Siem Reap again.
on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 05/Jun/2010 06:10, 34 days ago
Siem Reap. Angkor Wat and the temple complex is the main attraction for visitors to Siem Reap. The Tonle Sap Lake with its many floating villages is also worth seeing. Recently Don and I spent another weekend in Siem Reap and went to see Chong Kneas, which is the village at the edge of the lake closest and most accessible to the town. The Tonle Sap is the most prominent feature on the map of Cambodia. In the wet season it becomes the largest freshwater lake in Asia, swelling to about 12,000km2. In the dry half of the year it shrinks to about 2,500km2. It drains into the Tonle Sap river which flows south-east and merges with the Mekong River. In the rainy season a unique phenomenon causes the river to reverse direction, filling the lake instead of draining it.     A long-boat of questionable sea-worthiness took us down a short canal and out on to the lake. As it was the dry season the water in the canal was shallow, and the boatman had to hop out several times to push, when we stuck in the mud, while oncoming boats sprayed us with muddy water. Many houses were on tall stilts, and some were floating on a raft of bamboo. The boatman pointed out the different villages, there was a Cham ( Cambodian Muslim ), a Vietnamese, and a Khmer village. They each had a place of worship, a floating Mosque, Temple and Catholic Church. Children from all communities attend the same school. We were shown a floating supermarket, clinic and school. Fishing is the main occupation and the communities did seem extremely poor.    Watching this little chap steering his boat across the lake and the little girl playing outside her house alone, I wondered how many children drown here. At this eco-centre children were chasing each other with no barrier to stop them falling into the lake.