Only one full day in cambodia and so much happened ...
So we left the nunnery and all felt really enlightened. What an amazing experience that most wouldn't get to do.
Questions by Cori about the nunnery:
why was that little lady's teeth black
why was that lady so little
why did that lady have no hair
why do ladies have boy haircuts
what were all the ladies doing on their knees
why do they sing songs that way
Questions fielded, we were on the way to the floating market.
It was a 15 minute or so ride through the COUNTRY. We were really in the middle of nowhere. We could see inside of many peoples' homes which consisted of recovered building materials making a one or two room house. Children as young as about 2 were playing togehter on the side of the road and in the road. Most of the younger children were naked. Cows were wandering on the side of the road. There were a few stands selling water and other items along the way. There were stray dogs everywhere. Oh - while we're on the subject of dogs ... yes, some people there do eat them. No, it's not a normal menu item. It's more of a black market type item that isn't really talked much about. Black dog's meat is the most highly prized dog meat on the market. They do not eat cats. The road was narrow, bumpy and not paved. Poverty was rampant...very different from ANYTHING we have ever seen. People in the US only think they are poor compared to this. Sometimes parents have to go out fishing and it's so far that they will be gone a night or two leaving their young children to fend for themselves for a couple of days. There is no school that is compulsory and the school that exists is only through grade school. The lucky children leave home around 12 and go to the bigger cities to live in a nunnery or with friends to go to high school. Parents here spend a lot of time training their very young children to sell things both on the river and in tourist areas. There are kids as young as 3 and 4 selling things and they are very pushy. If we never hear 1 dollar again it would be too soon.
Ok - we arrive at the place where we catch a boat to the floating market and village and buy boat tickets. We then douse ourselves in bug spray much to the delight of the locals and walk down what must be the steepest "ramp" I've ever walked down to the dock. On the dock, our tour guide talks to the boat drivers and then chooses us a boat. We have to walk across another boat to get on it and then all take our seats. It's about 2 lawnchairs wide and 25 feet long. The water looks exactly like coffee with cream in it. Kathryn kept saying it looked like a river from the show river monsters. We warned the kids not to touch the water and were off. On the way, we did wind up getting splashed a little bit and I'm certain we'll come down with a dreaded disease from it. We went past more one room houses and saw more very young children just out playing near the water with no adults in sight. We saw a about 5 year old girl on a boat with her dad driving near us. She was the cutest little thing. Soon, she was hopping over to our boat, while both boats were in motion, to try to sell us drinks. It was really disheartening that her dad was using her like that. Next, we saw another boat passing with two young boys and a dad. When they got close enough, we realized that they had about 6 foot long snakes wrapped around them. Kathryn was freaking out a little bit since she doesn't love snakes and we all knew they would be hopping onto the boat in mere seconds. Our tour guide said something right because the boys didn't hop aboard...
We finally arrived at the floating village. It was just as if not even more poor than the homes we saw on the way. People lived on flating platforms with various different structures built on them. There was no plumbing or electricity. We saw people doing various bits of daily life - cooking dinner, washing clothes, etc. We pulled up to a floating market and got off the boat for a few minutes. We saw a boy who was about 7 in a large salad bowl/pot paddling around there. There were also two boats there that had ladies with their tiny babies. They construct a sort of playpen for babies on their canoe type thing out of sticks which one was in. Of course they all asked for money. Cori of course had to go to the bathroom and they did actually have a bathroom there. I took her in there and very nearly fell through the floor when I stepped on a rotten board. It was so gross and we had to "hanitize" after that one. Lots of hand sanitizer on this trip ... They raised crocodiles there at the market as well so we went over to the raised platform and peered down at the crocodiles. They use them for food and for their hide. They also sold them to somewhere in Thailand. We bought a couple of little souvenir type things and a container of pringles strangely enough and headed out. While we were leaving we were asked for money again. Oh - I forgot - there were some teenage boys there with more snakes and Caitlin and Chase both held them for a little while. Kathryn wasn't thrilled again.
The entire lake we were on was only about 5 foot deep ... very strange ... the rainy season has just started and it should be up about 20 feet before it's over. When we got back to the docks, there were little boys just slightly older than Cori that took Cori's hand and helped her up the ramp. It was very cute.
We were back in the van and kinda happy to be there. Our driver and our tour guide had been with us for over 15 hours at that point so we headed back to the hotel and let them go. It cost us $30 for each of them for the day (total of $60). The average annual income for a farmer in cambodia is $250. That's annual ... for a tour guide or driver, it is about $75 a month.
We packed up and went to bed since we had to be up early for a flight back to Singapore. Oh - the water in the showers there was very iron rich so it smelled like we were showering in blood...just thought I'd mention that.
Well - that's Cambodia in a nutshell!! Our favorite country on this trip!!
Hope all is well with everyone!
Kristen
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