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Published: August 11th 2010
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floating village
choked by floating plants I think I already mentioned in the last blog update how unrepresentative Siem Reap and Angkor were off Cambodia as a whole. The majority of the tourist dollar in the country is spent right here and it really shows.
I had heard great things about taking a boat from Siem Reap to Battambang. It meant a slight backtrack geographically, but we were both sick of buses and wanted to mix up the mode of transport a bit. The boat journey really was spectacular as well. The inside of the boat was cramped, but we had the nice option of sitting on the roof in the sun and stretching out our legs. From 10km south of Siem Reap we boarded the small vessel on the Tonle Sap River. The first hour was slow going as we snaked our way through a floating village. The floating village was quite an amazing place with every house, shop, school and church floating in the tide on either side of the river. People seem to not have much, but the quality of life appears high. Children happily played in the river and waved as we floated past. The next hour was spent crossing the enormous
Lake Crossing
Tonle Sap Lake Tonle Sap lake. Big enough that it could pass for an ocean when looking from either bank. Finally we re-entered the Tonle Sap River and floated past several other floating villages. In one such village the boat broke down and the local mechanic had to be called over for a quick fix.
The first few hours were great, but the view got slightly uninteresting for awhile as the boat crawled through tiny bends of the increasingly shallow river. After nine hours we were more than happy to arrive in Battambang and run the gauntlet set up by the local tuk tuk cartel. Battambang was quite a unique place as far as south east Asia goes due to how un-touristy it is. The whole time we were there it was so dry and dusty and the streets are broken up into almost gravel and dirt. The architecture and the lifestyle made me think of old western movies. It really feels like stepping into a slightly bizarre and very miscast Sergio Leone film. We hung out in Battambang for two days and then grabbed the cheap local bus to Phnom Penh. The nice thing about the local buses in Cambodia is
Yes this is still a river
and all those houses are floating how cheap they are. Also being the only foreigners on the bus usually leads to some interesting experiences. The bad thing is of course that the bus stops and starts whenever the driver can get a new fare, turning a 150km trip into 6 hours. Oh yes, of course the bus broke down once again. This time a tire blow out. I think someone needs to teach the local transport companies the value of regular maintenance, rather than just driving it until something breaks. At least we stopped at a roadside restaurant where we got to try some local foods. I've never had chicken's feet fried in tons of ginger before.
Phnom Penh is the capital and is a little more modern and wealthy than the rest of the country, although still way behind its neighbors. After seeing the Cambodian people's greatest pride at Angkor, most travelers come here to learn about Cambodia's darkest hour, the Khmer Rouge. Phnom Penh was once known as the "pearl of Asia", before falling to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Afterwards began a forced exodus of the city resdents to work as slaves in rural camps in the hopes of turning the country
into one giant peasant collective. Anywhere from 1 to 3 million people were killed for such crimes as having an education, knowing a foreign language or wearing glasses. Two enlightening stops are the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocide Center, also known as the killing fields. Both are brutal and horrific museums detailing the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge rule. Tuol Sleng was once a city center high school, but was turned into a prison and interrogation center by Pol Pot and his cronies. Choeung Ek is the location of dozens of excavated mass graves. It's quite shocking when you really think of how recently Cambodia's dark history occured. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were finally defeated in the late 1990's.
Phnom Penh is not all gloomy. The local market life is vibrant and unique. The riverside district is emerging as a nice strip of restaurants and bars, and the locals for the most part are pleasant and friendly. That description does not extend to the over-eager tuk tuk drivers, nor does it apply to the bookseller who threatened to kill me.
For the next blog we caught another boat down the Mekong
The Rules
for inmates at S-21 Prison to cross into Vietnam by water. Also the Mekong delta, Ho chi Minh city (or Saigon by anyone living there), and the beaches and towns of Vietnam's central coast. We are really loving Vietnam. It is already giving Thailand a contest in the "favorite country" competition.
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Granny
non-member comment
Thank you Brian for another interesting entry into your always-interesting blog. The account of the floating villages made me wonder what happens to them in a storm. Also I'm curious as to why the bookseller threatened to kill you - not too encouraging a prospect. As for the Killing Fields, I wonder how the museums compare with the horrific ones at Dachau and Auschwicz???? This, of course, was even more recent and while we were aware of it, I don't think the enormity sunk in. Atrocities seem to go on for ever, recently some medical workers on their way to a remote village in Afghanistan were "executed" (of course they were American spies!!). I guess we never learn, and as Burns said “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn" . It never seems to end, and I wonder what history will say about Guantanamo. Grandad would have loved chickens' feet fried in ginger (I think!!), at least the ginger part! Love, Granny