The Crocodile Hunter
Formerly mentioned icecubes took a huge chunk into Drews form, so for our day-off from temple raiding, I was left wandering about the countryside by myself.
Surprisingly enough (surprisingly in a way that is not surprising at all), it took me probably less than 2 minutes before I got into a conversation with a tuk-tuk driver. My plan was to go to the city, wander about for a while, get a footrub and just soak up the general feeling of the city.
Those plans were shattered quite quickly as my new friend suggested Tonle Sap Lake, which I must have gotten some bad info about and thought was further away. Half an hour by tuk.tuk and I was at a small local quay where the tuk-tuk driver most likely got a decent cut of the price for the boat, but it was still affordable.
Met up with my captain and with my guide for the trip. The captain was a bit hungover, but he got us where we wanted to go.
The guide and owner of the boat was a young and very friendly fellow whom I got great contact with. He was very happy to get someone whom he could talk to, and as so many others along our vacation, he was happy to avoid the chinese. We stopped at a small boat-store after just being on the river for a few minutes to bring on some beers, and that pretty much sat the standard for the trip.
We had a great conversation on our way out to the floating village, and lost track of time, so I can't really say how long it took, ut we got there.
Got processed through the usual touristtraps such as buying rice for the school, but even if it might have been some kind of scam, I bought some and hope it at least helps some of the locals in this village, although the cynical in me screamed out that it had to be a scam.
Then off to a smaller boat which could cruise around the actual village. Here they pretty much ate whatever they could get their hands on. Fish being their main source, but any cat, dog or monkey as the one in the picture above shouldn't really feel safe either. (we later asked our driver if he'd eaten cat, which he had. We asked him if he'd eaten dog, which he'd also done. Then asked what was best, where we got a steadfast answer : "Both!")
A stop at the local crocodile farm ws of course a must, where my new friend said I was allowed to jump into the pit, but he wouldn't dare to join me as he'd already pissed off one of the crocs by stealing his girlfriend and then pointing to the croc in the picture to the right.
He also bought the crocodilemeat we were to eat on our way back as it would probably be about 5-10x if I as a tourist would attempt to buy it. Got some slices that looked like very thick bacon. It had a spicy taste, and was kind of a mix between bacon and a steak. (and yes, it is legal to eat in Cambodia).
"If you are to say NO to something, you better have a very good reason" is one of my sayings, which I followed to the point during this trip, so when the suggestion of buying a bottle of local rice wine (or rather rice booze) came up, there was only one acceptable answer.
Getting closer the quay my guide got a call from an angry tuk-tuk driver who said we'd been out for 4 hours and not the 1,5-2 as was normal, which kind of upset my guide, but I gave the tuk-tuk driver some extra tips so he'd be happy again, and hopefully he was, because this day was really a good one for me.
We were probably out there for about 2,5 hours, but as it was 3,5 after I was initially picked up in the city when we got back to the quay, the math doesn't really add up with us being out there for 4 hours.
