Who invited the snake.

Trip Start Nov 05, 2008
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Trip End Nov 30, 2008


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

We are leaving Cambodia today to travel to Hong Kong. Our time in Cambodia has been extremely busy with sightseeing from 8-12 and 3-dark every day. The hours in the middle of the day are brutally hot so we have spent them eating our lunch and swimming in the hotel pool. The hotel has been the best we've  stayed at and the food has been great. The temples and sights are just spectacular and some are over 1,000 years old. Our driver Mr Bo and guide Mr Hak have been a lot of fun and very informative.  We have been to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and various other temples and ruins.  We have climbed, clamored, scrambled, slipped and hiked through jungle areas and up and down a thousand stone steps.  We rode in a hot air balloon to get an overview of the area and have seen monkeys and tourists sharing food.  The people here have been friendly and warm and gracious hosts.

Speaking of our driver Mr Bo, he agreed to join us in a small boat yesterday when we visited the floating villages on the lake near Angkor Wat rather than sit in the car and wait for us.  All was well until a water snake flew into the boat and slithered across the bottom of it. Ginger and I didn't see it at first but Mr Bo flew across the boat hollering "snake" in Khmer, the language spoken here, and neither Ginger or I knew what was going on. Our guide jumped up and then the Captain of the boat ran to the front of the boat with a big stick. At the time little did Ginger and I know that a snake was in the boat. We both saw it just as it slithered through a space between the floor boards and disappeared. I can assure you that all of us in the boat watched the floor boards for the rest of the trip. 

One interesting thing about this lake is that the floating village on it was featured on the Amazing Race TV show earlier in the year. This was probably the worst poverty that Ginger and I have seen on this trip. It is, of course, 3rd world, so it is both interesting and heartbreaking. These floating villages have stores, restaurants, a doctor,  and even a basketball court that all float on the water. We even saw a floating pig pen with three pigs in it and a floating crocodile farm to raise the crocs for leather.  Some of the residents rarely set foot on land, choosing to spend their entire lives afloat.

On the way back to our hotel Ginger, Mr Hak, Mr Bo and I had a good laugh about the snake. Kinda like whistling through the grave yard. We would like to have a few more days here as there is still lots to see, but the schedule has been set so we will fly to Hong Kong later today.
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