cambodia
Sihanoukville is a coastal city in Cambodia. It's the third largest after Siem Reap and the capital Phnom Penh. Just like so many other cities in the country, it is full of small villages where people live in wooden shacks. Just beside the road, only a few meters from the beach, I found this group of houses.
Read MoreSoutheast Asia is known for its lengthy rainy seasons. And when it rains, it RAINS. During the monsoon season, water pours for about half an hour at a time, but the volume is enough to flood everything. Days usually start with a beautiful blue sky, the suddenly turns to an apocalyptic gray. You barely have time to find shelter and hell breaks loose.
Read MoreSiem Reap is probably the most touristic city in Cambodia. There are several markets with little trinkets and cheap t-shirts where foreigners flock to get souvenirs. This is not one of them. This is an authentic Cambodian market, off the tourist path, where no one speaks English and all you can get are groceries and a hair cut.
Read MoreBoy sits on the front of a tourist boat as a counter weight for the very unstable vessels.
Cambodia is experiencing the worst drought in several decades. The water levels are so low that you can stand in the middle of the Siem Reap river with water at your knees.
During my visit, I had the chance to go to Chong Khneas, the closest and more tourist friendly water village in the Siem Reap area. I knew about the drought and didn't know what to expect once I got there.
Chong Khneas is located at the spot where the Siem Reap river merges into the Tonlé Sap lake. The area is known as a floodplain, as its size is reduced during dry season and floods back during rainy season. This place has been an important source of food for people in the area dating all the way back to the Angkorean civilization.
As a tourist destination, this place is packed with tour boats that charge $20 USD per person for a one hour tour of the village. They leave from the river and take around 20 minutes to arrive to the lake, where the village is.
A marker built to show the water level and warn of floods now sits on a dry sand bank with vegetation. Regular water levels should be around the middle of the post, at least ten meters over what they were in June 2016 when I visited.
A few thousand people live in Chong Khneas, although many have left because of the drought. Despite of what some may think, the structures actually float on the water and are not on stilts.
The city that floats has schools, shops and even a gas station. I was warned about the boat driver taking us to an orphanage and making us buy overpriced food for the children from their own shop. I still don't know if it's really a scam, as you may read online, but I feel safer donating through NGOs and other similar organizations. With so many children working in the area, my assumption was that these donations don't help keep kids in school and fed and I wouldn't be surprised if the food we buy goes straight back to the shelves to be sold to the next tourist. Here is a list of genuine ways to donate to these people.
The whole city floats over the water with fishing being their main source of income. This way they can literally move their houses to a better fishing spot.
I was sad to see so many children working in the tourism industry and at the same time felt guilty of funding this.
Along the margins of the Siem Reap river, a man and a boy, father and son perhaps, prepare their net for fishing.
As tourist boats cruise by, a boy plays in the water no deeper than 30 centimeters.
Water buffalos are a common site in this region of Cambodia.
In the last few years the rainy season hasn't been as rainy as it should be.
Children play outside their house as the adults rest in hammocks inside.
Man takes motorcycle batteries to recharge at the floating mechanic. All boats run with a motor from a motorcycle.
In some places the water lever is so low you can see sand banks.
The process of actually catching fish is simple, but the aftermath takes much more time and effort. Because of the drop in the water level, the Tonlé sap naturally carries away thousands of fish. The fishermen simply place cone-shaped nets into the water from their floating houses and then lift the net as soon as seconds later. - Wikipedia
A boy pushes his boat through the shallow water.
As part of the tour we were taken to a crocodile farm. These are the nearly extinct Siamese crocodiles. They were under a floating bar and gift store.
Fisherman tries to catch some fish to sell at the market.
Boy plays at the docks on one the tourist boats.
Child looks at large boat with tourists docked on the Siem Reap river margin.
Sun rises behind Angkor Wat, which unusually faces west, on a hot and humid summer day during rainy season. I was very lucky to get a good sunset on that day, as it rained constantly.
Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion. The list of lost cities found in jungles, deserts or under the sea by modern archaeologists goes on. Once myths, now part of history. El Dorado, Atlantis, Z and many others still fuel the imagination of dreamers who hope to one day stumble upon ruins.
The city of Angkor was never lost, per se, but so much of it's history has been forgotten that it's almost as it has. The Khmer Empire was the greatest on earth and to this day parts of it are still being unearthed.
Capital of the great Khmer Empire in the 12th century, Angkor must have been a magnificent place to be in it's time. With a population estimated at the time of more than a million people, it's total area was greater than today's Paris and has more stones than all structures in Egypt combined.
In Angkor (word that stands for capital in sanskrit) we find the symbol of Cambodia, pictured in the country's national flag, the Angkor Wat (Temple City or Pagoda City).
The Angkor Wat is surrounded by a 3km long moat, with a stone bridge taking to the central part.
The Angkor Wat was the first temple I visited during my stay in large complex. It's the largest religious monument in the world covering 162.6 hectares of land and was built by Suryavarman II in dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, the guy that unified the empire.
Cambodia is HOT and HUMID. I can't stress more these two words more without waking up the neighbors. Go early and take tons of water. I mean at least 3 liters per person. There will be vendors selling you stuff everywhere. Water is one dollar.
Here is a map so you can better understand the place.
Millions of tourists per year, specially during dry season, becomes unsustainable and causes damage to the ruins, which are stepped on and touched indiscriminately. This picture was taken at the entrance of the Wat, to the west of the Cruciform Terrace off the limits of the above map.
From the Cruciform Terrace you start to get a better view of the towers, that disappear behind the walls as you get close.
Angkor Wat has a huge corridor surrounding the temple like a frame. Along the walls are inscriptions of great battles of the Khmer empire. View from inside the Gallery of 1000 Buddhas into the Battle of Lanka corridor.
Engraving in the outer corridor of the Wat with what seems to be a bullet hole, from the confrontations between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge.
Man takes a break from the hot and humid Cambodian summer outside a window at the Wat.
Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple later converted to Buddhist in the 14th or 15th century. Here a Buddha declared the base of a column.
Standing under doorways that seem to repeat into almost infinity gives the impression you are standing in between mirrors, but with no sign of your reflexion.
A butterfly rests on the centuries old engraving on the north side of the Angkor Wat.
Very similar to the view from the Cruciform Terrace is the entrance of the main temple. It's interesting to note that these temples were not built as a place for worship, but as a house for several gods, so they were never intended to be visited by masses of people.
Inside the main building is a dry pool. There is a similar one on the opposite side.
Columns full of inscriptions in Sanskrit decorate the interior of the main temple.
Finally I get to the main temple. Looking at the ruins, I can't help but imagine how this was in it's prime. A lot of the decoration was in gold and was looted, and in wood, which rotted away.
A couple chats and rests in the shade just outside the central part of the temple. Possibly the girl wasn't allowed to go the top of the temple. It won't matter how hot it is, you have to wear a shirt with sleaves, pants that go under the knee and no hat to enter the topmost bit of the temple.
From the highest point you have a clear view of what was a great city, now reclaimed by the jungle. With the exception of the temples, the houses of the gods worthy of stone, mortals built their houses with wood. That's why only the temples survived while everything else disappeared.
Inscriptions on the columns were added later and were written in either Sanskrit or ancient Khmer.
Two Chinese toursist pose for photos inside one of the long hallways of the Wat. Many Chinese and Korean tourists love to take pictures of themselves, it seems even more than enjoying the site.
Two young monks rested beside the empty pools at the base of the temple. Many people would stop and donate them money and pray.
A statue of Vishnu, the God with 4 pairs of arms is now in the southwest corner of the temple, but it is believed that this statue may have been originally placed in the very center of Angkor Wat, at the top.
It is truly a breathtaking experience to visit Angkor Wat. So much raw history right in front of your eyes and still so much to be uncovered.
What's next? Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion? Maybe. If I'm lucky I might stumble upon Atlantis too.
