A Deserted Beach, a Jungle Trek, and a Fishing Village

We started the second day in Sihanoukville with a two hour boat ride on the Prek Toeuk Sap Estuary (“tonlé” means “river”) through the mangrove forest that makes up most of Ream National Park. The boats we tok are nothing like anything you have ever seen before: they are low, low to the water, and the motor/rudder/tiller contraption on the back looks as though it will fall apart any second. We saw lots of birds (all kites and eagles), fishermen, and shrimp along the river.

We landed on a deserted beach, and spent about an hour there, just soaking up the peace that the place exudes. It could not have been more calm.

During our walk through the jungle, we passed through a small fishing village, and came across some women sifting through their shrimp catch. When we asked them if we could take photos, they agreed, and showed us the shrimp size they were looking for. The shrimp were tiny, much smaller than what we would expect at home, and it was amazing to me that they went through so much work for so little meat at the end.

(Cool fact about these shrimp: When they get scared of the boats on the river, they flick their tails and skip across the water. On the way to the beach, I was noticing all these things hitting the water and our tour guide told me, “The shrimp, they get scared, and they skip!”, showing me with his hands how they skip and his face how scared they get.)

After the most delicious chicken and vegetable sandwich I’ve ever had (though it may have tasted so good because I’m not sure if I’ve ever been as hungry before in my life), we headed back up the river. On the way, we saw all the fishermen who, on the way out, had been casting out their nets, now pulling all their nets in. When the nets are coming out of the water, the boats resemble butterflies: the net becomes the wings (light and fragile) and the boat is the body (dark and strong). It is beautiful, and a little melancholy, to watch. I think I use melancholy because there seems to be very little of the simplicity of that life left in this world. It is a good thing that we in the Western world no longer worry about where our next meal is coming from, but at the same time, our lives have become much more complicated than those of the fishermen I saw today.