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Published: December 12th 2009
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To Siem Reap
Leaving Battambang First thing we got shuttled from our hotel down to the boat on the River (Stung Sangker) where we, a load of other tourists and some Cambodians piled on - the boat was a pretty simple open sided motor boat with rows of benches, a small back decked area and a roof that you could also sit out on. Once we set off, I stayed below at the back to hide from the sun, and to guard my prime corner seat, while Rach went upstairs to escape the noise of the motor. We were off on the nine hour journey along the river and through the northern end of the lake Tonle Sap. And the journey was absolutely stunning!
We started off passing through a sunken length of the river, with pretty high banks, but with many stilted houses along the river edge, some wood, some concrete. Even at this early time there were lots of people up and the river was used along its entire length - wooden boats moored up, some small canoes, others slightly larger fishing boats, some motored, others rowed either by people standing up or sitting. There were fishing nets pretty much along the entire
To Siem Reap
Hanging out your sausages! river, and everywhere were people mending or laying the nets, and washing clothes, themselves or food.
After a couple of hours the river banks started to drop and the river got much narrower, with the boat driver somehow steering the 40m long boat around tight meanders and past fishing nets, slowing down where needed to reduce the likelihood of smaller boats capsizing in our wake. Despite this, the waves from our boat caused chaos, with people left clinging for dear life to their small canoes, or desperately paddling round so that the bow faced in to the waves rather than side on - but all with a resolves look as they have to do this every day as the boat chugs back and forth. By now we were passing more scattered settlements of stilted shacks (wood and palm roofed, some with corrugated iron roofs) and floating house boats. These areas were much poorer, with near naked kids scampering around, shouting hello, some with incredible energy! There was still fishing everywhere, with massive raised booms to lower large nets down on to the river bed, which could then be raised at a later time, trapping any fish which had settled
To Siem Reap
Casting your net above. The surrounding countryside also changed, still with rice fields predominant but the higher water table (or lower ground level) meaning large areas were flooded (even at the beginning of the dry season), and large areas were uncultivated and scrubbed up. There were lots more birds around, with the white flecks of egrets throughout the fields.
The river margins became progressively more blurred with the surrounding flooded wetlands and it seemed that the river was opening out in to a delta. The river suddenly became one of many very narrow channels passing through dense scrub, the channel barely wider than the boat sending people scrabbling away from the edges as branches whipped in, and flinging leafs, debris and confused insects in to the boat. It was excellent fun!
After a while the scrub opened out, with glades of dense mats of floating water hyacinth, with other plants rooted in it. The scrub mosaic was like a freshwater mangrove, with the scrub often entirely smothered in a climbing plant with a profusion of small yellow flowers. It housed a whole host of bird life that could rarely be seen. Areas of open water were a deep peaty colour, the
To Siem Reap
Spot the Rach surface a glassy sheen, undisturbed until we ploughed our way through. All the villages were now made up of stilted houses or floating houses on platforms, or boat houses. Shops, hospitals, schools, petrol stations, pig sties etc. were all perched above the water or floating, with the sunken cages / nets of fish farms everywhere. Our boat often slowed as Cambodians were picked up or dropped off by small, rowed canoes.
In terms of the birds, I'm itching to name them as that's what ecologists do....but I forgot my book and haven't found a good one yet! So I'll do my best! The most numerous / visible was a kind of cross between a starling/tern/bee eater! A very streamlined, very athletic bird swooping and darting after insects, metallic blue and green with a rusty bib and white neck ring, and long dark tail. We'll call it Jim. Then Belinda was everywhere, a kind of small cross between a heron and a bittern, brown when perched in scrub or stalking through the floating hyacinths, white when in flight. Egrets, small and large (or little and greater) were everywhere, bright white and standing out like proud old gents. A few fish
eagles glided above us and swooped for fish, with other birds of prey (possibly ospreys or other eagles) high above or perched in few tall trees. Kingfishers darted about, our usual small beauty but also much larger blue/green ones, and a large black and white type. Two particular highlights were broad, graceful white and black cranes which circled above us (and we also scarred one group out of the scrub) and also a line of massive pelicans as we got nearer to Siem Reap. Needless to say, my binoculars got the use they've been missing, and Rach got a sore arm from all my prodding to then point at some indistinct blob flitting through the scrub!
After a few hours in the scrubby waterways, we finally popped out in to the northern end of Tonle Sap having passed through the Prek Toal bird sanctuary. The lake was beautiful - a completely still surface with a faint misty haze, and no land visible if you looked to the south, the lake merged in to the sky by the heat haze, with stunted gnarled trees growing out of the lake to the north. We then passed through a more open area
To Siem Reap
Boom fishing net of scattered, flooded trees - a sign of the completely mobile lake edge - I imagine in a few weeks the lake edge will have already shrunk considerably.
After one of the best journeys ever (with our cameras smoking by the end), we came in to the dock with a bang - a chaotic mayhem of tuk tuk drivers! We finally found the guy who, as part of the package, was meant to take us in to Siem Reap but he was so stroppy (pretty much demanding that we use him for the next few days to go around the temples) that we told him to piss off and found another guy - not free but better for the psyche! And so we arrived to Siem Reap.
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siobhan
non-member comment
wow
All looks pretty amazing!