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I woke up multiple times in the night. When the small outboard boats go by it sounds like helicopters landing on the roof so that didn’t help. The pillow is as firm as the bed. But it’s all tolerable. Marion has the cabin organized so that everything has its place and it makes things easier. But I have to work on my discipline of keeping things where they belong instead of leaving things where they are most convenient to grab (my philosophy).
The boat engines started at 5am and once that woke me up I was up for the day. I figured why not check out the sunrise so I went up on the sun deck. Deb and Joan were already up there with the same idea. The sunrise was quite beautiful as it turned out and ultimately I had to go back to the cabin for my camera to try to get some pictures of the fishing boats in the distance.
Now one issue with tropical climates is if you leave the camera in the room with the A/C on, then take it out on deck, the lenses immediately fog over. And I managed to not bring a lens cleaner with me (not sure how that happened, there’s always one in my backpack). So I have to keep borrowing Marion’s. But anyway, I spent a nice hour or so watching the sunrise and talking to Joan about Care Innovations and health care.
The lake we’re on, Tonle Sap, is the largest in Southeast Asia. In fact, the name means freshwater ocean. It’s filled with plants. We are all speculating as to whether they are free floating or attached to the bottom. The consensus is attached to the bottom but the roots would have to be quite lengthy in places for that to be true.
At some point we exited the lake and continued on the river with the same name. We stopped at Kampong Chhnang, a thriving community of 30,000 or so with a very active waterfront where we got into vans to head out to the village where they make pottery in traditional fashion. The village is known for its pottery and from the sounds of it, pretty much had the monopoly on pottery making for a long time (but not anymore). We tried to avoid the van with Anna, the cranky Philadelphian, but no luck. We’re still trying to figure out why she wanted to come and/or what, if anything, makes her happy. But she mostly behaved herself.
We walked through the village stopping at people’s houses. It was very weird. Hi, we’re 16 Americans, can we come in? I’m trying to picture 16 Cambodians walking down the sidewalk and stopping by here in Beaverton. But they seemed happy to see us. Per Bros, the Khmer culture is very welcoming. No pretensions. Everything is on display (they live and work under their houses which are on stilts, the top floor is just for sleeping). And I’m sure we aren’t the first group to visit. This is a regular stop for our tour and probably others as well. But it was still a little weird.
We got a demonstration of how the pots are made. They don’t use a pottery wheel. The people walk around them instead, pounding the clay with various sized wooden panels to make the shapes. Without a mold or anything they turn out pots that look pretty much exactly the same time after time. They can make maybe 10 a day on a good day. Then they sell them for something like 15 cents each. Ridiculous but that’s how it works. The clay comes from a nearby mountain.
Some organization (I don’t remember the name) is helping them to understand how to create souvenirs for the tourists so at the first place we got the opportunity to buy some little trinkets, which most of us did. But then they also handed over an extra one as a gift. They can’t help themselves. The organization has also introduced the pottery wheel to them to make the smaller items. I imagine at some point they’ll start doing the pots on the wheel and the walking around mode they use will disappear. It’s progress I suppose and it seems like it would be easier for the people but it’s kind of sad too. And they’ll probably discover they start having back issues from sitting so long.
We went to a second house and got another demonstration. It’s really quite amazing. Our guide asked how they determine the size of the lid and mouth of the pot. The lady showed us it’s the size of her outstretched fingers! The older daughter (who was in 11th grade which is unusual, most kids drop out after elementary school) was creating clay out of clay powder. She’d spread some powder, add water, add some previous clay, kneed with her hands and/or feet. Then repeat. It looked like fun for about 10 minutes. Then not so much. The younger daughter was carrying around her baby brother who was naked from the waist down. It seemed like her job was babysitting. The husband was cutting bamboo to provide table supports. No one gets to sit around and play with their phones or watch TV around here.
The people like their lifestyle and in fact Bros said that as the town encroaches, the people will move farther out to maintain their distance.
We stopped at a third place where they make pots but also palm sugar. To make palm sugar they create these bamboo ladders to climb up to the top of the tree where the palm flowers are. Although it’s only a ladder in the strictest sense. What it really is, is a long bamboo pole with cross sticks nailed to it. Definitely not OSHA compliant. They attach devices to the palm fruit to squeeze the flowers/fruit and let the sap/nectar drip into bamboo containers. It takes all day. So at night they have to climb up again to bring it down. They can climb 20 trees a day on a good day. The husband at this place (who was out working in the rice fields this day) is 65 and still doing it. The ladders are not for the faint of heart. Bros climbed up about 4 or 5 feet to demonstrate but wisely went no higher.
Once the sap is obtained it’s boiled and the sugar (syrup really) is extracted. It’s very similar to the maple syrup process actually.
At all 3 places the people were friendly and welcoming. The children were adorable. It’s so weird to just show up as a group of tourists to their house. We walk down the street, the guide says hi and it’s come on in. Road Scholar gives them something for their troubles too and this isn’t their first visit. But it’s still kind of weird. Especially when I want to take pictures.
We drove back to town where the boat was, but stopped about a half mile short of the pier so we could walk through the market. And there were stalls on both sides of the street the whole way. These kinds of markets are amazing to me. Everything piled out in front so you can see it and anything you can think of. Vegetables and fruit of course. But meats too. Chickens (both live and dead), pig heads, cans of soda. But then a stall of blankets, one filled with coolers, a cell phone store or two of course, motor bikes, and on and on. One stall would be packed with stuff, the next hardly anything. I guess you’re open until you run out. As we walked by, all the little kids would say hello and wave. Probably the only word of English they know. Big smiles. We were hoping they weren’t just being trained to later be selling things to the tourists.
Then back to the boat. And I should mention we got to and from the shore on a ‘water taxi’. A smaller boat with chairs that ferried us back and forth. We had to put on life jackets for the 30 second trip. It’s amazing how hot they make you in just a short amount of time.
Most people went back to their cabins to rest or shower. But instead we went up to the sun deck and watched as the sun set. It was spectacular. We’re out on the water, which is wide and flat but has plants and trees growing in it so there’s some visual interest. Occasionally there’s a hut or something and mountains off in the distance that the sun is setting behind. The area around the sun is bright red but up higher in the sky the cloud cover is flaming orange. And well to either side the clouds are pink. Even in the east there was color. It was a 360-degree sunset. Twilight is my favorite time on the water, the blue that the water turns, the light in the sky, and the silhouettes of the rocks and trees. And this was the IMAX version.
Unfortunately, the bugs came out during dinner despite the insect repellent. This was the first day it was really a problem but it was unpleasant. Enough so that even though they were going to show The Killing Fields movie in the dining room after dinner, which I wanted to see, I had to escape to the room before being swarmed to death. It turned out this was really the only night where the bugs were a problem.
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