2012 - Greg's Cycle Tour of Indochina: Bangkok to HCM City: Day 7: Wed 14 Nov

Ride: 18km; total: 281km

An early breakfast before cycling for 15 minutes to board on the boat to Siem Reap. The boat has toilet and life jacket and takes about 6 - 7 hours. It is one of the best boat trip in Cambodia to cross the Sangker river viewing the fishermen and all their activities on the river. Then crossing Tonle Sap lake (South East Asia’s largest freshwater lake). It is the main reserve for water when the Mekong is flooded, without the lake, Cambodia will be flooded every year. In rainy season, the water reaches 10,000 square Km when it is only 5,000 square Km in dry season. The lake is as important as for the human-being and the fish, birds and other wild animals. One hour before reaching the dock, the boat passes Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary home and breeding area for some thousands of water birds. After crossing Tonle Sap lake, we arrive at Chong Kneas floating village. The village combines of Cambodian, Muslim and Vietnamese and they move up and down depends on the season. All the houses are floating with support of the bamboo. After arrival at the dock, get off and prepare to ride bicycle 15km to our hotel. Overnight in Siem Reap. (B,L,D)

Breaky at 6:30am and on the bus was supposed to be at 7:30am, however we didn't do that till 8:20am as the Lead Guide had trouble getting his money man out of bed. It appears that he pays cash for everything and had to go to a money changer to get the cash. He was very apologetic that he had kept us waiting. We were driven to the Sangker River and boarded our boat for a 6-7 hour journey down the river and across Tonle Sap Lake to Siem Reap.

The river journey to get to the lake took about 5 hours motoring, but it was hard to tell where the river/lake starts and ends. The houses backing onto the river seemed so fragile. You could see by the wreckage that many had been claimed by erosion or flood and many more were going to be in the next monsoon season I suspect. Life seems so touch and go for some people here. The river banks in places were so littered with rubbish you couldn't see the bank; such a shame to see. I have trouble understanding why people do this to their lovely countries. I’ve seen it in many countries around the world in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Despite the pollution many men and boys were out net and line fishing. One wonders what's in the fish. Are we being served this fish in restaurants? Interesting journey but I believe if it had been a couple of hours instead of seven it would have been more enjoyable. However I would still take the smooth, but noisy boat ride over the apparently extremely rough road trip that would have been the alternative. We stopped for a cool drink at a floating store in a floating village about half way. What an interesting concept living on the water like that. We were then given our takeaway lunch on the boat. There were five dishes of spring rolls, chicken & cashews, veggies and rice. You’ve got to wonder how safe this food was as it had been sitting around on he boat, sometimes in the sun all morning. It was cold of course but tasted okay. No wonder most of the people on the tour had some form of tummy bug at various times.

Beside providing food and water the lake serves the local people by preventing a lot of flooding in the wet season as it doubles its size to 10,000 sqkm. Lots of it looks more like a river than a lake with all the vegetation closing in on the passages to the extent that our boat often had to push its’ way through the branches. Reminded me of the movie, African Queen, where are you Humphrey?

Back on the bikes at the harbour and onto our motel via 9km of smooth dirt and about 10km of busy sealed roads. The nearer we got to the motel the busier it got. The Royal Crown Hotel in Siem Reap is a very flash establishment near the city enabling us to walk into the markets etc. It looked 4 star with a nice pool, marble staircases, well appointed rooms and staff everywhere.

We were treated to a nice simple dinner at a rustic restaurant made mostly of bamboo. We wandered back to the motel via some very busy night markets. The touts were out in full force offering all sorts of goods and services, but the craze seems to be the fish tank foot massage, where the little fish do their thing on your feet. Lots of tourists were enjoying it; only cost US$1. I passed as I didn’t want to kill the fish.