You Live Where?

Our second day in Siem Reap was spent on a boat exploring one of the floating villages on the Tonle Sap (Tone lay sup). We started our journey with a 25 minute tuk-tuk ride through rural villages to get to our boat.

For $40 we had our own boat, driver, and English speaking guide. This meant that we got to ask lots of questions about Cambodia and what everyday life is like for its people. Our guide told us he makes $50 a month! This may not be 100% true, but in all actuality it could well be very accurate. This was a mind blowing piece of information. It also meant that both Harper and Promise both got to drive the boat at various stages of our journey.

The Tonle Sap is a huge inland lake that if fed by the mighty Mekong River. As a result, its height fluctuates quite dramatically two times per year. In the wet season the Mekong pours into the Tonle Sap filling it to capacity. During the dry season, the edge of the lake retracts by 6-8 km. This means that the floating house move this distance with the changing shape of the lake.

It was amazing to see how these people live – how they get their food from floating markets, the floating school, and the big pontoons with pool tables on them! Our guide took us to a local (floating) shop so we could buy some note books and pencils to give out to the kids at the local school. This was a great opportunity and Harper and Promise really got into the giving spirit and loved being part of the class for a short time. This place certainly gives new meaning to ‘waterfront homes’!

The only mode of transport

Promise keeping us on the straight and narrow

The local 711

School on the lake

The school's parking lot

The hood

Doing the groceries

Entering the village from the lake side

Morning shower - she dived into the water to rinse off the shampoo

Playing in the yard

Skipper Harper

The Coopers' water limo

The land limo

Look out Indiana Jones!

After seeing the temples of Angkor Wat on Discovery channel a few years ago I decided that this was definitely one place I had to visit. Understandably it was with great excitement that we awoke on our first day in Cambodia to explore these man made marvels. Our driver was at the hotel to meet us at 8:30am and we were off for a big day of temple exploration. We spent a very busy day exploring and the kids were stuffed by about 2pm, so we headed back to the hotel so they could have a swim and a rest – after all, we had 2 more days to revel in our ancient surrounds. We spent the next day visiting a floating village (another blog post coming soon) before returning to the temples to do some more exploring. This was a truly awesome experience and one that I will never forget.

The overgrown ruins of Ta Prohm

The spot made famous by "Tomb Raider"

The kids do some adventuring

The balloons were a big hit with the local kids

Jenene and Promise returning from a quick run to the loo

The faces of Bayan

Entering the Bayan through the south gate

Harper showing the magnitude of Angkor Wat

Jenene and the kids with Angkor Wat in the background