Tonle Sap Lake and Cambodian Countryside

Trip Start Nov 16, 2007
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Trip End Jan 14, 2008


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

South of Siem Reap, Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Asia, part of the Mekong. We went through the last permanent village, above the high water line. Then we saw the rice paddies they were starting to plant as the water level dropped. The make-shift houses on stilts are picked up and moved up to 8 times per year (!!), following the water level. It's a fascinating sight, as the lake is surrounded by floating villages. Due to the swelling of the Mekong river and the reversing flow of the Tonle Sap river, the area covered by this lake changes from ~3,000 square km at the end of the dry season (Apr/May) to ~13,000 square km during the rainy season (June - Oct).
We got to see a little bit of how people live in the countryside. Everyone farms, mostly rice. In 1991 each family was given one hectare of land. They have bought, sold, and traded since then with property values in the towns skyrocketing. Out in the countryside they have huge fields, and neighbors and community members work together to plant and harvest. They have lots of sugar palms. We got to see how they collect the juice (7-8 liters per tree per day!) high up in the tree, boil the juice/syrup, and make sugar out of it. They also make palm wine, eat the fruit, and make and sell baskets made from the leaves - a very useful tree! Interesting side note: our car (a Toyota Camry) had the steering wheel on the right side, even though they drive on the right side (same as in Viet Nam, left side in Japan, Thailand, and Bhutan). We were told that this configuration costs about half as much as the other one - seems very odd and very hard to believe. Maybe they're donated or sold cheaply from Japan?
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