15th November - Angkor at Dawn

We were up at 4am this morning and on the bus while it was still dark.  Arriving at Angkor Wat, we were all given torches and walked to the lake.  It was an eerie feeling standing there in the darkness gradually watching the temple become visible against the sky.  The ambience was rounded out by the background noise of the Buddhist monks in the nearby monastery doing their morning chants.

Sadly, the morning was rather cloudy, but it was still an amazing experience. After watching the sunrise we were taken to the monastery overlooking the water for a champagne breakfast.


I was back at the hotel by 10am and had the rest of the morning free before setting off for the afternoon excursion: a cruise on Tonle Sap lake. Denise was feeling under the weather and elected not to come.  We were taken by bus out to where we were supposed to board our "cruise" boat. On the bus the guide admitted that this was not really a "cruise" more like a "boat ride".  When we arrived we boarded a small wooden boat capable of holding about 20 people.  No mod cons - even the life jackets looked a bit iffy.  We were then taken for a short boat ride through a floating village.


Apparently a large proportion of Cambodia's population live on houses on the water with no electricity other than what they can generate with car batteries.  After about 10 minutes of sailing along we ended up at a larger floating construction which was supposed to be a "crocodile farm".  As we approached several small sampans came up and the women on board grabbed onto our boat and started shoving their naked babies up against the railings of our boat screaming "dollar! dollar!".  None of them looked malnourished and the women were wearing good clothes - the sad fact is that they can make more money by aggressively begging like this than they can from fishing, and giving them money only encourages them to throw their children against the next boat that comes along.  We had to jump off the boat onto the "crocodile farm" building.  The floor boards were rotting and not nailed down properly - I honestly felt that the boat was more sea-worthy than  this construction and couldn't wait to get back onboard again. After a short boat ride back it was back to the bus and home to the hotel again.   All in all it was a most unpleasant experience and Denise didn't miss anything.  If you ever go to Cambodia I suggest you skip any excursion described as a "tonle sap lake cruise".

The evening event was a gala farewell dinner in the jungle.  However, Denise was still under the weather and I was exhausted after being up since 4am, so neither of us went.