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| Floating fishing village |
On our last morning in Siem Reap we went south from Siem Reap about 30 minutes along a road that runs along the Siem Reap river, to the great lake of Tonle Sap. We took a boat ride out onto the lake to visit a floating fishing village. On the way, we were approached by a number of small boats trying to sell us souvenirs and, much to Sally's horror, two of them had pythons and tried to get us to pay to have photos taken with them - we didn't!
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| Children playing on the water |
The fishing village is a collection of floating shacks loosely tethered to the mangrove trees along the edge of the lake. It's incredible that people can live in these conditions, spending all their lives on the water. That said, many of them have TVs powered by batteries (these are charged by a floating charging station using a generator), there are floating schools, supermarkets, churches, even a floating basketball court! Small boats weave between the shacks delivering fruit and vegetables and other supplies.
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| Our transport to Phnom Penh |
In the afternoon we transferred to the airport and boarded a turboprop aircraft for the short flight along the Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh, names I immediately associate with the Vietnam war after hearing them on the TV News when I was young.
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| Nice touch |
We were driven to a rather nice hotel in the centre of Phnom Penh where we found they'd put rose petals on the bed spelling out 'Happy Honeymoon', which was a nice touch.
In the evening we went by Tuk Tuk to a restaurant recommended by our guide by the side of the river. The food was lovely (and very cheap) but we were pestered constantly by children begging or selling books and flowers; we'd had this previously when visiting the temples in Angkor, but not to this extent. Giving money to them just makes you more of a target and you don't know if the money is actually going to them, so, heart-rending as it is you have to shoo them away.
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