Yesterday's failed post
EDITS: This is still the same version of what I wrote when I was having problems with the internet, but i have taken out some of the glitches that got copied in from gmail.
Hi,
Not much to write about today. We saw three more temples, but without our guide since we only hired him for two days. Interestingly, two of the temples were surrounded by functional Buddhist Wats. Monks were walking around while we were there, and the very young children were having school lessons. As we were leaving the first temple, the older kids started to come in, presumably to start their morning classes. We saw several of them up on the temple too; I thought it was a pretty neat way to start the school day, sitting on the top level of a huge 1000 year old temple. Another cool aspect of the temple was the large moat around it, I think the sign said it was about 700 by 500 meters. Most of the new buildings are situated on the inside corners of the moat. In addition to the moat, the land is very high above the water and there are high walls around the outside of the moat. All in all it is a very picturesque location.
After the temples our driver took us the end of the Siem Reap river near Tonle Sap Lake (looking at a map of Cambodia, its the large lake somewhat left of center). We hired a boat to take us around the floating villages here which have sprung up around the mouth of the river. About 3000-5000 people live here, most of them Vietnamese, but some of them Cambodian. As you might imagine they make most of their livelihood from the water, fishing with nets, digging for shellfish, and collecting resources along the shore. The people in this area are very poor, but I was impressed with the quality of many of the buildings. Several people came up to our boat asking for money, including one child who was in what looked like the bottom quarter of a barrel but with a little extra lip to keep the water out (it wasn't actually a barrel, it was just about that size and shape). He had a very interesting way of getting around in it too. He stuck his paddle directly out in front of him and shook it back and fourth, all the while waddling inside to make his craft spin. By doing this he was able to build up quite a bit of speed, but every 30 seconds or so he had to grab his plastic bailer to get rid of some of the water that was splashing into his boat.
After drifting on the lake for a while (which is large enough that you cannot see the other side) we went to a floating fish and crocodile farm/restaurant/souvenir shop. They had several tanks of fresh water fish and eels, as well as two very large pens of crocodiles. According to one of the men there, the crocodiles used to live in the lake, but they have all disappeared. (I forgot to mention, and this reminded me, there is a crocodile farm right next to our hotel. We can look outside our window and see some of the larger crocks in one of their pools.)
Next we went to lunch, another buffet. It was a little expensive, but very very good. After this we decided we would rest. The only main attraction left to see is the museums, and we are going to the national museum on Saturday, so we decided to forego this. Our driver took us back to the hotel where we showed him pictures of Massachusetts as well. He had fewer comments, but also thought the Charles must be very clean. We told him it wasn't really as nice as it looked in the picture, and was more like his river here, only bigger; he laughed and said "Same Same" (a common phrase here, that basically means similar, or sharing one or two qualities; the whole phrase is "Same Same, but different").
That brings us to now. We are going to have dinner after we explore the market a bit more, then head back to our room for the night. We need to be up early again tomorrow so we can get back to Phnom Penh. We will pick up our clothes in the afternoon, and probably see the markets there some more too. As I said Saturday we are going to the national museum, and then probably to see a few of the Wats. Sunday we will be making our way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
A few things I forgot to mention in the last post….
When our guide saw an aerial picture of Boston, with Fenway in the center, he was wondering where we kept our rice fields. He seemed to think it was a little strange we didn't have any, and it's no wonder why. Rice is an absolute staple here, 80% of the people outside the cities are farmers, and almost all of them are rice farmers.
The other thing I forgot to mention was that I finally found a knife. After looking at all the horrible switch blades they had in the markets, we were ready to leave the market in Phnom Penh. But just as we were leaving, I notice a basket of kitchen knives. One of them happened to be a very good folding Chinese kitchen knife, perfect for what I needed it for; cutting fruit.
That's all for now.
-Tim
Hi,
Not much to write about today. We saw three more temples, but without our guide since we only hired him for two days. Interestingly, two of the temples were surrounded by functional Buddhist Wats. Monks were walking around while we were there, and the very young children were having school lessons. As we were leaving the first temple, the older kids started to come in, presumably to start their morning classes. We saw several of them up on the temple too; I thought it was a pretty neat way to start the school day, sitting on the top level of a huge 1000 year old temple. Another cool aspect of the temple was the large moat around it, I think the sign said it was about 700 by 500 meters. Most of the new buildings are situated on the inside corners of the moat. In addition to the moat, the land is very high above the water and there are high walls around the outside of the moat. All in all it is a very picturesque location.
After the temples our driver took us the end of the Siem Reap river near Tonle Sap Lake (looking at a map of Cambodia, its the large lake somewhat left of center). We hired a boat to take us around the floating villages here which have sprung up around the mouth of the river. About 3000-5000 people live here, most of them Vietnamese, but some of them Cambodian. As you might imagine they make most of their livelihood from the water, fishing with nets, digging for shellfish, and collecting resources along the shore. The people in this area are very poor, but I was impressed with the quality of many of the buildings. Several people came up to our boat asking for money, including one child who was in what looked like the bottom quarter of a barrel but with a little extra lip to keep the water out (it wasn't actually a barrel, it was just about that size and shape). He had a very interesting way of getting around in it too. He stuck his paddle directly out in front of him and shook it back and fourth, all the while waddling inside to make his craft spin. By doing this he was able to build up quite a bit of speed, but every 30 seconds or so he had to grab his plastic bailer to get rid of some of the water that was splashing into his boat.
After drifting on the lake for a while (which is large enough that you cannot see the other side) we went to a floating fish and crocodile farm/restaurant/souvenir shop. They had several tanks of fresh water fish and eels, as well as two very large pens of crocodiles. According to one of the men there, the crocodiles used to live in the lake, but they have all disappeared. (I forgot to mention, and this reminded me, there is a crocodile farm right next to our hotel. We can look outside our window and see some of the larger crocks in one of their pools.)
Next we went to lunch, another buffet. It was a little expensive, but very very good. After this we decided we would rest. The only main attraction left to see is the museums, and we are going to the national museum on Saturday, so we decided to forego this. Our driver took us back to the hotel where we showed him pictures of Massachusetts as well. He had fewer comments, but also thought the Charles must be very clean. We told him it wasn't really as nice as it looked in the picture, and was more like his river here, only bigger; he laughed and said "Same Same" (a common phrase here, that basically means similar, or sharing one or two qualities; the whole phrase is "Same Same, but different").
That brings us to now. We are going to have dinner after we explore the market a bit more, then head back to our room for the night. We need to be up early again tomorrow so we can get back to Phnom Penh. We will pick up our clothes in the afternoon, and probably see the markets there some more too. As I said Saturday we are going to the national museum, and then probably to see a few of the Wats. Sunday we will be making our way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
A few things I forgot to mention in the last post….
When our guide saw an aerial picture of Boston, with Fenway in the center, he was wondering where we kept our rice fields. He seemed to think it was a little strange we didn't have any, and it's no wonder why. Rice is an absolute staple here, 80% of the people outside the cities are farmers, and almost all of them are rice farmers.
The other thing I forgot to mention was that I finally found a knife. After looking at all the horrible switch blades they had in the markets, we were ready to leave the market in Phnom Penh. But just as we were leaving, I notice a basket of kitchen knives. One of them happened to be a very good folding Chinese kitchen knife, perfect for what I needed it for; cutting fruit.
That's all for now.
-Tim
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on Friday, January 27, 2006 at 6:23 AM.
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6:42 AMYikes --- unedited????? --- Dad
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