The Fast Boat to Siem Reap
One of our primary reasons for visiting Cambodia was to see the temples of Angkor, the most famous being Angkor Wat, reputed to be the largest religious structure in the world. To get there, we decided to take the six hour “fast boat” ride to Siem Reap up the Tonle Sap River for $25 each. Despite the fact that the bus was ¼ the price and took the same amount of time, we thought it would be fun to see Cambodia from the boat. Well, “fun” is a relative term and, when I saw the boat we would be taking, I started questioning the wisdom of our decision. It was a long narrow boat which sat very low in the water and looked like a floating torpedo. Inside the un-airconditioned, claustrophobic interior of the boat, there were 25 rows of seats, five across, with the only exit at the front of the boat.
Since there were no seat numbers on our tickets, we assumed that it was first-come first-served and found four seats together as close to the front as we could. Soon, however, we were forcibly evicted by a Japanese tour group, the leader of which waved her tickets under our noses and announced that we were in their seats (the row numbers were on the back of the tickets). Since most of the other seats were now filled and our tickets had #’s 26 & 27 on them (there were only 25 rows) Claude went to investigate. It turns out they sell 200 tickets for 150 seats and the overflow have to sit on the roof which has no safety railings or seats.
I couldn’t imagine sitting on the hard metal in the scorching sun for six hours so we ended up finding two seats at the very back right next to the toilet and engine room (I think the occupants had decided their prospects were better on the roof). The only source of ventilation was the windows which were promptly bolted shut once we got underway and the hot, humid air was soon thick with diesel fumes and bathroom smells. At this point, my claustrophobia was in overdrive as I imagined the news headlines about the tourists trapped in the sinking fast boat. Once the boat left the dock and the engines shifted into gear, our seats started to vibrate like we had jackhammers under them and we had to shout to hear each other.
Claude took Simon up on the roof while I stayed inside with Alexa and read Harry Potter to her until my throat was sore from shouting and we couldn’t stand the noise and stench any longer and went to join them. Claude had found a spot on the roof directly over the wheelhouse which afforded a great view of the river,
the only drawback being that the horn was right by our heads and every time we passed a fishing boat it would blare right in our ears. The first time it went off, I jumped so high I almost went overboard. I must admit, however, that it was much more pleasant on the roof with the wind in our hair and the river views to admire. We saw many primitive fishing boats and floating villages along the shore and I felt like we had entered a completely different world than the one we knew.
Despite our sore bums and aching eardrums we actually started enjoying ourselves as we waved enthusiastically to the fishermen and enjoyed the changing scenery. At the northern end of the river, the Tonle Sap widened into an enormous shallow lake that was so wide that we couldn’t see shore in any direction. A thick mist hung in the air and the surface of the water was like a mirror, making it almost impossible to discern where the water met the horizon. Eventually, a floating village appeared out of the mist and we had finally reached our destination safely. The last hurdle was getting off the boat on the foot-wide plank that stretched across about ten feet of muddy water and sagged ominously under our weight.
Once safely on shore, we found ourselves in a melee of shouting taxi and tuktuk drivers, all vying for our attention, and I was relieved to see a smiling young man with a sign reading “Mr Claude” on it. Luckily, we had booked our guesthouse ahead of time and they offered free pick-up at the boat dock. Somehow we crammed all of our bags, ourselves and the smiling young man, who introduced himself as Sarat, into the tuktuk. As the driver pulled away from the docks, we found ourselves in the midst of a dusty, garbage-strewn shantytown where people lived in the most squalid conditions I had ever seen and Alexa held my hand tightly and whispered, “Mommy, I don’t like this place.”
I was thinking the same thing and asked Sarat if this was Siem Reap. He reassured me that Siem Reap was 15km away and our spirits lifted as we left the shantytown and began to see Cambodia’s beautiful countryside and traditional stilted homes. We were even happier when we reached our guesthouse, Hello Paradise, and saw our spotless room and met the rest of Sarat’s friendly family who were to be our hosts for the duration of our visit to Siem Reap. As we finally sat down to a delicious late lunch of homemade chicken curry, I winked at Claude across the table and said, “By the way, we’re taking the bus back to Phnom Penh.”
Tags: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Fast boat, Siem Reap, South East Asia, Travel
tambour
Leave a Reply