Oudong - Kampong Tralach

As our holiday progresses , most of us - read into that, mainly me - have suffered from some degree of what we not so affectionately refer to as “Mekongaria”. Fortunately, it hasn’t held us back from excursions, but continues to make us wary of what goes into our bodies. I’m fairly certain that our malaise is due more to the variety of new foods, rather than the quality. Like I said in an earlier post, the food everywhere has been fabulous and our issues are nothing that a little antibiotic can’t handle. Anyway, we headed out from Phnom Penh early this morning, now sailing up the Tonle Sap River which connects the Mekong to Tonle Lake on our way to Siem Reap. The capital city seemed to sprawl along the river forever, with great diversity along its shores. There was an impressive derelict river boat left listing on one shore.

Next, there were hovels with extremely opulent neighbours immediately across the river.

Then the shoreline became literally one fish farm after another.

As we arrived at today’s destination, we had a lecture from our Cambodian guide Sopal about all things Cambodian, especially the Mekong - translated Mother of Water. It turns out that the river we are presently on flows both ways. In the winter, during the rainy season it flows towards the Tonle Lake. Then, at this time of year, it flows away from the lake and towards the Mekong, which means that the lake reduces its volume by up to 70% and makes boat traffic to the lake impossible (more about that in a few days). Sopal also demonstrated the myriad of uses for the Kroma - a cotton scarf.

Following the lecture we left the boat and maneuvered the numerous waifs selling silver-plated trinkets and went for a 3 kilometre walk in the blazing Cambodian sun through the village of Prek k’Dam.

This village with stilt houses is a predominantly Muslim community. There was a wonderful display of varied houses on stilts. Thanks to the Chinese and their dams upstream on the Mekong, the stilts are now rendered redundant as the river no longer floods. Among the photos below is a clay pot that acts as a washing machine and the flower of the banana. Also we came upon two guys on motorcycles with poles across the back of them that were full of live chicken hanging from their legs. The kids and kittens picture is self-explanatory.

Following lunch we boarded buses for visits to two Buddhist sites. Here we once again saw the overloaded Tuk Tuks.

The first was to the Pudong Buddhist Centre of Cambodia with a pagoda where we got a blessing from the monks.

They had a twenty metre long reclining buddha and the earth goddess protected the pond.

Then we went to the oldest pagoda in Cambodia in Kampong Tralach.

Our final experience of the day was an ox cart ride back to the boat. There was just Dawn and I in the cart and the ride was surprisingly smooth despite the fact that the oxen often got into a trot.

We have been impressed by how authentic our experience has been in Cambodia. And the final photo for today is of our oxens.