Out of China

Blogging was technically difficult from China. A blog about Cambodia I sent from Beijing went through but the the blog about China was blocked; I mentioned the severe air pollution in Xi'an and I guess they didn't like that, anyway, that blog was eaten by the "People's" Internet security police. I wasn't able to log into the web site to see what did and didn't make it. Hopefully, I will be able to send from India.

I've avoided talking about floating village and the lake people of Tonle Sap, "The Great Lake" in Siem Reep, Cambodia. A little history before I talk about the lake people. As many of you recall, Cambodia attempted to stay neutral during the war with Viet Nam. Cambodia is a small country, down hill from Viet Nam, Thailand, and Laos. Neutrality was an impossible balancing act and ended with Johnson's carpet bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail across Cambodia. This resulted in the collapse of the Cambodian government and allowed the rise of Pol Pot in 1974/75. Pol Pot wanted to erase all traces of the west with the belief that that would allow the Khmer people to return to the greatness of their past. This policy resulted in slaughtering 1/3rd of the population of the country. Educated people, teachers, professionals, anyone that wore glasses or anyone with soft hands (considered intellectuals or non-working people). There is almost no one over 50 years of age in the country. Two generations of people were wiped out in Pol Pot's Killing Fields. People's property was confiscated and their parents and grand parents murdered. One of the results of this barbaric pogrom is the floating village in Tonle Sap. Over 6,000 people living in small floating huts living on the lake. To make matters worse, the lake is extremely polluted. During the dry season, the lake flows into the Mekong River. During the wet season, the Mekong flows back into the lake. The Mekong is one of the most polluted rivers on earth. Our visit coincided with the end of the monsoons with the lake at its peak. What appears in the pictures as brush and small trees are actually the tops of trees in a flooded forest. The water depth where we were was 30' to 35' deep. The open water that looks like a river is actually a roadway during the dry season. As the lake dries, the village moves out further into the lake.



This little boy jumped, naked with a live python, onto our boat begging for "dolla".





Small children that appeared to range in age from 3 to 6 years old were everywhere, paddling themselves out to us in wash tubs. Note the live snakes around their necks.




A picture I couldn't take was a mother holding her baby out to us and wailing something we couldn't understand. She had two other small, toddler aged children clinging to her in their rotting canoe holding up pythons longer than they were tall.



This is a floating pig pen. The women to the right is drying rice.



Their life expectancy is less than 40.

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Location:Enroute Agra, India