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For the third time on this trip, I have been totally surprised by somewhere that we have been that is so nondescript in my itinerary that a non-blog day once again necessitates a few words. I knew that on the drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap we were going to stop for a bit a Tonle Sap Lake, but I had just figured that I would just use it as an intro paragraph to Angkor Wat and maybe throw in a picture or two. All was going to plan as we drove out of town and was still intact, even after we stopped a a roadside market for a snack of crickets and tarantulas. I have never eaten an arachnid before and they were surprisingly good, much better than crickets and such as they are less crunchy and don't get stuck in your throat.

The plan continued remained intact after a nice lunch stop on the lake and even when we turned off the main road and onto the one lane dirt track that leads to the town of Kampang Khleang. I will admit that things were starting to look shaky as we arrived in the town, which is full of buildings with ten meter high stilts, which look funny in the dry season, but only just keep residents dry in the wet season. We originally piled off the bus to look at some of the local fish being dried and smoked but were almost immediately surrounded by kids waving and shouting at us. The great thing about this place is that it is almost totally off the tourist trail and so it had almost no tourist infrastructure (other than two or three boats to take people out to the lake) and feels really authentic.

Walking along the dusty road, waving and calling out hellos almost constantly, we arrived at the pier for our journey up the river to the Tonle Sap Lake proper. As we left the dock an headed out, with the sun in the perfect spot for photography and people constantly passing us in the boat, I knew that the plan was out the door and a stand alone blog was going to be necessary. For the first time on this trip, I thought that I would do a themed blog and this one is all about the people of Tonle Sap Lake. Even though I have some beautiful pictures of buildings and the countryside, I have decided that every picture that I post (and there are a bunch of them) will feature people and at the same time show how they live. There are men and women working, families cruising up the river, kids at play and even a man bathing. Kristan, all in all, I suspect you might enjoy this blog.

Before I leave to you enjoy the pictures, I will give a few words about the place. The river we cruised along was only ten meters wide most of the way, with water hyacinth taking up half this width, both providing a food source and shelter for the fish that live underneath and provide the lifeblood of the area. The wet season runs from May to October and so early March is when the water is at its lowest and we sat well below the river banks. In the wet season the water can rise up to eight meters and the lake triples in size. All the buildings along the river are made from wood, bamboo and, if you are wealthy, iron sheeting and lack running water or electricity. Amusingly, most of the houses have an old school antenna, which are connected to black and white tvs and are powered by car batteries.

Out on the lake there is a large village of floating houses, clustered around a community center, which, I assume was the gift of an NGO. The community center has a solar panel on top and this would be the obvious way to electrify this part of the world. The lake, even in the dry season, is huge and the far side is not visible and it was actually very difficult to tell where the water ended and the sky began, so similar were the colours. I have never seen anything quite like this before. After removing some weed that had managed to wrap itself around the propeller, we headed back into town and I loved every minute of it, taking pictures, waking to kids and enjoying the scenery. The one thing that I did notice is that, unlike the rest of Asia, the men here are built like proverbial outhouses and most of them have huge chests and arms. I guess that comes from fishing all day.

And with that I will leave you to enjoy the photos, while I duck off and spend a couple of days exploring the temples of Angkor.

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