Roulos

After punishing the FitBit yesterday, we planned to keep things pretty low key and rest up for a final assault on Angkor Wat, sans guide, to revisit some spots where we felt rushed. I managed to catch up on things back at the office, while my travel partner did some more research for her sleep study. Follow that up with a healthy serving of fresh mangoes, dumplings, and the best egg tarts I’ve eaten outside of Hong Kong, and the next thing you know, noon is staring you in the face.

As you might imagine, I’ve been begging to go shopping since we arrived here, and finally my events coordinator agrees to visit a group of craft centers about X miles out of Siem Reap near the town of Roulos. A tuk-tuk rents for about $15 per day, so we pick one up on the street and are quickly on our way (oooh, I can’t wait to see all those silk scarves).

In our guide book, they talk about the local artisans and how you can watch them make pottery, weave fabrics, and carve stone. Turns out that during festival weekend, none of that happens. The entire place is deserted and even the security patrol is asleep, leaving shelves of merchandise that we could easily walk away with.

We do finally track down someone to take our money and head off with a few souvenirs (ceramics of course, because what better to carry around in a backpack for 21 days than breakables?). Some of the oldest Khmer temples are near Roulos, so despite being templed-out yesterday, we decide to take a look while we are here. We’re a ways off the beaten track here, so we have the place mostly to ourselves, making for a much different vibe.

Back in the tuk-tuk, our driver asks if we want to visit Kompong Phluk. Seeing a floating village mildly piqued our interest when reading about Siem Reap, and since this one is apparently just a few more kilometers down the road we figure, why not? It means an extra five bucks for the driver as well, so everyone’s a winner.

Now on the main roads a tuk-tuk is a perfectly acceptable means of transport. On a dusty, bumpy, country road, somewhat less so. I’m scared of swallowing a bug (see above for the size of bugs around here) if I open my mouth, and pretty sure one of the trucks barreling in the opposite direction is going to kick a rock up into face, but somehow we make it to the pier unscathed.

We have $42 extra dollars however, so the boat mafia graciously takes that off our hands before we are allowed to board. Nobody asks, but of the bigger boats with plenty of passengers and the smaller boats where we can travel alone they know the latter is more our style. It isn’t the most seaworthy looking craft, but if you have to get on a sketchy boat, pick the one where the captain brings his baby.

As the rainy season has just ended, the lake is still quite high and the buildings (homes, schools, restaurants, etc.) in the village are all surrounded by several feet of water. Six months from now, at the end of the dry season, they will be about 15 feet above dry land before the cycle starts again.

Past a certain point, the motor boats can no longer navigate between the trees and the offload you to an even smaller scrap of wood paddled by one of the village ladies. It is all designed to extract maximum value out of the tourists as they take you by a bunch of people selling drinks and talk about using tip money to pay for English school. My fellow road warrior is having none of it though, and I fear we may end up getting dumped deep in the woods all over a dollar.

Finally back on our original boat, we head further into the lake. It is getting late in the day and we’re not sure why we aren’t heading back, but when we pull up to a tired, old platform, we realize we (baby included) are going to get to see a sunset after all.

It is an interesting track back to Siem Reap in the dark (neither our boat nor out tuk-tuk are really configured for late night travel), but this seems like an average day’s work for both drivers, and despite a few white-knuckle moments, we arrive back at Siem Reap in one piece. The streets are completely packed though, as tonight seems like the peak of the Water Festival. We ditch the tuk-tuk and make our way through the crowd, taking advantage of the array of street carts that line the way (we did skip the one selling grubs and cockroaches). The festivities will go on long into the night, too long for us as we’ve got an appointment with sunrise tomorrow.

Some days just don’t turn out like you planned. Today, that was a good thing.