20: Siem Reap: Town and Tonle Sap (Lake)

Under a sheltering tree, tuk-tuk drivers wait to transport tourists around the Temples of Angkor.
Siem Reap's very practical tuk-tuks are motorcycles adapted to pull carriages.

The Angkor Temples and the activities associated with tourism do overwhelm the city of Siem Reap, obscuring to some degree the way in which the average Cambodian family lives. On our last day, we got out to big lake, Tonle Sap, and along the way, got to see a little of the traditional way of building and living off the bounty of the river. We also learned that Cambodia still has a small number of river dolphins that the Japanese government, ironically (see the documentary The Cove), is helping to preserve.

Silk Cotton tree near the entrance to Angkor Wat.

Traditional Cambodian dancers entertained us on our first evening in Siem Reap. 

Houses along the road, on our way to Tonle Sap.

Flooded fields for rice, on our way to Tonle Sap.

On Tonle Sap, one of the many tourist boats, with a fishing boat in the distance.

Fishing on Tonle Sap.

Houseboat on Tonle Sap.

One of the shops of Tonle Sap's "floating village".

Traditional fishing boat on Tonle Sap

In the middle of Tonle Sap, there is an alligator "farm" that is associated with a market that caters to tourists.