Lake village and Temple of Doom

A later start for our tour today allowed us to sleep later. It was just after 7:30 am when we went down for breakfast. Around 8:20 am we were ready for the day and went to wait in reception.

Our guide appeared a few moments after 8:30 am and led us to the waiting van. We drove east through the city and into the countryside on the road we had taken from the airport on Tuesday.

About 20 minutes later we turned right off the main road and headed south toward our first destination, Tonle Sap lake. A little way in we turned again and then again and found ourselves on a dirt road running through villages. The red dust lay on the roadside vegetation. Our guide told us the road was subject to flooding and we passed through a section where trucks and heavy machinery were working on improvements.

The road was on a high embankment, 3 metres or so above the surrounding countryside and there were canals on either side. We reached a point where the canal on our left widened sufficiently to accommodate small boats. We stopped where it had widened again and there were many longer and larger boats.

Our guide led us onto one of the smaller boats. It was probably 4 metres long with wooden seats for 10 passengers. We sat, the boatman manoeuvred backwards from the bank and headed downstream toward the lake.

The channel snaked its way between banks lined by boats and houses built on very tall stilts to keep the living space above water in the wet season. We could see people going about daily business including reeling fishing nets through devices that dropped the small fish into tanks. They would be farmed to edible or saleable size.

Closer to the lake we reached an area where the mangroves, different in appearance from the ones we know, were standing in water. There were a few places where canoes could be hired for exploring the mangroves and we passed a couple of floating restaurants as we reached the lake.

Our boat continued a couple of hundred metres from the shore before stopping. Our guide produced a map of Cambodia and talked us through key features of different regions and the significance of the lake which is the largest body of fresh water in Asia and changes in extent and depth depending on the seasons. As he was talking a woman in a small boat pulled alongside. She was selling refreshments so Majella and Ben each had a can of lychee soft drink.

Based on the wording of our itinerary, we had expected to see a ‘floating village’. There were a couple of floating restaurants and other vessels near where we entered the lake but no ‘village’. Still, we had seen a village on stilts that our guide told us house 700 families leading a fairly traditional fishing life. He suggested their children would prefer to live in the cities and that might mean an end to the village lifestyle but in the meantime life goes on.

As our boat headed back up the channel more visitors had arrived and we passed several boats heading for the lake. Occasionally one was travelling fast enough for the wake cause some minor movement. We arrived, disembarked, climbed back in the van, and headed back along the road.

Not far along the driver turned right across the canal onto a rough country road. He may have had doubts when he encountered what seemed to be a narrower than typical set of barriers intended to keep larger vehicles out of villages. We all held our breath while the driver demonstrated great skill in negotiating the space that allowed just a few millimetres of clearance on each side of the van. There were two more similar barriers that he passed with the same steady hand. Soon we reached the highway further east from where we had left it. We took the road toward the airport and then turned onto another highway going north.

That took us to Beng Mealea temple which featured in the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom movie. It is a flat temple with three concentric areas rather than three levels. It is surrounded by a moat that encloses a 2.5 km square area with the temple at its centre. Causeways with Naga (multi-headed cobra) balustrades cross the moat for access to the four entrances. We entered via the south and left by the west.

Unlike some of the temples we saw yesterday this one is not being restored. That had been considered but declined, at least for now. The buildings have been overgrown by jungle and the high parts of the towers are jumbles of fallen stones. Some sections of roof seemed reasonably intact though often with growth above. There were numerous examples of trees and their roots forcing stones apart. Access within the temple ruins was mostly on a boardwalk with stairs where needed.

Once we had walked through the temple and out we walked to the west gate and found the van. It was approaching 1 pm so our guide took us to a nearby restaurant that appeared to cater mainly to tourists. We ate variations of fried chicken – sweet and sour for Ben, cashews for Majella, and ginger for me. Ben had coke. There was no hot coffee on the menu so we had it iced, with milk added for Majella.

After lunch the van took us back to our hotel in Siem Reap, arriving just before 3 pm. We rested a while. I went out briefly to try extracting US$ from an ATM and was declined because the PIN was wrong. I walked back to the hotel and found I had been using the PIN from a previous card. I think I have that fixed and had enough cash for now. I may find out in Bangkok.

Once the sun had gone done a bit Ben went for a swim and Majella went to sit by the pool. I went down a little later prepared to swim but decided I did not want to pack wet togs. Majella was chatting with an Australian couple she had met yesterday so I joined that discussion of travel adventures. The man who had told us about the bakery yesterday appeared and we confirmed its location before going back to our room.

The bakery closed at 6 pm so we decided to walk by on the way into town. By the time Ben had showered and dressed it was almost 5:30 pm. We walked down Wat Bo Road and found the bakery a few minutes before it closed. We were not really looking to buy anything but we satisfied our curiosity.

From there we walked the short distance into Pub Street where Majella was determined to try the Dragon’s Breath she had seen when she had her ice cream rolls last night. The stalls selling it had plastic tumblers filled with what looked like multicoloured cheezels and the device on the counter was exuding white fumes. She bought one and received the tumbler with rice flour cookies doused in liquid nitrogen so that they were frozen and emitted cold fumes when eaten. After a bit of fun with that we walked back to an area where there were tuk tuks and caught one back to the hotel.

It was a little before 7 pm. The rest of the evening involved packing and preparing for a 6 am departure from the hotel to catch our flight to Bangkok. It will be another early morning.