Siem Reap to Kompong Cham
After a huge day at the other-worldly temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, many of us took advantage of the Khmer comforts of the Residence d’Angkor Hotel on our final morning in Siem Reap. Others couldn’t get enough, and took tuk-tuks back to the Temple Complex to climb Angkor Wat’s central tower, or visit some of the many lesser-known temples in the area. Still others went into the Siem Reap old market or took a leisurely walk along the river, all winding up the first exciting chapter of our journey through the Mekong Basin.
The drive along the north perimeter of the Tonle Sap Lake was a fascinating contrast to the booming Angkorian hub of Siem Reap, as we were spellbound with the rural landscapes and lifestyles that we bounced through on one of the best roads in all of Cambodia. Tonle Sap Lake swells to the base of the Angkorian walls during the highest floods of the rainy season, and we could see that the waters to either side of route 6 were only recently receding with the beginnings of the dry season. This is “single-crop” rice land, which means that only one crop of rice is grown here every year. The dramatic rise and fall of the Tonle Sap Lake is the key to the fertile soils and fisheries of central Cambodia, and some of the wetlands even yield three rice crops a year! This is important in a land where rice is the most important food staple and the basis for the Cambodian diet.
Very skinny cattle grazed on the rough stalks of the recently harvested rice, and locals cast nets and set fish traps in the shallow pools of water that the lake has left behind. In slightly higher areas that are free from the annual flooding, tapioca (manioc) is grown, along with mango, banana, and coconut palm, all giving way to the cashew and rubber plantations as we left the Tonle Sap basin and neared the Mighty Mekong.
The River was bigger, and cleaner, than many of us expected, and our luxurious riverboat Jahan was hardly visible down the steep banks of the river under the embankment of Kompong Cham. The ship is a treasure of East Indian artistic design, and a luxurious comfort in such a challenging environment. We spent an hour settling into the ship, but everyone wanted to be out on deck as we cast off downstream for our first Mekong sunset. Captain Quy positioned the ship masterfully in front of an astonishing handcrafted bamboo bridge, rebuilt every year for the dry season, as the hazy orange sun set like Jupiter behind the kapok trees and bamboo silhouettes on the western banks.
Welcome to the Mekong…
