February 9, 2015
This morning we checked out of our hotel and boarded busses for a 7 ½ hour bus ride to our ship. Because of low water in the lake, we had to drive considerable further down river than initially planned. Having said that, let me deviate and set the stage. Up until today, our tour group was divided into 5 equal size groups. Each group was assigned to a bus and identified by a color. We were in the Purple Bus group, with a total of 20 people – lots of space and fun. However, today, AMA Waterways [operator of the river boat cruise part of our tour] applied their spreadsheet prowess and concluded that since each bus could carry 32 passengers, we could all fit into just four buses. By applying sardine canning technology we did fit. Most of us ‘Purple People’ ended up sitting in the back of the bus, so our bodies were suitable tenderized – no MSG required, by the potholed roads/none-roads. By the time we arrived at the dock, we were ready to get out of the ‘can’ and board the AMA Lotus – our very comfortable ship. Needless to say, we all practiced the newly learned Buddhist technique of reducing our passion and heat in our hearts, by taking three steps back and breathing deeply. Once suitable calmed down, we were ready for a great time.
So why was the water so low to require us to meet up with the ship much further down stream? It’s an interesting and unusual phenomenon. The confluence of the Siem Reap, the Mekong, and two other rivers, occurs near Phenom Penn. The much larger Mekong River originates in Tibet. The Tibetian spring snow and ice melt combined with the Monsoon rains, creates a huge volume of water wanting to flow downstream. The river channels could not accommodate so much water. The channel acts like a flow regulator. So as the flow begins to build up, it backs-up and pools. The excess water flow must find alternate paths with less resistance. It begins to push water upstream into the smaller, Siem River. The river flows in the opposite [upstream] direction and then begins to fill the Tonle Sap lake. This causes the lake, which is further upstream, to grow to more than 3 times its low water size. The peak size occurs in the November time frame, and the smallest size occurs in the February time frame. So the low-water in the lake forced us to intercept our ship at a location where the depth was sufficient for our ship.
Yummi Yummi street food.
Palm Fruit
Fried tarantulas
The bus ride gave us an opportunity to hear about the history and personal experience from our new guide, ‘PK’. Like the other stories we’ve heard, similar, all deeply disquieting – lives of constant fear and witness to atrocities.
We traveled on one of the main roads, which is under construction, for over 100 km. The road is being built with money borrowed from China, and when finished will make the ride much faster and pleasant. The scenery was invariant: dusty, polluted road sides; dry, ready-to-plant rice fields in the distance; scooters and mopeds carrying enormous loads of goods and people; broken up by periodic clusters of roadside vendors in make-shift shelters.
How much can you carry?
On board AMA Lotus
We stopped a couple of times – comfort stops – which had many vendors selling anything and everything. I decided to taste palm tree fruit which was moist, slightly sweet, with a texture like jello. I was also offered small [dime size] clams, fried crickets, and giant fried tarantula spiders. Given my experience in eating grasshopper tacos in New York city last fall, I thought I’d try the fried crickets. Hey,why not try something new…yet another adventure. STOP! I was ready to put the fried crickets in my mouth when PK ran over and grabbed them out of my hands. He told me in no uncertain terms that I must not eat these. They were cooked the day before, and the wings had not been removed before cooking, so they were neither good nor safe to eat. I had the impression that he was more enraged about the taste than safety. He claims that his wife makes absolutely the best crickets. She removes the wings before frying them. You gourmet chefs out here, please take note.
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