Cambodia: the last day

Ok, last post about Cambodia, I promise.

Me with the 50 cent beer. Note the pile of bags in the
chair next to me. That would be after we stuffed the
smaller bags inside the bigger bags, for easy
carrying.  Srsly. Like 10 bags.

Our last day in Cambodia, we toured around town one more time, making our last visit to the market and shops. The highlights:

• We bought about $100 worth of bags. Made from cement bags. This organization in Cambodia helps villagers sew bags and sell them for part ownership in the company and the money they make. So, we bought really rad bags (tote bags and duffle bags and miniature pencil case/toiletry bags). All told, we spent about $100 on bags.

The BF at the sidewalk cafe

The 50 cent beer

• 50 cent beers. We found a lovely little restaurant on the corner across from the market and had some snacks and beers. And because it was happy hour, the beers (local Anchor beer) was 50 cents. I had two. That means I spent a whole $1 on beers. We need more happy hour like that in America. Or in Singapore, for that matter.

My feet in the tank of fishes. Also in the tank, a nice
couple from Florida and the 9-year-old girl who shamed
my feet into the water.



The fish are eating my feet.

• Fish ate my feet. They offered fishy foot massage: $3 for 30 minutes of fish massage. And a beer. So, clearly we did that. We sat on the edge of a large fish tank, smack in the middle of the sidewalk, with our feet in a tank full of tiny fish. As soon as our feet entered the water, the fish started nibbling on our dead skin. After marching through temples for a few days and "accidentally" hiking up a mountain in the rain and sweating profusely and wearing sandals and Sperrys....our feet had PLENTY of dead skin to feed the fishies. The sensation of having a little sucker fish eat the skin off your feet is super tickly and weird. So much so that The BF started screaming like a girl when he put his feet in. And I gave myself a core and quad workout sitting on the edge of the tank, bouncing my feet in and out of the water, holding them just above the surface, gathering the courage to dunk my feet all the way in and leave them. It wasnt until a 9 year old girl from NY sat down beside me and made fun of me for being a wimp that I got my feet all the way in and left them there.

All in all, we had a great trip to Cambodia. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an adventurous vacation and a trip to SE Asia.

Cambodia: floating village

Us on the boat

There's a place on the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia where there's a floating village. The whole village is built on stilts above the lake, with lower levels that are tethered to the stilts, to adjust to rising water levels. In the rainy season, the water is much higher than during the dry season, so the lake levels change drastically.

The whole village uses boats as the form of transportation. There are houses, temples, a sheriff's office, restaurants, hotels....a full village. And all of these places are accessible only by boat. Some of them back up to a road, but during the rainy season, the roads are mainly washed out, so they're not a primary form of transportation.

The washed out road and bridge.

We hired a little shallow-bottomed 8-seater motor boat to take us on a tour of the village and the lake. We saw houses and villagers and fishermen. We also saw pigs living in wooden crates a few feet above the water. And houses you access by ladder from a boat that have a HUGE flat screen TV and television antenna on the roof.

While touring around the lake, we saw underwater forests, floating restaurants and a couple of fishermen selling fish from their boats. The boat had big coolers of ice and interested buyers would paddle/motor up to the fisherboat and pick out their fish. The fisherman would pack up the fish and some ice into a plastic bag and off you would go with your fish. 

The boat

Once we got in the boat, out on the lake, we had a lovely time. But the getting to the boat was another (slightly traumatizing) adventure.



After our impromptu "very strenuous" hike, we ate lunch (delicious, of course) and then got in the car to travel to the lake. I was wet, cold and a little tired, watching the rain hit the windshield and watching people work the rice paddies on either side of the roads we were traveling. By this point, we were at least an hour outside of the city of Siem Reap and in truly rural, agricultural Cambodia. As we traveled along, I kept my eyes out for wildlife: I saw stray cats, chickens, cows and WATER BUFFALOES. If you have never seen a water buffalo, go do it. They are such cool animals. They're shaped like cows, but bigger, thicker and with WAY cooler horns. 

The boats

 As we're passing fields of water buffaloes, the road is getting narrower and narrower. Until it's one lane, unpaved, rutted, muddy clay. And there is a river on one side. And it does NOT look like we are getting close to a lake. Or a boat dock. We continue on this road for a good 20 minutes until we pull up next to some (not gonna lie: rickety-looking) water craft. We get out and board a craft. Which proceeds to have engine failure. So we get out and board another craft. And enjoy our tour of the lake.

Cambodia: just a lil hike, mmkay

At the waterfall at Kbal Spean

From Banteay Srei, we got back in the car and headed to Kbal Spean. Our guide had told us that morning that we would go out of town to some temples, then continue out of town to the lake, for a boat tour of the floating village. On the way from Banteay Srei (temple 1) to Kbal Spean (temple 2), Piseth turns to us (in the backseat) and says "The BF and Charlie: we are heading to Kbal Spean. We will get out of the car and hike up to it. It will take 45 minutes to get there. The hike is very steep. Very strenuous. Ok?"

At this point, we're like "uh....ok?" I mean, we are in the car, halfway there. And we wanted to see this thing, so we werent going to back out. But I'm not entirely sure that was an option. I think he was just telling us this as part of his tour guide spiel, not as a question or even as a warning.

The BF and I at the waterfall. See how we are NOT wearing
hiking gear? Also, we are drenched in sweat.

So we get to the spot, get out of the car, grab some bottles of water and start hiking. We proceed to hike about a mile uphill, gaining about 700 feet in elevation as we do so. Now, a 700 foot elevation gain might not sound like much, but over only a mile, that kind of elevation gain means I'm using my hands and feet to scamper up some rock clumps in more than one spot on the "trail". As a point of comparison, Little Si (outside of Seattle) is an elevation gain of 1200 feet over 2.5 miles. That's about 70% of the incline of this little trail.

Our local, fit guide scampers on up the trail, staying just within eyesight of us, where he stops and waits. Then he continues on while we slowly make our way up. Keep in mind, we were informed of our hike about 10 minutes before commencing on said hike. The BF is wearing sandals (granted, they're Keen all-purpose sporty sandals, not some Rainbow flip-flops, but still) and I'm wearing Sperrys. Boat shoes. Known and desired for their lack of tread on the sole.

We reach the top of the hill in due time, quite sweaty, but otherwise fine and begin taking pictures of the waterfall and carvings in the river bed. Kbal Spean is the location of the "thousand lingas". A linga is a phallic symbol and according to legend, water that passes over a linga is imbued with special powers and holiness. Therefore, in order to have pure, holy water in the village below, the Khmer people carved a thousand lingas into the rocks in the riverbed. And a thousand years later, the carvings are still visible. Pretty impressive.

The riverbed carvings of lingas

The rain pouring through the
thatched roof on the edge of
the guard shack where
we waited out the storm.

Of course, while we were taking pictures of the carvings, it started to rain. Not "spritz a little on and off like Seattle in January" kind of rain; the "dump buckets of water at a time so hard it hurts, like July in Florida" kinda rain. We duck into the nearby trail guard station to get out of the rain, and sat there for a few minutes waiting for it to die down. We chatted with our guide and learned that he had a wife and son and that he wanted his son to grow up and go to college, perhaps even medical school. 

Sitting in the guard shack, waiting for the rain to die down.
My Sperrys have been with me on four continents,
through all kinds of weather. And now, they've been with me
on an impromptu Cambodia hike and rainstorm.
Love these shoes.

When the rain finally slacked up, we started hiking back down to the car. In the rain. On a now slippery steep trail. It took us a while to navigate back down, getting rained on the whole way, and I just kept thinking "Fritha and Conan would love this. But I'm glad I'm not holding Bucca's leash right now. I would totally fall and slide all the way down this muddy mountain."







We finally get back to the car, where our guide is waiting patiently. We plop our wet selves into the backseat and head off to lunch.