Konpong Louang-Kampon Tralach - Oxcart Ride / Silversmith Visit
At some point yesterday evening during dinner we'd sailed back past Phnom Penh and turned off the Mekong River onto the Tonle Sap River. The planned itinerary of the cruise is to continue up this river and sail across the Tonle Sap Lake before docking in Siem Reap. But it had been made very clear to us prior to sailing in our cruise documents and once we met with our cruise director that typically the water - this time of year - is too shallow for our ship to navigate all the way up the river to Siem Reap. And so today we headed to Konpong Louang to visit a silver smith village. That was interesting to be able to again be in and among the villagers. But the highlight came when we walked out to the main road where an air-conditioned bus was waiting for us. We boarded and drove about forty minutes to Kampon Tralach. Here we pulled off the side of the road to find a collection of ox carts! Two passengers per cart and so we boarded and rode in the "Cambodian Limousine" bumping along through the local rice fields. For our "comfort" they had lain a bed of straw and then a mat in the cart. And we largely stayed on paved roads as we paraded some twenty-to-thirty minutes back to where our ship had sailed to meet us. Truly a unique experience, one which we all agreed at lunch was something very few people in the world could say they'd done!
Ox Cart Ride Video
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