Waterworld

I have not had time to blog about Angkor Wat, but there are new pictures on the web folder.

We did a day trip today out through the floodplain of the Tonle Sap Lake. In some ways it was like visiting another (very hospitable) planet.

Tonle Sap is a vast freshwater lake even in the dry season (n0w). In the wet, the Mekong's flow actually reverses into it, swelling its volume by a factor of 10, raising its level by 10 meters or so and doubling its surface area. It is alleged to be the richest freshwater fishery in the world. Tens of thousands of Kmer people live around it in stilt villages (or even a few actually floating villages), fishing in the wet season and both fishing and rice farming in the dry. We drove 30km from Siem Reap then took a boat several miles down throuugh the channels to the lake itself, which even now looks like the open sea - too wide to see the other side. Back at the boat dock there was a wedding in progress taking up the whole village main street. Amazing clothes; very very loud, distorted Cambodian rock music.

More later - I just looked at the clock and we are due to go out for dinner and a display of traditional Kmer dance in a minute. Such a hectic life... I may have to have several glasses of "Angkor" to recover.