Siem Reap, Cambodia –
It was dark.
So dark, I couldn’t see anything. Not even my hand in front of my face.
Yet on we glided, through the darkness, navigating the vegetation-lined water pathways back to the dock.
The rain continued to fall, and with no moon, stars, or any other visible light to guide us, I was placing complete faith in the boat driver to find our way.
On our way out, I had seen an occasional boat off in the trees, looking as if the driver had lost his way and crashed into the trees that rose from the meter-deep water.
Now I could understand how that might have happened without any sort of driver impairment.
Well, actually, it would have been due to driver impairment. Being unable to see where they were going, driving while blind. Not due to being drunk, stoned, or any other type of substance-induced impairment.
Eventually, we emerged from the trees, and lights from the shore became visible, guiding us to our destination.
I hadn’t planned on going to see anything on my first afternoon in town.
I’d just spent a day and a half on and off planes, as well as going through a twelve-hour time shift. My plan was to get through Customs, grab a cab to my hotel, check-in, relax and unwind for a short while, then grab some dinner.
My driver had other ideas.
I had at least a couple of hours of sunlight left. Just enough time to see Tonlé Sap, South East Asia’s largest freshwater lake. This is a lake that grows from covering around 1,000 square miles during the dry season, to covering around 6,200 square miles during the monsoon season.
So, drive to the hotel, check-in, drop-off my bags, and drive to the lake.
At the lake, we hired and boarded a boat, then headed out onto the water. It was about a ten minute ride along a channel through trees growing out from the water.
Along the way, as we passed the wreckage of boats in the trees, I saw the pilot of another boat bailing bucketful’s of water from his boat, right before I noticed my boat pilot doing the same.
It made me wonder just a bit about the sea-worthiness of the vessel I was in.
Not that we were on the sea, but we were far from shore, so it was close enough.
Finally, we made it to one of the floating villages on the lake, home to numerous families that make their living from and live their lives on the lake.
Which village, I couldn’t say. Probably whichever one is closest to Siem Reap.
My driver pointed out the school full of children, the grocery store, and the bar with a large group of people on a roof deck.
There were people paddling boats between the shops and homes, or offering goods for sale.
And every house had a dog.
We slowly made our way through, and soon found ourselves out on open water.
In the distance, I could see a shrine at the edge of the tree line. We turned away from it and followed the tree line in the opposite direction.
We passed a large boat that was either wrecked or beached (a bit difficult to tell the difference. Was the water level still closer to its rainy season level of about nine meters, or to the dry season depth of a single meter?)
Pondering the answer, I felt the first drops of rain.
We started back toward the trees and returned to the floating village that we had passed through earlier.
As the rain increased, we pulled up to the bar and got out to have a couple of beers.
My driver showed me a crocodile skin from a twelve-foot adult. I could never get him to confirm or deny that it had been killed/captured on the very lake that we were on, but I had the impression that it probably was.
Outside the bar, there were a couple of very young kids sitting in what appeared to be large cooking pots, draping huge snakes over their shoulders and around their necks. A photo op for tourists, hopefully with a small token of appreciation. Right about then, the heavens opened up and the rain began to really pour.
One thought was running through my mind.
“This is supposed to be the dry season.”
So we drank our beers and waited for the rain to let up.
And waited.
Finally it started to lighten up just a tad, so we got back onto the boat and headed back to the dock.
In the dark.
With no lights to guide us.
Luckily, our boat driver seemed to know the way.
Good thing I wasn’t driving…
For more photos from Tonlé Sap, click here.
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