
of a boat in the harbour. Every time we looked over he hid and when we pretended not to be looking he popped up again. He then ripped a hole in the curtain and was peeking out! He found it hilarious and all the laughing attracted the attention of another little boy who was selling bracelets. He was not so easily amused though and every time I tried to smile at him, he just turned on a very strange miserable expression. But soon even he was laughing and jumping on the boat with the other kid. We spent about an hour playing with the kids before heading back to the tuk tuk. We tried one more time to see if our driver could take us to a rural village, but he really just wasn’t getting it, so we gave up and headed back to Siem Reap.
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