A friend of mine once said, "Judi doesn't go anywhere unless she has already been there." She was referring to my detailed trip planning and yes, I have been on many virtual trips.
My research for a trip to the floating villages on the Tonle Sap Lake provided me with very mixed reviews. I read everything from, "such a rip off, don't go" to "interesting and educational". As much as I tried to take these reviews with a grain of salt, I kept going back to them and changing my mind with every review I read.
All that being said, this morning at 8 am we boarded John's tuk tuk and headed for The Tonle Sap and the floating village of Kampong Phluk. Upon arrival at the ticket booth we purchased our tickets. We were told yesterday that they would be $20 each but today they wanted $25 which is a lot by Cambodian standards. We paid it and were ushered aboard a very primitive looking boat. The skipper immediately pushed off, started the engine and headed down the channel that would take us to the village of Kampong Phluk. We cruised around the village, watching people go about their daily lives; fishing, mending nets, cooking, and even rowing to school.
We arrived at a dock and with pointing gestures, our skipper (who spoke no English) encouraged us to get out. On this dock we were asked to pay again, $7 each for a boat ride through the mangrove forest. This time an older woman, who also spoke no English, rowed us around. Several other boats came up to us to try and get us to buy something, but we politely declined.
Eventually we came to another dock where she pointed for us to get off. I think she wanted us to eat at the restaurant here but we didn't want anything. She then led us up the dock where a girl explained to us that our driver was going to eat. We walked around for a bit, thinking that we were waiting for her, but when we got back to the dock, our driver and her boat were gone!
A few minutes later, the skipper of our original boat appeared and we climbed in with him. He motored out into the lake to give us a quick look and then turned around and headed back to the dock.
The Tonle Sap is the largest lake in Southeast Asia. It is is unusual for two reasons: its flow changes direction twice a year, and the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons. From November to May, Cambodia's dry season, the Tonlé Sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. However, when the year's heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé Sap backs up to form an enormous lake.
After about 30 minutes we arrived back at our starting point, disembarked and headed back to Siem Reap in our tuk tuk.
This trip was everything everyone said it was going to be: a bit of a rip off and yet fascinating.
1 comment:
You do seem to try not to go anywhere for the first time (i.e. without research) - but it seems this is one place you've gone for the last time! Live and learn.
-j
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