The floating villages are located on the northern end of Cambodia's great lake, the Tonle Sap. The more than 5,000 people here, depend on fishing for their livelihood. Some live in houses on wooden stilts and other live on actual floating houses. As we cruised through the villages it's apparent that they've made nearly everything float: schools, churches, hardware stores, beauty salons, and restaurants.
While the people here seemed content with the adaption they've made to live near the water, Sal explained that the living conditions are far from hygienic. There are no sewer systems and people seldom boil the polluted water before drinking it. It is also extremely noisy. During the day the rivers are used as the source of transport to school, to sell things, and of course to tote tourists. During the night fisherman head out to the lake and come back early in the morning to send their catch to the markets.
One of the most shocking sites we saw here was a little girl who had a pet python around her neck. Ughajdrwajermkawdkalwjed ... Blech!! Sal assured me it was harmless. I assured him I didn't care.
We drove about 80 kilometers to see the last temple on our list, Beng Mealea. The temple was built during the reign of King Suryavarman II for his concubine in the early 12th century. Sal waited to tell us upon arrival that a.) the temple walls had fallen in so we would have to walk/jump/climb on wooden planks and what was left of the roof and b.) because of all the rubble and dark hiding places, pythons liked this spot.
I didn't travel that far just to flip out so I started up the roof and told myself that pythons took the day off and sight seeing from the roof down was actually a bonus ... right. I also looked completely ill equipped in bright pink shorts. Fortunately, the comfort sandals made the trip which balanced things out a bit :).
As it was my birthday, I got to choose our evening plans. We decided to attend a cello concert that was advertised around Siem Reap. The cellist was Dr. Beat Richner, a Swiss physician who has given his life to opening and running five pediatric hospitals in Cambodia. In the previous days we had seen several villages. While there was obvious poverty, the children seemed relatively happy and content; something that seemed too good to be true. And it was. Dr. Richner put things in perspective. A huge number of children die in Cambodia each year. Getting medicine can be quite difficult as 85% of pharmaceuticals are fakes and 20% of those are toxic.
The Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals offer free health care to children and see 75,000 children each year. Along with other sources of funding, Dr. Richner plays concerts every Saturday night in Siem Reap and also receives a large part of his funding from Switzerland. His understood exhaustion but dedication to Cambodian children gave us a non-sugar coated yet uplifting view of the work that is being done. The most urgent issue now is the presence of Dengue fever. To read the whole story or donate you can go here: http://www.beat-richner.ch/Assets/richner_history.html.
For dinner I decided on pizza and red wine! We had been fairly adventurous in our food selections prior and I was ready for some comfort food on my birthday. It was great pizza and at the end of dinner I was surprised by a birthday cake. Brian did his best to keep it is a surprise. However, when I heard our waitress trying to teach the other waitresses the tune of 'Happy Birthday' the secret was out. Think 'Deck the Halls' from a 'A Christmas Story'. It was a great birthday!
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