Siem Reap to Battembang

Dear all

Our final day in Siem Reap involved doing all that stuff you need to do every once in a while like book up accommodation, camper vans, boat tickets and do a bit of shopping (well I did!) and that what we did. One of the more pleasurable tasks was booking the boat trip to Battenbang which we took today. I also manged to fit in a little mani/pedi afterwards as well!!

 So again up with the larks (or cockerels here!) we were picked up of our boat ride by one of the most decrepit buses I have ever seen. We were wedged in the front which had the dash board missing! The pier was about 11km from Siem Reap & I silently had bet with myself as to whether any parts of the bus would fall off on route, but I lost! The trip itself is really only possible at certain times of the year as the Tonle Sap Lake fills from its dry season low on 2,500km2 to over 13,000km2 and the depth allows the boats to squeeze through the narrow waterways. As a consequence of all the water there are thousands of different birds with the main area now a protected wetland.

The journey was entertaining for a number of reasons firstly we managed to seat ourselves in front of two Australians who were in their late 60's and had been travelling for the last 5 months - of course a few references to the forthcoming Ashes had to be made. Secondly as the boat filled up with our luggage up top and everyone else below it became apparent that there were too many people for the number of seats so about 30 people were sent to sit on the roof! This factor also had an impact on the stability of said boat in that every time we saw something interested on one side of the boat every one up top shifted causing some very worried faces below!!

However one of the most enduring memories I gathered on this trip was from the people who live on the wetlands eking out a living fishing & growing cash  crops in the fertile silt of the river beads in the summer. Most for the houses/shops & every the schools are floating, with a few of the richer souls using concrete stilts as bases. Everywhere we sailed people came to their front doors to wave and say hello and the kids were amazing all jumping up and down in the hope we would wave back. It very sad to think that for most of these people this is the only connection with the outside world that many of them will have.

Finally after about 7 hours we reached our destination, having only broken down twice! Once because we took a short cut across a flooded field & the propeller got caught up with weed and secondly when we ran out of fuel about 5 mins from the finish!! You have to laugh - only in Cambodia!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Sara