Hi everyone back in Oz ... and Melea over there in London ... It's catch up time on the blog now that things have settled back down to what is "normal" again; although I don't honestly think that anything is normal over here!
So From Ho Chi Minh City, without the aid of a glass ball (Wendys words) decisions had to be made, so three travelled back home and Lee and I booked for Cambodia. Up early the next morning, out to the Air Port, we found that HCM can be a quiet place to live ... there were hardly any motor bikes at all, compared to what we are used to. Saying goodbye's to the other three we headed down to the plane, and had a lovely 1 hr 20 min trip into Siem Reap ....
Coming in low, and being able to see land again, Lee and I looked at each other, raising brows and asked each other if we thought that everything looked flooded !! We could see the outlines of a river, but the water had somehow escaped and flooded the land, the trees, houses, and yes, parts of Siem Reap. Wonder why? we thought, then it came to us! DUH!! the typhoon had blown itself out by moving inland .... and that's just where we were now! ... Oh well, lets just get on with it we said!
Sam, our man in Siem Reap and his trusty driver (whose name I could never catch, so I stuck to just grinning like an idiot at him every time he opened the car door for me, and he didn't understand "thank-you" in Vietnamese either!) ... escorted us back to our Hotel. City River View was now an island, but modern technology is in Cambodia, because they had sand bags! ... We did quite a lot ot trecking along sand bags, but when the feet and legs did get wet, we sure hurried home to give them a good old wash asap!
Sam tells us that Cambodia is 500 k's long and 600 k's wide ... well that surprised me ... But i must say that I was not all that knowledgable about the country before we went. Now at the southern end of the country is Phnong Phen (sp??) ... and up the northern end is Siem Reap ... took me two days before I could spell it right .... then in the middle is a lake ... now this is a special lake , it has a river flowing out the southern end of it .... and that river flows down to the Mekong river, which is coming from Vietnam and China .... bored yet with the geography lesson ??? .... Now the Mekong floods every year for months, so the flood goes down, then the water goes up the river which leads to the lake. So it has two tides a year ... high tide for 6 months July - January , and low tide from February - June .... so when the tide is high, and it rains, it floods! and Floods!
Weren't we lucky to strike the worst flood in 7 years. We asked how long the water would stay up for and Same said ... oh about three days .... we asked how long it had been up now ... he said ... oh about three days ... and it was still getting higher. Kids were playing/swimming in the river / streets ... kids were drowing too! Yes! just along the street (flood) from us three went in and only two came out! ... they were having a ball ... some had not seen a flood before .. lying in it and being washed with car waves .. squirting water out of their mouths. Ugggghhh ... and laughing so much ... people sitting on the tables and chairs (well tables anyway) on the river bank ... surrounded by brown water rushing by ... and so many tables along the road were full of people!
After an hour or so in the hotel to make ourselves beautiful (actually we needed clean clothes badly by this stage, and had to do some quick bathroom washing), Sam and driver picked us up and we commenced out tour. Really really interesting it is ... A small town ... airport on one side, mountains on one side, the temples on yet another and the only other side had the road that went straight back down the line to Phnong Phen .... So the town will stay smallish ... cause all the previous things are only 6 - 8 k's out of town. Didn't expect that either. Was a little cooler, but the humidity was 100% .. so BM looks like a drowned rat in sweat again.
Oh ... when Mr Pol Pot man took over in the 70's .. there were 8 million people in Cambodia, and after just 4 years, there were only 4 million ... these people did it to themselves. Mr Pot conned them. There was a bit of a drought on, and the poor people on the land were hungry, so he said to them that if they joined his army and did what he told them to do, that he would feed them. So they did .... and enjoyed good meals for 4 years. After it was all over and the madness stopped the country declared that the "little" people in the army were pressured and they were forgiven, but the big wigs got thrown into goal. So now, 30 or so years later, there is a population of 14 million people, with 70% of people being under 30 years old.
And you can see it in the country ... there are no oldies ... well not many anyway. I felt old! So many lost ALL their family, they have no grand-parents or parents, they have no family stories. It's weird, because all these young people are full of respect, work hard and support each other! And they are so proud of their Country and what they are doing FOR it.
That's the end of the history lesson - I found it so amazing, that I had to share it with you. It was obviously more dramatic that the above version, but i was trying to keep it short, (but didn't again, sorry) ... next episode ... the temples! WOW!!
brb ... need the loo!!
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