During the night I woke to what I thought was the sound of rain. It was hard to tell with the air conditioner running, but I thought it sounded different from the sound of a/c alone. Sure enough, this morning we were greeted with wet decks when we ventured out of our stateroom. There has been the threat of rain quite a few times during the week, but we have been so lucky that we have had no rain when we have been taken out on our excursions. Considering it is the end of the wet season, we have been blessed with beautiful, fine weather.
The R.V. Bassac Pandaw finished docking at Kampong Cham while we enjoyed breakfast in the dining room for the last time. Our early breakfast finished we raced back up to our stateroom to clean our teeth and throw our toilet bags into our suitcases before zipping them closed and putting them outside the Pursers Office for collection.
Then we were all sitting around on the sun deck waiting for instructions to disembark, when Einar arrived on the sun deck asking what all of us were doing because he and Siren were on the coach
ready to go! We have been accostomed to being told when we are to leave the boat, but this morning it seems we were supposed to use our own initiative and head to the coach when we saw it arrive?? Not to worry, we were still loaded and on our way by 8.15am.
With the weather definitely having taken a turn for the worse it was a good thing that most of today was be be spent in a coach on a road trip from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap. As we drove out of Kampong Cham the windscreen wipers were flapping away on the front windscreen to clear the view for our coach driver. There were big puddles (small lakes?) everywhere and quite a few sections of water damaged road that our driver had to negotiate. The rougher road prevailed while we remained on Route 71, but improved once we joined Highway No. 6, which is the main road between Phnom Phen and Siem Ream.
On the first section of road out of Kampong Cham there were lots of firewood yards with wood stacked everywhere. The mainly from the old rubber trees that have passed
their productive life. It is good to know that these trees can still be useful as firewood even after they have stopped producing latex. More concerning was that Leng said rainforest timber is cut to burn if they dont have enough from old rubber trees.
Closer to the river the agriculture was mainly rubber trees. Leng told us that rubber trees have overtaken cashew nuts as the crop of choice because in recent years the profit from rubber has been greater. As we travelled further away from the Mekong River the crops changed to paper corn, dragon fruit and kasava and, eventually, to mainly rice. Interspersed with these crops were occasional lotus ponds with big, round dark green leaves and pink blossoms. We also saw plenty of cows grazing from biers in their front yards and water buffaloes wallowing in the fields and sometimes it was water buffaloes eating from biers and cows wallowing in the fields! And, of course, lots of dogs, chickens and small children by the roadside too. It seems a terrifying prospect to have a household mere centimetres from a major highway!
their rice before it is fully ripe. This slightly under ripe rice is cooked and then pounded – in huts by the roadside – to make it into a crunchy and sweet rice snack that will be eaten during the Salutation to the Moon celebration that is held next month in conjunction with the Water Festival.
In addition to pointing out the countryside, Leng provided us with a demonstration of the krama, the traditional Cambodian scarf made from cotton that can be worn as a scarf, a bandanna, a modesty sheath when bathing and even as a cap. Its all about how you fold it!
We stopped at a restaurant at Prey Pros River for break and leg stretch.
