Art Workshop, Markets and Floating Village
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2008
1
8
24
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Siem Reap is a fairly small town - only 1.5km square or so, so everything is walkable - IF you can stand the heat. This is very much a touristy town... there are tuk-tuks everywhere offering to take us somewhere. The Cambodia tuk-tuk is basically a small covered 2-man carriage that is towed behind a motorcycle. It seems to be held on by an overgrown nut and bolt, so you just keep our fingers crossed that the thing will hold together!
We decided to walk to the furthest place on our itinerary while it was still cool (ie 32-33 degrees!) - to the Artisans 'de Angkor. This is a art workshop that trains young handicapped (deaf, blind and/or mute) Cambodians different crafts, like painting, wood carving, sandstone sculpturing, silk weaving etc. We had a tour through the factory then got guided to the shop where we could buy expensive souvenirs. I have to say the quality of what they made was quite nice. We didn't buy anything though as we know we need to travel light. (Words that I will have to eat as I am writing this retrospectively two days later).
We wandered through the Old Markets - basically a large warehouse that is jammed pack with small stalls selling all sorts of bits and pieces - silk scarves, silk bags, paintings, carvings, etc, etc. The stall holders are quite aggressive here and it reminds me a bit of Bali. "Madam, you come into my shop and by something". If you try to tell them that maybe you will come back later, they say "ÖK, I will remember you!" I finally succumbed, however, and made my first purchase - a pretty silk handbag. (Alan - I will need somewhere to go now when I get back so can use it! I can feel a nice dinner coming on!)
I should point out about here, that the driving here is absolutely crazy!! Thailand was crazy, but this is even crazier. For starters, they drive on the right, instead of the left, as they do in Thailand. However, it seems that they can also drive on the right - so it's not unusual to see 2 lines of traffic going away from you, and one line coming towards you! (Notice I said lines, not lanes. There doesn't appear to be any concept of road lanes here!!)
We are also getting very good at crossing the road like a local. (NOTE: All parents and grandparents should stop reading this paragraph now!) There are are very few traffic lights in Siem Reap (and when they exist, they are mostly ignored!). There are pedestrian crossings - but these are also ignored. Everybody beeps the horn all the time - whether they need to or not. This is to say ''I am coming, and will not stop for you". So... the best way to cross the street is to just step out in front of traffic dodge the cars and motorbikes coming at you in all directions. This is no place to be timid!! Sometimes we will tag along behind 90 year old Khmer grannies to help us across the road!!
Since I have been sitting here writing these blog entries there have been two accidents outside the window. This is probably due to them being distracted by some Nokia promotion going on the other side of the road.
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In the afternoon we took a tuk-tuk for a long ride down to the edge of Tonle Sap, the biggest lake in Cambodia. Here we were going to do a floating market tour. This was an eye-opening ride through local villages - the further out of two we got the poorer the people were. The poverty here is just atrocious. It's so incredibly sad, and as we drove closer to the lake we were regretting doing this tour. The road was lines with the most basic and delipated shanties you could imagine. God only knows what they did for water and sanitation.
The road turned into a dusty dirt road that had so many potholes. I was sure the tuk-tuk carriage would disconnect from the motorbike and had visions of us rolling uncontrollably down the enbankment on either side of the road and into streams that well, we just wouldn't want to fall into.
At the end, we clambered over several boats to get into our private boat. These boats had planks of wood on the floor that really didn't look like they were doing much. They had cane chairs on the boat for us to sit in. The river out to the main lake area was the muddiest water you could imagine. This is because of the the constant stream of boats running up and down the river - each one full of tourists. At this point we realised we had really fallen into a tourist trap. The water levels were so low that the boats sometimes got stuck so they would back-peddle with the engine', splashing all and sundry who happened to be near them. And this was NOT water you wanted to be splashed with.
Once we got down the river and into the lake we could see the different villages on the water. There were 3 villages - a Vietnamese, a Muslim and a Cambodian one. These were little floating shacks basically. They moved between each house by a small wooden canoe. We saw one or two that had bamboo cages attached on which stood a pig or two. There is no such thing as opening your door and running on your lawn, or down the driveway. They have a small paltform or deck off their front door and that's it. I guess it's all they know. What was incredible, though, is the number of these places had TV's (battery-powered). I guess that's their only source of entertainment.
As fascinating as it was, I felt it was so intrusive on these people. Imagine you just want to blob on your couch, lie on your bed for a snooze, have a shower or cook your dinner, and you have dozens of boats whizzing past staring and photographing you.
It was an eye-opener.
Back home to the hotel for a shower, dinner and an early night. Tomorrow we have to get up at 4.30 for our big day at the Angkor Wat temple complex. We aimed to catch the sunset at 5.30am or so.
More on that later... Debbie has given up on waiting for me and has headed our somewhere for dinner. I had better go and join her!! (Again - sorry no pictures. We will try to address this in the next day or two).
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