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Cambodian Border at Poipet
Crossing over from Thailand Cambodia- ATD 27-06-2009
We arrived at Bangkok train station before 5 am, excited and ready for our train journey to the Cambodian border. We had tasty iced coffees to open our sleepy eyelids, although I must admit that I think it is the first time I have been served coffee by a lady boy.
The train ride out of Bangkok and across eastern Thailand was great. I enjoyed seeing the apartment blocks gradually give way to lush rice paddies and sparkling temples. We arrived at the Thai border town of Aranya Prathhet, which had served as a huge Refugee Camp for desperate Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge Genocide of the 1970’s. From here it was a six kilometre ride by tuk-tuk to the Cambodian border. Unfortunately we got a driver who took us for idiots and deposited us at a bogus ‘Cambodian consulate’ where we were asked to pay 1300 Bhat with no border crossing or army official in sight. We quickly saw the ruse for what is was and insisted we are taken to the actual border. Here we were cheated by the REAL Cambodian authorities, who charged us US$25 each for a Visa, despite it being clearly displayed
everywhere that the Visa was only US$20. Welcome to Cambodia.
It didn’t stop there. Instead of dropping us in the town of Siem Riep, our bus instead drove straight through it and deposited us in an empty clearing on the outskirts of town instead. With no telephone, but lots of tuk-tuks ready to overcharge for a ride into town, Alexia, justifiably enraged, gave them a serve before we plodded off down the dirt road back towards town.
On the way we came across a great bloke called Khemao, who was happy to help us out and call our hotel. When this didn’t work out he even agreed to take us through the rain on his own scooter. Turns out he was employed by a German company which does restoration work at the Angkor ruins. It was relieving to meet someone who was so happy to help us out simply out of the kindness of his heart.
Our guest house perhaps lacked the character and location of our last room in Bangkok, but the ‘Happy Guest House’ was spotlessly clean and came equipped with a fully functional satellite TV. This stroke of good fortune enabled me to wake up
in the night and watch the Champions League final between Man Utd. and Barcelona (Barca victorious 2-0 thanks to a masterful display from Lionel Messi) from the comfort of bed.
28-06-2009
ABD - The following morning we slept in late and enjoyed fresh fruit and crusty French bread for breakfast. As it was already past 11am we decided to visit the floating village and the famous Tonle Sap lake instead of going to Angkor Wat. I was excited at the prospect of a village entirely built on the lake and the lake itself fascinated us both. Tonle Sap Lake, an ecological wonder, is Asia’s largest freshwater lake and the world’s biggest fishbowl. It is connected to the Mekong in Phnom Penh by a 100km channel, known as the Tonle Sap River. In the wet season, which Andy and I happen to be in at the moment, , the level of the Mekong rises and backs up into the river causing it to flow northwest into the lake, which then swells from 2m deep and 2500 sq km to 10m deep and 13,000 sq km.
In the dry season, when the Mekong level is low, the Tonle
Sap reverses its flow, draining the water back from the lake into the Mekong. This process produces the perfect breeding grounds for fish, supplying Cambodia with 75% of it’s annual fish catch and earning it UNESCO biosphere status. We have enjoyed many a “Fish Amok” dishes, which are a traditional Khmer delicacy made with coconut milk and catfish straight from the Tonle Sap.
We cruised through the floating village, inhabited by Vietnamese refugees. These people fled Vietnam during the war and years later the government of Cambodia allocated them the area on and around the Tonle Sap Lake, to live. During the dry season, families live on the lake and as soon as the wet season approached they move to the nearby village on the banks of the Tonle, where they live in wooden houses on stilts when it rains. Fishing is the main source of income and it is surprising how well organized this floating village is. I have never witnessed anything quite like it. Houses built directly on the lake, floating around, villagers moving on long tail wooden boats between their floating homes, where children play and pets have become accustomed to a water world, churches, schools
(complete with floating basketball court!), floating pig sties, herb gardens, all glide by. I am amazed at the human spirit as I glimpse into the small, tin homes of these people so obviously struck with poverty, smiling, waving, despite it all. I think of the Squatters Camp in Kathmandu. If the kids could only see this! A hundred worlds apart, yet so much alike. Andy remarks, this surrealistic scenery reminds him of Kevin Costner’s movie “Waterworld” and how this will most probably be the way we will all end up living in the future. I am secretly relieved to find that it is not as bad as I had imagined in my minds eye. I remember when I watched that film a good few years back now (what ever did happen to Kevin?) and it had troubled me. A young adolescent, obsessed with the effects of global warming and still trying to figure out my own place in the world, I hated the portrayal of this inevitable society and stayed up many nights praying I would not live to see it. Now here we are in Cambodia and I am faced with it and I am no longer afraid of
the unknown. Of course, I would rather exhaust the possibility of living on solid ground before moving onto liquid.
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