Siem Reap and Tonlé Sap Lake, Cambodia

I had a very lazy morning, then went for lupper before my 2:30 tour.  I tried Beef Lok Lak which is a Cambodian signature dish.  I asked the waitress if the beef was tender and she said yes.  Instead of rice, I ordered French fries.  Unfortunately the beef was quite chewy which is why I rarely order it in a restaurant and the fries had been reheated because I’ve done it myself and the second time they are cooked they are a bit soggy and a bit dried out.  When you only eat once a day, you hope it’s a 10/10 but today was disappointing however the flavour of the lol lak was excellent.  To make a dip for lok lak you use lime juice, salt and pepper with a little sugar.  I will definitely be trying this once I am home but with a better cut of beef-

I also had a cashew shake-

which was made from cashews, regular milk, condensed milk and ice.  It was fabulous!

I forgot my sling but my arm didn’t hurt at all.  It’s three weeks post surgery-

On the way home I stopped at Coco Cat Café.  I’ve read about them - places filled with cats where you go and cuddle.  I can’t think of a lot of things worse as I hate cats but there’s one just around the corner from my hotel that has 18 cats-

I was picked up at 1:50 for my Tonlé Sap Lake tour.  Thankfully there was a bit of cloud cover so it didn’t feel like 39 degrees-

I try to ignore the number and it sure helps wearing a hat and reminding oneself that a long cool shower and air conditioning are waiting at home.

It took an hour to pick people up.  At some hotels we waited 15 minutes as our driver tried to figure things out.  Sometimes people got on, sometimes they didn’t.  It was painful!  Eventually we were on the road to Tonlé Sap which is the  largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia measuring 100 km wide and 250 km long covering 2,700 km2.  Now it’s only 1 meter deep but during the rainy season it’s up to 10 meters deep.

I was on a tour to visit a floating village called Kampong Phluk, with homes built about 8 meters high.  These are along the Main Street which is paved-

All the stuff underneath will be moved into the house by July, the start of rainy season and everyone will have a boat tied to their house.  It would be interesting to see the difference.  

There’s a second row just behind along the creek-

They rely on fishing-

and shrimping-

There are shops with crazy things for sale-

Not sure I want to try this beer-

Artists at work-

Nearby rice fields-

The village is home to 1035 families and some families have 10 children.  Right now it’s the dry season but you can see the water mark on the poles that support the houses-

They just got power in 2019.  Before that they relied on generators.  Each house has a well for drinking water but during rainy season they use the lake water for everything else.  Each house has a toilet shed outback.

This floating restaurant is on bamboo skids so as the water rises, so does it-

This church is only used 5 times/ year.  People leave offerings but unfortunately the guide couldn’t tell me what the religion is called-

If someone is sick, they believe they can shave their head and they will get well-

The temple was built for Buddha and one cannot enter-

On the outside are names of families and how  much they contributed to the temple-

The murals were also donated by local families and each one tells a story about Buddha-

There is a primary school for Grades 1-6.  There are 60-70 students per shift with one teacher.  Some students attend in the morning from 7-12 , and the second shift attends from 1-6.  

After our village tour we took a boat-

that is steered by pulleys and ropes wrapped around the steering wheel-

and running to the back of the boat-

There are a few floating restaurants- 

where we stopped-

to watch the sunset-

Heading back we passed more rice-

Lots of boats passed us, spraying a big wake-

There are 130 big boats and 600 smaller ones at the village.

I enjoyed the tour and feel very fortunate to live where I do however I am not so sure the people of the village liked us being there. There are many tourist groups and it just seemed like we were walking through a human zoo. Because it was Sunday the kids did not have school so they were running and playing and happy to see us but we didn’t see many adults. It’s as if they stayed away from us, hiding in their houses, and I can’t blame them. However, we paid an entry fee to go there but whether an individual sees any of that money is another thing. 

Tomorrow I take a van at 8 am to Battambang!  Good bye Siem Reap!  I’ve enjoyed my time here.

P.S.

From eater.com