Floating Villages and Cambodia

There is pandemonium on the roads of Siem Reap, no general direction for traffic, and no age limit for drivers. Whole families are stacked up on motorbikes. We saw a woman driving a motorcycle in the rain with a tarp over three sets of legs behind her. When we smiled she lifted up her tarp and showed us a fourth set on an infant who was holding onto the gas tank.

Today we went out to Tonlé Sap which is the largest freshwater lake in S.E. Asia. It was after an epic ride and when I say, “Epic,” I’m talking it’s amazing we survived. We had about an hour of riding through mud and pot-holes, and hanging onto our tuk tuks to not bounce out. Somehow we missed all the oncoming traffic as we fishtailed our way to the boat launch. The engine of the 4’ x 14’ longboat went full throttle as we ploughed through the thick leaves. A large plume of water shot out the backside as the boat operator, his toddler son at his feet got us out to the lake. The 10-15’ tall bamboos that surround the lake are almost completely covered when the water level rises each year. People live on small floating houses in the edge of the lake, some are a little more than a shack. Others, like a school or a store are a little better built. There was a beautiful Pagoda on the shoreline that the community uses, especially if the water gets too high.

The children in white tops and navy bottoms taxi to and from their floating school together in small wooden long boats that are something like a cross between a canoe and a kayak. One child sits cross legged at the helm while the others read or play. People spend their lives on these little floating buildings with miles of bamboo reeds as their backyard. Most of the crocodiles have been removed though we saw one being loaded onto a truck parked onshore.  We stopped at a floating store that had a stuffed crocodile on the floor. Malia got a cup of instant Nescafe and powdered milk, which is pretty much the coffee de rigueur in Cambodia. It’s actually not bad except that it’s Nescafe.  Out back I saw a floating chicken coup, smelled where the bathroom must be, realized that there is no real sanitation and wondered how they manage their plumbing.

When we returned I splurged again on an $11 massage. Then we headed out to the Night Market, where the regular way of doing business goes something like this:

Sales Person: “Hello Madam, you like (whatever it is you’re looking at)?”

Me: “Yes, how much is it?”

SP: “I give you a really good price, it is $12.”

Me: (silence – while fondling said item, not smiling)

SP: “I tell you what, I like you a lot. I give it to you for $8.”

Me: (silence) “I don’t know.”

SP: “Ok, six dollars. Or here, you want two, I give you two for $10”

Me: “I will take one for $5. Thank you.”

Note: The actual price is always approximately 50% of what they initially quote… always.

The Khmer word for “thank you” is “akun”. We learned very quickly how to say to aggressive peddlers, “Te, akun,” or "No, thank you." Sadly most of those were the children that surrounded the temples at Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is crumbling. It is being walked on and touched with very few limits. It is being wrapped by people trying to hold it up or by trees trying to reclaim it. We visited Banteay Srei and the heat was almost unbearable. It is a site that was dedicated to Shiva, and its name translates into the Citadel of Women or Citadel of Beauty. This may have been where women practiced a ritual related to fertility. The lingam/yoni coupling is prominently centered. Very common in Khmer art is the lingam stone standing upright on a square yoni stand. The yoni has a raised lip that holds water and an opening at one end that allows it to flow out. What is beautiful about this motif is the water flows from the base of the lingam out a down turned spout that resembles a labia. The “sacred” water that flows out of the yoni, this union of male and female is normal for the Khmer to talk about.

We then visited the Landmine Museum. It was started by a former child soldier who had himself planted tens of thousands of landmines. He is now dedicated to demining Cambodia, and there are between three to six million still in the ground. It is hard to write about this and I encourage you to visit their site and give to them. I realized even more so because I was there the horror of what had been done to these kind and gentle people, what continues to be done, the atrocities of war, the fact that 90% of the population is under the age of 45 and 70% is under the age of 30 because of genocide committed, well I was overwhelmed and began to cry uncontrollably. Because of the present day political and social environment in Cambodia, there is not a lot of information on their website. I will post a picture of some literature was in their entryway.

Before going to a “cultural dance exhibit” which was more like a buffet in an enormous bar with a really good band that no one is listening to, I got a chance to talk to Richard our tuk tuk driver about his girlfriend. He said that he is saving money so he can marry her. In Cambodia you must pay, basically a dowry, to marry a woman. If it’s an arranged marriage the father must pay the woman’s family. If it’s for love, you must pay her father yourself. He needs between three to five thousand dollars to marry her. Since she’s a doctor I said he should pay more and we both giggled. In the morning we all exchanged Facebook information, hugged, took photos and went on to our next adventure: Laos.