China - Hong Kong

Oh wait, there's more! Our journey back home required an overnight in Hong Kong. Of course we could not sit in the airport hotel. Mark engineered a way for Carol, Ro and I to get into Hong Kong and meet up with one of their friends. What an adventure!! Who knew you not only needed Hong Kong dollars AND exact change to ride the 2 stops on an airport shuttle bus to get to the Marriott hotel, where Mark and Ro were staying. You can see the hotel from your room but impossible to walk to due to construction. Note to self if ever get back here. After 3 attempts to use the bus, we got on but did not have exact change. A very nice woman passenger funded our ride $7 HKD ( about 90 cents usd ) to get to the Marriott. The 4 of us set out to find the high speed train. Success! We made it to the train station in city central. Then, the challenge to find Shirley, not hard, harder to find out way out of the train station. Holy cats! What a multilevel maze! With the help of Shirley, phone gps and asking just about anyone, we found our way out and to the Hard Rock. Invaluable to have someone with us who speaks the local language. Whew. We had a nice dinner and beverage which cost about as much as what we spent on food and beverage total over the last 3 weeks. But it was fun. Tomorrow we fly home through Seoul. We land in Mpls before we take off from South Korea. Wild...
Thanks for traveling with us!

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Cambodia Day 6 part f

Our last views of Cambodia. Tomorrow we begin the journey home.

Sunset at Angkor Wat 

Totally fabulous way to end this journey. 

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Cambodia Day 6 part e

One more set of pics of this most interesting world in which people have found a way to live.

Moving day. Twice a year, lock, stock, dog, laundry and the garden. 

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Cambodia Day 6 part d

Some more scenes of the river village.

Crocodile cage

Making fish paste. Eeewww

Not Wallmart, but River Mart. 

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Cambodia Day 6 part c

On and off, on and off, on and off the bus as we bounced and jostled down the rural road now to our main attraction of the day. Visiting a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake. A brief glimpse into life of the Cambodia river people. Tonle Sap means Great Lake. It is the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia. The lake levels rise and fall with the seasons due to the influence of the Mekong River River. The rains begin in summer, the river rises, but instead of flooding its own banks, the river pushes water into Tonle Sap reversing the river's flow. The waters of Tonle Sap River flood the lake increasing it tenfold which floods the surrounding forests and fields. October when the water recedes it leaves behind fertile silt perfect for rice cultivation. The river people literally move their floating homes twice a year with the ebb and flow of the lake. Such a different way of life. Much of their diet is fish. The fish they do not eat is collected to be made into fish paste. Eww. Nearly all the homes have little rafts with dirt on which they have a garden. Many are cultivating crocodiles to sell to supplement their income. There are floating stores, church's, schools, dogs, cats, and just about anything a village needs. You just need a boat to get from point a to b. Fascinating view into a unique way of life. No property taxes.....

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Cambodia Day 6 part b

Every tour seems to have a real touristy experience sometime they try to make it look spontaneous. Ya, not so veiled today for our ox cart ride through a genuine Cambodian village. It was fun despite the feeling of staged. Ox carts are used today in their farming process but minimally.

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Cambodia Day 6 part a

Our last full day in this unique part of the world, Cambodia. It was like stepping back in time to a time when life existence was based on physical labor and very little mechanization. Our day was full of discoveries starting out with stopping to talk to people in various stages of harvesting rice. The first is where the rice stalks are cut and dried. The machine is separating the grain, chaff and stalks. Looks like the women are in their pajamas. Interesting..... At the second stop, the family is cutting the rice stalks with a hand sickle. Wow. These are hard working people.

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