Water and War

Today, Saturday, is our last full day in Cambodia. Tomorrow we're off to Ho Chi Minh City, the beginning of about two weeks in Viet Nam. Stay tuned.

But for today, our first destination was Tonlé Sap Lake and its floating villages. Tonlé Sap Lake is vastly important to Cambodia. It's the largest lake in S.E. Asia and supplies 60% of the protein eaten by Cambodians. It's immense productivity is due to the fact that it drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh during the dry season, but during the rainy season, when the Mekong is swollen with flood waters, the flow reverses and goes into the lake. The lake becomes five times as large and ten times as deep. Immense amounts of nutrients are in the water. It's a very productive fishery.

Here we are getting ready to board our boat to go out onto the lake. The platform is high above the water, but when the level goes up 27 feet or so it won't seem so high.

On to the boat we go.

Our skipper looked to be about 12 years old.

The water looked like chocolate milk.

The post is to mark the channel when the water rises during the rainy season. I don't know whether the little houses behind it are made to float or to be under water for extended periods of time.

These people have decided to move.

As we traveled to the lake this boy suddenly appeared offering to sell us refreshments.

And then he was gone again.

As in Laos, all the boats have propellers located on long shafts well behind the boat. They have protection below them and can be raised as high as necessary to deal with shallow water.

There was a lot of traffic on the channel to the lake.

Finally we arrived at the lake and the floating village. Here's a floating barnyard. The blob of pink is a pig.

Here's a floating garden.

And here's a floating home with a floating garden.

Eventually we came to the inevitable floating restaurant and gift shop.

There were some interesting things here. Apparently there are crocodiles in the lake. There were some in the gift shop as well.

Then there was this little girl and her snake.

When I gave her some money she did what all the kids do and flashed me the "V" sign.

There was color.

And there were people begging for money.

We retraced our route to the boat dock and climbed back up that long ramp. Nancy says she's glad we didn't come during the rainy season, but it sure would have made it easier to get to and from the boat!

Our second, and last, visit of the day was to the War Museum. The horrors of Pol Pot were a generation ago. It's not something anyone really wants to talk about, which makes perfect sense to me. But the fellow who was our guide talked about it a bit necessarily. He had become a soldier at 14 because he needed food and clothing. He sustained many injuries. Here he's showing us metal under his skin.

He's missing a leg, though you'd never know it.

More scars, and not only to his body. There are millions of land mines still buried in Cambodia. People are still killed regularly, and that's how our guide lost his wife.

I'll show a few photos. Not much to say, really.

This tank had some pieces of bone from the men who died inside it.

Lots of ways to kill people.

I'll end on a lighter, brighter note. These ladies are selling little clams which you can get with or without a dusting of something red which looks like chili. I thought seriously about trying one but didn't.

Maybe next time. Tomorrow, Viet Nam.