Today we are up at 5:45am UGH, to catch a boat up the Tonle Sap river to Siem Reap. We grab some french bread from a street vendor and head down a set of rickety wood steps on to our boat. The boat is about 30 feet long and only about 6 feet wide with seats down the side. There are 30 people on the boat 7 tourists and the rest Cambodians. Such a fantastic, interesting and depressing trip. So much extreme poverty. People living in boats, in stilted houses on the river banks, and in tiny villages with no facilities at all. We stop at a floating restaurant for lunch. The bathroom, a squat, just drains into the river. We had coconut crackers for lunch as we know they uee the river water. We saw a boy take a dipper of water from the river and drink it. The little kids on the boat if they had to use the toilet, the moms just sat them on the rail and let them go, the moms nursed their babies. Boy, if it will fit in a boat they will carry it. Small, narrow boats piled10 feet high with propane tanks, scrap metal, engines, agriicultural products, you name it they carry it. I do not see how they keep from tipping over. We saw floating police stations, gas stations,hospitals, most of the 5 and under kids wear no clothes. The journey was 7 hours and we ended going accross a huge lake the Tonle Sap lake into Seim Reap. The boat has no dock, you just push on to a muddy bank. Then the excitement started. Before the boat even stopped about 5 men rush on to the boat very fast, pushing. We first thought they were stealing luggage or robbers. No, tuk-tuk drivers trying to get business. A little scarry but these people are desperate to make a living. They said there a 10,000 tuk- tuk drivers in Siem Reap and this is the low tourists season. A tuk-tuk driver said he had swam out to meet boats to get a fare, think what is in the water. Also, we learned some of the boat drivers have taken long bamboo sticks and beat the tuk-tuk drivers to keep them back from his boat customers. SO, SO, sad. Life here is VERY hard. Most americans have NO idea how lucky they are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we got off the boat and climed up a mud bank we could see the stilted houses on the other side. Mountains of trash piled down the hill behind them. no sanitary serivice here, you take care of your self. Our arranged tuk-tuk driver was there to meet us, Mr. Bean, a young hipster sort of guy, little fedeora, scarf, really nice. We went to a tycipal Cambodian dance show and buffet that night . Really touristy but nice, clean, and the costumes were beautiful. I dont care much for Siem Reap, really touristy. AND we find out that most of the hotels, restaurants, etc. and Angor Wat are owned by huge Chinese and Vietnamese coroporations. A lot of the money does not even go to the Cambodians. The next day Mr. Bean takes us to Angor Wat. I can now cross this off my bucket list. This is the largest religious complex in the world. It covers many square miles, at one time 300 temples, now there are about 80 left. Fantastic buildings. The moat that went around it was 190 meters wide. We hired a guide which was very good. This was built between 800 and 1100 AD and at one time had a million people living in this huge area. It was coved over by jungle for about 300 years. They started discovering parts of it in the middle 1800s. It was sooooooooo hot, I dont know when I sweated this much, very humid. Angor Thom was another temple we visited and had lots of STEEP steps to climb. We then went to the temple where they filmed the movie Tomb Raiders with Laura Croft. This was the most interesting temple. Lots of banyon trees growing all THROUGH the structure. This made some great pictures. lots of green moss on the walls. There was an echo tower that the Buddest believe if you go in, stand against the wall and pound above your heart 7 times you will have good luck. I sounded really cool. We had some coconut and taro ice cream and headed back to Siem Reap. We went to a Mexian restaurant, yes, Mexican. Some different from ours but very good. Then went next door and got a massage. Kristy got a pedicute and foot massage and I got a foot ankle, arm, hand and neck rub. Both of got 1 hour our total was $16. We are taking a down / catch up day today. Tonight we go to see Khmer kick boxing matches. I think I will enter the amateur, old man, division in honor or Jay and Lauren. ha-ha. Tomorrow we head to Bankok and enter Thailand. Townsend Twisters Dana Johnson
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 06:24:32 +0000
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