So, enjoyed a nice sleep in with no time pressures, as the our next scheduled group activity wasn't till 2.30pm.
I had a few hours to spare, so I decided to go back out to Angkor Wat and get myself a Balloon ride near the main temple site. It's not really a ride, more so a giant balloon with a round viewing ring that they release up into the sky for 10 minutes, then winch you back.Caught a Tuk Tuk into town so I could change the rest of my Thailand money to US dollar. Exchange rate at the ANZ Royal bank wasn't great, but it got the job done. By the looks of the logo it's the ANZ bank of back home doing a joint venture.
The Tuk Tuk ride out to the balloon site was pretty good, as yesterday we took the same route, but in the comfort of an air conditioned bus. The road is almost dead straight and you eventually hit the moat of Angkor Wat on the right side. Went around to the main bridge and turned up the road, heading to the balloon site and time for some no doubt fantastic photo opportunities!
Unloaded myself to be greeted by a lady to tell me that the balloon was not open right now, as it was too windy. Gutted, I got back into the Tuk Tuk and headed back into town. The ride back was pretty interesting, as the driver picked a back road through the jungle that wasn't straight, or wide.
Lunch was good, roasted cashew with chicken and then I caught the Tuk Tuk back to the Hotel to meet up with the rest of the group.
At 2.30 we were ready to go, with all 8 of us piling into the two Tuk Tuks. The plan was to head to Tonie Sap, a giant freshwater lake that greatly increases in size during the wet season, in some places going from 3 metres deep to 14 metres deep. What happens is that during the wet season, the Mekong River has so much water put through the system, it actually backs up and flows backwards, into the Tonie Sap. Areas that are forests in the dry season are then flooded and this has created a system where fish absolutely thrive, generating massive fish catches that runs the local economy. The flip side is of course this system is under threat, as up stream China is creating more dams and climate change could seriously effect the system.
Foreign investment is easy to see on the way there, as there are wells, houses and other facilities that were established with foreign investment and/or aid and has signs up telling you who or what gave the money that built it. We traveled first through the edges of the town, a mix of houses, both very old and new, workshops and shops that had 2 litre bottles filled with fuel out the front for convenience. Slowly, this gave way to rice fields, some dry, some burnt out and some with rice growing. Houses on stilts lined the raised road, as this is all part of the lake system, and will flood when the lake does.
We eventually arrived at what would be the start of our boat journey to the lake proper. With foreign monetary assistance, a massive channel has been dug from the lake to create a place where the water is deep enough to have easy access for the boats all year round, with the earth from channel stacked up to make the road, so you have good access and facilities to the lake, no mater what the season is.
It took us some time to get out of the channel and I was starting to wonder if this was going to be it, in the dry season.
As we got closer to the lake, we were boarded by pirates! Well, not real pirates, but small boats with an adult driving it, and small children jumping aboard to sell drinks, food or souvenirs. Sometime they would just pull up aside the boat and hawk their wares, sometimes they would just beg for money, and one time a little girl demanded 1 dollar from us. When we told her no, so reached into a large sack and pulled out a massive snake and draped that around herself. Then it was 1 dollar for photograph…Our guide assured us that none of these people were Cambodian, and they were all Vietnamese, whether that was true, or just his national pride speaking, I do not know.
Pirates aside, the channel finally opened up and we were able to see the true extend of the lake at last. It's huge, you can't see the other sides in any direction and it's very muddy and shallow. We were told it will go crystal clear in the wet season and many metres deep.
In front of us was a veritable flotilla of floating houses, floating community halls and even a floating basketball court. Dogs guarded their small house, children were in the water washing their hair and the pirates started to launch toddlers in large cooking pots to beg for money from us.But, ah, enough of that.
We passed through the core of the 'village' and disembarked at one of the tourist 'fish farms'. It was floating tourist deck with souvenirs, cold drinks and a higher viewing deck. They had fish farm pens off to the side, one with catfish you could feed and the other with a few crocodiles. A small museum was also here, which had information about the lake and the fish they capture there.
This floating platform, as well as many of the houses, was kept afloat by packs of bamboo tied together and placed under the houses in large 'logs'. Houses that were not constructed this way used empty drums or purpose built tanks. Most of the houses were constructed of wood. If you needed to move your house, you would have to tow it out, as none of them had a motor, well, none that I could see.
The sun was getting low, so we boarded our boat and headed back to the channel and eventually met up with our Tuk Tuks for the ride to a 'guest house' where we watched the sun go down from our hammocks.
