When: 26-28 December
Where: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Why: I wanted to see Angkor Wat. Plus, I never turn down an opportunity to travel.
(I just realised there are way too many pictures for me to put them all up.)
(But I’ll try.)
Day 1: Tonle Sap
Just before we took this photo, there was a man with a prosthetic leg arguing with the woman carrying the child. I realised I don’t see prosthetic legs very often. He is probably a mine victim. I felt sorry for him. He was loud but the woman was fiercer.
A makeshift utlities pole along the road.
They’re used to tourists taking their photographs there. I wonder what they think of us, documenting their rundown shacks and snapping away with our thousand(s)-dollar fancy cameras, then turning our backs and walking away.
Some of the kids were more than happy to pose for the cameras, though what most of them really wanted was money in exchange for wares.
A young girl studying in the afternoon light. She was the only kid I saw with books – the kids hawking tourist books on Angkor Wat don’t count.
The pool table did look kinda out of place amidst the community of shacks streaked through by a dusty dirt road.
Playing with real fire – or were they really trying to cook something?
A view of the houses from the water.
Tonle Sap is actually like, one of the biggest lakes ever. Wikipedia has it down as the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. The boys didn’t believe me at first – we couldn’t see land on the horizon.
This boy wanted USD$1 for posing while we took his picture. We didn’t give him any money but I felt bad. The kids (and their parents) never stop trying to earn that elusive buck. Some of them are actually pretty good businessmen, while others make up for in persistence what they lack in persuasiveness and skill. I think the parents send their kids because tourists are more likely to feel sorry for cute children. I know it almost worked on me. And, surprisingly, J.
A high-up view of a mere corner of the floating village on Tonle Sap. Everybody gets around by whatever means they can find. Usually, that means sampans…
Other times it might mean a huge metal container and a stick.
Everything is a boat on Tonle Sap – even the school, a community centre, and this church.
