This morning was a sleep in kind of day, then a leisurely breakfast with Ken finishing up his work stuff from last night.  

This was our last day in Cambodia, but since our flight didn't leave until 630p, we had some time to do one last activity. After some research and looking at varying options, I chose the floating village of Kompong Phluk. There are several floating villages and one, Chong Kneas is roundly criticized by all as extremely touristy and has been fabricated just for that purpose. Since it is the dry season, we were warned that it wouldn't be as interesting, but we went anyway.

Since it was 20kms from town, we chose the car versus a tuk tuk...smartest move all trip as part of the road was dirt (so lots of dust) and had huge potholes. It would not have been comfortable in a tuk tuk! After watching rice fields, farms, nice villas and shacks go past we arrived at the ticket booth. There are contradictory versions as to how much it is supposed to cost, but everyone we spoke with said to expect between $15-20 per person. So, we were not surprised when it was $20. Our driver said it used be $15 but a Korean company has taken over from the Cambodian company and now it is more expensive. We get the distinct impression the Koreans are not well liked, as they seem to be taking over many things.  

After getting our tickets, we got back in the car and our driver said it was 3kms to the boat. This part of the dirt road was partially washed out and had huge potholes and we all agreed that it was more like 5-6km's. Again, we were soooo glad we hadn't taken the tuk tuk. We arrived at a portion of the river that had at least a hundred boats all lined up. We were assigned a boat driver and he walked us to his boat that looked liked it wouldn't make it 100 yards, yet it fired up (after a couple of try's) and off we went down the river.  

We passed lots of fish traps, people in the water working with their catch, repairing the nets and general activities related to a rural village. As we got closer to the houses, we were amazed how high they were built. You can see from the pictures, the water is very low now, but during the rainy season the water goes up to the bottom of the houses. Some were built from metal, while others were from straw, palm fronds or other plants and barely keeping upright. There were houses for as far as you could see and many had TV antennas. We didn't see any electric lines, but our driver had said many operate on battery.  

Our boat driver tried to get us to stop and take a smaller boat through the mangroves, but we declined as it didn't seem to give us anything much different. We did stop for a soda and a coconut water at one of the floating restaurants. As we meandered back down the river to the car, we sat back and watched the daily life of the village.  

On the way back into town, we stopped for lunch at a very touristy restaurant. We had hoped to go to a more local hangout, but our driver didn't clue into that and we ended up with the masses. Oh well, it was good! Once back at the hotel, we packed up and hung around the pool until it was time to head to the airport for our flight to Saigon (HCMC). 

 Luckily, departing Siem Reap was much less frustrating than the arrival process! One funny thing, we were in line for passport control and the officer kept sending people back to fill out certain things. The lady in front of us, whispered " put a dollar in your passport and you will get right through:....and we did! The officer took the passport, took the dollar and stamp stamp...we are done. So funny!! I thanked the lady afterward and she said it is so stupid, but it works and she never has to go back to fill out different things. Hey whatever works.  

On the plane, there was a large group of Korean university students and one of their young men sat next to us. He shared that their group had been in Siem Reap for 10 days helping build a school. He was so polite, well spoken and such a pleasure to talk with. He was a great representative for their country.  

Arriving in Saigon was as efficient as it was last week. We whizzed through passport control and our bags arrived within minutes...why can't we get this good at home? We grabbed a cab and headed towards the Park Hyatt. What seemed foreign to us last week, seemed very familiar now and after 5 days in Cambodia, HCMC seemed like a metropolis. The hotel is beautiful and is ranked as one of the top hotels in the world. It is classic colonial and decorated impeccably. We walked to a street with a variety of restaurants,, Vietnamese, Italian, Lebanese, Steak...whatever we wanted. Since we are in Vietnam, we went local and had a wonderful dinner with some wine for $36. What a deal!

We arrived back to our room to find a bottle of wine, cheese and fuit/nuts as compliments from the hotel. Status has its privileges!