The Surreal Waterscape of Tonle Sap
By Tony on February 7, 2010 | No Comments »
As Thomas, Lisa, Garrett and I travel to Siem Reap via Kampong Chhnang and the waterways linking Batambang and Siem Reap, we enter the parallel universe of Tonle Sap. Stilt villages and pontoon towns dot the waterscape. Semi-nomadic boat people line the rivers, canals, and flooded wetlands along the way.
This alternate floating world is full of sights and sounds to challenge a landlubber’s assumptions. Fishermen cast hand nets into murky waters as school children paddle their way to class. Teens manipulate ancient Chinese-style counterbalance net systems with grandma and grandpa sorting their catch on a nearby bamboo raft. Flocks of herons and ibis drift by above as decaying dugouts full of brightly-colored sarong-clad villagers drift by below. Pontoon town halls and basketball courts, toddlers waddling across rickety impromptu bridges, decaying dugouts full of fish, entire neighborhoods that rock and sway on the waves of passing boats – it’s an environment made for surrealist dreamers.
But resist the temptation to compare the pictures above to those from Inle Lake in Myanmar or Srinagar, Kashmir. Tonle Sap, its marshes, and its mysterious reversing river system is enormous and quite unique. It’s a fresh-water state in the center of a country, an environmental gem which shines most brightly due to its unpolished state.
And like all amazing things in the modern world, Tonle Sap is endangered. This amazing creation of nature may fall victim to run-off from deforestation as well as plans to dam the Mekong at various points in China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The overflowing of the Mekong during the monsoon season is what causes the Tonle Sap River to reverse and refill Tonle Sap Lake and the surrounding wetlands. The region is the breadbasket of Cambodia and its destruction would be a devastating loss to the Cambodian economy as well as the biodiversity of the region.
Topics: Cambodia | No Comments »
