The Mekong River Trip
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 01/Nov/2009 16:04, 34 days ago
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This was quite an experience. One of our group organised a boat trip with the owner of the riverfront restaurant which we have been using. He owns a boat– a bit like a soft top narrow/long boat.He has a chap to be pilot and another to be guide.Having scrambled over the muddy embankment to get into the boat we sat on the floor with a cushion to sit on. After a while we turned in a smaller tributaryThe scenery was lovely - it's all very green after the rainy season - it’s a very expansive river. There were many typical scenes: old wooden boats, bamboo, coconut and banana trees; lots of fishing with nets in various forms - large hand held ones – strings of them across the river with plastic bottle for buoys – children swimming – people washing their white oxen in the river (well it was a Sunday- a bit like washing the car!!)and so on.There were periods of just vegetation then some rickety wooden houses the beautiful temples. We stopped to go round one of the best on route. It was fascinating with a wooden ceiling and ornate Buddha.We were asked to tip the floor sweeper who (judging by the amount of dust and dirt) did very well for little work!!There were some beautiful statues at the back of the temple which were a form of grave stone. I took lots of photos but used Alison’s camera for those and still haven’t had a chance to upload them.We then wondered further back and saw some beautiful scenery looking across paddy fields with banana trees and people cycling and driving motos. We also saw a man (dressed in a very small towel!) climbing a tree on a bamboo ladder to get the juice from the top. The ladder was a bamboo stick with little notches for foot holds– I know I could never do that!!We went further down river and visited a weaving village. This was quite a nice village (dirt roads, of course) well supplied with shops (Cambodian style– they look like the front of a garage but are well supplied).We were invited to go under a wooden house where the ladies were weaving - beautiful material and patterns– so fascinating to see all this done manually. There was a great crashing noise when one of their oxen decided to climb over some stuff but didn’t quite make it!!We ended up at the end of the road in a rickety wooden café overlooking the river. We had lemon or lime juice which is very popular and refreshing here but she put a “bucket” of sugar in which made it an interesting experience!!We returned home safely after a very special experience of river life along the Mekon.