Day 8

What an incredible day. Truly one of the best days I have spent on a holiday. Of course it is purely subjective but to me this was a ‘humdinger’ of a day. We headed off at 8.30 with our tuk-tuk drivers Ken and Jean to Tonle Sap Lake, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. It is 300kls wide and provides most of the fish for the Cambodian people. I did some research in our tourist brochure and this is the place other than the ‘ruins’ I wanted to see. The floating fishing villages are a must see on Tonle Sap Lake
 
Cherie, myself and Gerald arrived at a village  about 4kls from the boat that was going to take us to Kompomg Khleang floating fishing village. We had negotiated $15.00 a head for the boat with Kean and Jean. We had to walk the 4kls to the boat as the road was too rough for the tuk-tuks. Being fit we strided off from a village house where the tuk-tuks were left securely and made a brisk 45 minute walk to the fishing village where we were to pick up our boat. We walked by some incredibly poor villages on a road that was pocketed with deep undulations that had to be navigated carefully with motorcycles as there was only certain firm areas that vehicles could go on because the rest was very sandy.
 
We arrived at the fishing village and jumped on our awaiting boat and made our journey to Kompomg Khleang floating fishing village. We threaded our way through mangrove looking trees till we arrived at a floating village that was absolutely breathtaking. This was real Cambodian life. Ken said apart from telecommunication and television the appearance of the village had not changed for decades. It was like going back in time. Row upon row of stilted village houses greeted us. The villages were going about their everyday chores as if we didn’t exist, but of course they know all about the benefits of tourism. I can remember when we went to the floating markets in Thailand 25 years ago, but this was something special. We past the village and went out into the vast expanses of the lake and sat there for a while looking at the enormity of this area of water and the returned back to the village only to have the boat stall – low on fuel!. The Cambodians are a resilient race after getting some fuel from a passing boat we headed back to the fishing village and did a tour on ground that was above water two months before. We saw dried shrimps on wood plates on the ground, visited the local school where Cherie made a donation and the headed back our bat after he refueled and then to where we picked up our boat. Then came a really exciting time. I had spoken to Ken about being taken back to our tuk-tuks via motorcycle rather walk back in the midday heat. They were all lined up and for $2.00 we had an exciting ride back to our tuk-tuks. Great clever, skilful riding. Cherie thoroughly enjoyed herself.
 
On the way back we visited Roulus ruins, the old capital of Cambodia, and (more information later) and then returned to our hotel for a swim. A great day