Siem Reap and cruising the Mekong

Siem Reap

2.21.20 - 2.21.20 92 °F

After a much needed good night's sleep, I spent the morning catching up on email and wandering around the great Hôtel Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort taking some pictures of its wonderful surroundings.

Then after lunch and a quick meritorious nap, I headed out on an excursion that I had booked before I left. I was a quick tour of the countryside followed by a cruise on lake Tonle Sap to see its floating villages, and then a buffet dinner on a larger boat from which we watched the sun set. We made stops at a lotus farm along the way, and a crocodile farm in the lake.

As one of the world's most varied and productive ecosystems the region has always been of central importance for Cambodia's food supply. It proved capable of largely maintaining the Angkorean civilization, the largest pre-industrial settlement complex in world history.Directly and indirectly it affects the livelihood of large numbers of a predominantly rural population. Due to ineffective administration and widespread indifference towards environmental issues, the lake and its surrounding ecosystem are coming under increasing pressure from over-exploitation and habitat degradation, fragmentation, and loss. The level of the lake can vary up to 10 meters, which changes the size of the lake considerably. This time of year is the dry season and there can be as little as under 1 meter depth in much of the lake. The lake feeds the Mekong river.