Tonle Sap Lake

The boat, she no leave until she is full.  Its the rules.

Cutting it close along the water scrub

Floating villages dot the waterscape

In the center of Cambodia is the Tonle Sap Lake. This huge freshwater lake is a natural hydraulic phenomenon and the living heart of Cambodia. Almost all of the rivers of Northwestern, Western and Southwestern Cambodia drain into Tonle Sap Lake. The Tonle Sap river flows Southeast, out of the lake, and eventually joins the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. Every year, during the monsoon season, a miracle occurs. The flow of the Mekong River becomes so great that it reverses the course of the Tonle Sap river, forcing huge amounts of water, nutrients and millions of fish out of the Mekong flood and up the Tonle Sap river, filling the lake to the brim. The process reverses each dry season, as is happening right now.

There are miles and miles that border the lake which are, in the dry season, scrub forest, marshlands and tilled fields. In the wet season, the entire area is underwater. Floating villages are scattered all around the lake and the waterfolk who live there move their location depending on the water level during the seasons.

It was across this transitional lake landscape that I journeyed today, taking the boat from the docks near Siem Reap, crossing the North end of the lake, and then crossing the miles of transitional wetlands to the river proper, and thence to the town of Battambang in Western Cambodia.

It was an amazing ride as the boat bounced across the open lake, threaded marsh lands while frightening storks into flight, and crashing through slots of brush so narrow that the boat was scraped on both sides.

We passed many floating villages where the temples are built on piers and everything else is a raft or a boat. We delivered and picked up local folks and packages along the way. There were impromptu stops for repairs and even an off-course excursion into the brush caused by, well, a missed turn. Six hours later we arrived in Battambang, most of us camped on the top of the boat like a train ride in India.

I am attaching some boat video in the next post.

I am now enjoying a full belly of street food and a return to a Cambodian town instead of the tourist ghetto of Siem Reap's old town. Ahhh.